Posts Tagged ‘the heroine’s bookshelf’

Before We Get Started…

If you’re here, it means you survived both the emotional rollercoaster and this very long readalong…and I’m so excited to have finished the book in the presence of such great discussion and input! 

Congrats to Diane, who won a copy of the movie adaptation of Gone With the Wind. For this week, I will be giving away a signed copy of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind by Ellen Firsching Brown and John Wiley (our last winner was unable to claim her prize, which means one more lucky winner!). 

Part 5

I have been reading GWTW in a cheap paperback edition this time and seeing familiar words in unfamiliar type on strangely-sized pages has given me a bit of new perspective on the book.  This time around (after countless readings), I was surprised at how bleak Part 5 is and how quickly it read.  Of course, it is well known that Margaret Mitchell wrote the book’s famously dramatic and ambiguous conclusion first, and indeed it seems the most to the point section of the book.  The vividness of history fades a bit as we focus more closely on the characters and their various (tragic, bitter, unsatisfying) resolutions. What follows is a hodgepodge of impressions as the book closes: 

Though this section lacks the virulent racism of Part 4, there are a few passages that still shock with their WTFness, particularly the passage in which Rhett and Ashley team up to obliterate the Klan in Georgia (???).  I found this surprising and kind of random. 

Ashley comes off as even lower and lamer in this section…his complaints about Rhett’s supposed debasement of Scarlett were so misguided and inappropriate that I almost threw the book across the room.  I did relish the portion in which Scarlett, aware at last of his milquetoast non-appeal, realizes that he will be nothing but another child to raise to her in the future. 

Mitchell is even more overt about the parallels between Rhett and Ashley in this portion.  So why do I love Rhett so much more?   

I actually think the first moment of maturity in Scarlett can be seen in her interaction with Ashley before the scandal breaks. 

Um, can we please discuss Scarlett and Rhett’s hot-n-heavy night?  Rape or just hot power-play sex?  Does it really take this total break from propriety to awaken Scarlett to her own sexuality?  How is it possible for her to not understand Rhett’s feelings toward her at this point (um, aside from him possibly raping her)?

Surprisingly to me, Scarlett’s miscarriage and subsequent estrangement from Rhett was far more painful and bleak than Bonnie’s death.  The events that follow are a quite agonizing litany of bad news, and a great example of an author putting her characters through their paces.  As I read, I felt laden down with care and worry and kind of numb and dissociative, like Scarlett.  But, as Mammy points out, Scarlett can bear what she is given to bear, however disgracefully.  I wonder if that might not be the secret of her long-term appeal and durability as a literary character…she survives even savvy and ironic Rhett. 

Melanie’s death seemed rushed to me this time (I mean, in addition to being a total shock anyway).  I noticed this time that MM teases us with a few passages from Melanie’s perspective before killing her off. 

Scarlett’s real dissociation and brokenness is revealed in this section.  She reminds me of the alcoholic who must bottom out in such shame and loss that she loses all before she begins to recover.  But I am still unconvinced of her ability to move forward with the knowledge she has gained. 

It strikes me that Rhett is as well-drawn as Scarlett, and I am constantly amused and surprised by the greatness of MM’s character development and illustration. 

The parting between Rhett and Scarlett…I found myself surprised at his showing his age so severely and pained at the agony he had obviously endured.  But, as has happened the last few times I have read this book, the part that brought tears to my eyes was Scarlett’s revelation that a man who has done what Rhett has done must have loved to distraction. 

All in all, the end of this book always impresses me with its greatness…its gravity, humor, insight into human nature, pitiful portrayal of a broken woman, and magnum opus style juggling of history and personal story. 

Discussion Prompts

Feel free to respond to some of these questions to get the discussion going. There’s no right or wrong answer!

Thoughts on Part 5? 

Tara: Will Tara help or heal now that Scarlett has lost everything?  

Family:  Scarlett seems relatively disconnected from her blood family in this portion (granted, many of them have died), but this section deals heavily with the family feud between Melanie and India in a way that draws attention to the complex and extended ideas of family in post-war Georgia. 

Sex: …yeah.  Please discuss That Night, its repercussions, inappropriate/appropriateness, and anything else that crosses your mind.  The parallels drawn between Scarlett and Belle were particularly interesting this time ’round.

The little details: I loved the Wade-ness in Part 5, along with the descriptions of Scarlett’s ridiculously overt abode. 

Minor Characters:  Many side stories are wrapped up in this portion, though “new people” are also introduced (and quickly dispensed with).  Who did you love and loathe? 

The End:  How did you like the book, in totum?  What do you think happens to Scarlett and Rhett?  (This time around I noticed that he promised to come back on occasion to maintain respectability…that roguish Mitchell!)  What are your final thoughts? 

Any author can tell you this:  by the time your book gets to copyedits, you can barely read it any more.  I well remember flipping the book upside down in frustration and tackling the edits just one more time, back to front, reading every sentence out loud to myself in search of errors. Yet still I bemoan books that go to press with errors intact…there’s no excuse.  Right? 

This week I got an email from a sharp-eyed reader pointing out what two copyeditors, an editor, my agent, countless beta readers, my own sharp eyes, and all of my readers didn’t:  the dreaded typo! 

In my Alice Walker chapter (figures) on page 57 of The Heroine’s Bookshelf, I correctly state that Alice Walker married in 1967.  Things go south on page 59, however, when the book erroneously states that Alice Walker was divorced in (you guessed it)…1967.  I can only speculate, but I have a feeling a slip of my fingers on some far-away laptop caused me to confuse the two numbers, because Walker actually divorced in 1976. 

Thanks to eagle-eyed Julie A. for pointing out the mistake.  Life lesson learned:  double-check all dates. 

What’s the most egregious copy error you’ve found in a book? 

Thanks for your patience, everyone.  It’s a crazy time in the land of the bookshelf, between a new paperback cover, plenty of events coming up, and a jammed life full of reading, writing, and revising.  Oh, and working, and living in a house that’s not a complete hovel.  You know the drill.  

Before We Get Started…

First of all, congrats to Risa, who won an autographed copy of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller’s Odyssey!  This week’s giveaway is a fun one:  a DVD or Blu-Ray of Gone With the Wind! 

Our next and final segment will be October 17, when we will discuss Part 5 (Chapters 48-63). 

Part 4

I have struggled over this section of Gone With the Wind for a few reasons…first of all, it’s LONG and dense and packed.  Secondly, it’s just plain traumatic.  Finally, it’s full of WTF material that I have found especially problematic this time around.  

I feel like Mitchell really ups the ante in this section.  Like any good writer, she isn’t content to let her characters suffer a few bumps on the road…it’s all suffering, all the time for our heroine, who must confront, among other things, a total moral collapse, the reality that even though Ashley overtly wants to get it on with her, he will never do so, humiliation, yet another loveless marriage, pregnancy and childbirth, the death of a parent, an attempted rape, public censure due to acting “unwomanly” to secure financial viability, the death of a husband which is blamed on her, AND another marriage.  Yeah.  That’s a lifetime of trauma and drama, don’tcha think?  

Instead of summarizing the chapters individually this time, I am going to draw out my personal WTF moments from this section and add some context to each.  Feel free to add your own or weigh in on the other questions below.  

WTF, Ashley?

Ashley’s behavior in this section really stood out for me.  We get a way better view of him as a character, and I’m not liking what I see.  His conduct in the orchard scene aside (who could resist Scarlett at the height of her, er, convincing powers?), he is just wilting on the vine.  He could have prevented Scarlett from going to Atlanta, though I am not convinced he’s responsible for her conduct.  The most surprising moment for me was one I seem to have missed all the other times I’ve read this book:  the moment in which he basically tells Scarlett that he is afraid he will break down and have sex with her if he moves to Atlanta:  “Then you are surer of yourself than I am.  I could not count on myself to keep such a promise.  I should not have said that but I had to make you understand.”  WHISKEY. TANGO. FOXTROT!!!

WTF, Scarlett? 

Okay, the point is probably moot, but Scarlett goes to great lengths in this section of the book.  She becomes willing to prostitute herself to Rhett over the taxes.  She steals Suellen (I will spare you my WTF, Suellen? moment)’s beau and makes him wretched.  She seems determined to bring everyone down with her.  She sinks into alcoholism while pregnant.  There’s really not a lot this woman will not do when her livelihood is threatened.  Which brings me to…

WTF, Rhett?

Killing an uppity black person and a Yankee cavalryman and bragging about them to Scarlett?  The mind.  It boggles.  I will say that MM’s mastery shows through in her masterful handling of this roguish, hard-to-handle character. 

WTF, Margaret Mitchell? 

This is the part that’s really hard to bear….my total torn feelings when it comes to Margaret Mitchell’s handling of Reconstruction and racial issues in this section of the book.  While I do think there is nuance in some of her black characters (Mammy, Uncle Peter, and Pork all show interesting sides of themselves and are portrayed as human in sections), I can’t overlook her use of words like “savage,” “ape,” and “Affikuns” to refer to black characters, much less her liberal use of the n-word to define a certain type of lackadaisical, useless and “trashy” black person. 

When combined with the fact that apparently all male characters in the book are part of the Ku Klux Klan (and are portrayed as neutral if not good for their actions) and that the real terror of Reconstruction was the Yankees’ ability to convince black people that they were more valuable than they were, I am at a total loss.  On the other hand, perhaps she can be seen as writing the book from an 1865 Southern perspective?  Perhaps we need to examine the negative effects of Reconstruction with the same scrutiny we might give, say, post-WWI Germany? How do we reconcile this subject matter in a book that is so sensitively handled in parts? 

I want to open up the conversation on these topics, because the book must be examined from today’s perspectives regardless of the time in which it was written.  Here are a few articles as food for thought: 

• The Problem With Gone With the Wind (Justine Larbalestier)
• Racial Illiteracy and Gone With the Wind
• Gone With the Wind and Hollywood’s Racial Politics (The Atlantic)
• Gone With the Wind Shouldn’t Be Romanticized (deals in part with the film and its portrayal of black characters)
• Gone With the Wind Turns 75, and Shows Its Age
• A call for papers I wish I had known about…I’ll be looking for conference details this November.
• If you’re looking for actual historical coverage of Southern Reconstruction, you could do way worse than this series of video lectures by Yale University’s David W. Blight. 

Discussion Prompts

Feel free to respond to some of these questions to get the discussion going. There’s no right or wrong answer!

Thoughts on Part 4? 

Tara: Scarlett is even more connected to Tara in this section.  What does Tara represent now that Gerald has died? 

Trauma: The trauma continues!  How do the characters deal with trauma? 

Sex: From unconsummated passions to near-prostitution, sex and childbirth are still in the forefront of this book.  I love the part where Mammy is curious about Belle Watling.  What sexual themes caught your attention? 

The little details: More details…which ones stood out?

Minor Characters:  One of Mitchell’s real coups, in my opinion, is the way in which minor characters live and breathe.  Who did you love and loathe?  

One of the best/most nervewracking things about publishing is the big cover gamble. 

I’ve been incredibly fortunate with Harper, who took the time to ask me my thoughts about the original cover and made sure to get it right. 

The paperback is in the capable hands of Harper Perennial, which is known for their paperback editions of new and young fiction and non-fiction authors and their nail-it-every-dang-time editions of classic novels (including some that are featured in The Heroine’s Bookshelf). 

When my editor told me the paperback division wanted to take a stab at a new cover, I sucked in a deep breath.  But I love the first cover!  Uncertainty!  Strife!  But when the cover you see here was presented to me, I was overcome by not just relief, but a giddy feeling.  The paperback cover feels fresh, thrilling, and plenty booky.  Bonus:  it has gorgeous fonts AND a blurb from the fascinating and wonderful Wendy McClure, whose The Wilder Life is a can’t-miss for Laura Ingalls Wilder fans and those who want to know more about the Little House books. 

So…here it is! I hope you like it.  And I hope you’ll be around on November 15 to celebrate the paperback release. 

Click to enlarge.

I keep talking about how the calendar is getting PACKED for the rest of the year, and I have proof!  I just confirmed a bunch of events both in the Denver/Boulder area and around the country (!) for this fall.  Here’s the scoop: 

Not Your Average Ghost: Ghostwriting for Every Writer Workshop

October 1, 8:30 a.m., Denver Woman’s Press Club, Denver, CO:  Learn how ghostwriting can jump-start your writing business at the Denver Woman’s Press Club Fall Writing Workshops. Click here for details.

Panelist, Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association Trade Show

October 1, time TBA,  Renaissance Denver Hotel, Denver, CO:  How bookstores can collaborate with authors to move books.  Click here for complete schedule.

Keynote, Author Fest of the Rockies

October 9, 12:00 p.m., The Cliff House, Manitou Springs, CO:  Statewide literary luncheon.  Click here for details.

Keynote Speaker, Wonder Women: Celebrating Heroines in YA Literature

November 11, 6:30 p.m., University High School, Normal, IL:  An evening of bookish celebration and activities with Erin Blakemore and Kiersten White.  Information and RSVPs here.

The Heroine’s Bookshelf comes out in paperback!

November 15:  I have many fun guest blogs and giveaways planned, so stay tuned for details.

Featured Panelist, Wine and Words

November 17, 6:00 p.m., The Bookworm of Edwards, Edwards, CO:  Click here for information and tickets on this book club night.

I couldn’t be more excited!  I hope to see you there.