Monday, May 17, 2010

Books I love...



I don't know if there will ever be a time that I grow tired of reading the Anne of Green Gables series.  The language is beautiful, complex by today's standards, and the values are that which I hold and wish to continue to hold.  I first discovered Anne of Green Gables when PBS aired it in the late 1980's.  I remember helping my mother fold laundry while we watched the beautiful story unfold.  I was already in love with my neighbor's Victorian house and here was a movie that gave me beautiful things to look at.  I wanted red hair, I wanted granny boots, I wanted to wear dresses and pinafores.  I wanted to be the character's so badly that in my mind I invented a machine that I could give it a book and it would let me "live" the life of the character of my choosing from birth to death.  I think I got most of that idea from Star Trek: The Next Generation and their holograph machine. 

When I was in the 6th grade I decided to see if I could read the books because they were labeled for 6th grade reading levels.  I could read most of the words but I could not grasp the understanding of the books.  I felt like I was woefully behind in my ability to read and I was the best reader in my class.  I summed it up to a Canadian/England 6th grade reading level not a US 6th grade reading level.  That made me feel a little better and I was sorely disappointed in my public education. 

Eventually, I was able to read the books.  Up until that point, I had thought that Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel was a great film.  Then I noticed a sincere lack of continuity from the book to the film.  I shrugged my shoulders and figured it was what they would have done anyways no matter the protesting.  Then Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story came out and it made me downright mad.  What were they doing throwing the books away?!!  I could not understand why they wouldn't use the material they already had.  Why did they have to whole cloth fabricate a story like that and put the character names I so loved on these shallow stupid film characters.  I had been watching a lot of Masterpiece Theater by that time and I had gotten used to faithful renditions of classic novels.  Why did they have to do such horrible things?  Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning was the last straw.  I cannot watch anymore films that come from Sullivan Entertainment company.  They did fine with Anne of Green Gables and the series Road to Avonlea (though most of that came from a mesh of the books written by L.M. Montgomery), but that is it.  I am so grumpy over their blasphemy!

Aside from the terrible films that came out in their name, the books are wonderful to read.  Anytime that I am feeling low or blue or melancholy over the way our culture has turned out I turn to this series for comfort and solace.  I read them slowly, savoring the very language.  I exult in the triumphs and I cry at the tragedies.  I don't normally cry over books.  The Lord of the Rings series made me cry but only because they were over and I wanted to keep reading.  In the Anne books I become one with the characters and I cry when they have a loved one die.  The books that always make me cry are Anne of Green Gables, Anne's House of Dreams, and Rilla of Ingleside. 

Just today I finished Rilla of Ingleside again and I was so heart broken over the tragedy of World War I and the consequences of protecting that which we believe in and love.  It is mostly with that last book that I realize that war is not senseless but necessary at times.  World War I was horrible but the men who went off and fought in those wars did so to protect their way of life.  These were farmers and fisherman who had families and sweethearts.  They believed in God and Church.  They believed that it was wrong to just take and kill, that lives were at stake and their freedom was at stake.  What sort of a world would we live in now if Germany had been victorious?  Would we be under German rule still?  This was before Communism, Socialism, and Nazism took hold of Germany.  They still had the rule of Capitalism and Imperialism.  I didn't know anything about World War I until I read this last book and what I read was heartbreaking.  The author does not write in first person of the grisliness of the battlefield.  Rather she writes from the perspective of the waiting family at home who anxiously pray that they don't get a telegram telling them that their loved one has been killed or missing in action.  What did the families do at home in World War I?  I could tell you what they did in World War II and I would have confused WWI with thought and behaviors that were not consistent to an Edwardian era.  I wish there was more balance in the education of students today.  People know there was a WWI only because there was a WWII.  It makes me mad that so many know so little of our history.  The pacifist/relativist movement makes me doubly mad because they think that if we never go to war we will be left alone.  That doesn't work with bullies either in the school yard or on the battlefield.  Everyone is not right in their beliefs, someone has to be wrong.  We need to stand firm in our faith and protect the innocent from the bully. 

That being said the Anne of Green Gables series written by L.M. Montgomery is a beautiful Christian set of books that spout platitudes, maxims, and hardcore Christian beliefs.  They are worth the read and should be treasured by each generation. 

Thursday, May 6, 2010

A Woman's Place is having a givaway!

Beautiful sacrifice beads anyone would want.  I'm just thrilled to post it here.  Please go take a look: http://awomansplaceis.blogspot.com/2010/05/full-of-grace-silver-sacrifice-bead-set.html