Books and crushes (Tabouli's post, with long GWTW aside)

[Ebony]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Tabouli" <tabouli at u...> wrote:
 
> Ebony:
> *The Blue Castle* is for the times when I feel as if I'll never 
find 
> that special someone.
> 
> This book was compulsory reading on the morning of my 29th birthday 
as a single woman... (a few months ago).  I love tying dates in books 
to dates in real life... <snip!>


TBC is the kind of writing that gives us glimpses into Maud's ability 
to write for an adult audience.  I remember when I first read the 
books four years ago, I thought that 29 was a long, long time away 
for me and secretly agreed that it was sad for Valancy to be 29 and 
not married with no real prospects... I was in love and just couldn't 
conceive of it.  Now 29 doesn't seem quite that far anymore... and 
V's state doesn't seem that implausible.  ;-)


> Penny:
> > Gone with the Wind - I used to re-read annually, but it's actually
> been a few years now.  Need to drag that out again soon.
> 
> Oo, now this is a controversial book (I must read "The Wind Done 
Gone" some time!).  Must admit, I like it very much myself.  I admire 
assertiveness and resourcefulness, and whatever else you say about 
Scarlett, she has those qualities in spades, hearts, clubs and 
diamonds.  Good on her.  Though in the film, they turn her into a 
whingeing bitch, which always annoys me...


I liked *Gone With The Wind* very much until someone (my mother IIRC, 
and then Grandma jumped into the discussion) sat me down and pointed 
out all the reasons why I should not like it.  I'm just strange, I 
guess... I don't think I've ever met a black American in RL who has 
anything but contempt for both novel and movie.

Now, I've admitted before to you guys that I used to think that 
whenever I read about a character being "dark", I automatically 
assumed they were a person of color and was both disappointed and 
bewildered when I learned that the reference was just to eyes and 
hair (or sometimes just hair).  Well, here's another random 
confession:  before I ate from the tree of the Knowledge of Ethnic 
Good and Evil, I used to love antebellum historical romance, period.  
While reading, I identified with the white female protagonist simply 
because she *was* the protagonist and the focus of the story.  It 
didn't occur to me to identify with her house slave.

Once I started thinking about what was going on in these stories, 
there was no going back.  I began to wonder why all the women who 
supposedly represented *my* ancestors were nothing but caricatures.  
A case of TMI, I guess... I've had both undergrad and grad English 
and Drama classes in which we analyzed dramatic subtext, and each 
professor tried his or his best to convince us that books like *Gone 
With The Wind* were disquieting.  The success rate of these classes 
was something like 100%... I know I'd planned to record a documentary 
overview of American history last month, yet was horrified when the 
1915 movie *Birth of a Nation* was lauded without critical 
reservation.  

You know, Tabouli, I'm no authority on this but I do think that 
readers and writers of color often find themselves on the fringes of 
metanarrative.  As readers, we run into identity issues... because 
it's difficult to explain to others or justify to ourselves that our 
subconscious dilemma really isn't just "water under the bridge".  On 
the other hand, as a writer of color the struggle is *not* to stay 
inside of the box.  

In a previous grad seminar, much of our efforts were spent trying to 
discover this "life between the margins", so to speak... unlocking 
the voices of the voiceless in any discourse is a daunting task.  Our 
department's rhetorician (cannot WAIT to take her class this winter) 
does a similar thing with gender issues in classical antiquity.  And 
while I'm not interested in reading *The Wind Done Gone* (African-
American writer Margaret Walker already told the flip side of GWTW in 
her remarkable novel *Jubilee*), I am glad that the sistah got the 
chance to tell her tale.

While I dislike Scarlett as a character and did even upon first read, 
I thought the story itself was good and would recommend it to anyone 
with a caveat... to keep in mind that the GWTW narrative is but one 
part of the harmony that is the song of the South, and too often the 
other tune doesn't get sung... and when it is sung, it doesn't get 
equal screen time... or is not seen as being as melodious.  JMO.

--Ebony AKA AngieJ

(P.S.  Tab wrote:  "thought Kermit was cute, especially when 
singing "The Rainbow Connection..." and now that I think about it, I 
do think that's when my little toddler's heart fell in love!  ;-))