Oh, and I forgot to mention that when Irene’s geography report came out garbled*, she was able to give an acceptable report from memory. So she did know the material!
*and now I’m not going to rest until I find a copy of that soundtrack!
I wasn’t making the plagiarism argument (for once–though Danny does argue that the machine can print out homework for him, and Irene, and Joe as one of its advantages) --I was making the argument that Miss Arnold makes, that “children learn through practice.” I object to children relying on calculators (even if they’ve got enough arithmetic to be able to input the information) because that makes them less able to perform calculation without the computer handy. In my own field, I object to kids relying on spellcheck, partly for the same reason and partly because spellcheck has its own problems. But I often get Danny’s eye-rolling, exasperated response when I try persuading some (college-age) students that knowing how to proofread is a valuable (if tedious) skill.
There’s a world of difference between professionals using shortcuts and students using them because one is applying skills and the other is presumably learning them. If Danny were a computer-programmer, his arguments would bear more weight–but he’s an elementary school student who has yet to demonstrate his mastery of basic skills. It’s true, he HAS those skills (for the most part) but he hasn’t yet shown (to Miss Arnold’s standards) that he has mastered them yet.
All right; fair enough.
And that’s probably why the books remain out of print. Every book is based on some gosh-wow futuristic technology. And some of the technologies seem quaint nowadays, while others (the time machine, the antigravity paint, the smallifying machine) are almost certainly impossible, and today’s scientifically literate young readers know it. Maybe we need a new Danny Dunn for the new millennium – a set of kids’ adventure books hinging on the possible applications of nanotechnology, the space elevator, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and direct neural-electronic interfaces.
Correction to the above: I don’t remember any particular futuristic technology in Danny Dunn on a Desert Island. But practically all the others hinged on one.
I thought that it was the Desert Island that had the superconductor… I don’t remember there being one called …and the Swamp Monster. Certainly, though, there was an aquatic monster in the superconductor book: A sort of cross between a coelecanth and an oversized electric eel, which they use to provide the initial current to start up the superconductor circuit.
I read Danny Dunn voraciously, though even by the time of my childhood they were starting to become dated. Of the ones listed in the library catalog, I read all except for …and the Anti-Gravity Paint, but looking at the OP’s list, I don’t recall hearing of …and the Fossil Cave or …Time Traveller, and I’m not sure about …Scientific Detective (can someone tell me what the gee-whiz device was in that one?).
Is there any way to buy these any more, other than scrounging used book sales? Or even buying them as a whole set?
Which Danny Dunn book was it that had DD and friends decoding the alien transmission and uncovering a binary image of faraway star systems and beings? I used to be a die-hard DD reader, and the bit about taking the signal and finding the two unique factors (to form the grid for decoding the message) still sticks in my mind.
IIRC, it was some sort of electronic bloodhound that Danny used to track scents.
Here’s a trivia question. Which book didn’t include Irene?
I believe it was Danny Dunn and the Message from Space
Joe is clearly stating that he plans to masturbate to a cheesecake photograph of Irene whilst undergoing military service at some future date.
This is as close to having a girlfriend as Joe is likely to get.
Hah! I’ve run rings around ya logically!
{Bronx Cheer Smiley}
There were two. Anti-Gravity Paint and Desert Island. She was introduced in Homework Machine, the third in the series.
Voice From Space, actually.
**Ukulele Ike: ** “Joe is clearly stating that he plans to masturbate to a cheesecake photograph of Irene”
There’s so much I missed the first time around. I’ve got to re-read these books.
Here’s another trivia question: What was Prof. Bullfinch’s first name?
That would be Euclid.
Correct!
Well, I’ve got the book open on the table right next to the computer, after all.
Yeah, I remembered right after I posted. :smack:
See, that’s because you never heard it set to music. As we all know, any argument is more convincing presented as a musical number.
All of this remeniscing has gotten me to remember another number which included lyrics such as:
“Old fashioned ideas are great for museums
But not for us kids with jet-propelled dreams”
and
“Computers shouldn’t be a crime
They give you leisure time
Help you do your work much speedier
Like an Encyclepedia”
How could she resist?
Oooh! So close. Do I get partial credit? Even if I used a computer to type my answer?
Well, you input the information yourself, so, sure!
And that brings me to another concept that I got from DD. Bullfinch was demonstrating the Scuttler (primitive robot that was the inspiration for the automatic house) to someone on the University’s board of trustees. He started out by stating that the idea was based on experiments someone else had done. “Ha! So in the first place it isn’t an original invention, is it?”
“My dear sir, I don’t know what you mean by an ‘original invention’. All scientists draw on the work of others.” True, that!
Chronos wrote:
It was definitely called Danny Dunn and the Swamp Monster. Just to be sure I wasn’t smoking the crack, I googled it. I didn’t find a page that verified that it was the one with the superconductor, but I did find this page which lists it under the category “Transferal and Transformation of Engergy” and this picture of the cover which shows the force field they made from, as my memory of it goes, a large coil of superconducting wire.
Nuts to Danny Dunn.
Now, Tom Swift Jr…he rocks!
I want his Subocean Geotron! The advanced diving suits look like fun, too!