A Taste of Anne-spelled-with-an-E

Miss Dashwood is having an Anne of Green Gables week over at her blog, and as Anne and I are almost twins, I thought I'd better join in the fun! :)

                                                                

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1. How many of the Anne books have you read, and how many of the films have you seen?

I've read all eight of the Anne books and both of the movies...somehow I can't find it in myself to count that third one as part of the Anne-series...they ought to have just gone ahead with all the Ingleside bunch and made movies about them. :)
 
2. If someone yanked your hair and called you carrots, what would you do to him?


Let me think about this. First off, I would probably laugh--I mean, seriously, why call a brunette "carrots"? I would laugh, but I know I'd be embarrassed that he'd humiliated me in that way in front of a lot of people...I don't think I'd break my slate over his head, but you never know. My wit would probably eventually come to my rescue and I'd say something scathing to him that would redeem the moment in my favor. ;)

3. What would you do if Josie Pye dared you to walk the ridgepole of a roof?

You know...I'd probably try. I'd not get past the first few shingles, I daresay, but I would try. I'm not particularly scared of heights, you know.

4. If you had the opportunity to play any AGG (I'm abbreviating from now on because I am a lazy typist) character in an AGG play, which role would you choose?

Ooh! Well, I suppose physical characteristics must be thought about and I would not fit the part of Anne, though I'd love to play her. Let's see...I think it'd be fun to play either Mrs. Lynde, or (if I could choose from some of the other Anne books) one of the girls in Patty's Place...I've always loved the notion of that sweet little four-some living in that house and going off to college. :) I might choose Phillipa Gordon, though I'm not as pretty as she.

5. If you were marooned on a desert island, which AGG character would you want to have as a companion? (Anne, Gilbert and Diana are not options.  Let's keep this thing interesting.  Not that they're not interesting.... oh, yay, now the disclaimer to this question is longer than the question itself.  Lovely lovely lovely.)

Haha! Davy Keith. He'd know what to do, and even if he didn't, he'd keep me laughing and probably invent some way to get us out of our predicament.

6. If there was going to be a new adaptation of the Anne books and you could have any part in making the movie, what would you choose to do? (screenwriting, acting, casting, costume-making are a few possibilities)

Casting and costume-making...also set-finder-person-who-travels-all-over-and-sees-gorgeous-places. :)

7. What are, in your opinion, the funniest AGG book/movie scenes? (choose one from the books and one from the movies)

Funniest book scene? Oy vay. Um...I've always loved the part when Anne is talking to Mr. Harris and finding herself contradicted at every point. Also when she and Diana are soliciting for their A.V.I.S. society and Anne gets stuck half-way through the roof of the duck-house and has to stay there. She starts scribbling down a story while waiting for help--I love it! It sounds like something I might do in a desperate moment. :D

 

In the movies? I do love her argument with Mrs. Lynde over Dolly. Also the scene where she and Diana hop onto Miss Josephine Barry in the bed, and where she and Diana are walking through the Haunted Wood and faint. :D

8. What are, in your opinion, the saddest AGG book/movie scenes? (choose one of each again) 

In the movie, the scene where Anne realizes she loves Gilbert and he is in mortal danger...the might-have-been in that scene is so sad!

In the book, I would have to say when the Ingleside bunch finds out that Walter was killed in the war...or else when Anne's baby dies. :(

9. Which AGG character would you most like to spend an afternoon with? (again, Anne and Gilbert and Diana are not options for this one--think secondary characters)

Phillipa Gordon--she and I would get along brilliantly, I think. :)

10.  What is your definition of a kindred spirit?

A kindred spirit is the person you can just look at and know they are a friend. There is something electric in their manner that captivates you. I have a blood-hound's nose for finding kindred spirits. When you meet a person you will know they are a kindred spirit by the way they laugh or talk or stand...I can't describe it, but it's there. If you doubt this definition, you have not heard the story of one of my dearest friends and I. I saw her at a mutual friend's graduation. She fascinated me but I was too shy to meet her. We never exchanged a single word. I went home and wrote about the graduation in my journal and mentioned her as a girl who I knew I would love and I said I wished I'd summoned my courage and introduced myself. Over a year later we began emailing (through a series of events) and finally officially met at the same friend's barn-dance. We have been inseparable ever since. :) It was my greatest success! ;)

My Illusions of Allusions :)

Just like detectives love tracing clues in a crowded city to find a criminal, I love finding literary allusions in books! :) Over the years I have become sufficiently acquainted with Victorian literature to be able to detect and trace some of the many allusions the authors made to famous poetry, and other books.
So it thrilled me when my sister, Leah, showed me a sentence in "An Old-Fashioned Girl"by Louisa May Alcott that went something like this: "...and Polly sucked her orange in public with a composure that would have scandalized the good ladies of Cranford."
Now, unless you were familiar with the story of Cranford, the allusion would not be interesting at all. But to me, a literature-lover, it was super exciting! I feel at those times, that I have stepped into the author's word, on her footing! :)
During a unit-study I did with my sister, Sarah, on the Victorian era, we walked through "Anne of Green Gables" and were able to thoroughly trace all the allusions the author made in the book. From that study, I've come to be familiar with, and love so much Victorian-era literature from Sir Walter Scott to John Greenleaf Whittier, Charles Dickens, and many more!
Maybe it's an old-fashioned and outdated idea, but in my writing, I love to tuck allusions in the story! :) It will fly right over most people's heads, but I'd love to think that at some point, some girl like myself would take notice, and find amusement in tracing it all out. Not that I put so much thought into hiding little clues in the writing! :) Some quotations are easy to use, like Shakespeare's, while others might take a bit more thought. But try tucking something like that in your writing- it adds additional charm! :) ~Rachel

Excerpts From a "Green Gables Letter"

I absolutely love reading "behind the scenes" bits and pieces of famous authors' lives. Generally the best ones come from their letters and journals, where their true thoughts were spilled out, and thought "safe" from the public eye! :D We have a thin volume entitled: "The Green Gables Letters: from L.M.Montgomery to Ephraim Weber", published by Borealis Book Publishing, and I have read it several times. One part in particular is very amusing. Miss Montgomery was in the midst of writing the second "Anne" book, and was writing to Mr. Weber about the process:
"I don't like my new Anne book as well as the first but that may be, as you say, because I am so soaked and sated with her. I can see no freshness or interest in it. But, I suppose if I took the greatest masterpiece in fiction and read it over, say, a hundred times, one after the other with no interval between, I wouldn't find much of either in it also. I felt the same, though no so strongly when I finished Anne......The book deals with her experiences while teaching for two years in Avonlea school. The publishers wanted this-- and I'm awfully afraid if the thing takes, they'll want me to write her through college. The idea makes me sick. I feel like the magician in the Eastern story who became the slave of the "jinn" he had conjured out of a bottle. If I'm to be dragged at Anne's chariot wheels the rest of my life I'll bitterly repent having "created" her."

What tickles me about that whole passage, is that every one of us writers who have taken our books to the end and edited them, knows exactly how Lucy Maud Montgomery felt! And it is wonderfully reassuring to know that even when one is famous, that feeling does not change! :) I have read my book to shreds, picked it apart, looked at it inside out and upside down, till I doubt there is any originality, or continuity in the thing. That is when I lay it aside and forget about it for a little while. If ever you are in a blank spot in your writing, it really does help to read the famous authors' private writings....you never read of writer's block in the text of....well, "David Copperfield" for instance, and yet, perhaps Dickens had a few blank moments! :) Anyway, whether you benefit in your writing from reading such things, I know they are at least, amusing and insightful! -Rachel

Reading Aloud: Refreshing The Lost Art

All right everyone! So sorry about this little mix-up, but I accidently posted the post I had written for this blog on our family blog, and since you can't copy/paste in blogger (argh!) and it was a rather long post, I'll just have to link you there. Just remember, it was written for you fellow scribblers, so you'll simply have to go read it! ;) Thanks all you girls who have recently joined this blog! It is a blessing to know that so many of you love writing and reading as well! :)
So here you go! Just click here: Enjoy it! :) I suppose it would be too much trouble for ya'll to come back over here and leave a comment, but I'd love it if you would! :P -Rachel