Julian!! It was a book before they made a more-or-less-adequate adapation starring Winona! Jeez! We're gonna take your literature-major card away! ;)
(/outraged English major)
(back on topic)
Ori, I'm actually surprised you read it, given what you told me about your childhood prejudice against "girl books." Does it get any more girly than LW, where the girls are rewarded by fate when they learn the "womanly virtues" of quietness, gratitude, compliance, etc.? Jo (the one spunky tomboy) is explicitly rewarded when she learns to act "motherly" towards her ill sister... and her reward to trade her writing career for marriage, motherhood (of sons!) and the running of a boy's school. I liked LW when I was eight; it started pissing me off when I was twelve.
Anne of Green Gables at least went to college.
(I'm not attacking - sorry for the vehemence - I'm just really surprised.)
Yeah, I thought about ragging on Julian for that one, but decided I had already gotten myself in enough trouble with this set of posts.
So, partially, it was that my mom gave me her copy of Little Women and told me how much she had loved it, so it was very much a bonding experience (and at a time when my mom was working very hard so we didn't have that much contact.)
But also - this sounds cheesy - but I really liked the values expressed in it. Yes, there are womanly virtues, but there's also a lot of emphasis on loyalty, and caring, and creativity, and charity, and avoiding snobbery and cliquishness. I like "Rose in Bloom" even better.
Another way to express it, with regard to the whole "girl" books thing, is that Little Women always seemed to me to be more the story of a family and of growing up and being women, and I think, for whatever reason, I wasn't as interested in reading about girls who were the same age as I was. But mostly, I suspect, it's that my mom gave it to me when I was 7, and told me it was important, and thus it had the parallel status of LOTR, which was the series my dad wanted to share with me.
I already gave Jules grief over the "Winona Ryder" comment.
He has been drilled in Meg (the oldest one), Jo (the writer), Beth (the dead one), and Amy (the snotnosed brat) and now can converse with females everywhere.
Poor Beth deserves such a better epithet - but you're right that that's how we all think of her. Does he know the Bennet sisters? (That one, of course, is not fair for favorites, cuz, really, who's a Kitty fan?)
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Only one right...
Re: Only one right...
Re: Only one right...
(cue outraged English major)
Winona Ryder's character???
Julian!! It was a book before they made a more-or-less-adequate adapation starring Winona! Jeez! We're gonna take your literature-major card away! ;)
(/outraged English major)
(back on topic)
Ori, I'm actually surprised you read it, given what you told me about your childhood prejudice against "girl books." Does it get any more girly than LW, where the girls are rewarded by fate when they learn the "womanly virtues" of quietness, gratitude, compliance, etc.? Jo (the one spunky tomboy) is explicitly rewarded when she learns to act "motherly" towards her ill sister... and her reward to trade her writing career for marriage, motherhood (of sons!) and the running of a boy's school. I liked LW when I was eight; it started pissing me off when I was twelve.
Anne of Green Gables at least went to college.
(I'm not attacking - sorry for the vehemence - I'm just really surprised.)
Re: Only one right...
So, partially, it was that my mom gave me her copy of Little Women and told me how much she had loved it, so it was very much a bonding experience (and at a time when my mom was working very hard so we didn't have that much contact.)
But also - this sounds cheesy - but I really liked the values expressed in it. Yes, there are womanly virtues, but there's also a lot of emphasis on loyalty, and caring, and creativity, and charity, and avoiding snobbery and cliquishness. I like "Rose in Bloom" even better.
Another way to express it, with regard to the whole "girl" books thing, is that Little Women always seemed to me to be more the story of a family and of growing up and being women, and I think, for whatever reason, I wasn't as interested in reading about girls who were the same age as I was. But mostly, I suspect, it's that my mom gave it to me when I was 7, and told me it was important, and thus it had the parallel status of LOTR, which was the series my dad wanted to share with me.
Re: Only one right...
He has been drilled in Meg (the oldest one), Jo (the writer), Beth (the dead one), and Amy (the snotnosed brat) and now can converse with females everywhere.
Re: Only one right...
Re: Only one right...
-MJNH, who was as annoyed with how boring Anne (formerly of Green Gables) became once she was a mom as with Jo.
Re: Only one right...
And one final guess, for Narnia - is it Reepicheep?