Talk:The Great Brain

Untitled
It appears to me that, starting with the section heading A Bygone Era, the tone of the article devolves from neutral exposition expected in an encyclopedia, and into a monographic essay that compares 1920's Utah to modern society, attempting to divine the author's motives. In fact I wonder if it was not adapted from some such essay.

Good reading, but not for Wikipedia; needs to be cleaned up to conform. -Ikkyu2 21:07, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

I agree. The books are great children's reading, giving an account (if not totally accurate) events of another era in time. It is something of a period piece, though many of the situations are out of time. Basketball is WAY out of time, as is the sawing a women in half trick.

However, the anti-Hero is Tom, who really does have a great brain. He saves the townspeople from fraud, bank robbery, and does other good with it (capturing criminals)... but he is also a minor leauge criminal in his own right. After his outright swinldes are called out by his brother, he goes to more subtle actions. Overall he learns nothing but to me more careful, and after his brother puts him on trial, he never does cheat anybody unfairly again.


 * What are you talking about? When I say "good reading," I am referring to the article, not reviewing the books themselves.  This talk page is for talk about the Wikipedia article in question, not the books. -Ikkyu2 23:57, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Question about "diabetes" being one of the topics dicussed in the books. I don't recall it ever coming up unless it was meant to be in reference to Tom's attempt to get Herbie the fat kid to lose weight.

If memory serves me correctly (quoting that general guy from Iron Chef), it seems that Frankie's rocking-horse was stolen by the diabetic kid's father. The family finds out and Frankie is generous enough to let him have it. Also, Herbie is a poet (which I said). 71.111.215.224 15:13, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

I read most of the More Adventures of the Great Brain books when I was a kid. Diabetes was covered in the book, regarding the disease itself, not just some fat kid with the disease (I don't think the kid with it that it effected adversely was even fat.) It actually was a sad chapter, and mentioned how fortunately years later things later were better for those with the disease due to advances in medicine.

Regarding basketball, I don't think it was way out of time at all. It was something Tom introduced to the kids at the boarding school, as something he had read about that had been recently invented back East. (Anyway, I was very pleased to see this entry in Wikipedia!)

28FEB08 - I deleted some additions to this article. Specifically, Frank and Alan Jenson, the section about the academy in Salt Lake City, and the section regarding the 'cure' of Herbie. I read and loved these books, and have wildly different memory of those events in the stories. Since the edits seem to have the same tone and style, I'd assume someone is making them up deliberately. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.122.49.250 (talk) 03:11, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

4APR08 - I again deleted some unsourced and false additions to the article. Not having read the books in a long time, I cannot mae more definitive changes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.122.190.252 (talk) 14:04, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

polygamy?
Is polygamy referenced?

Nope. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.163.0.43 (talk) 22:16, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Rating
I have change the rating from stub to B/MID. The article has been refined to discuss the series as a whole and hasn't undergone any significant changes for some time. tjeffress (talk) 21:22, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I put the artical back to "C" class, but put in for an assesment for a move to B class. This is how I understand it should be done.

History Section
This section strikes me as more trvia then useful contribution. I would like to see if I'm the only one.HellinaBucket (talk) 21:32, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

But why 'The Great Brain'?
Having read the article, but not the stories, I'll left wondering why the brother's moniker is 'The Great Brain'. Could this be explained in the article by someone in the know? (It seems like an important element given that the moniker is also part of the title of the stories.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.184.49.5 (talk • contribs) 09:26, 30 May 2014 (UTC)
 * It's a nickname within the books because he's very intelligent and generally pretty streetsmart. -Fuzzy (talk) 20:10, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Later life of the Great Brain
In the Finding Fitzgerald blogspot (which the author had done some research) it mentioned (culled from several pages):

Tom Dennis, the Great Brain, was in real life Thomas Nelson Fitzgerald Jr. Graduated from Carbon High School in 1922. Married Fern Smith, who died with their son from childbirth. Tom later married Florence Beverage, and had 2 children Thomas or Tuck/Tucker, and Mary M. (Pickering). Tuck had 4 children and died in the 1969 in Salt Lake city, before his father did. Tom had a career as a painter, but due to his drinking, Florence left him in 1937. He died at the age of 86 on October 27, 1988. (See findingfitzgerald.blogspot.com )

What do you all think: is this worth including in the main article?

Ll1324 (talk) 05:43, 16 January 2016 (UTC) How ya doin?