Snowflake Challenge 2019 Day 3
In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.
A Trio of Books
The theme is gratuitous wish fulfillment! Because sometimes you need that. I heartily recommend all of these books to beat your January blues - they're short, they're uplifting, and they all have at least one scene that will stick with you in the best way.
Persuasion by Jane Austen
"I am half agony, half hope."
Anne Eliot had been persuaded by her family not to marry her first love Frederick Wentworth and lives to regret it. After seven years of no contact they reunite and after the required amount of drama they fall in love with the people they have matured into.
Why do I love it? While I have zero desire to reconnect with my exes and ex-friends there is something wonderfully life affirming about this novel. It takes pains to illustrate how the leads have changed over the years and makes a case for why they are better suited to each other now than they were back then. It highlights the risks and rewards of sticking to one's principles.
The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery
"Valancy was enjoying herself. She had never enjoyed herself at a "family reunion" before. In social functions, as in childish games, she had only "filled in." Her clan had always considered her very dull. She had no parlour tricks. And she had been in the habit of taking refuge from the boredom of family parties in her Blue Castle, which resulted in an absent-mindedness that increased her reputation for dullness and vacuity."
Valancy Stirling a spinster living with her toxic family in turn of the century Ontario. After being diagnosed with a terminal condition she decides to live out the rest of her life the way she wants, which means rebelling against her conservative family.
Why do I love it? This is one of the ultimate wish fulfillment books. Protagonist gets out of toxic family situation and is the architect of her own happy ending. It's basically a Cinderella story that puts emphasis on earning your reward and being more fulfilled than you'd hoped.
Jane of Lantern Hill by L. M. Montgomery
"Gay Street, so Jane always thought, did not live up to its name. It was, she felt certain, the most melancholy street in Toronto . . . though, to be sure, she had not seen a great many of the Toronto streets in her circumscribed comings and goings of eleven years."
Or The One Kid Version of Parent Trap. Jane Stuart lives with her mother and grandmother, unaware that her parents are scandalously divorced. She eventually meets her father and realizes how much family and community she's been missing out on. Jane ends up securing her own identity and yes, reuniting her estranged parents.
Why do I love it? Much like Valancy and Anne, Jane navigates a difficult family situation in order to gain her own agency. What makes her different is being a child. She can't leave her family, all she can do is disrupt her side of dysfunctional patterns in her family and school life. Jane is great because she doesn't just make herself happy, she actively works to make her loved ones happy, but in a healthy way that doesn't sacrifice her mental or emotional well-being.
A Trio of Videos
The Reunion Scene from A Little Princess (1995), out to make you cry even twenty-four years later
Mitchell & Webb tackle Hitchcock's adaptation of Rebecca, asking what if Max was obsessed with a future second wife instead of his first?
Rachel Bloom pays tribute to Marilyn Monroe's Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend