More Louisa May Alcott musings
I'm in the process of reading the complete works of Louisa May Alcott. So far I've read "Little Women", "Little Men", and I'm currently reading "Jo's Boys".
It is interesting to me that she was such a suffragette. I didn't remember that from when I read the books as a kid. All of her characters espouse equal rights for women. Amazing considering how long it's been since they were written/published. (100+ years ago)
I'm also becoming fascinated with the language, spelling, and grammar she uses. She breaks all kinds of grammatical rules. I'm pretty good at forgetting important ones when I'm writing but I'm not writing anything for publication. She had editors for her published works and there's still unique spellings and grammatical errors.
The language is so very different. Okay, it IS English but 100+ years ago words were used differently than they are now. Everyone in the books is quite "gay". There are phrases used for illustrative purposes that make no sense because I don't know the cultural nuances of that time period. It is American English but I don't understand it. This is making me even more aware than I had been previously about the difficulty of Biblical translating.
In the late 1800's, when LMA was writing, using the word "gay" meant happy. I'm very aware of that so I can read it and understand what she's intending. But there are probably kids today who are reading "Little Women" who *don't* know that's what she means and are assuming she's making a comment on the characters sexual orientation.
There are other phrases that I can mostly figure out what they mean due to the context but not all of them. The language of Ms Alcott's time is not the same as the language of mine. This makes me wonder about people who take Biblical translations as literal. How do we know the translators understand the nuances of the original languages within their culture? I'm sure they all try to do their best to know what they are, but what if they're like a 10 year old girl in 2014 trying to read "Little Women" and understand that the characters are happy rather than LGBT?
This isn't to say that I don't see the Bible as the inspired Word of God, I do. I have learned that some things in the Bible are pretty straight forward but others need some digging to truly understand their intent. Reading Louisa May Alcott encourages me to do intense study of the Bible and question the way people choose to interpret what it says before making a definitive judgement on it myself.
It is interesting to me that she was such a suffragette. I didn't remember that from when I read the books as a kid. All of her characters espouse equal rights for women. Amazing considering how long it's been since they were written/published. (100+ years ago)
I'm also becoming fascinated with the language, spelling, and grammar she uses. She breaks all kinds of grammatical rules. I'm pretty good at forgetting important ones when I'm writing but I'm not writing anything for publication. She had editors for her published works and there's still unique spellings and grammatical errors.
The language is so very different. Okay, it IS English but 100+ years ago words were used differently than they are now. Everyone in the books is quite "gay". There are phrases used for illustrative purposes that make no sense because I don't know the cultural nuances of that time period. It is American English but I don't understand it. This is making me even more aware than I had been previously about the difficulty of Biblical translating.
In the late 1800's, when LMA was writing, using the word "gay" meant happy. I'm very aware of that so I can read it and understand what she's intending. But there are probably kids today who are reading "Little Women" who *don't* know that's what she means and are assuming she's making a comment on the characters sexual orientation.
There are other phrases that I can mostly figure out what they mean due to the context but not all of them. The language of Ms Alcott's time is not the same as the language of mine. This makes me wonder about people who take Biblical translations as literal. How do we know the translators understand the nuances of the original languages within their culture? I'm sure they all try to do their best to know what they are, but what if they're like a 10 year old girl in 2014 trying to read "Little Women" and understand that the characters are happy rather than LGBT?
This isn't to say that I don't see the Bible as the inspired Word of God, I do. I have learned that some things in the Bible are pretty straight forward but others need some digging to truly understand their intent. Reading Louisa May Alcott encourages me to do intense study of the Bible and question the way people choose to interpret what it says before making a definitive judgement on it myself.