Anne (and a small tribute to LMM)

[Ebony AKA AngieJ]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., Angela Boyko <ochfd42 at y...> wrote:
> Despite living 4 hours from Prince Edward Island, I
> never read the books until the first Sullivan
> production. I'd tried reading the first one, but the
> beginning with Mrs Lynde was too dry and stuffy to me.
> 

Me too, Angela.  :)  The first Anne book I ever read was actually 
*Anne's House of Dreams* (Book #5).  I'd already watched the movies--
when I discovered the Anne paperback rack at our Main Library 
downtown, I was *shocked* to learn that Anne's story continued after 
the events in the second movie... so that's what I wanted to read 
first.  To date, it and the last book (Rilla of Ingleside, #8) are 
still my favorite of the Anne books.  

I didn't enjoy *Anne of Green Gables* (Book #1) until some months 
later.  It wasn't until I decided to become a teacher that I liked 
the second book, Anne of Avonlea--for years afterwards that and Anne 
of Windy Poplars (#4) were my least favorite of the eight Anne books.

I didn't read any non-Anne LMM novels until my senior year of 
college... I was so Anne-addicted that I didn't want to read about 
any of the other characters.  I'm so glad I did!  Anne is still my 
favorite of her heroines, but Emily is so much like me (in spirit at 
least) that it is scary. 

The best book she ever wrote for a grownup audience IMO is *The Blue 
Castle*.

> I devoured the series after I saw the first movie. The
> second one was okay ... I despised the third one, I
> could only watch the first part. I refer to it as
> "Anne of Generation X", it was so gloomy. And wrong.
> If they wanted to do a WWI story, they should have
> done "Rilla of Ingleside".

I think it helped that I didn't read the books first... I freely 
admit that the second movie was my favorite despite all its 
inaccuracies until I was around 17 and had read all the Annes a 
couple dozen times.  Since then, I've loved the first movie best of 
all.

The third Anne movie had about 15 watchable minutes in nearly four 
hours, and 14 of them were in the first part Angela watched.  I was 
sorely disappointed... it was something I'd waited half a lifetime to 
see!

I see absolutely no reason, other than Kevin Sullivan's ego, why the 
the 2000 movie paid no heed to the spirit of LMM's work *or* her 
legacy *or* her contributions to three canons (Canadian, children's, 
and women's lit) *or* her millions upon millions of faithful fans 
worldwide.  Sully's lame excuse that Rilla's plot was not conducive 
to screen adaptation is bunk... if he wanted war scenes, he could 
have done them via split screens... Rilla reading her letters from 
Walter... the family receiving news about Jem and the other manse 
boys.  It could have been done... and done right... but it wasn't.

Megan Follows, Jonathan Crombie, and the rest of the cast could have 
played their characters convincingly with a bit of aging makeup--they 
looked far too old for the ages the characters supposedly were in the 
movie they *did* make.

Even worse is the Cinar/Salter Street Films' current *Emily of New 
Moon* series.  It is completely unwatchable--TPTB have retained 
*nothing* of the Emily of the books, and the other characters are 
just as warped.  

There is one other bright spot among recent adaptations of Lucy Maud 
Montgomery's work, however.  There was a show that ran on CBC for 
many seasons called *Avonlea* that was simply amazing.  It was based 
on two LMM novels (*The Story Girl* and its sequel, *The Golden 
Road*) and two of the short story collections published during her 
lifetime (*Chronicles of Avonlea* and *Further Chronicles of 
Avonlea*).  The acting was superb--the cinematography excellent, but 
much of Sullivan is--the writing fresh and dynamic.  Last I checked, 
re-runs still aired on the Odyssey Network.

I would love to see *The Blue Castle* filmed someday.  But I think 
I'll be careful what I wish for...

Reading Lucy Maud Montgomery always reminds me of the spring and 
summer, too... although I always get into an LMM mood around 
Christmas.

Her work is highly recommended, even if you missed her as a child.  
The online Kindreds count a surprising number of men amongst our 
number... so that goes for guys too.  :)  

If Anne is not your cup of tea, start with one of the adult books--
*The Blue Castle* or *A Tangled Web* (which would have been higher on 
my favorites list, had it not been for the last page).  If you're a 
writer, read the *Emily of New Moon* series (my favorite!).  If 
you're attached to home and family and abhor change, read *Pat of 
Silver Bush* and its sequel.  

Maud (as we die-hard fans call her) also wrote and published over 
*300* short stories during her lifetime!  A very dear late Kindred, 
Rea Wilmshurst, spent decades compiling these into themed collections 
after securing permission from LMM's heirs... 

There's *Along the Shore* (seaside/maritime themed), *Among the 
Shadows* (Gothic/horror), *Akin to Anne* (tales of other orphans), 
*At the Altar* (love and marriage), *After Many Days* (tales of time 
passed and "casting bread upon the waters"), *Against the Odds* 
(tales of achievement despite obstacles).

Maud's personal journals are also in the process of being published--
the fourth volume just came out in 1999, I believe.  The journals 
reveal quite a woman... a woman with an extraordinary talent, yet a 
woman who lives in a time and place in which women were only supposed 
to take up certain themes.  Anne's creator never quite escaped her 
shadow, though at times she wanted to... she grew tired of publishers 
and fans demanding "more Anne".  She dealt with chronic depression, 
her husband, as we say, "was a trip", and she longed at times to 
write a very different type of novel.  Women's studies scholars are 
just waking up to the value of this remarkable lady, so often 
pigeonholed as a "girls' series author".  Her enduring popularity 
across the genders and generations, and amongst people of all races 
from all over the world, proves this view wrong.

I can honestly say that there is no other single writer that has had 
a greater influence on my own writing than Maud.

I'll end now (thank goodness!) with a quote from Rea 
Wilmshurst:  "Old-fashioned Montgomery may be, but out of fashion, 
never."

--Ebony AKA AngieJ 
*Hotmail's not working, so no sig!  :(*