30 Days of Female Awesome: Day One
I asked permission from snogged to do the 30 Days of Female Awesome about ten days ago, and then never got around to starting it, so here goes!
30 Days of Female Awesome
Day One: Favorite female lead character
First, a caveat. I waxed lyrically about Lynda Day in the general TV meme, so I decided to use a non-TV character for this one. As it turns out, I've talked about her quite a bit too, but oh well. :-)
Pella
Pella exists in four YA novels, written 1958-1965 by Claque (Anna-Lisa Wärnlöf). Her greatness is quite hard to explain, because her defining character trait is that she's an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. Right away, in the first book, she explains that "this is more of a private kind of book, so there won't be much in the way of adventure." And there isn't. What there is, is a wry, humorous look at everyday events which Pella writes about in her diaries.
She's quite clever, very witty, and occasionally snarky, even if the subject doesn't deserve it. About one girl in the first book, she writes, "Talking to Marianne II is like conversing a carousel horse; it's all wood and teeth," and "I don't think she has as much rubbish upstairs as Marianne I, but then, it's not hard to keep tidy when there's so little furniture." I choose this particular example both because I remember it by heart, and because Pella later is forced to revise her opinion - sometimes she's so fond of her own sharp tongue that she doesn't stop to think of whether or not she's being fair.
The books bridge the gap between old girls' books and newer YA books and manage to avoid both the sentimentality of the former and the emo of the latter. Though they sometimes get serious, they never get maudlin or melodramatic. Indeed, even though Pella is an orphan who lives with her grandparents, this is never treated as a tragedy; instead Pella explains that since she never knew her parents she thinks of them rather like a couple of siblings who have gone on a long trip.
When I tried to think of stories to compare the Pella books to, I first thought of Meg Cabot's Allie Finkle stories, but they're rather more lightweight. Lois Lowry's Anastasia books come closer, though of course Pella is older and more mature (and sometimes touches on heavier subjects).
In the first book, Pellas bok, she's 15 and goes to confirmation camp in the country, along with seven other girls and a boy. The boy is two years younger than most of the girls and thus gets treated with the fond contempt of a little brother. The character dynamics are quite nice, especially between Pella and her immediate enemy, Marianne I, an intellectual snob who smirks whenever someone gives a wrong answer. (It's typical for the books' style that Marianne I isn't in any way evil or even all that mean, she's just annoying.) For anyone who's ever been to confirmation camp, say me, it has lots of things that are really familiar.
In the second book, Pellas andra bok, she's 17, back home and dealing with school life, as well as falling in love with Ulf Jacob Lennerbom, a very sweet boy who's got that quietly amused intelligence thing for him that I'm so soft for. :-) She also has to deal with her best friend's love life - said friend has fallen in love with two brothers and refuses to give either one of them up, and since this is before the times of polyamory, having them both isn't an acceptable solution. :-)
The third book, Pella i praktiken was what made me for some time want to become a journalist, even though I'm clearly unsuited for it, since that was what Pella did, even though she was clearly unsuited for it. She's a good writer but very shy, and though the editor Tobiason ("Tobis") takes her on, he grumbles quite a bit about how he'd recommend her for a newspaper "in the middle of the forest that uses carrier pidgeons" since she's so afraid of crowds. She also goes to Paris with her cousin, which causes both some great descriptions of the city's sights and people, and a minor romantic complication.
In the fourth book, Lennerboms, she and Ulf Jacob get married, in a very undramatic way. Her grandmother suggests that a church wedding could be a "memory for life", to which Pella replies, "Anything could be a memory for life. It could certainly be a memory of life to see my stumble my way to the altar in twelve yards of organza." So instead, they opt for a private affair with just a minister and two witnesses.
After the wedding, they have to try to find somewhere to live, and since this is before the "million program" houses were built, finding an apartment is as difficult to them as it would be today. At one point, the only available offer has the hostess living in every second room and refusing to sign any contract because her father always told her not to sign papers. They're desperate, but they're not that desperate - but this is where Pella starts to refer to Ulf Jacob as "Mister Smith", since when he's angry, it shows as a controlled cheerfulness that reminds her of Leslie Howard as Pimpernel Smith. They're really an adorable couple - not star-crossed, though often starry-eyed, yet with a sense of humour running through their actions. Pella's friend jokingly refers to them as "Pella, the burning ice maiden, and the intern teacher who was Amor," to which Pella counters, "The Lennerboms, in other words."
Even with all this rambling, I'm not sure I can explain why I love her so much. She just happens to be one of very, VERY few fictional female protagonists that I can relate to.
The Rest
Day Two: Favorite supporting female character
Day Three: A female character you hated but grew to love
Day Four: A female character you relate to
Day Five: Favorite female character on a male-driven show
Day Six: Favorite female-driven show
Day Seven: A female character that needs more screen time
Day Eight: Favorite female character in a comedy show
Day Nine: Favorite female character in a drama show
Day Ten: Favorite female character in a scifi/supernatural show
Day Eleven: Favorite female character in a children’s show
Day Twelve: Favorite female character in a movie
Day Thirteen: Favorite female character in a book
Day Fourteen: Favorite older female character
Day Fifteen: Favorite female character growth arc
Day Sixteen: Favorite mother character
Day Seventeen: Favorite warrior female character
Day Eighteen: Favorite non-warrior female character
Day Nineteen: Favorite non-human female character
Day Twenty: Favorite female antagonist
Day Twenty-One: Favorite female character screwed over by canon
Day Twenty-Two: Favorite female character you love but everyone else hates
Day Twenty-Three: Favorite female platonic relationship
Day Twenty-Four: Favorite female romantic relationship
Day Twenty-Five: Favorite mother/daughter and/or sister relationship
Day Twenty-Six: Favorite classical female character (from pre-20th century literature or mythology or the like)
Day Twenty-Seven: A female character you have extensive personal canon for
Day Twenty-Eight: Favorite female writer (television, books, movies, etc.)
Day Twenty-Nine: A female-centric fic rec
Day Thirty: Whatever you’d like!
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/523309.html and has
comments there.
30 Days of Female Awesome
Day One: Favorite female lead character
First, a caveat. I waxed lyrically about Lynda Day in the general TV meme, so I decided to use a non-TV character for this one. As it turns out, I've talked about her quite a bit too, but oh well. :-)
Pella
Pella exists in four YA novels, written 1958-1965 by Claque (Anna-Lisa Wärnlöf). Her greatness is quite hard to explain, because her defining character trait is that she's an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. Right away, in the first book, she explains that "this is more of a private kind of book, so there won't be much in the way of adventure." And there isn't. What there is, is a wry, humorous look at everyday events which Pella writes about in her diaries.
She's quite clever, very witty, and occasionally snarky, even if the subject doesn't deserve it. About one girl in the first book, she writes, "Talking to Marianne II is like conversing a carousel horse; it's all wood and teeth," and "I don't think she has as much rubbish upstairs as Marianne I, but then, it's not hard to keep tidy when there's so little furniture." I choose this particular example both because I remember it by heart, and because Pella later is forced to revise her opinion - sometimes she's so fond of her own sharp tongue that she doesn't stop to think of whether or not she's being fair.
The books bridge the gap between old girls' books and newer YA books and manage to avoid both the sentimentality of the former and the emo of the latter. Though they sometimes get serious, they never get maudlin or melodramatic. Indeed, even though Pella is an orphan who lives with her grandparents, this is never treated as a tragedy; instead Pella explains that since she never knew her parents she thinks of them rather like a couple of siblings who have gone on a long trip.
When I tried to think of stories to compare the Pella books to, I first thought of Meg Cabot's Allie Finkle stories, but they're rather more lightweight. Lois Lowry's Anastasia books come closer, though of course Pella is older and more mature (and sometimes touches on heavier subjects).
In the first book, Pellas bok, she's 15 and goes to confirmation camp in the country, along with seven other girls and a boy. The boy is two years younger than most of the girls and thus gets treated with the fond contempt of a little brother. The character dynamics are quite nice, especially between Pella and her immediate enemy, Marianne I, an intellectual snob who smirks whenever someone gives a wrong answer. (It's typical for the books' style that Marianne I isn't in any way evil or even all that mean, she's just annoying.) For anyone who's ever been to confirmation camp, say me, it has lots of things that are really familiar.
In the second book, Pellas andra bok, she's 17, back home and dealing with school life, as well as falling in love with Ulf Jacob Lennerbom, a very sweet boy who's got that quietly amused intelligence thing for him that I'm so soft for. :-) She also has to deal with her best friend's love life - said friend has fallen in love with two brothers and refuses to give either one of them up, and since this is before the times of polyamory, having them both isn't an acceptable solution. :-)
The third book, Pella i praktiken was what made me for some time want to become a journalist, even though I'm clearly unsuited for it, since that was what Pella did, even though she was clearly unsuited for it. She's a good writer but very shy, and though the editor Tobiason ("Tobis") takes her on, he grumbles quite a bit about how he'd recommend her for a newspaper "in the middle of the forest that uses carrier pidgeons" since she's so afraid of crowds. She also goes to Paris with her cousin, which causes both some great descriptions of the city's sights and people, and a minor romantic complication.
In the fourth book, Lennerboms, she and Ulf Jacob get married, in a very undramatic way. Her grandmother suggests that a church wedding could be a "memory for life", to which Pella replies, "Anything could be a memory for life. It could certainly be a memory of life to see my stumble my way to the altar in twelve yards of organza." So instead, they opt for a private affair with just a minister and two witnesses.
After the wedding, they have to try to find somewhere to live, and since this is before the "million program" houses were built, finding an apartment is as difficult to them as it would be today. At one point, the only available offer has the hostess living in every second room and refusing to sign any contract because her father always told her not to sign papers. They're desperate, but they're not that desperate - but this is where Pella starts to refer to Ulf Jacob as "Mister Smith", since when he's angry, it shows as a controlled cheerfulness that reminds her of Leslie Howard as Pimpernel Smith. They're really an adorable couple - not star-crossed, though often starry-eyed, yet with a sense of humour running through their actions. Pella's friend jokingly refers to them as "Pella, the burning ice maiden, and the intern teacher who was Amor," to which Pella counters, "The Lennerboms, in other words."
Even with all this rambling, I'm not sure I can explain why I love her so much. She just happens to be one of very, VERY few fictional female protagonists that I can relate to.
The Rest
Day Two: Favorite supporting female character
Day Three: A female character you hated but grew to love
Day Four: A female character you relate to
Day Five: Favorite female character on a male-driven show
Day Six: Favorite female-driven show
Day Seven: A female character that needs more screen time
Day Eight: Favorite female character in a comedy show
Day Nine: Favorite female character in a drama show
Day Ten: Favorite female character in a scifi/supernatural show
Day Eleven: Favorite female character in a children’s show
Day Twelve: Favorite female character in a movie
Day Thirteen: Favorite female character in a book
Day Fourteen: Favorite older female character
Day Fifteen: Favorite female character growth arc
Day Sixteen: Favorite mother character
Day Seventeen: Favorite warrior female character
Day Eighteen: Favorite non-warrior female character
Day Nineteen: Favorite non-human female character
Day Twenty: Favorite female antagonist
Day Twenty-One: Favorite female character screwed over by canon
Day Twenty-Two: Favorite female character you love but everyone else hates
Day Twenty-Three: Favorite female platonic relationship
Day Twenty-Four: Favorite female romantic relationship
Day Twenty-Five: Favorite mother/daughter and/or sister relationship
Day Twenty-Six: Favorite classical female character (from pre-20th century literature or mythology or the like)
Day Twenty-Seven: A female character you have extensive personal canon for
Day Twenty-Eight: Favorite female writer (television, books, movies, etc.)
Day Twenty-Nine: A female-centric fic rec
Day Thirty: Whatever you’d like!
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/523309.html and has
comments there.