Summary of Spring Days with the Moodys

[Joan of Snarc]

We know Steve-o Lord of the Lazy Boy Lounger does not tip 20%. He gives the employee a tract & tries to covert them & tell them the will die & go to hell unless they accept Jesus as their personal Lord & Savior. Steve, it's not nice to lie! Jesus knows what you're doing. He sees everything. Just something to think about!

I bet he was feeling particularly generous ONE day -- maybe he was thrilled with the results of the cabinet polishing, had a great unfinished basement workout in street clothes and then chowed down on an extra-tasty bean burrito -- and felt it laid upon his heart to tip somebody 20 percent. One time.

Then he bragged to his adoring followers family about how he had blessed the poor worker with sustenance for his spirit (the tract) and his body (the tip.) It was huge deal in Maxwell-land, because it only happened once, and poor Sarah always remembered the lesson about how great and generous Stevehovah the big-tipper is.

:kiss-ass:

[Trynn]

I personally would prefer the safari to a roller coaster, and not jus because I'm prone to motion sickness, which is not what Mollie has, because that wears off after not that long. I predict mollie gets the flu for the next chapter, and "action" centers around the Moody's doing I j n for their poor sock sister.

A Lesson about listening to your dad? Really? How about "this is an opportunity to learn how much food your body can really hold as opposed to what you think it can hold?"

No, it has to be all about STEVE!

[Bajovane]

I had a look-see over at Lambert's Cafe's website. I'm surprised Steve would take his family to this place - it looks like a fun place to go and you know what he thinks about fun! :naughty:

As for the hotel breakfast thingy - I had no idea. That tells you how long it's been since I've travelled.

[Laurabelle]

I suspect the main objection the Maxwells (and equally controlling, isolating, legalistic fundie parents) would have to those books is that even if there is a moral to those stories, the Bible isn't credited as the source of that morality. Jesus or the necessity for salvation aren't even mentioned.

Aesop's Fables, despite their moral lessons, are of pagan origin--Aesop was born in Greece roughly 600 years before Jesus of Nazareth. Kipling's Just So Stories include supernatural beings (there's a djinn, IIRC, in one), and the stories explain natural phenomena in terms other than "God created it that way." In some of them, humans are the ones who make things "just so"--an African man painted himself black, then dabbed spots on a sleeping leopard. And in Beatrix Potter's stories, there is not only the matter of anthropomorphized animals, but also naughty, disobedient children (Peter Rabbit entering Mr. Magregor's garden after being told explicitly not to is a classic example).

When it comes down to it, the Maxwells (and fundies of like mind) don't see children's books as a means of amusement snd entertainment. That they might inspire an active imagination is part of their danger. The Moody books are ultimately meant to convey the proper way to live--being obedient to authority, following routines and gender roles, always thinking of Jesus, having no independent thoughts or desires. Cultivating imagination is the last thing they want, because if a kid is allowed to use their imagination they just might start imagining a different way of life than the one their parents have chosen for them.

The only ones who get to exercise their imaginations are the parents--the patriarchal "vision" is an imaginary ideal of perfect family life and eternal salvation forced upon the reality of kids who come out of the womb with personalities, talents, and inclinations of their own. The kids have to be made to fit the image imagined for them, and the job has to be done so thoroughly they never imagine differently for themselves. Hence the obsessive control and restriction of potential influences (friends, church youth groups, and TV, as well as books), the rigid scheduling, the harsh discipline, and the constant question hanging over their heads: "Where will you go when you die?"

So Sarah probably hasn't read any fiction in a very long time--perhaps not even since adolescence. As Steve likes to boast, his kids don't read, they write (and very poorly, I might add, Steve-o). And it seems pretty hypocritical that he'd tell his daughter to write children's books, having eliminated her own reading for pleasure as an empty "idol" and potential bad influence. But the Moody books are less about entertaining children than serving as a tool (alongside Steve and Teri's nonfiction works) for indoctrinating entire families into their insular, paranoid, rigidly controlled ideal.

Did Steve really say that?? As a former English tutor, this makes me so sad. You must be reader to be any sort of a good writer. The best writers are readers first. This is awful. Truly sad. :(

[docmom]

Sarah writes like my great auntie G used to talk- every. single. boring. event of the day described in excruiating detail for hours on end.

Miggy, if this had been an Enid Blyton book, there would be no parents and no small children. Mollie and Mitch would have discovered a secret passage from the safari park to the roll place which smugglers were using to forge banknotes of a hostile foreign power. They would have single-handedly overpowered the smugglers, locked them in the cellar and presented them to the police. Maybe I should write a Moody book!

[salex]

I personally would prefer the safari to a roller coaster, and not jus because I'm prone to motion sickness, which is not what Mollie has, because that wears off after not that long. I predict mollie gets the flu for the next chapter, and "action" centers around the Moody's doing I j n for their poor sock sister.

A Lesson about listening to your dad? Really? How about "this is an opportunity to learn how much food your body can really hold as opposed to what you think it can hold?"

No, it has to be all about STEVE!

Actually, Silver Dollar City has a lot of musical shows, and often gospel type weekends where they could see a variety of christian singers, watch the various wholesome crafts But, they might not be wearing long sleeves and skirts, so maybe that is the problem.

[socalrules]

I agree that Sarah is just writing what she knows. I wish she could read the Little House books and see how Laura was able to take her life story and tweek it with fiction to make it exciting. Laura could make the most mundane activity, i.e. washing clothes or stacking hay, sound exciting. It's sad because I have no doubt that Sarah puts a lot of work into her books but just has no grasp of how to tell a story. As much as I would like Sarah to be able to learn more about writing, I would hate for her to feel the hurt of finding out how bad ther books really are. I am sure that she is praised and only hears the good reviews. If she were to read one Judy Blume or Ann M. Martin book, she could see how incredibly bad the Moody books are. We don't even know if she really likes to write. To her, it may just be a job that has to be done.

[Trynn]

Actually, Silver Dollar City has a lot of musical shows, and often gospel type weekends where they could see a variety of christian singers, watch the various wholesome crafts But, they might not be wearing long sleeves and skirts, so maybe that is the problem.

Did you quote the wrong post?

[Laurabelle]

I agree that Sarah is just writing what she knows. I wish she could read the Little House books and see how Laura was able to take her life story and tweek it with fiction to make it exciting. Laura could make the most mundane activity, i.e. washing clothes or stacking hay, sound exciting. It's sad because I have no doubt that Sarah puts a lot of work into her books but just has no grasp of how to tell a story. As much as I would like Sarah to be able to learn more about writing, I would hate for her to feel the hurt of finding out how bad ther books really are. I am sure that she is praised and only hears the good reviews. If she were to read one Judy Blume or Ann M. Martin book, she could see how incredibly bad the Moody books are. We don't even know if she really likes to write. To her, it may just be a job that has to be done.

This. Though I wish there was a way Sarah could be gently steered in the direction of improving her work (by reading more, taking classes, etc.) as opposed to being straight out told she sucks at writing. If writing is even something she actually likes to do, which it really does seem like it is. Writing fiction is definitely something that can be learned, at least to a certain degree. But to just go on assuming she's writing amazing stories the rest of her life doesn't seem fair. Really writing good fiction is hard. It's not just jotting down details of your life like you would in a journal. Again, I feel bad for her. The girl needs to be handed a good Dickens or Bronte novel.

[uber frau]

I agree that Sarah is just writing what she knows. I wish she could read the Little House books and see how Laura was able to take her life story and tweek it with fiction to make it exciting. Laura could make the most mundane activity, i.e. washing clothes or stacking hay, sound exciting. It's sad because I have no doubt that Sarah puts a lot of work into her books but just has no grasp of how to tell a story. As much as I would like Sarah to be able to learn more about writing, I would hate for her to feel the hurt of finding out how bad ther books really are. I am sure that she is praised and only hears the good reviews. If she were to read one Judy Blume or Ann M. Martin book, she could see how incredibly bad the Moody books are. We don't even know if she really likes to write. To her, it may just be a job that has to be done.

Laura Ingalls Wilder didn't have her imagination squashed out of her by the time she reached 5.

And as much work as Sarah puts into her books, she also puts effort into cleaning ceiling fans and kitchen cabinets. I agree that writing is still an activity she does not part of who she is. Isn't she on record as saying she didn't really want to write and that it was Steve's idea?

I think writing is just an activity to fill in multiple 15 minute timeslots.

[ILoveJellybeans]

I agree that Sarah is just writing what she knows. I wish she could read the Little House books and see how Laura was able to take her life story and tweek it with fiction to make it exciting. Laura could make the most mundane activity, i.e. washing clothes or stacking hay, sound exciting. It's sad because I have no doubt that Sarah puts a lot of work into her books but just has no grasp of how to tell a story. As much as I would like Sarah to be able to learn more about writing, I would hate for her to feel the hurt of finding out how bad ther books really are. I am sure that she is praised and only hears the good reviews. If she were to read one Judy Blume or Ann M. Martin book, she could see how incredibly bad the Moody books are. We don't even know if she really likes to write. To her, it may just be a job that has to be done.

If a Maxwell "kid" likes something too much or is good at it, Steve takes it away for becoming an idol.

I think Sarah likes writing in a way, I think the Moody kids are the kids she will never get to have, I don't think she has enough passion for it to be a published author though. She writes a bit like me when I was little and all of my stories were based on real life with a hint of wish fulfilment (adding extra siblings, usually based on my friends or cousins-if kid me had heard of the Duggars, I would have wanted them to adopt me, I wished I had at least 10 siblings).

[salex]

Did you quote the wrong post?

Probably... sorry.

[RandomTrivia]

I didn't know they were making a movie based on The Giver. Does anyone else pass on movies of favorite books? I hated A Wrinkle in Time, too, and wished I hadn't seen it. I like my own pictures better :D I did take my husband, who is ill, at his request, to see Ender's Game. It was neutral in that it didn't ruin anything, but I wouldn't call it well done either.

Well, back to beige with the Moodys. Thanks Miggy!

Other than The Black Stallion and the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings movies, I can't think of any book->movies that I really liked. The Wrinkle in Time movie was mediocre at best (I watched because Chris Potter was in it, basically), and I avoided the movie version of The Dark is Rising like the plague after reading some of the articles and the changes they made. The interview with Ian McShane, where he admitted to not reading the book because it was too deep (not an exact quote), made my blood pressure rise a lot. Hell, to this day I still rant about it on occasion. I mean, seriously, it's a book written for early teens, and a grown man can't be bothered to read it before he acts in the movie?

Hadn't heard of a movie of the Giver, but I've hit my limit on dystopian YA fiction for a while. Too damn depressing.

[browngrl]

One of the most :wtf: things Steve has written or said has to be his statement that his family don't read they write.

Every single time I read this I cringe.

[sparkles]

I've read a couple of Lois Lowry's books but for some reason hadn't heard of The Giver until this thread. Thanks for the rec, just downloaded it to my Kindle.

As far as books to movies, I thought Holes (which I adore) made a pretty good transition to the screen. Otherwise, if I really like a book, I tend to avoid the movies like the plague. I'm almost always disappointed. The power of one's imagination far outstrips anything Hollywood could come up with.

[twin2]

One of the most :wtf: things Steve has written or said has to be his statement that his family don't read they write.

Every single time I read this I cringe.

Every person I know who calls themselves a writer reads like crazy.

I give Sarah credit for have the patience and perseverance to write children's novels. However, she is a HORRIBLE writer. (yes steve she is). That is nothing to be embarrassed about, pretty much everyone is a bad writer when they start out. Being a good writer comes with learning and practice. How does one learn? Well, at a minimum she should be reading every children's novel she can get her hands on. She could start with the Newbery winners and read her way down the list. Outlining and analyzing what makes it good. Now if she really wanted to hone her craft, she could take some classes or join an authoring club. Of course those are out of the question as she would have to interact with "worldy" people and who knows what evil she would encounter. Also, it would require others critique her work, and we all know the Maxwells are above critique. They are great at what ever they do. Clearly if they weren't good God wouldn't lead them to do it (of course the real reason is Steve has his head stuck so far up his own ass he can't see that he and his family are not perfection at whatever they do).

This Steve is why you are a failure. His narcissism and need to control everything and everyone around him ruins his children's chance to improve themselves in any way.

[Justme]

The next time they ask their server how they can pray for her/him, s/he should say "please pray that all of my tables will leave me decent tips si I can pay my rent and buy food."

[Myfanwy]

The next time they ask their server how they can pray for her/him, s/he should say "please pray that all of my tables will leave me decent tips si I can pay my rent and buy food."

And; please pray no-one wastes my time asking me personal questions that are none of their business.

[nelliebelle1197]

I just cannot believe the central 'plot" of this book is basically the blog post from around 3 years ago when the family went to Lambert's and the safari park for Steve's birthday.

[lilith]

Are you going to summarise Summer Days for us too? You can consider it an I-J-N.

[Miggy]

Are you going to summarise Summer Days for us too? You can consider it an I-J-N.

Ummm ... that would be a no! :lol:

[lilith]

Ummm ... that would be a no! :lol:

You're no fun. Steve would approve.

[HeatherFeather]

Why in the world would anyone need to schedule getting gas?

I can see that happening if Pops was controlling.

[16strong]

I just cannot believe the central 'plot" of this book is basically the blog post from around 3 years ago when the family went to Lambert's and the safari park for Steve's birthday.

Really? This IS the Maxwells we are talking about. I'm more surprised that Sarah changed it around to have the safari park visit be a gift from grandpa to the kids for Christmas. THAT, to her, is stepping outside of the box. Think about that for a minute.

[uber frau]

So I was browsing Amazon, looking at second hand books by the Maxwells, and I noticed the Zarah' "Summer with the Moodys " also credited a certain Abigail Klein. Is she from the same family that Rebecca Eleventy socialises with? IIRC, they have a daughter named Abigail.