Comments on: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang changed my life

By: Gorbag

Gorbag — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:03:47 +0000

This is exactly what I love about real hip hop (not the label-manufactured variety that is unfortunately more prevalent on the radio). Do what you do, and do it with every ounce of your being. Do it so well that even the haters have to respect the skill you’ve aquired. If spinning on your head, or stamp collecting, or video games, or quilting is your thing – DO it. And when somebody gives you shit for being a quilter you can look them straight in the face and say “this is a badass quilt, and I’m a badass for having made such a badass quilt. What have YOU done lately?”

TL;DR: Own your passion, and excel, and you will be satisfied, no matter what the rest of the world thinks.

By: Syl

Syl — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:34:52 +0000

…and once more I am feeling so much like missing out, far far away from any place that hosts fun conventions like that one. when it comes to my passions, I live in the completely wrong corner of the world. :(
I spent my childhood in fairy tales and hero stories (classic fantasy literature later on) and its changed everything for me. so I hear you very much in this post.
I had the most peculiar philosophy teacher in college, a merlin I should say (he looked that way too), and one lesson he told us how the best thing we could ever do for our own children one day was to “feed them stories”. because that kind of imagination you build as a kid, those stories will impress you so much that they will never quite leave you. to me, the world’s a better place with fairies in it.

random spontaneous thought at this point: check the ‘fairy reel’ (short poem) by Neil Gaiman sometime, it’s fantastic. :)

By: Tesh

Tesh — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:22:59 +0000

I do love the CCBB car, and it’s even a pretty good movie. The book is much better, though.

…so yeah, great post, BBB. :)

By: bigbearbutt

bigbearbutt — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:00:30 +0000

Okay, this has given me a great idea for my next blog post.

By: bigbearbutt

bigbearbutt — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:59:18 +0000

Yes, I just checked the books’ entry and Wikipedia, and it all comes flooding back to me. The book, written by Ian Fleming, yes, the author of James Bond Ian Fleming, was kept in my Uncle’s library next to his copies of all the original Bond books. I was reading my way through his library at the age of 7 or 8, and I found Chitty Chitty Bang Bang next to the Bond books.

I think I’ve written about my Uncle before, I never knew him well, but his library had a profound impact on me. He had all these classics, like the Bond books, and the HG Wells novels, and Jules Verne, and collections of true classic mysteries, suspense and thirllers, like The Most Dangerous Game, and The Gold Bug, and stuff like that.

I recall he had a book, alongside the other Jules Verne novels, that might have been a novelisation of a short story, that was by Jules Verne but centered around a mysterious force of speed destroying anything on the roads of early America, and it turned out to be an automobile of such incredible speed, over a hundred miles and hour, that nobody could see what it was through the dust and the blur. It was simply too fast at that speed to know what it was, it had the mysterious allure to the public as of an intentionally controlled tornado. Yes, basicall a land-based version of the Nautilus concept, something that was familiar in concept, but so advanced that modern man could not recognise it for what it was.

The idea of something moving so fast that it was effectively invible, sounding like a great idea, coupled with the reality that the speed he pegged for this was 100 mph, something already achieved and known and not quite as spectacular to us 20th century folks, stuck with me all these years.

By: Xew

Xew — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:52:40 +0000

Aye, the best Bond movie never made….

By: distilled

distilled — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:18:56 +0000

*sniff* I loved that little car. *honks imaginary horn* meep meep! *bursts into tears*.

By: Tyr

Tyr — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 04:37:00 +0000

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is made doubly awesome when you realize who the author is.

By: Rowtan

Rowtan — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:35:50 +0000

I’ve “met” Chitty … when I was little it was on a tour (I guess with people along with the ride, although I didn’t notice those!) and it visited our village. It was one of those moments you tend to remember for life ;-)

http://www.visitcumbria.com/kes/cars-of-the-stars.htm

It doesn’t live that far from me now …

By: Tsudrats

Tsudrats — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 09:02:01 +0000

hmmm your post lead me down a line of thinking of that wonderful story as an example of ‘open world’ imaginings where you do not have to be constrained by the route and look given to you.

Thank you for the reminder :)