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books: anne of green gables et al
Still favorites. I always liked them for combining both the most romantic and best parts of nineteeth/early twentieth century small towns and communities with realistic assessments of what they were like; loving something without glazing it in impossible idealism. It always makes me more than a little amused when people talk about the nuclear family and it's singularity and above-all-ness; I can't imagine it working at any point in history when community was so necessary to survival, much less social interaction.
It also reminds me it's a fairly modern luxury to be able to socialize only with people you like; I'm not entirely sure, when reading, whether it's altogether a good thing. Being able to restrict your social interactions that much, and quickly eliminate on the basis of not quite simpatico instead of required social interaction means never really developing both the ability to get along with people and also miss the opportunity to know people who make take time and effort and skill to deal with, and I'm pretty sure it's worth the effort.
It was also a hell of a lot harder to end a friendship when you are pretty much going to see them forever until you die at every social event; that's pretty good motivation to get over yourself and move on and fix what you can--which surprisingly isn't as hard as it sounds. I like happy endings, though.
Anne of Windy Poplars is both my least and most favorite depending on mood; I'm not a huge fan of epistolary writing at the best of times, and I always manage to forget that it's the eternal exception to the rules. Her letters to Gilbert are always hilarious, and I always faintly wish there'd been a volume of his to her; he always struck me as one to have just as many odd adventures and fall into as many odd scrapes.
Currently at Anne's House of Dreams. I skipped about a bit to get to my favorite bits, and Miss Cornelia is not be missed.
It also reminds me it's a fairly modern luxury to be able to socialize only with people you like; I'm not entirely sure, when reading, whether it's altogether a good thing. Being able to restrict your social interactions that much, and quickly eliminate on the basis of not quite simpatico instead of required social interaction means never really developing both the ability to get along with people and also miss the opportunity to know people who make take time and effort and skill to deal with, and I'm pretty sure it's worth the effort.
It was also a hell of a lot harder to end a friendship when you are pretty much going to see them forever until you die at every social event; that's pretty good motivation to get over yourself and move on and fix what you can--which surprisingly isn't as hard as it sounds. I like happy endings, though.
Anne of Windy Poplars is both my least and most favorite depending on mood; I'm not a huge fan of epistolary writing at the best of times, and I always manage to forget that it's the eternal exception to the rules. Her letters to Gilbert are always hilarious, and I always faintly wish there'd been a volume of his to her; he always struck me as one to have just as many odd adventures and fall into as many odd scrapes.
Currently at Anne's House of Dreams. I skipped about a bit to get to my favorite bits, and Miss Cornelia is not be missed.
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Oddly enough, I didn't discover them until I was out of college: I think they were out of print in the US for most of my childhood. Although the miniseries certainly re-invigorated American interest. (I've always thought it was a shame Megan Followes didn't go on to a marvelous career; she's still doing one-off character roles in other people's tv shows.)
Anyway, I just downloaded a bunch of these and read them on my Kindle within the last few months--they're marvelous reading for stressful times--but I'm cranky that Windy Poplars isn't available electronically. Boo, I say.
(Look! I has an icon!)
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http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100251h.html <--Poplars
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100281h.html <--Ingleside
Leslie Moore's marriage was one of the most indirectly brutal of them; even by implication, as I got older, what was said got more and more horrifying on re-read as I figured out what it meant. It makes the debate about Dick Moore being restored to reason even more heartbreaking. I always felt teh books grew up with Anne in a way; as she got older, the situations she was exposed to became more complex, or she was privy to more information to show the complexity. Especially the hints about her childhood before Green Gables.
Miss Cornelia was the most fun though; her tireless championing of women and truly stunningly civility-as-deadly-insult and oh, her gossip. A joy forever.
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And yes, there's a lot of horrible abuse hidden between the lines in a lot of places in those books. Both for Anne and the other children. Like, for instance, what does it mean to be a Pye in Avonlea? And why?
Miss Cornelia was totally a kick.
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Miss Cornelia on her first visit to Anne, discussing the current Presbyterian minister:
"...I'll never forget the first sermon he preached after he came. It was on the subject of everyone doing what they were best fitted for--a very good subject, of course; but such illustrations as he used! He said, 'If you had a cow and an apple tree, and if you tied the apple tree to your stable and planted the cow in your orchard, with her legs up, how much milk would you get from the apple tree, or how many apples would you get from the cow?'"
*still giggling*
And Cornelia's final denouncement:
"The long and short of it is, I consider him a reverend jackass."
I love her. God.