And suddenly I'm 8 again
Sep. 21st, 2004 08:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamadebI'm rereading Little Women, for the first time in years.
And I just read *that* chapter. You know the one. The one most of us read again and again when we were eight or twelve, the one that always made us cry, which was why we read it.
And I'm crying. And it's not the maudlin "beautiful death" or the loss of the character.
It's Jo. I can feel every bit of her pain.
I know LMA didn't like writing "girl's books", and she got heartily tired of the March family, but there are *things* in that make it timeless in ways that, say, Under the Lilacs , never could be. Like not going with the obvious, "right" romance.
And it can still make me cry and be eight again.
And I just read *that* chapter. You know the one. The one most of us read again and again when we were eight or twelve, the one that always made us cry, which was why we read it.
And I'm crying. And it's not the maudlin "beautiful death" or the loss of the character.
It's Jo. I can feel every bit of her pain.
I know LMA didn't like writing "girl's books", and she got heartily tired of the March family, but there are *things* in that make it timeless in ways that, say, Under the Lilacs , never could be. Like not going with the obvious, "right" romance.
And it can still make me cry and be eight again.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-21 06:13 pm (UTC)But you know, I took my son to the doctor one time when he was three and mighty sick, and the doctor said, "He's got scarlet fever," very calmly, and I said,
s
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"[wail]But that's what Beth died of! In Little Women!" I was petrified.
"It's just strep throat with a rash," he said, and wrote a prescription for baby penicillin. The little guy was fine the very next day. (Kept taking the med for a week, of course.) It's amazing how times change!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-21 11:30 pm (UTC)And yeah, I wasn't allergic to penicillin yet then, was fine in a week (I'm asthmatic and don't recover so fast).
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 07:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 07:27 am (UTC)My husband was named for an uncle who died of strep at the age of three - a year before sulfa drugs came out.
He's prone to strep himself, but a course of penicillin and he's fine.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-23 07:45 am (UTC)It's a good thing I have more of Uncle Dick's personality than Uncle Jonny's - if I had his name and his personality, it would have really freaked everyone out. My brother has more of Jonny's personality.
It's why nobody in the family ever calls me Jonny, always JJ or Jay, or after I went to school and others called me that, Jon. Because Jonny was *him*, the one who died. Even though now, that Uncle Dick is gone, nobody in the immediate family survives who knew Jonny (some older cousins remember him).
P.S.
Date: 2004-09-21 06:14 pm (UTC)Re: P.S.
Date: 2004-09-22 07:28 am (UTC)Even as I have evil thoughts about Teddy Bhaer's true parentage.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-21 06:29 pm (UTC)And every single time I read the scene on the stairs between Jo and Laurie, I still say, "Jo! Don't be a fool!" Even though I know she'll end up happily.
One of my favorite, favorite books ever.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 07:35 am (UTC)But, see. In other books, they would have married. And Amy would have been Queen of Artists and Jo a great author and Laurie would have defied his grandfather and become a famous composer/musician.
They didn't here.
(I'm also in awe of the first scene where she lets us know everything we really need to know about the girls before she goes into "Dear Reader" mode.)
And, yeah, I can see how it would help. What an awful thing to have happened to you and your family.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-23 07:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-23 09:08 am (UTC)Thanks for your concern though! :)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-21 06:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 07:36 am (UTC)Then again, *my* name seems to have been used for elderly servants. She uses the phrase "Old Debby by the fire."
Of course, it *is* a middleaged lady name now. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 02:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 07:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 04:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 07:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 08:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 08:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 09:09 am (UTC)not the largest book on the shelf.
that sounds like an insult almost.....
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 09:21 am (UTC)It's not, by any means, a short book, but it's not a difficult read, and as mamadeb pointed out, it's probably got largish print.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 10:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 08:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 09:28 am (UTC)When I read Little Women now, it's Jan Brady I see when I imagine Beth. And of course, I won't mention who I see as the Professor.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 11:49 am (UTC)Goes to check IMDB.
Oh, my goodness. You *are*.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 12:12 pm (UTC)I rahter liked Shatner in that. Better than some of the other roles I've seen him in since Star Trek.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 12:30 pm (UTC)It was pretty good, actually.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-23 07:23 am (UTC)It's funny to think of the stories we enjoyed as they'd be viewed in the fandom practices of today -- we'd have the Jo/Laurie 'shippers fighting with the Amy/Laurie 'shippers! And of course, imagine all the stories about Laurie and his "tutor" (ahem) John!
And along with the needle that was "so heavy," the line that always killed me was, "The birds came back in time to say goodbye to Beth."