Bluebells & willow-seeds

[bunn]

I went for a long walk over Dartmoor last weekend and must dig out the photos.  Too hot for a long walk today, but in the shadow of the woods the bluebells are at their peak, and the sunny fields are white and golden with lady's smocks and buttercups.

The willow-trees are seeding, too, a million tiny fluff-seeds floating lazily through the air.  When you are walking through the bluebell woods in sunlight, this is lovely thing to see, the seeds catching the light and turning golden.

We have been watching the Stranger Things TV series recently.  It's very good!  It's set in a 1980's small American town, and features 80's music, children playing D&D,  plus some dark-ish horror fantasy elements, with really interesting writing and beautifully layered characterisation, (though as always with American series that feature some 'high school' children, I always wonder if the 'high school' bits are supposed to look quite as horrifyingly dystopian as they appear to my eyes...)

Anyway, the series uses tiny drifting dots of fluff and gloomy blue lighting to indicate that the characters have moved from the 'normal' world to the dark horror fantasy world, and I admit when I came out of the pet-shop the other day, having gone into the shop in sunlight with people all around, to find that dark blue clouds had rolled across the sky, the car park was now completely deserted, and tiny willow-fluffs were still blowing in vast numbers through the air, it did give me a moment's pause. :-D 

Comments

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

(though as always with American series that feature some 'high school' children, I always wonder if the 'high school' bits are supposed to look quite as horrifyingly dystopian as they appear to my eyes...)

I don't watch much TV and what I watch does not include much American TV in contemporary settings. I wonder if they would look that way to me? I know I really dislike "high school" AU fanfic in every fandom I have been involved with. On the other hand, I like those British boarding school ones--hardly a better model--but not my model, so they are exotic to me! There is, however, something vastly creepy to me about easy access of kids to cars and wide-open spaces with little to no adult supervision.

Love the opening descriptions above.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I think it's the normalisation of violence and cruelty that seems particularly jarring, though I remember when first watching Buffy that what seemed to be a kind of baked-in anti-intellectualism also seemed odd. Admittedly, my own school, a rather dismal British private semi-boarding school, was not typical (or of particularly good quality) and I have not had much experience with schools since, but I don't remember anyone looking down on clever kids purely for their cleverness.Perhaps it's just the format that makes that seem unfamiliar...

I agree the lack of adult intervention seems disturbing, but perhaps that's partly fiction?

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I agree the lack of adult intervention seems disturbing, but perhaps that's partly fiction?

Only partly! I know I had the earliest curfew in high school of any of my circle and had strict parents. They were perfectly happy as long as I was home on time and allowed a lot of liberal entertaining within the house.

Think the anti-intellectualism is bullshit. Smart/accomplished kids were always admired in my high school days and, as far as I can observe from my children's and grandchildren's school experiences, still are. There are lots of problems growing up in this country involving racism, class differences, rural and urban poverty, unequal access to good schools. Those things produce some extremely negative effects within U.S. culture. Trump's slogan "Make American great again" is particularly offensive in light of all that--the good old days were bad and the present needs some serious work!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I don't remember anyone at my school having a curfew, though perhaps they did. At primary school, yes, or a bedtime if it was a school night.

I was thinking less that sort of thing, and more that there seem to be so many situations where children are bullied and there seems to be no appeal for them, and no authority figure that can step in to help. Though I know teachers do complain of not having time to teach properly here, the idea that a child is being physically beaten up or persistently bullied and that's just how it is, no way out, seems often to come up in these series. It's horrifying, yet seems to be presented as a fact of life?

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

so many situations where children are bullied

One does hear a lot about it. Although, more these days related to social media pile-ons than anything else. I think these TV shows/movies are always looking for conflict/drama and that is an easy one. Lazy writing.

[marycatelli]

Yes, they look down on clever students for being clever. And the clever students are lucky if the adults merely refrain from intervening.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

That is a thing in British culture too, sadly, but I would say very much a thing coming from the bottom of the economic ladder (a 'don't try be better than me' thing), rather than from people who have well-paid jobs. And (I hope) much less widespread here too.