Words of Wisdom: Maya Angelou

Source: Wings of Your Soul

Words of Wisdom: Joan Duncan Oliver

Being nice may not guarantee a long life...But it can make the journey richer and more rewarding, whatever its length.

The Meaning of Nice: How Compassion and Civility Can Change Your Life (and The World)

Words of Wisdom: Louisa May Alcott

Image: Zazzle.com

It takes so little to make a child happy that it is a pity, in a world full of sunshine and pleasant things, that there should be any wistful faces, empty hands, or lonely little hearts.

Little Men, 1871

She Is Too Fond of Books

Can you guess who I am?

Last night I dressed up as an Aunt of Literature to give out candy at my friend's house.  Even with the book as a prop, the only people who knew I was Louisa May Alcott were women over the age of forty.  The costume itself was a smart choice, though.  All those petticoats and layers (and the fur lined coat I borrowed from my friend as a finishing touch) kept me toasty warm.

Next year, maybe I should dress as the girl who wrote the Twilight series.  Or I could go as that Snooki person.  She wrote a book -- I saw it at Barnes & Noble the other day. 

Somehow, the idea that girls are reading Confessions of a Guidette instead of Little Women scares me more than all those creepy clowns and zombies I saw last night.

Skip This Book

Pride and Prejudice recently rose to the top of my DVD queue.  While I was watching it (and swooning over Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy), I became interested in reading about Jane Austen.  Why not?  She was an old maid who liked to write; I'm an old maid who likes to write.  Leaving aside her literary genius and shocking lack of cats, and ignoring my obscurity and occasional F-bomb, we are practically twins.

Out of a fairly hefty shelf devoted to Jane at my local library, I selected Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart by Valerie Grosvenor Myer.  It promised to tell me about the woman behind the novels.  All it did was confuse me.

The book starts with a chapter on Jane's early life, which contains the names of every person remotely related to Jane who was alive during her lifetime.  While it represents an impressive amount of posthumous Janestalking, it only serves to confuse the reader -- partly because many of the people named are not very important to the story at hand, and partly because every other woman in the extended Austen family was named Jane or Cassandra, and every other man was named James, Edward, James-Edward, or Edward-James.

The following chapter is a quick trot through the Possible Loves of Jane.  We get Jane's entire romantic history in almost a bullet-point format.  Does the author think we are that uninterested in why Jane never married at a time when marriage was the ticket to financial security?  Apparently she does.

The book then settles down to a more or less linear format, beginning with Jane's move in her early twenties to Bath with her family.  And then, I don't know, a bunch of stuff happens and Jane is annoyed by most of it (I feel her pain).  It's all places and dates and lists of relatives Jane visits.  I lost interest in the book around the time the author tells us that at a certain point, Jane had two novels finished but unpublished.  I wondered when did that happen and why wasn't I told?  When did she start the novels and why?  What were her days like?  Did she set the novels wherever she happened to be living?  WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, MS. MYERS?

At which point, I gave it up and returned the book to the library.  My blood pressure couldn't take any more.  It was all too confusing -- although I'll admit it's possible that the source of my confusion has its roots in my intemperate youth.  But based on the reviews I read at Amazon.com, though, I think the blame lies squarely with the author.

What I'm Reading: Apollo's Angels

Apollo's Angels is six-hundred-plus pages of ballet history, and managed to keep me engaged throughout. That alone tells you it's a well-written and interesting book.

Jennifer Homans discusses the history of ballet from its beginnings as a courtly art in 17th century to the great dancers and choreographers of the 20th century. Through it all, ballet was shaped by the events of modern European history: politics, war, and especially the rise of communism.

As a dancer -- an aged, decrepit dancer, but a dancer nonetheless -- it was fun to read about the long and fascinating history that I'm a part of every time I go into the studio. And the next time we do a reverence at the end of class, I'll do it with more, well, reverence.

Words of Wisdom: Barbara Ellison

What we need is now and then to set our faces obstinately against the duties, real and imaginary, that crowd us and give ourselves over with the glorious abandonment of children to the spirit of the small boy who, with delightful inconsequence, goes off fishing when he ought to be doing something else.

Inspiration, 1926

What I'm Reading: A New Louisa May Alcott Biography

In a shocking turn of events, I am reading a biography about a spinster.

Louisa May Alcott has been one of my favorite authors since I read Little Women in third grade. Alcott was actually a very interesting person who lived in a very interesting time and place. She had a crazy upbringing filled with deprivation and hardship among the Transcendentalists, yet she grew up to be a prolific and successful writer. She wrote "blood and thunder tales" -- pulp fiction -- in addition to more "proper" stories for children and adults alike.

In Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, Harriet Reisen shows us the people and events that shaped Alcott as a person and as a writer. Reisen shows how Alcott's writings were based on her life, and we learn about the real people and experiences behind the tales.

I'm really enjoying it, but then, I love all things Alcott. Which is saying a lot, considering the fact that after 40 years I'm still pissed because she married Laurie off to that drip Amy.

Crazy Talk

One of the benefits having time on my hands is that I get to do a lot of thinking. That is also one of the drawbacks. Lately what I've been thinking about is how people are different, and wondering why certain people get to decide what is and is not normal or desirable.

I've found myself quite often over the past few years surrounded by people who are different from me. Not better, not worse, just different. At least that was my opinion. The other people seemed to think something was wrong with me because I was different from them. One person in particular even stated more than once that what made me different made me mentally ill. Those weren't fun conversations.

Unfortunately, this particular person was in a postion to set a standard for the group and thus I became known as a problem. Some of my problem behavior included kindness to others and a belief that I should be able to use the restroom at will. That is some craziness right there, isn't it? Imagine, thinking that kindness is a positive trait when clearly it gets in the way of progress. Or thinking that a middle-aged woman should be able to handle the scheduling of her own bathroom functions. Madness!

Here's another crazy thing about me. I have a simple rule that helps with decision-making in almost all situations. It goes like this: People first, principles second, money or material things third. Yes, I know. Mental institutions are undoubtedly filled with people who keep that same bizarre rule in mind. No wonder the group I was connected with despaired of me.

And so I find myself, quietly sitting in my home, happy to be the madwoman in the attic. Because as everyone knows, the madwomen in Victorian novels were rarely actually crazy. Generally they were victims of the society of which they were a part.

Seriously. Have you ever, in the history of literature, come across a more self-centered jerk than Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre? The dude took up with an innocent young girl while he kept his wife locked in the attic, but only after accusing the young girl of being a witch because he fell off a horse and sprained his ankle. I'd agree to the "madwoman" label to get away from a guy like that. Wouldn't you?