Here is the latest Cashel anecdote. (I miss him so much my heart actually aches.)
Cashel’s latest passion is turning books into movies. In his head. He’s very big on adapting stuff for the screen. He has a lot of ideas. And the movies he makes in his head are, I must inform you, completely real. He has a resume. He says stuff like, “In my next movie …” What are you, Quentin Tarantino?? Books are being adapted into movies – all in Cashel’s 7-year-old head. He even has cast lists planned out. I’m sure Marty Feldman would have been thrilled to know that he would have been asked to be in any one of Cashel’s book-to-movie adaptations.
Recently, though, Cashel has been feeling a bit uninspired. None of the books he’s been reading seem adaptation-appropriate. There’s no spark. Cashel knows good material when he sees it … and lately? In the 7-year-old reading world? The well has run dry.
He shared his concerns about this to his dad (my brother). They had a serious discussion about it. Cashel talked about wanting to adapt more books into movies (I’m sorry, I just have to interject this: I THINK THIS IS SO ADORABLE. Cashel … “adapting” books into movies and feeling bad because he doesn’t have a new project.)
So he asked my brother: did he have any ideas? Did he read any books when HE was a kid that would make a good movie?
My brother started brainstorming with Cashel, remembering his childhood books, telling him the plots, seeing if it would be a good movie. Finally he said: “I remember reading a book when I was little about a boy who could move stuff with his brain.”
Cashel pondered this. Seriously. Silently. Then asked: “He could move stuff with his brain?”
Brendan said, “Yeah, like – he would think to himself: Let me move the pencil across the table. And just by thinking about it, the pencil would move.”
Silence from Cashel. DEEP thinking going on.
Brendan went on, “And not only could this kid move stuff with his brain – but he could also read other people’s minds. He could tell what you were thinking.”
Long long silence. Cashel listening, pondering.
Then Cashel spoke. And this is what he said: “So … he was telekinetic and telepathic?”
Brilliant.
Has Cashel read Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome? He ought to be just about old enough. On the nonfiction side, he might be ready for Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (a biography of the autodidact who “wrote the book on navigation”, as they say–in fact, said book now bears his name). Or he might be a couple of years away from those two (and throw in Johnny Tremain just for good measure), but he seems bright enough to me. I think it’s worth a shot.
I loved Johnny Tremain when I was a kid – that’s the one with the silver all over the hand in the beginning, is that right?
The fact that you would read this silly post and write in with reading suggestions for Cashel warms my heart, Ken – truly. Thank you.
I will pass them on, and perhaps in the next couple of months, Cashel will turn them into movies. Is there a part for Marty Feldman in Johnny Tremain, though??
Cashel is simply brilliant. The fact that he’s run through all of his material and has nothing else to read is indeed adorable.
I can imagine he’s going to meld the two ideas of Stretchy Colorado with his soon-to be telepath.
It’d probably make a good comic book, in the very least.
hahahahaha Stretchy Colorado
I just love that Bren was patiently explaining to Cashel how this guy can move stuff with his brain and read-minds – and Cashel brings out the multi-syllabic words … used correctly!
“He’s telekinetic AND telepathic??”
hahahaha
Yes, Sheila, that’s the one. Hey, I like to hype good books.
Let’s see, Marty Feldman…it’s been a long time since I read it; I’m not enough of an absurdist to suggest casting him as Paul Revere or Sam Adams…maybe the lawyer who represented Johnny when Lavinia Lyte’s father accused him of stealing the cup or whatever the heck it was?
If he reads the Narnia books, is there any way I can see his adaptation before Disney’s monstrosity?
ScottJ – I will invite you to a pre-screening.
Oh, and there’s a whole long story about Cashel’s first experience with those Narnia books. I don’t know if he’s actually gone on to read them yet – because that first experience (of me reading it to him) made such a mark. It’s a long story. But he got so scared that we had to stop reading. A part of him wanted me to go on, but it was way too scary for him. He couldn’t even be in the same room with the book … it was like the book was a Ouija Board or something. Cashel would look around to make sure he couldn’t even get a GLIMPSE of the cover.
He was too young. And that snow queen in her sleigh handing out Turkish delight to the little boy … it was way way way too scary for him.
I know he’ll LOVE those books someday ,… I hope that first experience didn’t scar him foreever!
I’ll have my people call Cashel’s people. We’ll do lunch. We’ll exchange ideas over Happy Meals. Ciao, baby.
Dearest: Emily is one funny lady. love, dad
Dad – I agree. :)
I have the power of not even knowing what I’M thinking some days.
I’m telepathetic.
Maybe Cashel can use that somehow.
Re: Cashel and Narnia.
I’m the same way about the film Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. I’ve never seen it because it’s been hyped by friends who talked about how amazingly frightening it is. Now I like a good scary movie, especially if it can actually make me feel nervous (which is rare). But this film has been so hyped for me that I can never work up the nerve to rent it. I realize it can’t possibly be as scary as I’ve built it up in my mind. But then I think, what if it is and I suffer Lovecraftian terror? On the other hand, it’s likely after so much hype the film is doomed to disappoint me. I’m still not sure which is worse.
*shucks*
Thanks, O’Malleys.
Oh! That is such an awesome story!
It made me laugh out loud, with sheer delight at the brilliance of that little guy, right here at work. (If he ever DOES become a moviemaker, Hollywood watch out)
“So … he was telekinetic and telepathic?”
That’s a tagline in the making.
That blows my freaking mind! I barely know the meaning of those two words. One of my fondest memories of Cashel was sitting and telling him a story about Prince Cashel. I think he was like 3 years old and while all the other kids were yelling around us and eating dirt and picking their noses etc. Cashel sat and listened to this story I was making up. I knew then that he ran deep, but I had no idea just how deep.
Ohhh, David. Member when he was so little???
Big Dan, my husband came up with:
How about “intelepathic, when you don’t know your own mind because your thoughts are offline”.
Up here in Canada eh, we’re supposed to be bilingual. When you call a government office and get put on hold, sometimes you hear: “Tous nos lignes sont présentment occupé” Now there’s a group of us that says that whenever our brains are fried, say by Friday. Well, we think it’s hilarious. :)
Has Cashel read Alexander Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles yet? Great stories, horribly abused by Disney.