Did you see the results of the LnC fanfic genre poll? Most popular of eighteen genres you could choose between was, not suprisingly, romance. Number fifteen, tied with deathfics, was married fics (where Lois and Clark have small kids). I have to wonder - is marriage equal to death, fiction-wise?
When I was a kid I read Anne of Green Gables. I loved, loved, loved the first book, where Anne was, if I remember it correctly, eleven years old. I thought Anne was terrific! She was simply sparkling and bubbling with energy and happiness and life. She so very, very much wanted to be a good girl, but she had all kinds of unfortunate accidents - such as when she put cough syrup instead of vanilla in the cake she had baked for the vicar's wife, or when she tried to dye her red hair a rich chestnut color, but accidentally dyed it greenish-brown instead. (Her foster mother Marilla cut Anne's hair all off close to the scalp, because in those days it was more unforgivable for a girl to have green hair than to have no hair at all - can you imagine?)
Already at the end of the first book, Anne was a lot more mature and thoughtful, and she had no more horrible accidents. She slowly became more interested in a boy, Gilbert, whom she had hated when she was eleven. He had pulled at one of her red braids in school, where everyone could see and hear them, and said, "It's on fire!". Anne resolved never to forgive him. Later, she resolved to do better at school than him. And she succeeded, pretty much, because at least she and Gilbert were the two best students at their school.
After Anne left the school that all the other kids at Saint Mary's Mead (or whatever the place was called) also went to, she went on to study at a teachers' training college. Anne and three other girls rented a small house together, and they became great friends and had a generally splendid time. Later Anne got a job as a teacher and liked that, too. But she grew apart from her old friends in Saint Mary's Mead. Her best friend Diana had married young and become fat (well, that's how I remember it), and now she was really interested only in her equally chubby husband and their ugly little baby boy. And another of Anne's old friends, Ruby, had actually died. I hated death-of-women fics even back then, so I was shocked and upset.
Then Gilbert came back into the story and started wooing Anne for real, and this time she was quite responsive. She fell in love with him and agreed to marry him. I remember that particular book as quite romantic. When I had finished reading it, I eagerly started looking for the next one. Now I wanted to read about Anne's married life!
But, alas! How boring that book was. And how - well, unexciting and unsatisfying her married life seemed to be. Nothing much happened. Gilbert, the boy who had done no better at school than her, was now a medical doctor who was away all day, while she was at home, doing pretty much nothing. As an educated woman, she didn't seem to have all that much in common with the women who were her neighbours. Anne seemed to spend much of her time by going for long lonely walks, or at least that is how I remember it. There was one woman she met that she became interested in, whose name was Lesley Ford. Lesley Ford was very unhappy in her marriage. She had been happy enough with her husband, who was a sea captain, until he disappeared at sea. He was presumed to be dead. But then he was found, and he returned home to his wife, but he was like another person. He had apparently hit his head, and now he had become mean. Poor Lesley Ford was so unhappy. Ah, but then it turned out that her husband wasn't her husband after all! He was her husband's twin brother! He really had hit his head, and he suffered from partial amnesia, but he wasn't her husband. Lesley Ford was free. And she had been discreetly seeing a young man - completely chastely, of course - but she loved him, and now she was free to marry him. What a happy ending!
Ah, but - when I read about Lesley Ford, it suddenly occurred to me that her name resembled L.M. Montgomery's own name, Lucy Maud. Lucy Maud - Lesley Ford. Lucy Maud Montgomery, the creator of Anne of Green Gables and Lesley Ford. Perhaps Lucy Maud wrote about her own unhappy marriage when she wrote about Lesley Ford? Perhaps she gave Lesley Ford the wishful-thinking-happy-ending that she herself could never have?
And perhaps Anne's marriage seemed so boring and unsatisfying because Lucy Maud's own marriage was just like that?
Or perhaps Lucy Maud did have a bit of sexual satisfaction in her own marriage, but it was absolutely impossible to breathe as much as a syllable about that in a book whose readership consisted of young women and girls? So if that was the only good thing between Anne and Gilbert, then it was impossible for Lucy Maud to even hint at any nightly pleasures that her fictional heroine might have enjoyed. But whether or not her sex life was good, it was enough to make Anne pregnant in the next book. But the word "pregnant" was never mentioned, oh no! One day a neighbour came by and gave Anne a baby shirt. That's how we were told that Anne was having a baby. After that we were told nothing whatsoever until the night when Anne was giving birth. Then she thought she was going to die, and then she gave birth to a little girl who really died. And a suitable time later Anne gave birth to a boy, who survived.
The last book I read in the series was called "Lilla Marilla" (Little Marilla(?) in English). The story focused on Anne's daughter Marilla. To my shock, Anne herself was hardly even mentioned in that book, even though young Marilla herself was still living at home with her parents! I compared the book about little Marilla with the first book about Anne, where the older Marilla had been an imposing presence. Not so Anne in this last book. The vivacious, happy young girl had become a married woman who faded into the wallpaper until you could hardly find her. Even though she was probably no more than about forty-five years old, it was as if Anne was completely spent as a focus for stories, as if absolutely nothing could be told about her any more.
And I was thinking about stories about married Lois and Clark. I really don't think that Clark is spent as a "story force" after he has been married to Lois for a while. After all, he is Superman. He can fight villains. And if he and Lois have children, then Clark can teach his kids how to be super. He can even become a widower and fall in love with another woman. If nothing else, Clark can spend a lot of time away from home and make new (male) acquaintances.
But what will happen to Lois after she has been married to Clark for several years? Will she become a housewife whose daily chores are not worth mentioning? Will she be confined to her house? Will she fade into the wallpaper?
Is it possible to write engrossing stories about middle-aged married Lois and Clark, where Lois is still a vital force and still an important part of the story? I'm just wondering.
Ann
Oh, P.S.... I know, I know. "When the World Finds Out" by C.C. Aiken is an amazing story about middle-aged married Lois and Clark. I'm just wondering if there are any other stories like that.
