I didn't read all of your latest post in detail, Ann - perhaps you don't realise, but when you make such long posts, with so many anecdotes and references to other sources (where an anecdote is really just an anecdote and evidence of nothing, and a reference to another source is only relevant if the other source has any genuine bearing on the subject), people's eyes do start to glaze over by the time they get 1/4 way through them. It's inevitable - people have busy lives and, while they feel passionate about part of this topic (the Anne books) some of your strange analogies and anecdotes are rather less compelling.
In other online forums and spaces, you'd get a simple tl;dr in response to some of your posts -
too long; didn't read. We're more polite here.
The reason I'm replying this time is to point out the flaw that still exists in your reasoning. It starts here:
Meanwhile, the wife stayed at home, waiting all day for her husband. Perhaps she was the kind of woman who diligently did all her housework because she knew it was necessary for her family's survival. But perhaps she was more like a stabled horse, waiting all day for her horse mate, who was out grazing on the fields all day, meeting other horses that she knew nothing about.
You'd be right about the bored horse
if there was evidence in the books that Anne was sitting at home, bored stupid, twiddling her thumbs and wanting to be out in the world doing more exciting things. You haven't quoted a shred of evidence that she was. Instead, Hasini - as you acknowledge - posted
excerpts from the books showing that Anne was happy and fulfilled in her life. You also acknowledge that I made similar points referencing the books.
Now, perhaps it's true that
you, used to your modern life where you can do all sorts of things, would be bored and frustrated in Anne's world. But
Anne is not you. That's a very basic lesson that we try to teach some young fanfiction writers whose characters are Mary Sues. Anne is herself. She had a very happy, fulfilling life. Back in her time, too, wives were an integral part of a doctor's working life - she would have taken messages for Gilbert, sometimes gone to deliver them for him if she could leave the children, perhaps even helped him as an assistant of sorts. No receptionists, no practice nurses, not then.
So your conclusion about Anne is flawed, as it's based on a flawed picture of her life - which you've already been shown is flawed.
Then there's this:
I'll use Martha Kent as an example again. She is "playing" at a lot of things - but surely she lives a more fulfilling life than Anne did when she was Martha's age? And if Martha is happy and vital in her fifties and sixties, but Anne is mute, isn't that a tribute to our society rather than to Anne's?
We've already said: different times, different standards. But you're also utilising that flawed premise again.
Anne is mute - how? Where? Nobody agrees with you that this is the case based on the books. She's happy, fulfilled and very active. She lives a very different life from Martha, of course. But it's impossible to say that one is happier than the other. LM Montgomery made a choice, as author, to show us a lot of detail about the children, but Anne was there at every turn. She was happy, too, and another way we know that is that the children were happy. They loved their mother. She was there in their lives any time they needed her. Believe me, if a mother is unhappy or frustrated in her life,
children know. It's impossible to hide that kind of thing from children.
And your final apologia for starting the thread:
But I also wonder about what the ultimate fate of Lois and Clark would be. Particularly the fate of Lois. Oh, her ultimate fate would be to die, of course. Even I understand that. But hopefully it wouldn't happen until she was at least eighty years old. What would her life be like when she was fifty? Sixty? What would many years of marriage to Clark do to her? I very, very much hope that she wouldn't fade into the wallpaper. I hope - yes, I do - that she would have children. Clark's children. I hope she would be vital and curious and happy and strong, and that she would be a very important force to be reckoned with, both in her family and at the Daily Planet. I hope - yes, I do - that she wouldn't be like Anne of Green Gables.
Leave aside your flawed premise (again) about Anne - why on earth would you assume that Lois's life would not be anything other than what you hope for her? Lois is simply not the
type to fade into the wallpaper - and, actually, if you bothered to re-read the books, as people have suggested,
nor is Anne.
But, finally, if your skewed perception of Anne's life bothers you so much, and if you prefer the picture of Laura Ingalls Wilder's life so much more, why not just imagine Lois like her instead?
Or you could go for a European heroine and see Lois as Pippi Longstocking. I'm sure that comparison is about as apt as the Anne of Green Gables one you've been making. :rolleyes:
As for offending people, Anne, apart from your sideswipes at housewives and Nan's stories, I don't think you
offended people so much as left us dumbfounded at your complete misreading of books many of us know well.
Wendy
