Beware of Italics

The Mer-Pirate Edward, Scourge of the Seven Seas [Image ID: A Full color, full-body illustration of Edward as a merman. He has a long, scaly teal fish tail looping behind him. He is floating in an aqua ocean background, his arms loose at his sides. He is wearing a sleeveless version of his usual leather top, and he is looking sternly over his shoulder. His hair is loose and floating slightly around his face. End ID]

Yeah. Yiiiikes. They also moved some settings from Web and App Activity settings to uhm. I don't know I think it's to the new Search Services History settings where the media saving setting is.

[Transcript:] If your saved media is used to train our AI models, it is disconnected from your Google Account. This training data will be kept for up to 4 years, even if you delete the original activity. [End transcript. ]

Oh great I have no control over it haha that's great /sarc

Google also has this to say (from this article):

[Begin quote:] We take your privacy seriously and take steps to protect it when using your Search Services History data to train our AI models. For example, data is disconnected from your Google Account before it is used to train our AI models or reviewed by our trained service providers. We will seek your permission before sharing your media with these providers for human review as part of the model improvement process. We use filters designed to automatically remove a broad range of identifying info or sensitive personal information. We are constantly working to improve our filtering and safety systems to better protect your privacy. When Search Services History is off, your future activity won't be used to train Google’s generative AI models, unless you provide feedback. [End quote. ]

:/.

Thankfully, you can turn this off. Under the cut is a tutorial for doing this, as well as more (I'd say rather important) info about this media-saving feature. If I've missed anything (especially since the wording on Google makes it seem to me that this may be one of several new features), do feel free to add onto this!

I think it was @moonlightredfern who noted in the last book club that this is not a random moment when Valancy realizes she loves Barney. This is how he described Lady Jane being out of gas:

“I’m a doddering idiot. Out of gas. I knew I was short when I left home, but I meant to fill up in Deerwood. Then I forgot all about it in my hurry to get to the Corners.”

“Mommy, I love you!” 😘

This year, beautiful Snezhana the Pallas's cat became a mom for the first time!

For a long while, she wouldn’t let her kittens go outside when people were around ☺️ But last week, the little cubs finally appeared!

Now they come out every day and explore the world around their den with more and more confidence.

This chapter evokes such a strong feeling of calm summer evening, it's like the reader is right there with Valancy and Barney. We'll talk if we want or we will be silent if we want.

“Evidently John Foster says a sensible thing once in a while,” conceded Barney.

But Valancy's John Foster quote was about being friends, so that means that Barney agrees that they are friends. In their first conversation in the book (when she asks him to bring the codfish), he called her 'Miss Stirling', they have not called each other anything since then but I think we can take it that they are now on first name basis.

She knew quite well now that she loved Barney. Yesterday she had been all her own. Now she was this man’s.

Breaking news, sky is blue.

I don't usually criticise LMM's writing style (her writing choices, for sure, but not the way she writes), but I could have done without this paragraph:

Valancy was perfectly happy. Some things dawn on you slowly. Some things come by lightning flashes. Valancy had had a lightning flash.

Or just keep the first sentence. Then get rid of the rest and follow it with: "She knew quite well now that she loved Barney." I think it would be more effective. You don't need to announce that Valancy has a lightning flash, when next thing you tell the reader what the lightning flash is. Especially as in this case, the reader already knows it!

However, I find no faults with the following paragraphs. Pure beauty!

She was one of a vast sisterhood—all the women who had ever loved in the world.

Anna Runkle of the Youtube channel Crappy Childhood Fairy says in one of her videos that a woman in love is universe's greatest force. This chapter made me remember it. In the beginning, Valancy bemoaned the fact that she has never been desired, even if she preferred old maidenhood over being married to someone like her uncles. But now that doesn't matter. I want to say that unrequited love sucks... but for Valancy, at this moment, just loving is enough. And honestly, discovering that you can still love after years of numbness is, well, the greatest force in the universe.

Now check this out. Valancy thinks of the wind--she envies it, how it can go where it likes and so. And next thing, Barney tells her he dreams of going ballooning. "sailing through the clouds—seeing the glories of sunset—spending hours in the midst of a terrific storm with lightning playing above and below you—skimming above a silver cloud floor under a full moon". Curiously similar thoughts.

So she tells him all about her life and why she went to Chidley Corners. I don't know if I'd want to tell a guy about my Blue Castle, though--maybe later, when I've known him for longer. I'd feel silly. In complete contrast to her family, who wrote her off at 29, Barney tells her she is still young. (Also, she says 'you couldn't understand', she said the same thing to Abel.) And he's able to tell that her clan thinks her mad. So she was right from the very start--Barney does understand.

And then he wraps her in his coat so that she doesn't feel cold! *swoons*

So Uncle Wellington had got a car!

I wonder how the rest of the clan reacted to this.

“Mr. Stirling, I asked you if you could let me have some gas. If you can, well and good. If not, we are only delaying you unnecessarily.”

Basically, either be useful and help me out with some gas, or go off on your way. He put him right in his place.

Poor Uncle Wellington has never before been faced with such a dilemma. New experiences, Uncle W.

I think Olive is actually right about Valancy "getting it from the Wansbarras". In LMM's realm, family traits make you who you are, but also, we were told already that Grandfather Wansbarra was the one with the imagination or unusual ideas. Valancy herself was glad to be compared to him.

Poor Olive felt the implication. The Port Lawrence Prices were not accustomed to ally themselves with families whose members “worked out.”

Gosh I think the Prices might be even more stiff than the Stirlings. Methinks Olive needs her own villain arc. She should have run away with that unsuitable guy.

Wouldn’t it be splendid if she could induce the prodigal daughter to return?

She wants to score points with the clan.

They all want her to come back, but they must have noticed that she looks better. So far we've only had Uncle Herbert and now Olive confirm it, but they all must have noticed.

Uncle Wellington climbed foolishly and feebly into his car. He wanted to give Snaith a piece of his mind, but dared not. Who knew what the creature might do if provoked? No doubt he carried firearms.

If he had, then the party at Chidley Corners would have ended differently. But he might have a firearm at home? He lives in the wilderness.

Thousand & One Nights Inspired Evening Gown

c. 1910

I love Barney’s opening quote. Y’all, I am trying so hard to be rational about this man, and I am failing miserably. I can be rational about Gilbert Blythe, who I know many would consider the Perfect Man Montgomery created, and yet.

But enough of the self-flagellation. It’s probably time for me to accept that I am not nor will I ever be normal about Barney Snaith and instead talk about why I am not normal about him, which should make for at least somewhat more interesting conversation.

The reason why I love this quote is because it immediately removes so much pressure and makes things so comfortable. There’s no obligation to be anyone but oneself. I know social scripts exist for a reason, but they can also be exhausting, and to have a safe place to just not have to deal with them can be such a relief, and I imagine it was even more so in Valancy’s day.

(Are all of Montgomery’s most interesting characters autistic? Maybe. Am I autistic? Also maybe. All I know is, the way their brains work makes sense to me in a way a lot of other people’s brains don’t.)

And on that note, the John Foster quote. It speaks to me deeply—so deeply it scares me. Is that my ideal friendship? Yes it is. Can I live my life only with people who meet that ideal? I don’t know.