I have been watching television inappropriate for my age.

[capri0mni]

Okay. Now that I've got access to Qubo, I've been watching alot of TV aimed at the three-and-unders, much of it recycled from decades ago, some of it relatively new.

One of the shows airing on qubo is also currently shown on CBeebies: Boo! (yes, the exclaimation point is part of the title). I have two main thoughts about this:

1. There is no way television this simple should be this engrossing, and


2. This is basically an ongoing lessen in the Homeric tradition of epithets, isn't it (as in: "Growling Tiger," "Laughing Duck," "Gliding Swan," "Chattering Monkey," "Swift-footed Achilles")?

The other show I've found myself addicted to, somewhat to my chagrin, is Theodore Tugboat -- a show that is now defunct on the stations that debuted it: CBC in Canada, and PBS in the US. And now, I can't get the following question out of my head:

Is the personification of, and childhood fascination with, vehicles and machines (Planes, Trains, and Automobiles) a thoroughly modern phenomenon, completely dependent on the internal combustion engine? Or did children five hundred years ago play make believe games with wagons and carriages? Would the living horse, donkey or oxen in front of the thing have kept it only, and no more than, a thing?

Unfortunately, the interest in children's folk culture and lore doesn't go back that far, and the make-believe games of four-year olds don't survive well in the annals of history.

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Here ends my semi-random braindump of the day.

Comments

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

Would the living horse, donkey or oxen in front of the thing have kept it only, and no more than, a thing?

Ooo... ::pets your shiny thoughts::

Anthropomorphism and related thought processes are as old as written history but I'm guessing it's easier for most children to anthropomorphise animals than inanimate objects.