When I was a little girl/ I had a rag doll...
...The only doll I ever owned/ Now I love you just the way/ I loved that rag doll/ But only now my love has grown
I'm currently re-reading what used to be my favorite books when I was about ten: "The Mennyms" books by Sylvia Waugh.
There are five volumes and I just finished the second one. It's funny, as soon as I started re-reading "The Mennyms" - the first volume - I remembered why I loved those books so much and, in fact, still love them. Those books are just amazing! I mean, they're really not you average children's book. Some people may even say they're a little bit strange, odd, whatever. After all, it IS fantasy. Not the "Harry Potter" kind of fantasy, no!, I'd say "The Mennyms" are even better than "Harry Potter". There is no Hogwarts, their Hogwarts, if you want to compare the two books, is Brocklehurst Grove No.5 in Castledean, a town in England. Also, "The Mennyms" aren't wizards or witches, they are life-sized rag dolls. Yes, you heard me right, they are rag dolls! And they are alive! They are living a normal life - well, almost - just like everyone else. And there is no magic. At least there aren't any potions, spells or anything. Just that kind of magic that a story like this naturally possesses. That magic that makes children's - and even adult's - eyes sparkle with joy and excitement while reading the books, feeling and experiencing adventures with it's characters.
Oh, and how I love those characters. Every single one in their own way. There are:
- Sir Magnus Mennym: 70 years old, patriarch of the family. He is a specialist for the early battles of the British civil war and writes articles for several magazines. He has purple feet and hardly ever leaves his bed.
- Granny Tulip Mennym: his wife, 65 years old. She has hypnotizing eyes and makes pullovers and other knitwear, which she sells and are even worn by members of the royal family.
- Joshua Mennym: their son. He doesn't speak much and works as a night watchman for "Sydenhams".
- Vinetta Mennym: his wife. She's the mother of the family, always kind and understanding and easily worried. She makes children's clothes in sells them to earn money to pay the bills.
- Soobie Mennym: 16 years old. He is really smart and reads a lot. Most of the times he sits in his favorite armchair be the window and reads or observes the street. He is not a really joyful character, but he has a good heart, although he is often pessimistic and sarcastic, which could be because he is the only Mennym who is completely blue. Blue face, blue body, blue suit.
- Pilbeam Mennym: Soobie's twin sister, with black hair and black eyes. She spent 40 years in parts in a box in the attic until Soobie found her and Vinetta put her together. I'd say she is as smart as Soobie and reads very much as well, but apart from this, they're completely different. She's not blue, for example and enjoys life much more than him. But sometimes she is the only person in the family who understands him.
- Appleby Mennym: She is 15 years old, has red hair and, as far as I remember, green eyes. Sometimes she can be really mean and insubordinate, but deep deep inside she has a good heart. Actually, Pilbeam is the only one she listens to, she's her best friend. Appleby's really good in inventing stories and loves to do so.
- Poopie and Whimpey Mennym: 10 year old twins with blond hair. Really loud. Poopie's favorite toy are his action men Hector and Basil, whereas Whimpey loves to play with her American doll.
- Googles Mennym: the baby. (Yes, just like the internet search engine *lol*)
- Hortensia Quigley: conservative old maiden, who annoys everyone. Used to live in the closet below the stairs (just like "Harry Potter" *lol*) and pretend it was her own house in Trevethick Street. Now she lives in Soobie's former room and works as Google's nanny. She's a really talented painter.
Non-rag-dolls (or humans, but I rather call them non-rag-dolls):
- Kate Penshaw: a talented seamstress who made "The Mennyms". After her death, they came to live and continued living in her house.
- Albert Pond: her great-grandnephew. Lives in Durham and works there as an (assistant professor) for history. He has brown puppydog eyes and brown hair with bangs that fall into his face. (Just like... well... I imagine him as a mixture between my Mediavistics professor and Peter Petrelli/Milo - his character seems to be pretty similar to them as well). He's the only human who knows about "The Mennyms". When they are in danger, Kate comes to him as a ghost and tells him all about them.
- Anthea Fryer: neighbor of "The Mennyms". Owns an art gallery.
- Lorna Gladstone: one of Albert's students and distantly related to him. Has black hair and dark eyes and sometimes reminds him of Pilbeam.
- Jennifer Gladstone: Lorna's mother. Has blond hair and light blue eyes.
I guess, that's it. At least, that's the persons who appear in the first two volumes. And as it's been about 10 years since I read the books last, I don't remember any more characters. The Mennym family, Kate and Albert are the most important characters, anyway.
God, I cannot express how much I love those books. They are so good. And they're really not children's books. I mean, children can read them, but grown-ups can read them just as well. It's just a really nice fairytale for everyone. I mean, I read "The Mennyms" when I was ten and now I am 21 and have read so many books, from Jane Austen to Charles Dickens and Ernest Hemingway, I go to university and still love the books as much as I did all those years ago.
And it's so funny, cause now I remember how it was reading them then. I remember that it was winter, just before Christmas, and that I was sitting on my bed, cuddled up between pillows and blankets. That I just spent whole afternoons in my room, reading "The Mennyms". And when browsing through the pages I even find stuff from that time. I found a really bad drawing of Pilbeam in a red dress in the back of volume 3, "Mennyms Under Siege", a book mark with short characteristics of the Mennym family and another book mark advertising some more children's books in volume 5, "Mennyms Alive" and another book mark and some dried flowers in volume 4, "Mennyms alone". I don't even remember putting them there, but here they are.
Something else I didn't remember are the poems. At the beginning of every book, there is a poem or an excerpt from another book:
In "The Mennyms" it's two lines from a poem by A.E. Housman. It doesn't give a title, just says that it's from his "Last Poems". Unfortunately I couldn't find the poem itsel, but I read some of his poems here and they are pretty good. I guess I just discovered a new poet and just because of "The Mennyms".
The poem in "The Mennyms in the Wilderness" is "Cloths of Heaven" by William Butler Yeats. In the beginning it's only the last two lines, but in the end Albert reads the whole poem to Pilbeam. It goes like this:
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
In the third volume, "Mennyms Under Siege" it's some lines from Tennyson's "Ulysses" (I bolted them in the poem). I had to think of Maren (schribaere) at once, because she likes that poem so much since we had to read it for our Introduction to Literary Studies class. I mean, when I read the book for the first time I didn't know the poem and now I know it and I can even make a conncetion to one of my friend's. That's so cool. But you can see how things can change when re-reading books years after having read them before. I love that.
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees. All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea. I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known,-- cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honor'd of them all,--
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains; but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
to whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,--
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me,--
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads,-- you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
In "Mennyms alone", the 4th volume it's two lines from Shakespeare's "King Lear":
I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
My master calls me, I must not say no.
It's Kent's last words, right at the end of act V, scene 3. For anyone who reads to read it - or the whole play - it can be found over here.
I already read it. My friend Judith (katastro_fee) gave it to me for Christmas some years ago and I have to say I enjoyed it more than "Romeo and Juliet".
And in the last one, "Mennyms Alive" it's an excerpt from Lewis Carroll's "Sylvia and Bruno":
"He thought he saw an Albatross
That fluttered round the lamp:
He looked again, and found it was
A Penny-Postage-Stamp.
'You'd best be getting home,' he said:
'The nights are very damp!'"
The whole work can be read here. I haven't read it myself, yet, but I surely will do so. I like Lewis Carroll since I read "The Jabberwocky".
And not only that I now know some of the stuff quoted in the beginning of the books, there are also things in the books I see now with different eyes. For example when they mention books like "Pride and Prejudice" and "The Lord of the Rings". Now I know those books, I know that they've been written by Jane Austen and J.R.R.Tolkien, I've even read them. And when Soobie and Pilbeam first arrive at Comus House and call it "Wuthering Heights" or "Bleak House", I know not only that those are novels by Emily Bronte and Charles Dickens, I even can imagine what Comus House looks like because I read those books (well, actually I'm still in the middle of reading "Bleak House") and I know how those houses are described.
And although I still imagine the Mennyms as I imagined them ten years ago, I have a totally different picture of Albert, now. Just because I have real models for him, now. That's why he looks sometimes a little bit more like my Mediavistics professor and sometimes a little more like Peter Petrelli (not Milo, no! Just Peter Petrelli with the bangs in his face). And Soobie's character sometimes reminds me a little bit of Jess, especially when it's mentioned how smart he his and how much he loves reading and when he is being sarcastic again. And Pilbeam, who loves to read as well and is the only one who understands Soobie... well, sometimes she reminds me a little bit of Rory, there. It may sound completely crazy and obsessed to compare those characters to the characters in "Gilmore girls" and "Heroes" but still... the connections are in my head. They're not forced, they come automatically. I mean, I read a line and immediately the connection pops into my mind.
And maybe, those comparisons with Peter Petrelli (usually played by Milo Ventimiglia who, as we all know, also played Jess Mariano on "Gilmore girls") and Rory Gilmore (played by Alexis Bledel, Milo's beautiful ex-girlfriend who is so much better than Hayden Panettiere *cough*) are one of my reasons to ship Albert and Pilbeam. I mean, they are doomed. Completely doomed. Humans and rag dolls cannot be together! It would never work! The Mennyms are immortal (just like the family Tuck in "Tuck Everlasting", a book by Nathalie Babitt, but also a movie in which Alexis Bledel played one of the leading roles, only that she wasn't immortal there) and Albert just isn't. Pilbeam will always be 16 years old and he will grow old and eventually die. It's impossible. But I just have a thing for doomed and tragic relationships. That, and when imagining Albert and Pilbeam as Milo and Alexis, respectively their characters, at least there could still be a chance for those two. But as Milo's and Alexis's (character's) relationship had to fail, Albert's and Pilbeam's relationship was meant to fail. Sad, but true. But as that fact hasn't kept me from shipping Jess/Rory, Milo/Alexis and so on, it certainly won't keep me from shipping Albert/Pilbeam. No, no, never! As far as I recall, I already liked those two when I first read the books. *sigh* I wished there was a chance for them.
Today, while I did some research, I even discovered that there even is a musical about "The Mennyms". As far as I understood it's only a musical production by some university in Southampton, but I'd really love to see it. I'd love to see how they all look and how it is even possible to bring those books on stage. Awww, it would be so cool. More information on the musical, here.
So, I guess... that's it. I said everything I wanted to say. What I wanted to say, in short, was actually: I highly recommend "The Mennyms" to anyone who likes to enjoy a good read. Cause, boy, those books certainly are a good read.
What I have to say to Maren(schribaere): Don't let my rambling about Jess/Rory and Albert/Pilbeam prevent you from reading "The Mennyms". That's just my opinion and you know how my mind works. "It's a big bag of weird in there." (quoting Lorelai Gilmore)
And now I'm done.
Yours,
Ducky
Keep on reading!
Do you read much? - Well, what is much? - current read: Sylvia Waugh - Die Mennyms in der Falle (Mennyms Under Siege)
I'm currently re-reading what used to be my favorite books when I was about ten: "The Mennyms" books by Sylvia Waugh.
There are five volumes and I just finished the second one. It's funny, as soon as I started re-reading "The Mennyms" - the first volume - I remembered why I loved those books so much and, in fact, still love them. Those books are just amazing! I mean, they're really not you average children's book. Some people may even say they're a little bit strange, odd, whatever. After all, it IS fantasy. Not the "Harry Potter" kind of fantasy, no!, I'd say "The Mennyms" are even better than "Harry Potter". There is no Hogwarts, their Hogwarts, if you want to compare the two books, is Brocklehurst Grove No.5 in Castledean, a town in England. Also, "The Mennyms" aren't wizards or witches, they are life-sized rag dolls. Yes, you heard me right, they are rag dolls! And they are alive! They are living a normal life - well, almost - just like everyone else. And there is no magic. At least there aren't any potions, spells or anything. Just that kind of magic that a story like this naturally possesses. That magic that makes children's - and even adult's - eyes sparkle with joy and excitement while reading the books, feeling and experiencing adventures with it's characters.
Oh, and how I love those characters. Every single one in their own way. There are:
- Sir Magnus Mennym: 70 years old, patriarch of the family. He is a specialist for the early battles of the British civil war and writes articles for several magazines. He has purple feet and hardly ever leaves his bed.
- Granny Tulip Mennym: his wife, 65 years old. She has hypnotizing eyes and makes pullovers and other knitwear, which she sells and are even worn by members of the royal family.
- Joshua Mennym: their son. He doesn't speak much and works as a night watchman for "Sydenhams".
- Vinetta Mennym: his wife. She's the mother of the family, always kind and understanding and easily worried. She makes children's clothes in sells them to earn money to pay the bills.
- Soobie Mennym: 16 years old. He is really smart and reads a lot. Most of the times he sits in his favorite armchair be the window and reads or observes the street. He is not a really joyful character, but he has a good heart, although he is often pessimistic and sarcastic, which could be because he is the only Mennym who is completely blue. Blue face, blue body, blue suit.
- Pilbeam Mennym: Soobie's twin sister, with black hair and black eyes. She spent 40 years in parts in a box in the attic until Soobie found her and Vinetta put her together. I'd say she is as smart as Soobie and reads very much as well, but apart from this, they're completely different. She's not blue, for example and enjoys life much more than him. But sometimes she is the only person in the family who understands him.
- Appleby Mennym: She is 15 years old, has red hair and, as far as I remember, green eyes. Sometimes she can be really mean and insubordinate, but deep deep inside she has a good heart. Actually, Pilbeam is the only one she listens to, she's her best friend. Appleby's really good in inventing stories and loves to do so.
- Poopie and Whimpey Mennym: 10 year old twins with blond hair. Really loud. Poopie's favorite toy are his action men Hector and Basil, whereas Whimpey loves to play with her American doll.
- Googles Mennym: the baby. (Yes, just like the internet search engine *lol*)
- Hortensia Quigley: conservative old maiden, who annoys everyone. Used to live in the closet below the stairs (just like "Harry Potter" *lol*) and pretend it was her own house in Trevethick Street. Now she lives in Soobie's former room and works as Google's nanny. She's a really talented painter.
Non-rag-dolls (or humans, but I rather call them non-rag-dolls):
- Kate Penshaw: a talented seamstress who made "The Mennyms". After her death, they came to live and continued living in her house.
- Albert Pond: her great-grandnephew. Lives in Durham and works there as an (assistant professor) for history. He has brown puppydog eyes and brown hair with bangs that fall into his face. (Just like... well... I imagine him as a mixture between my Mediavistics professor and Peter Petrelli/Milo - his character seems to be pretty similar to them as well). He's the only human who knows about "The Mennyms". When they are in danger, Kate comes to him as a ghost and tells him all about them.
- Anthea Fryer: neighbor of "The Mennyms". Owns an art gallery.
- Lorna Gladstone: one of Albert's students and distantly related to him. Has black hair and dark eyes and sometimes reminds him of Pilbeam.
- Jennifer Gladstone: Lorna's mother. Has blond hair and light blue eyes.
I guess, that's it. At least, that's the persons who appear in the first two volumes. And as it's been about 10 years since I read the books last, I don't remember any more characters. The Mennym family, Kate and Albert are the most important characters, anyway.
God, I cannot express how much I love those books. They are so good. And they're really not children's books. I mean, children can read them, but grown-ups can read them just as well. It's just a really nice fairytale for everyone. I mean, I read "The Mennyms" when I was ten and now I am 21 and have read so many books, from Jane Austen to Charles Dickens and Ernest Hemingway, I go to university and still love the books as much as I did all those years ago.
And it's so funny, cause now I remember how it was reading them then. I remember that it was winter, just before Christmas, and that I was sitting on my bed, cuddled up between pillows and blankets. That I just spent whole afternoons in my room, reading "The Mennyms". And when browsing through the pages I even find stuff from that time. I found a really bad drawing of Pilbeam in a red dress in the back of volume 3, "Mennyms Under Siege", a book mark with short characteristics of the Mennym family and another book mark advertising some more children's books in volume 5, "Mennyms Alive" and another book mark and some dried flowers in volume 4, "Mennyms alone". I don't even remember putting them there, but here they are.
Something else I didn't remember are the poems. At the beginning of every book, there is a poem or an excerpt from another book:
In "The Mennyms" it's two lines from a poem by A.E. Housman. It doesn't give a title, just says that it's from his "Last Poems". Unfortunately I couldn't find the poem itsel, but I read some of his poems here and they are pretty good. I guess I just discovered a new poet and just because of "The Mennyms".
The poem in "The Mennyms in the Wilderness" is "Cloths of Heaven" by William Butler Yeats. In the beginning it's only the last two lines, but in the end Albert reads the whole poem to Pilbeam. It goes like this:
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
In the third volume, "Mennyms Under Siege" it's some lines from Tennyson's "Ulysses" (I bolted them in the poem). I had to think of Maren (schribaere) at once, because she likes that poem so much since we had to read it for our Introduction to Literary Studies class. I mean, when I read the book for the first time I didn't know the poem and now I know it and I can even make a conncetion to one of my friend's. That's so cool. But you can see how things can change when re-reading books years after having read them before. I love that.
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees. All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea. I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known,-- cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honor'd of them all,--
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains; but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
to whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,--
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me,--
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads,-- you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
In "Mennyms alone", the 4th volume it's two lines from Shakespeare's "King Lear":
I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
My master calls me, I must not say no.
It's Kent's last words, right at the end of act V, scene 3. For anyone who reads to read it - or the whole play - it can be found over here.
I already read it. My friend Judith (katastro_fee) gave it to me for Christmas some years ago and I have to say I enjoyed it more than "Romeo and Juliet".
And in the last one, "Mennyms Alive" it's an excerpt from Lewis Carroll's "Sylvia and Bruno":
"He thought he saw an Albatross
That fluttered round the lamp:
He looked again, and found it was
A Penny-Postage-Stamp.
'You'd best be getting home,' he said:
'The nights are very damp!'"
The whole work can be read here. I haven't read it myself, yet, but I surely will do so. I like Lewis Carroll since I read "The Jabberwocky".
And not only that I now know some of the stuff quoted in the beginning of the books, there are also things in the books I see now with different eyes. For example when they mention books like "Pride and Prejudice" and "The Lord of the Rings". Now I know those books, I know that they've been written by Jane Austen and J.R.R.Tolkien, I've even read them. And when Soobie and Pilbeam first arrive at Comus House and call it "Wuthering Heights" or "Bleak House", I know not only that those are novels by Emily Bronte and Charles Dickens, I even can imagine what Comus House looks like because I read those books (well, actually I'm still in the middle of reading "Bleak House") and I know how those houses are described.
And although I still imagine the Mennyms as I imagined them ten years ago, I have a totally different picture of Albert, now. Just because I have real models for him, now. That's why he looks sometimes a little bit more like my Mediavistics professor and sometimes a little more like Peter Petrelli (not Milo, no! Just Peter Petrelli with the bangs in his face). And Soobie's character sometimes reminds me a little bit of Jess, especially when it's mentioned how smart he his and how much he loves reading and when he is being sarcastic again. And Pilbeam, who loves to read as well and is the only one who understands Soobie... well, sometimes she reminds me a little bit of Rory, there. It may sound completely crazy and obsessed to compare those characters to the characters in "Gilmore girls" and "Heroes" but still... the connections are in my head. They're not forced, they come automatically. I mean, I read a line and immediately the connection pops into my mind.
And maybe, those comparisons with Peter Petrelli (usually played by Milo Ventimiglia who, as we all know, also played Jess Mariano on "Gilmore girls") and Rory Gilmore (played by Alexis Bledel, Milo's beautiful ex-girlfriend who is so much better than Hayden Panettiere *cough*) are one of my reasons to ship Albert and Pilbeam. I mean, they are doomed. Completely doomed. Humans and rag dolls cannot be together! It would never work! The Mennyms are immortal (just like the family Tuck in "Tuck Everlasting", a book by Nathalie Babitt, but also a movie in which Alexis Bledel played one of the leading roles, only that she wasn't immortal there) and Albert just isn't. Pilbeam will always be 16 years old and he will grow old and eventually die. It's impossible. But I just have a thing for doomed and tragic relationships. That, and when imagining Albert and Pilbeam as Milo and Alexis, respectively their characters, at least there could still be a chance for those two. But as Milo's and Alexis's (character's) relationship had to fail, Albert's and Pilbeam's relationship was meant to fail. Sad, but true. But as that fact hasn't kept me from shipping Jess/Rory, Milo/Alexis and so on, it certainly won't keep me from shipping Albert/Pilbeam. No, no, never! As far as I recall, I already liked those two when I first read the books. *sigh* I wished there was a chance for them.
Today, while I did some research, I even discovered that there even is a musical about "The Mennyms". As far as I understood it's only a musical production by some university in Southampton, but I'd really love to see it. I'd love to see how they all look and how it is even possible to bring those books on stage. Awww, it would be so cool. More information on the musical, here.
So, I guess... that's it. I said everything I wanted to say. What I wanted to say, in short, was actually: I highly recommend "The Mennyms" to anyone who likes to enjoy a good read. Cause, boy, those books certainly are a good read.
What I have to say to Maren(schribaere): Don't let my rambling about Jess/Rory and Albert/Pilbeam prevent you from reading "The Mennyms". That's just my opinion and you know how my mind works. "It's a big bag of weird in there." (quoting Lorelai Gilmore)
And now I'm done.
Yours,
Ducky
Keep on reading!
Do you read much? - Well, what is much? - current read: Sylvia Waugh - Die Mennyms in der Falle (Mennyms Under Siege)