Bad treatment is bad business!tracerooSeptember 23 2008, 15:23:03 UTC
You make a really excellent point about the business angle on this! Good consideration.
I'm chewing on this issue both as one of the historical question (always ongoing in this household, you know it!) -- but also a literary one. What was Mitchell really trying to say here
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Re: Bad treatment is bad business!moosea1September 23 2008, 15:36:14 UTC
Interesting point. I've often wondered why she would write a book where the heroine is such a terrible person. And why was it so popular anyway? Is it a modern perception that Scarlet is terrible but for the time she seemed strong and modern and admirable? Maybe I should re-read it at some point.
Re: Bad treatment is bad business!tracerooSeptember 23 2008, 15:44:15 UTC
You know, then my mind starts to whirl as when I consider time travel. Mitchell published this in the 20s, I think, right? So, on the heels of the Women's Awesomeness movement, did that contempoary audience perceive Scarlett as very strong and admirable? I find that difficult to believe, honestly. In fact, the further back you go in time, the more shocking her behavior seems. Even now I'm having trouble balancing the idea that any character could be admired for being good in business and getting things done when they're such a shit personally -- female or male. But given both the time of publication and the setting of the story, a woman taking that role is so much MORE shocking! Is she supposed to be like the Mad Max of her time, chaining the guy's leg to the car about to explode, but leaving him with a chainsaw if he wants to saw his own leg off? Is she intended to be shocking?
My wife's entire family is from Kentucky. So of course, she married a Yankee, and that did not sit well at all with them. At one family reunion, the topic of slavery came up, and for some reason, they wanted the Yankee perspective on the topic. So I laid it out as much as I could, not using Gone with the Wind as a reference but kind of along the lines mentioned in the post itself
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Fascinating!tracerooSeptember 23 2008, 15:55:31 UTC
First off -- thanks for stopping by! Hope all is well with you and yours lately. :)
What a fascinating story! It's so hard for any of us to admit that we're wrong or change our ways, but someone who's 102! At that age she could say the sky was green and she'd have earned the right to get out of argument on that topic -- what an amazing person! And what an incredible experience for you to sit inside the "time machine" of that discussion and compare historical and cultural perspectives.
Re: Fascinating!wenbanSeptember 23 2008, 16:01:01 UTC
That is what really had left me floored. But then again, she was an incredible woman. She had been through so much in her life, but had always fought for everything she believed in. Actually, for her age, I did not really expect how lucid she would be when I met her. All cylinders were firing in her, and she was still an explosion waiting to happen in debating.
I asked my wife later though why the change. And that's when I learned something else about her. The only electronic device she actually used was a radio. She had never left the state of Kentucky, and the only radio station she listened to was a back woods am channel. I was given the impression that she had lived a quiet life, and people in the family all just agreed with what she had said.
Later, my MIL called me to complain that how dare I challenge the thoughts of a woman so old if that gives you any idea of the blinders the family had on her.
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I'm chewing on this issue both as one of the historical question (always ongoing in this household, you know it!) -- but also a literary one. What was Mitchell really trying to say here ( ... )
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Don't reread it. She'll annoy you.
T.
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What a fascinating story! It's so hard for any of us to admit that we're wrong or change our ways, but someone who's 102! At that age she could say the sky was green and she'd have earned the right to get out of argument on that topic -- what an amazing person! And what an incredible experience for you to sit inside the "time machine" of that discussion and compare historical and cultural perspectives.
Thanks for sharing that!
Traceroo
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I asked my wife later though why the change. And that's when I learned something else about her. The only electronic device she actually used was a radio. She had never left the state of Kentucky, and the only radio station she listened to was a back woods am channel. I was given the impression that she had lived a quiet life, and people in the family all just agreed with what she had said.
Later, my MIL called me to complain that how dare I challenge the thoughts of a woman so old if that gives you any idea of the blinders the family had on her.
Reply
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