The Enid Blyton Society

Courtenay wrote:

MJE wrote:     It happens all the time, at least on healthy forums. I've occasionally come across places where moderators try to police discussion they considered off-topic, and it just creates acrimony and an unpleasant climate and people walking out - probably to go and tell their friends of similar interests, "Don't go there - it's not nice".

I know... I've been writing on forums for years. I was asking the question out of amusement, not bafflement (hence the laugh and wink emoji). :wink:

     Please forgive me if I take things very literally - possibly increased if I fail to pick up the meanings of emojis.
     I might as well come out (if I haven't done so here before - not sure) and say that, in all likelihood, I have Asperger's syndrome, and one of the things about that (amongst many others) is taking things maybe more literally than many might - especially if I fail to notice a joke, or even if I sense a joke but am uncertain how to interpret it.
     I'm sure many here have sensed something a bit different about me - maybe even clues pointing to Asperger's; so I doubt that this will be a very surprising disclosure here.

Regards, Michael.

Rob Houghton wrote:I'm slowly beginning to realise why some people don't get my sarcastic humour, if we can turn the emojis off! I didn't know we could do that! :shock:

     Still, Rob - do you think many other than me do this? Most people seem to like them, and I am clearly in a minority here. And I'm sure almost everyone here understands them better than I do.
     I admit I don't like them a lot, finding them unclear, suggestive of pre-packaged responses where you just pull out the appropriate smiley and plonk it in - and maybe the little smiley faces just look to me like something that more belongs to a young child's picture book rather than adult discussion.
     But that's just me. I see the smileys you may post, Rob, to show sarcastic humour; but it's quite likely I cannot draw any meaning out of them, so they convey nothing to me. At the same time if I don't understand a comment from someone else and think it could even be a bit offensive, I am very careful not to take offence, and bear in mind that very likely I am missing something about the intended meaning, because I know that no-one here is ever (as far as I've seen) unkind or rude to anyone else, and if they seem to be on a rare occasion, then it it almost certainly completely unintended. If I found the point important enough, I would just ask the person in a nice, conversational way what they meant, because I wasn't sure I quite understood correctly.
     (I have two or three times offended others here - but, Scouts' honour (and I *was* a Scout for an unhappy year), it was truly, totally unintended, and I was most distressed and apologetic when I noticed the reaction, and tried my best to explain what I really meant.)

Regards, Michael.

I want to reply to MJE but I'm scared of Nigel and Anita.

Darrell71 wrote:I want to reply to MJE but I'm scared of Nigel and Anita.

I wonder if we had a 'Derail this topic!' thread, it would stay on topic?

I feel sorry for Pete who started this thread with an interesting topic which has developed into a discussion about smilies.

I agree...and I'm partly to blame. But that happens all over! My Last Summer thread has become a lighthearted discussion about publishing in general lol!

The weekly serial thread has become a discussion about Kindles...

Rob Houghton wrote: I wonder if we had a 'Derail this topic!' thread, it would stay on topic?

If the topic was to derail the topic, and it stayed on topic, wouldn't that mean it wasn't actually derailing the topic?

True, lol!

Daisy wrote:We've got this emoji conversation running on two threads now!
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... start=4710" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The other thread has got back on topic now and I hope this one will too. I thought of chopping off the last few posts and using them to start an "Emoticons" thread, but then the discussion of derailment etc. would no longer make sense so I've decided to leave things as they are!

In an attempt to get back on track - I think my favourite ending is the ending of Five Have A Wonderful Time' - I like the fact the title is referenced, and also I like the carefree attitude to the end of the adventure - with promise of a great adventureless holiday to come. Its also a good ending because its one of the few where Enid doesn't talk to us in the last few lines. Although I don't mind books ending with Enid breaking that fourth wall, I think the ending is more satisfying when she doesn't.

"Well," shouted everyone, as the bus rumbled off, "well -just tell her the FIVE ARE HAVING A WONDERFUL TIME! Good-bye, Uncle Quentin, good-bye!" seems a very satisfactory ending to me. I like endings where characters have the final word.

     I guess I need to say this: if some think the thread has been unacceptably derailed by smileys, I suppose I must take the most responsibility for this. I thought it was okay, and have often seen threads change direction with apparent acceptance and participation by many contributors. My apologies if I went too far, though.
     In any case, I think I have little more to say about the topic, so will try to back off a bit.

Darrell71 wrote:I want to reply to MJE but I'm scared of Nigel and Anita. :lol:

     Darrell, if you really want to reply, please do so privately. (Well, you did reply elsewhere - but if you wish to reply further, I mean. I started a reply to some of your comments, but I now hesitate to post it.)
     But I would far prefer that you *not* use messages provided by this forum, because they are severely limited and may fill up and I think I already have quite a few banked up. Instead use my e-mail address (not sure if that can be seen in my user profile) or on Facebook (again, not sure if you'd be able to find that, but I don't think my Facebook presence is private or anything, even if certain details about me are). I hesitate to give you my e-mail address here, though, in case spam robots gather it from here.

Regards, Michael.

Rob Houghton wrote:I think my favourite ending is the ending of Five Have A Wonderful Time'[...]

     Let me see if I can contribute to getting this thread back again.
     While I really am not a fan of those ultra-generic titles like "Wonderful Time", "Plenty of Fun", "Win Through", "Well Done", "Good Work" (those last three from the Secret Seven, also prone to these types of titles), what I find interesting about the end of "Five Have a Wonderful Time" is that there was a little bit of mystery in the story whose resolution was kept for the very end: that is, the strange man who had been captured and tied up and locked in the caravan turning out to be Uncle Quentin!
     While it is common for the endings of Blyton stories to feature the resolution of the main plot - and usually quite effectively and dramatically, too - it is less usual to have some little extra piece of the mystery to be resolved on the side, as it were, and quite surprisingly.

Regards, Michael.

The ending of Five Go to Smuggler's Top is one of my favourites. It's terribly poignant that the house is to be sold and the marshes are likely to be drained. The Five (and we as readers) have had a taste of a landscape and lifestyle that are about to be lost forever.

I also find the very last line inspiring. It has a pleasing ring to it: "Adventures always come to the adventurous, there's no doubt about that!"

Anita Bensoussane wrote:
I also find the very last line inspiring. It has a pleasing ring to it: "Adventures always come to the adventurous, there's no doubt about that!"

Yes - to me this has always been the Iconic Famous Five ending. It was one of only two Famous Fives I read as a child (both in annual form, although I loved Smugglers Top so much that I later read the novel version too). The other Famous Five annual I had was Mystery Moor' and the ending to that is similarly 'iconic' to me -

"All the same, its a good name for you," said Anne, "You're full of mystery and adventure, and your last adventure waited for us to come and share it. I really think I'd call this adventure 'Five Go To Mystery Moor'"

Its a good name, Anne. We'll call it that too!

Although the ending of Mystery Moor is less effective than Smugglers Top, I call it 'iconic' because for about 15 years these were the only two Five books I had ever read - so they stuck in my mind. They have always been two of my favourites because of this, I think!