Sunday, September 19, 2010

Diary keeping

I read The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole recently, something of an oversight from childhood not to have read it, or if I have read it, I don't remember reading it.

It's a funny book, and one that is probably enjoyed equally as an adult or a child due to some of the subtle jokes and throw away lines that exist within in. I particularly liked the line where Moley holds of buying a wedding present for an elderly couple set to get married given their extreme ages.

I also particularly like his poetry in the diary and it's quite a feat by Townsend to be able to write poetry that is bad, yet funny, while sort of good in a perverse way, and yet make it utterly believable as a 13-year-old boys work:

Pandora
I adore ya.
I implore ye.
Don't ignore me

Wonderful.

There are some bits that don't make sense, unless I really missed something along the way, but Mole reads War and Peace in two days and many other complex, long novels in equally short spaces of time. He also seems to be able to update his diary almost in real-time sometimes, which is an impressive feat.

Blogging is a bit like diary keeping, but also, not at all like it.

Worse luck. 

1 comment:

John Medd said...

He also wrote Throbbing

Pandora,
I am but young
I am but small
(with cratered skin)
Yet! Hear my call.

Oh, rapturous girl
With skin sublime
Whose favourite programme's 'Question Time'
Look over here
To where I stand
A throbbing
Like a swollen gland.
A Mole

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