Will eventually get around to Books

*Not some new group only I've heard of because I'm cooler than cool - I mean this literally.

So, there was a bit of flocked cursing about the news concerning MA I got immediately after submitting the Dread Essay (if you didn't read it, don't worry, you missed nothing), but I was coping - indeed, I was valiantly coping with stiff upper lip and all (but not coping well enough to avoid cliche - see here for MotherReader Fun with Cliché, 'cause you won't get fun here just now!) and then ( Cut for sad story )

Anyway, the poor thing is much better - it was furious but fairly short-lived, and I'm trying to live by my new mantra of 'Any day without throwing up is a good day'.

And you all were probably spared the Further Rants of the Crazed Lady S about I, Coriander, which I'd undoubtedly have indulged in before heading to Bristol ... [feels hands begin to twitch] No rants! But [falls off wagon] - I spent at least 15 hours researching the historical background, so every time I was saying something about the slanted presentation of the history I had a reputable reference and could show that it was not merely one-sided, but misleading. It's misleading. Or downright inaccurate.
Last thing: any book which has a 17 year old girl who's just rescued her love and wants to be with him but feels she has to go back because she hears her '[dead] mother's sweet voice calling and knew then that I must return and find my father. I must for her sake put away all childish thoughts. I must for her become a young woman and accept my lot in life.' is a book which needs some serious critiquing. (Quite aside from its high queasiness-factor.) Just for the record - if I'm dead and manage to give my daughters advice from Beyond, I will most certainly not be telling them to give up their lives in order to find out what's happened to their father. I might well say 'This or that can't be changed - find a way to deal with as best you can.' but then I suppose that wouldn't earn the sweet voice award anyway!

Now, the new book chatter. Finally. Just finished Bali Rai's (un)arranged marriage. Bearing in mind the fact that I'm exhausted, stressed, feel boring, unaccomplished and self-pitying, you might think twice about reading what I have to say - about it, but also about the issues of identity, racial integration (or otherwise), etc., etc., ( and etc... )

Secret Garden, Flambards and author intention (possibly AKA 'What WAS she thinking?')

All over at Blog from the Windowsill...

Okay, even if you haven't read Flambards, check out the link back to the 'classic children's books question #2' post in that, for the question of whether Mary marries Dickon or Colin (or neither or both - sorry - or 'nobody'). It's not a question I ever considered as a child either, though I can't imagine the 1993 film version's addition of a romantic element was just the product of one warped mind. Nor is heroine marrying male cousin an unusual element of classic lit - especially given isolated setting and the suggestion that there's not going to be a huge amount of involvement in wider society.

The Flambards Divided question is really interesting too - though you have to have read all four books to play along with that one.

Hmm, much more cheerful now - I'm thinking I might have a shiny essay topic for next module (Origins and Development of Children's Literature)...

(no subject)

Still mentally hopping around over the conversation with Wendy of Blog from the Windowsill, and it got me thinking about those great not-so-likable-but-you-still-love-them characters (especially female ones), and wondering if Mary of The Secret Garden is the first in children's lit or if I'm missing someone obvious. She'd a grown-up counterpart in Emma, of course, but can't think of any other children earlier. I'm not talking about horrible kid who gets slapped around by life, and learns lessons aplenty, becoming saintly (despite the sarcastic tone, I do love What Katy Did in all its sappy goodness - surely one of the quintessential Slap 'em up and Make Them Good books). And I'm also not talking about Underdog who's got to be forgiven for being a bit dim at times because of the Underdoggery...

Mary learns, and gets less selfish, of course, but she doesn't become a little princess, either, does she? And in not doing so, did she do anything pave the way for favourite not very nice girls like Harriet the Spy? (Okay, nobody is quite like Harriet!)

Started thinking about this because of Christina in the Flambards books, and her possible likeness to Mary (even if I'm the sole believer in this theory), and then I came up with Dicey, in Cynthia Voigt's Tillerman books. She's a wonderful character - tough and prickly and driven and has to be all those things to survive and take care of her family - and then comes Seventeen Against the Dealer and it's just so horribly painful as a reader to see all the less-than-nice aspects of her character take over and cause so much pain to the people she (and we) really care about. But not at all out of character.

Rose, of Permanent Rose fame... Just thought of her.

Melting down with exhaustion, but if anyone would like to contribute characters while I try to sleep - feel free.