Emily Starr revisited...
This Friday posting is becoming a routine. Well, I could do worse.
Not quite so productive this week, as I've been using my free minutes pleasure-reading, getting through L.M.Montgomery's Emily trilogy for the millionth time. It's been a while since I've read it, my set having been on loan for a year or two.
I like the Emily series better than Anne, and I'm rather curious why they are less well-known. Emily is saltier; her adventures are usually brought on by deliberate cussedness rather than Anne's sweet well-meaning ineptitude, and the "second sight" element appeals to my sense of fantasy. Reading them over this time after a long hiatus brought several things to my attention.
1. Montgomery quotes herself shamelessly. She has a line of description early on in book 2 which Emily uses verbatim later (and then wishes for a Jimmy-book to write it down in). I also recognized several phrases from L.M.'s own diary, hardly surprising as it's clear Emily is, at least in character, partly autobiographical. But it sort of made me chuckle to see her recycling elements - practical, I guess.
2. Emily's description in book 3 is positively Mary-Sueish, although I never would have realized it before becoming versed in fanfiction jargon and critique. Observe:
A slender, virginal young thing. Hair like black silk. Purplish-grey eyes, with violet shadows under them...scarlet lips with a Murray-like crease at the corners; ears with Puckish, slightly pointed tips...An exquisite line of chin and neck; a smile with a trick in it; such a slow-blossoming thing wiht a sudden radiance of fulfilment. And ankles that scandalous old Aunt Nancy Priest of Priest Pond commended.
...no one who looked upon her face ever forgot it...Many people liked her, many disliked her. No one was ever wholly indifferent to her.
Good lord. Pointed ears. Purple eyes. And she's got "speshul powerz". And all three male leads in the books are madly in love with her. If I found this on ff.net the sporks would be sharpening, my fingers itching madly to eviscerate it in some fan community.
Oh, dear, dear Maudie, I can't really want to spork you, can I? Tell me it isn't so! No, no, I will cheerfully add Emily to my list of canon Sues...they do exist, after all. Sara Crewe is another favorite.
3. Besides, Emily's bucketload of flaws save her from being a true Mary-Sue. I will be perverse now and complain that her greatest flaw really does almost ruin the whole series. It never bothered me before - well, not much - that her pride keeps her and Teddy apart until the very end, but now, in my thirties and conscious of how quickly time slips by, I read it and realized that there are literally years encompassed in the final chapters of book 3 - wasted years in which they both bury themselves in their respective passions to try to forget one another. Really. Did it have to be years? Wouldn't a couple of months after Ilse's jilting have sufficed?
4. And how DO you pronounce "Ilse" anyway?
5. I'm trying desperately to figure out the timeline, because I am obsessive like that. Emily is clearly not a contemporary of Anne; in book 2 her diary entries show the year as 19--, and she is thirteen at the time. Mid-book in book 3 Aunt Elizabeth reminds her that she is almost 24. Then come the years of waiting for Teddy. But they've only got fourteen years of 19-- until the Great War, which is never mentioned. Hence I am assuming she turns fourteen in 1900 and then is 27 or 28 when Teddy comes back. And then the war begins. Probably right after their wedding. Joy.
6. In this modern, pedophilia-conscious world, Dean Priest's obsession with Emily gives me the creeps. In book 3 as adults, it's all right. But it's clear in book 1 from their first meeting that he's got his sights on her. She's. Twelve. And he's in his thirties.
That being said, it's too bad Dean is so much more interesting than Teddy, at least by the end. Even Perry is more interesting than Teddy. Montgomery's love interests, who make such jolly, lovable boys, always get a little flat when they grow up. Even the sacrosanct Gilbert. Still, Teddy's the one. But I like their scenes together in book 2 - the church graveyard, the old John house - more than anything in book 3.
Despite all my above criticisms, I still love these books. Having visited P.E.I. now (and being surprised by how much it didn't look like I expected it to - not through any fault of Montgomery's descriptions but because I had created something in my own mind that was nothing like them) it's fun to be able to clearly visualize the settings. I feel a strong need now to illustrate something from the books...something true to description. It pains me when I see visual interpretations of literature that don't match the author's descriptions. I've seen snatches of scenes from the "Emily of New Moon" series put out on Canadian television, and Ilse's long hair and Emily's pudginess both turn me off, even more than the pointless changes they made to the plot.
Piddling around online last night led me to the discovery that there has been an anime series made of it : Kaze no Shoujo Emily, which I wish I could get my hands on. Not being into anime I have no idea how one goes about acquiring lesser-known titles. (I'd also love a copy of the Little Princess one that was done in the 80s, but that one doesn't even have any English subtitle versions - why, why, why? *grump*)
Ah, well. Back to life and my kiddoes. I did do some sewing this week...I'll post pics next time.
Not quite so productive this week, as I've been using my free minutes pleasure-reading, getting through L.M.Montgomery's Emily trilogy for the millionth time. It's been a while since I've read it, my set having been on loan for a year or two.
I like the Emily series better than Anne, and I'm rather curious why they are less well-known. Emily is saltier; her adventures are usually brought on by deliberate cussedness rather than Anne's sweet well-meaning ineptitude, and the "second sight" element appeals to my sense of fantasy. Reading them over this time after a long hiatus brought several things to my attention.
1. Montgomery quotes herself shamelessly. She has a line of description early on in book 2 which Emily uses verbatim later (and then wishes for a Jimmy-book to write it down in). I also recognized several phrases from L.M.'s own diary, hardly surprising as it's clear Emily is, at least in character, partly autobiographical. But it sort of made me chuckle to see her recycling elements - practical, I guess.
2. Emily's description in book 3 is positively Mary-Sueish, although I never would have realized it before becoming versed in fanfiction jargon and critique. Observe:
A slender, virginal young thing. Hair like black silk. Purplish-grey eyes, with violet shadows under them...scarlet lips with a Murray-like crease at the corners; ears with Puckish, slightly pointed tips...An exquisite line of chin and neck; a smile with a trick in it; such a slow-blossoming thing wiht a sudden radiance of fulfilment. And ankles that scandalous old Aunt Nancy Priest of Priest Pond commended.
...no one who looked upon her face ever forgot it...Many people liked her, many disliked her. No one was ever wholly indifferent to her.
Good lord. Pointed ears. Purple eyes. And she's got "speshul powerz". And all three male leads in the books are madly in love with her. If I found this on ff.net the sporks would be sharpening, my fingers itching madly to eviscerate it in some fan community.
Oh, dear, dear Maudie, I can't really want to spork you, can I? Tell me it isn't so! No, no, I will cheerfully add Emily to my list of canon Sues...they do exist, after all. Sara Crewe is another favorite.
3. Besides, Emily's bucketload of flaws save her from being a true Mary-Sue. I will be perverse now and complain that her greatest flaw really does almost ruin the whole series. It never bothered me before - well, not much - that her pride keeps her and Teddy apart until the very end, but now, in my thirties and conscious of how quickly time slips by, I read it and realized that there are literally years encompassed in the final chapters of book 3 - wasted years in which they both bury themselves in their respective passions to try to forget one another. Really. Did it have to be years? Wouldn't a couple of months after Ilse's jilting have sufficed?
4. And how DO you pronounce "Ilse" anyway?
5. I'm trying desperately to figure out the timeline, because I am obsessive like that. Emily is clearly not a contemporary of Anne; in book 2 her diary entries show the year as 19--, and she is thirteen at the time. Mid-book in book 3 Aunt Elizabeth reminds her that she is almost 24. Then come the years of waiting for Teddy. But they've only got fourteen years of 19-- until the Great War, which is never mentioned. Hence I am assuming she turns fourteen in 1900 and then is 27 or 28 when Teddy comes back. And then the war begins. Probably right after their wedding. Joy.
6. In this modern, pedophilia-conscious world, Dean Priest's obsession with Emily gives me the creeps. In book 3 as adults, it's all right. But it's clear in book 1 from their first meeting that he's got his sights on her. She's. Twelve. And he's in his thirties.
That being said, it's too bad Dean is so much more interesting than Teddy, at least by the end. Even Perry is more interesting than Teddy. Montgomery's love interests, who make such jolly, lovable boys, always get a little flat when they grow up. Even the sacrosanct Gilbert. Still, Teddy's the one. But I like their scenes together in book 2 - the church graveyard, the old John house - more than anything in book 3.
Despite all my above criticisms, I still love these books. Having visited P.E.I. now (and being surprised by how much it didn't look like I expected it to - not through any fault of Montgomery's descriptions but because I had created something in my own mind that was nothing like them) it's fun to be able to clearly visualize the settings. I feel a strong need now to illustrate something from the books...something true to description. It pains me when I see visual interpretations of literature that don't match the author's descriptions. I've seen snatches of scenes from the "Emily of New Moon" series put out on Canadian television, and Ilse's long hair and Emily's pudginess both turn me off, even more than the pointless changes they made to the plot.
Piddling around online last night led me to the discovery that there has been an anime series made of it : Kaze no Shoujo Emily, which I wish I could get my hands on. Not being into anime I have no idea how one goes about acquiring lesser-known titles. (I'd also love a copy of the Little Princess one that was done in the 80s, but that one doesn't even have any English subtitle versions - why, why, why? *grump*)
Ah, well. Back to life and my kiddoes. I did do some sewing this week...I'll post pics next time.