Oatmeal, Nebraska

Uncle Benjamin is back! Let's celebrate Canada Day with a Hey-it's-that-Canadian-actor fancast poll!

How are we all imagining Uncle B? So far, he's sort of been the Michael Scott of the Stirling clan (as one bookclubber has pointed out, he loves getting everyone together to come up with a plan, but his plans don't actually amount to much). For all his presence in the story, though, we don't have a lot to go on by way of physical characteristics.

He's "a wealthy and childless old widower." How old is "old"? We know from Edward Beck that Valancy considers 48 to be "old", but we're not sure of the exact age "old" begins for her (though presumably it's well after 35).

He has pudgy hands: "Uncle Benjamin punished his pudgy left hand fiercely with his pudgy right." Hmm. Is this more of LMM's fatphobia? Or is it establishing Uncle B as one of those clan members who, while being visibly well-provided-for themselves, were constantly judging Valancy for being skinny while never doing anything to help her family in their straitened, penny-pinching circumstances? As a store proprietor, Uncle B was in a good position to at least bring by some bruised produce for the poor widow's household occasionally (and make a big deal out of his generosity in doing so), but we don't ever hear of him doing that.

He's "wheezy":

Uncle Benjamin would ask some of his abominable conundrums, between wheezy chuckles, and answer them himself. Uncle Benjamin, wheezy, pussy-mouthed. With great pouches under eyes that held nothing in reverence.

For those of you who are tempted to Google "pussy-mouthed," let me just warn you now that that is a Bad Idea. The OED suggests that it could be a corruption of "pursy-mouthed", which most likely means puckered (but coincidentally "pursy" could also mean wheezy or fat). Maybe the folks working on original drafts and translations have a better sense of this one?

He asks the same dreadful riddles over and over, but when he bothers to come up with new material he can actually be funny:

You have asked that riddle at least fifty times in my recollection, Uncle Ben. Why don’t you hunt up some new riddles if riddle you must? It is such a fatal mistake to try to be funny if you don’t succeed. “It’s a pity you couldn’t have had your premonition a little sooner,” said Uncle Benjamin drily.

And while Uncle James is the clan oracle, Uncle Benjamin does seem to be the self-proclaimed clan organizer ("Let us be calm", "We must be guided by developments", etc.) Does the rest of the clan just go along with it because of his money? Or is his busybody energy just that strong?

All that said, on to fancasting!

I have no idea how Bookclubbers are envisioning Uncle B (or how old everyone thinks "old" means), so I'm going to offer a whole range of possibilities, ordered from youngest to oldest.

Also - because I think it would be hilarious to cast a genuinely talented comic actor to deliver all of Uncle Benjamin's terrible jokes and get called out by Valancy for his lack of success at being funny, that's who I'm focusing on in this poll. (For non-Canadian bookclubbers, comedy is one of Canada's prime exports, so we're spoiled for choice here.)

Finally - while you all probably know by now that I try to keep a hypothetical modest CBC-style production budget in mind when fancasting, I'm aware that some of the "Hey, it's that guy" actors here are pretty deep cuts for bookclubbers who are not Canadian (and even for Canadians who aren't familiar with the generation of comedians who came out of the Toronto Theatresports scene / Second City / The Red Green Show), so I'm throwing in some more famous options here as well.

I'm with you in that I would love to see David Hewlett act the role (I'm imagining his reactions in the still-to-come listening-at-keyhole scenes and I think he would be amazing), but purely on a visual basis I'm not sure he fits my mental image of Uncle B as much as some of the others, so I'm surprised but pleased to see him doing well in the poll so far.

Pre-1910:

“The bodice of the garments had high necklines. They had elbow-length or long sleeves, a belt, and a knee-length skirt. Bloomers covered the legs to the knee. Tights or stockings were also worn, so no bare legs were on display.”

They also weighed about 25 lbs when wet!

1910-1920:

“more slim-fitted with a tank top bodice and a lower neckline. All had shorts, some had skirts, and could be one or two pieces.”

Valancy’s seemed to be a one piece and it did not sound like she was wearing stockings with it.

“Another notable change was thanks to Jantzen, a sportswear company founded in Portland, Oregon. In 1920, they decided to re-brand the bathing suit and call it instead the “swim suit.” It was the first time that term had ever been used. This brand began creating and marketing mass produced swimming suits in a stretchy, ribbed jersey. The iconic “Red Diving Girl” in their advertising was paired with the tagline “The Suit That Changed Bathing to Swimming.” Their product was a sensation and forever changed the way we look at - and talk about - swimwear.”

“In the early years of the 1900s, women’s one-piece swimsuits were becoming popular but were illegal in many places in the United States for being too revealing. Australian record-holding swimmer and vaudeville star Annette Kellerman made headlines in 1908 for showing her bare legs, daring to wear her one-piece, shorted swimsuit on a Boston beach while training for an upcoming competition. She was arrested for indecent exposure.”

Cities set up volunteer police forces to measure women’s suits and enforce dress codes.

“Those whose suits did not meet regulations were issued citations, escorted from beach, or in extreme cases, arrested. Thousands of women were taken into custody in the 1920s for swimwear infractions.”

In 1921, 39-year-old novelist Louise Rosine visited a beach in Atlantic City, New Jersey and rolled her stockings down below her knees. An officer patrolling the sand informed her that stockings below the knees were against regulations. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Ms. Rosine responded “I most certainly will not roll ‘em up. The city has no right to tell me how I will wear my stockings. It is none of their business. I will go to jail first.” When the police officer grabbed her arm to escort her away, Ms. Rosine swung at the him and she was jailed “in the state of mutiny and uncovered knees.”

The Blue Castle exists in an idealized world where yes, there was no World War I but also where women could stand up for themselves, go against the demands of their oppressive families, wear cute/practical clothes, and not go to jail for any of it.

“Valancy had not, as yet, really done or said anything that could be construed as proof of lunacy—and without proof you cannot lock people up in this degenerate age.”

You absolutely could lock women up in the real world at that time for far less than Valancy did.

The Blue Castle was such a revolutionary and important piece of media. And for it to be written by a respectable, rural pastor’s wife too!

Uncle Benjamin is back! Let's celebrate Canada Day with a Hey-it's-that-Canadian-actor fancast poll!

How are we all imagining Uncle B? So far, he's sort of been the Michael Scott of the Stirling clan (as one bookclubber has pointed out, he loves getting everyone together to come up with a plan, but his plans don't actually amount to much). For all his presence in the story, though, we don't have a lot to go on by way of physical characteristics.

He's "a wealthy and childless old widower." How old is "old"? We know from Edward Beck that Valancy considers 48 to be "old", but we're not sure of the exact age "old" begins for her (though presumably it's well after 35).

He has pudgy hands: "Uncle Benjamin punished his pudgy left hand fiercely with his pudgy right." Hmm. Is this more of LMM's fatphobia? Or is it establishing Uncle B as one of those clan members who, while being visibly well-provided-for themselves, were constantly judging Valancy for being skinny while never doing anything to help her family in their straitened, penny-pinching circumstances? As a store proprietor, Uncle B was in a good position to at least bring by some bruised produce for the poor widow's household occasionally (and make a big deal out of his generosity in doing so), but we don't ever hear of him doing that.

He's "wheezy":

Uncle Benjamin would ask some of his abominable conundrums, between wheezy chuckles, and answer them himself. Uncle Benjamin, wheezy, pussy-mouthed. With great pouches under eyes that held nothing in reverence.

For those of you who are tempted to Google "pussy-mouthed," let me just warn you now that that is a Bad Idea. The OED suggests that it could be a corruption of "pursy-mouthed", which most likely means puckered (but coincidentally "pursy" could also mean wheezy or fat). Maybe the folks working on original drafts and translations have a better sense of this one?

He asks the same dreadful riddles over and over, but when he bothers to come up with new material he can actually be funny:

You have asked that riddle at least fifty times in my recollection, Uncle Ben. Why don’t you hunt up some new riddles if riddle you must? It is such a fatal mistake to try to be funny if you don’t succeed. “It’s a pity you couldn’t have had your premonition a little sooner,” said Uncle Benjamin drily.

And while Uncle James is the clan oracle, Uncle Benjamin does seem to be the self-proclaimed clan organizer ("Let us be calm", "We must be guided by developments", etc.) Does the rest of the clan just go along with it because of his money? Or is his busybody energy just that strong?

All that said, on to fancasting!

I have no idea how Bookclubbers are envisioning Uncle B (or how old everyone thinks "old" means), so I'm going to offer a whole range of possibilities, ordered from youngest to oldest.

Also - because I think it would be hilarious to cast a genuinely talented comic actor to deliver all of Uncle Benjamin's terrible jokes and get called out by Valancy for his lack of success at being funny, that's who I'm focusing on in this poll. (For non-Canadian bookclubbers, comedy is one of Canada's prime exports, so we're spoiled for choice here.)

Finally - while you all probably know by now that I try to keep a hypothetical modest CBC-style production budget in mind when fancasting, I'm aware that some of the "Hey, it's that guy" actors here are pretty deep cuts for bookclubbers who are not Canadian (and even for Canadians who aren't familiar with the generation of comedians who came out of the Toronto Theatresports scene / Second City / The Red Green Show), so I'm throwing in some more famous options here as well.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

…but they kindled a fire in the big fireplace and sat before it with jest and laughter…

I love the image of that. The Blue Castle is truly a friends-to-lovers style book. They’re not soppy and in love. They’re friends and companions and they sit in front of fires and make jokes.

…Barney would shut the door and light a lamp and read to her - poetry and essays and gorgeous, dim chronicles of ancient wars.

*screams at the mental image*

Never had she imagined anything so splendid. A great, tinted peace. Blue wind-winnowed skies. Sunlight sleeping in the glades of that fairyland. Long dreamy purple days paddling idly in their canoe along shores and up the rivers of crimson and gold. A sleepy, red hunter’s moon. Enchanted tempests that stripped the leaves from trees and heaped them along the shores. Flying shadows of clouds...

I love the way colours are used to describe the landscape. Because it works. Instead of spending a paragraph describing a tree, it’s just colours, and I’m picturing it all perfectly.

With murky red sunsets flaming in smoky crimson behind the westering hills…

Days when an exquisite melancholy seemed to hang over the landscape and dream about the lake.

I recognise the description of November - it fits for here as well (and writing this in June seems bizarre, because now I’m thinking about November weather. Side-note - I can’t wait. I cannot stand the heat.)

“Warm fire - books - comfort - safety from storm - our cats on the rug. Moonlight,” said Barney, “would you be any happier now if you had a million dollars?”

Well, if I was in their place, the only thing that could make me happier would be my dogs on the rug as well. Not a million dollars.

Days of clear brilliance. Evenings that were like cups of glamour - the purest vintage of winter’s wine. Nights with their fire of stars. Cold, exquisite winter sunrises. Lovely ferns of ice all over the windows of the Blue castle. Moonlight on birches in a silver thaw. Ragged shadows on windy evenings - torn, twisted, fantastic shadows. Great silences, austere and searching. Jewelled, barbaric hills.

This is SO BEAUTIFUL.

Later on in the winter Barney had a terrible one and Valancy nursed him through it with a dread of pneumonia in her heart.

FIC POTENTIAL. FIC POTENTIAL RIGHT HERE. (I know there’s been some fics written about this already but YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY SICKFICS.)

She had thoughtfully bought a bottle at the Port and Barney had hurled it into frozen Mistawis with a scowl.

“Bring no more of that devilish stuff here,” he had ordered briefly. It was the first and last time he had spoken harshly to her.

…Yup…

I wish we could’ve seen how she reacted or what she thought.

One evening they came upon a snowdrift far back in an old clearing which was in the exact likeness of a beautiful woman’s profile.

*

…they both exclaimed in amazement…

*

“And to think no human eyes save ours have seen or will see it,” breathed Valancy, who felt at times as if she were living in a book by John Foster.

I love this scene.

“I didn’t listen to it,” said Barney morosely. “You know I told you I wouldn’t.”

The idea of poor Barney being morose makes me laugh.

“Then you’ve got to listen to it now,” persisted Valancy. She made him stand still on his snowshoes while she repeated it.

I’m picturing him trying to make a swift getaway and her grabbing his arms and holding him in place…

“Good Lord, do you learn all that fellow’s books by heart?” was Barney’s disgusted reaction as he strode off.

“John Foster’s books were all that saved my soul alive the past five years,” averred Valancy.

*nods*

To her delight, Barney gave her a necklace of pearl beads. Valancy had wanted a string of milky pearl beads - like congealed moonshine - all her life.

Now, I bet you anything that she told him this as a throwaway comment at some point. And he remembered.

Kindling a fire in late September? Mrs Frederick would be scandalized!

Later on in the winter Barney had a terrible one and Valancy nursed him through it with a dread of pneumonia in her heart.

FIC POTENTIAL. FIC POTENTIAL RIGHT HERE. (I know there’s been some fics written about this already but YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY SICKFICS.)

Helping your partner through being ill is a BIG relationship milestone. How much did Barney appreciate it? Being sick in the past when he was alone on the island must have been a miserable experience.

“Then you’ve got to listen to it now,” persisted Valancy. She made him stand still on his snowshoes while she repeated it.

I’m picturing him trying to make a swift getaway and her grabbing his arms and holding him in place…

“Good Lord, do you learn all that fellow’s books by heart?” was Barney’s disgusted reaction as he strode off.

So, it sounds like Valancy's recitation skills have improved?

She had once tried to “say a piece” in school one Friday afternoon and had broken down in it. Olive was a good reciter and never got stuck.

I know we're supposed to be on Valancy's side in this moment (because who could possibly object to hearing LMM's John Foster's lovely nature prose?)...but Barney hates listening to John Foster quotes so much, he's told her that so many times, and Valancy still insists on reciting it to him at length.

I'm just picturing poor Barney wearing the pained look of someone having a whole Monty Python sketch recited to them word for word after they've tried to explain that they don't actually find Monty Python funny. Or alternatively, [spoilers after the cut]

Double entry in advance today because I doubt I'll have time for book clubbing tomorrow, and I can't be bothered with queuing.

~

"But sometimes she read them herself, curled up on the wolf skins, laughing aloud in peace. For Barney was not one of those aggravating people who can never hear you smiling audibly over something you’ve read without inquiring placidly, “What is the joke?”"

It's weird, the kind of things that stick to your mind when reading something as a teen – just like the earlier bit about sitting in silence for half an hour being the ultimate friendship test, this bit too has been haunting the back of my mind for almost two decades now, surfacing sometimes when I hear someone laughing aloud while reading. I hope it has kept me from becoming one of those aggravating people myself.

~

"Days when an exquisite melancholy seemed to hang over the landscape and dream about the lake. But days, too, of the wild blackness of great autumn storms, followed by dank, wet, streaming nights when there was witch-laughter in the pines and fitful moans among the mainland trees."

I wonder how LMM would have described November in southern Finland. (My mom, who has a way with language but is maybe not quite as adept at purple-tinted prose as Montgomery, calls it the "bogeyman's arse" time of the year.) No doubt, she would have found some beauty to describe even there. I think I'll need to try and look around through an LMM filter the next time November rolls around and I feel like complaining about everything being 50+ shades of grey and wet all the time.

In any case, I'm happy for Valancy that she's getting early snows during her last winter!

~

When you hurl something into a frozen lake, the trouble is, it tends to stay on top of the ice. I'm imagining Barney went on the ice under the cover of the night, drilled a hole next to the Redfern's Liniment bottle and kicked it in there.

~

Cousin Georgiana has a more maternal, genuinely caring attitude towards Valancy than her own mother has ever had. Bedspread, dandelion wine for those moments when you may need a little stimulant, lying awake at night worrying about Valancy's well-being. What a sweetie!! She so deserves her own breaking free from the Stirlings arc.

~

I love that Valancy has created a theory about Barney's criminal past. I'm not quite as free of overthinking tendencies as I'd like to be, so if I were her, I would have half a dozen theories that I'd rotate daily... but I think the one she has arrived at is pretty solid. I enjoy the thought of Barney keeping a newspaper clipping of his own crime – it's not every day you're mentioned in the paper, after all, even if it's an account of your failure of a criminal career.

What's up with Barney and Klondike, though? It's now been mentioned twice that he has spent two years there. Personally, I believe this book is set on an alternative timeline separate from ours, it's no use trying to match all the references with real historical dates... but I can't help wondering whether those two years were the gold rush years, or if he went there at some other time, just to vibe.

~

"But, as Barney and Valancy pointed out to each other, there were no mosquitoes."

You're right - that makes no sense chronologically for a 35-year-old Barney, in light of all the fashion references, etc. indicating that TBC takes place in the mid-1920s.

Maybe the whole "I went for the gold but didn't find any" is just an awkward cover story for the fact that he was there to write? Like, Barney encountered a few Jack London novels / short stories and instead of reacting like any reasonable person who's just read "To Build a Fire," he said, "I must go to this Nature-will-kill-you-place and see it for myself."

First, I think it was awfully mean of Uncle Benjamin to promise Valancy skates and then get her rubbers. It's a wonder Valancy held onto some kind of hope until her 29th birthday.

I imagine it was one of those things that was important to her but not to him, so he "promised" it in passing and then forgot, without any idea of the impact that had on Valancy.

In which LMM is strategically ambiguous on a key plot point:

So apparently this is the week when we discuss "Are they or aren't they?" - and I understand how Bookclubbers can come down on very different sides of that question.

On the one hand, in chapter 27 you have the deeply unsubtle symbolism of the rosebush - "Great, crimson, velvety blossoms. Fragrant. Glowing. Wonderful" - and Valancy herself with the smuggity-smug smugness of someone so contented and fulfilled that it's like she's looking out of the wrong end of a telescope at the clan that used to terrify her so: they've all become so small to her that she finds the distance to pity them at last.

On the other hand, you have the, "We shall have such a jolly time together - let me tell you at length about my cats" conversational tone between Valancy and Barney, which can come across very much like they're perfectly happy being best buddies who sleep (actually sleep) in the same bed and occasionally hug or kiss.

This is not to suggest that good friends can't have a romantic/sexual relationship - that is the ideal, after all. But I do think that once you've committed to railing each other into the mattress on the regular, there is an implied social contract that, when complimenting your partner, you don't add the caveat, "You aren’t exactly pretty." So if you go by their dialogue, there's a stage of intimacy they don't appear to have yet reached.

But this passage, to me, makes it clear that Valarney are at the very least making out all the time:

Barney, bareheaded, smoking his pipe. But shaved. Always shaved now, if any of them had noticed it.

@moonlightredfern: #to me it kind of doesn’t matter what base they’ve gotten to#the point is that he is canonically a Husband not a Brother.#and he’s committed to giving her whatever she wants out of a marriage re: romance and touch.#and it’s not hard for him to do that because he likes her#I know ppl who have been married for years who never had penetrative sex so the actual details don’t matter.#the nature of their relationship is clear

@deemoyza: #while I have my own take on it#I don't mind Montgomery's ambiguity re: 'did they or didn't they?'#there's definitely a sense of emotional intimacy between them regardless#and at least some level of physical affection#both of which are so fulfilling to neglected and touch-starved Valancy (and to Barney too‚ though he won't admit it)#that at the very least we know they are happy and satisfied with each other's company#and that's what's important#as for the 'you aren't exactly pretty' remark I actually think it's quite nice of Barney#grounding his compliments in reality gives them more weight#and indicates to Valancy that not only is he sincere#but he's also not making fun of her#calling her beautiful at this point would be insincere and dismissive and possibly interpreted as mocking

Once they have the opinion of [spoilers for upcoming week] an objective expert, though, calling her beautiful is okay!

@akallabeth-joie: #I take the rose bush as more of a symbol of Valancy's happiness#but I like this other reading#and agree that the 'distracted with happiness after four days of being married' thing Valancy has going on does sound like a yes#while Valancy's ongoing conviction that Barney married her out of pity and kindness (without attraction or love) makes it more questionable

@nancydrewmermaid: #some people today still consider nob PIV sex not sex#i am really loving reading everyone's thoughts on what Barney and Valancy get up to#and when#I believe even if they were doing *nothing* they still would be having more fun than#any of valancy's family ever had

I think you can make a case for them being at so many different points on the spectrum of friends to lovers.

On this read-through, my personal headcanon is that Barney goes into things thinking they're going to be on the good-pals-with-kissing end of the spectrum - that's great; he can do that, he's got that under control - and then Valancy shows up to bed that first night in her foolish beribboned nightgown, and his brain whites out a bit and he realizes they didn't really cover this when setting their terms and conditions. So he says, "Let's talk about this tomorrow" and they do (and maybe he requests a one-time exemption from the embargo on discussing Valancy's health, or maybe they just have the discussion while carefully never explicitly mentioning it) and they establish that 1) neither of them wants to risk Valancy getting pregnant; 2) it would be hugely unfair to Barney to put him in a position where Valancy might die in the midst of *ahem*; and yet 3) when it comes to what Valancy would like out of the next several months, she wants to be as married as she can be.

So Barney "Acts of Service" Snaith says, yes, good, this sounds like a plan. He will just, as the classic Friends episode puts it, "be there for her." So he excuses himself to his Bluebeard room and promptly panics because how is he supposed to do this? Valancy is ready and willing to be pleased by him - any sexual pleasure this awesome woman experiences for the rest of her short life is going to be coming from him - and that is...more pressure than he was expecting.

He looks in a sort of calm despair at his library. All he needs is some guidance on the best way to give a woman nice, safe, relaxed, comfortable orgasms - why are none of the classics of male-authored Western literature helpful to him in this moment? He sits down and writes a letter to his editor in Toronto, saying "Don't worry - I don't have any plans to change my genre - but for Important Research Purposes I am requesting that you send me ASAP the most explicit works of Sapphic fiction you can legally procure."

In the meantime...he'll just have to learn Valancy like he learned the woods. She won't hide anything from him - she'll show him what she likes and what she doesn't. He can do this. Fear is the original sin.

OR consider the alternative - she doesn't bat an eye because she also edits an avant-garde art / theatre / poetry magazine and Has Connections.

In fact, the monthly meeting of the Sappho Club is scheduled for that very evening. Everyone is wearing the most amazing scarves and turbans and they all look a little like Margaret Atwood. After dinner, when everyone is smoking from the most elegant cigarette-holders you can imagine, Barney's editor says, "I received a most unusual missive from one of my gentleman authors today. It would appear he is urgently in need of instruction in how to give a woman a good orgasm." And all the ladies around the table are like:

In which LMM is strategically ambiguous on a key plot point:

So apparently this is the week when we discuss "Are they or aren't they?" - and I understand how Bookclubbers can come down on very different sides of that question.

On the one hand, in chapter 27 you have the deeply unsubtle symbolism of the rosebush - "Great, crimson, velvety blossoms. Fragrant. Glowing. Wonderful" - and Valancy herself with the smuggity-smug smugness of someone so contented and fulfilled that it's like she's looking out of the wrong end of a telescope at the clan that used to terrify her so: they've all become so small to her that she finds the distance to pity them at last.

On the other hand, you have the, "We shall have such a jolly time together - let me tell you at length about my cats" conversational tone between Valancy and Barney, which can come across very much like they're perfectly happy being best buddies who sleep (actually sleep) in the same bed and occasionally hug or kiss.

This is not to suggest that good friends can't have a romantic/sexual relationship - that is the ideal, after all. But I do think that once you've committed to railing each other into the mattress on the regular, there is an implied social contract that, when complimenting your partner, you don't add the caveat, "You aren’t exactly pretty." So if you go by their dialogue, there's a stage of intimacy they don't appear to have yet reached.

But this passage, to me, makes it clear that Valarney are at the very least making out all the time:

Barney, bareheaded, smoking his pipe. But shaved. Always shaved now, if any of them had noticed it.

@moonlightredfern: #to me it kind of doesn’t matter what base they’ve gotten to#the point is that he is canonically a Husband not a Brother.#and he’s committed to giving her whatever she wants out of a marriage re: romance and touch.#and it’s not hard for him to do that because he likes her#I know ppl who have been married for years who never had penetrative sex so the actual details don’t matter.#the nature of their relationship is clear

@deemoyza: #while I have my own take on it#I don't mind Montgomery's ambiguity re: 'did they or didn't they?'#there's definitely a sense of emotional intimacy between them regardless#and at least some level of physical affection#both of which are so fulfilling to neglected and touch-starved Valancy (and to Barney too‚ though he won't admit it)#that at the very least we know they are happy and satisfied with each other's company#and that's what's important#as for the 'you aren't exactly pretty' remark I actually think it's quite nice of Barney#grounding his compliments in reality gives them more weight#and indicates to Valancy that not only is he sincere#but he's also not making fun of her#calling her beautiful at this point would be insincere and dismissive and possibly interpreted as mocking

Once they have the opinion of [spoilers for upcoming week] an objective expert, though, calling her beautiful is okay!

@akallabeth-joie: #I take the rose bush as more of a symbol of Valancy's happiness#but I like this other reading#and agree that the 'distracted with happiness after four days of being married' thing Valancy has going on does sound like a yes#while Valancy's ongoing conviction that Barney married her out of pity and kindness (without attraction or love) makes it more questionable

@nancydrewmermaid: #some people today still consider nob PIV sex not sex#i am really loving reading everyone's thoughts on what Barney and Valancy get up to#and when#I believe even if they were doing *nothing* they still would be having more fun than#any of valancy's family ever had

I think you can make a case for them being at so many different points on the spectrum of friends to lovers.

On this read-through, my personal headcanon is... [includes mild spoilers so under the cut]

So, when I fancast, I try to keep it somewhat practical, i.e., what Canadian actors could a low-budget CBC miniseries potentially get (and afford) if they were casting tomorrow?

But sometimes you just have to swing for the fences.

Look, I know Pamela Anderson is probably too busy living her best life...but she is Canadian. Maybe she's a Lucy Maud fan? Maybe she would like a great opportunity to chew the scenery?

She's always sporting such a huge smile in photos these days that it's not easy to find a picture of her looking forbidding, but they do exist:

I guess we'll go with the "Barney eats enough wild berries to prevent scurvy" theory.

His former eating habits sound so dire! I will just have to headcanon that his digestion was strong enough to handle it, because I cannot cope with the idea of Barney farting up a storm during those three hours of Valancy's romantic awakening in the car.

Valancy continues to love her new home and I'm starting to get anxious because we've still got about a third of the book left so clearly this is a peaceful interlude and not a happy epilogue and Something is going to Happen very soon.

I'm amazed and impressed anyone in the book club has managed to stay unspoiled so far.

Ok we know he was/is a negligent father and bad husband. But this time we actually see his criminal thoughtlessness in action.

Cissy knew, Barney knew, and with half an evening, Valancy herself knew that it wasn't a safe place for a young woman, especially a sheltered one like Valancy.

And yet, Abel didn't think twice about taking her.

The next moment the man who held her went staggering across the room from a neatly planted blow on the jaw, knocking down whirling couples as he went. Valancy felt her arm grasped.

The chapter starts with: Valancy toiled not, neither did she spin, but I think it's more like that for the first time in her life, she is enjoying her work.

Tom McMurray should be the book's biggest unsung hero. Without him there would be no Blue Castle.

The descriptions here at the most beautiful but:

The faint laughter of winds was always about them and the colours of Mistawis, imperial and spiritual, under the changing clouds were something that cannot be expressed in mere words.

'Cannot be expressed in mere words' sounds very not-LMM, lol.

All I can say about the island is that: I wish I was there to take pictures!

And how good everything tasted! Valancy, amid all the romance of Mistawis, never forgot that men had stomachs. Barney paid her no end of compliments on her cooking. “After all,” he admitted, “there’s something to be said for square meals. I’ve mostly got along by boiling two or three dozen eggs hard at once and eating a few when I got hungry, with a slice of bacon once in a while and a jorum of tea.”

Lol I said when Barney was first introduced that he was in need of a wife. It's not that surprising that he agreed to Valancy's proposal--it benefits him, as marriage does men. Sorry for being so cynical, but that's how it is. Valancy has probably mended his clothes too, remember he had buttons missing etc. And why not, she likes doing the work and of course she doesn't want her husband to go out looking like a hobo! And he shaves now too.

Valancy poured tea out of Barney’s little battered old pewter teapot of incredible age. She had not even a set of dishes—only Barney’s mismatched chipped bits—and a dear, big, pobby old jug of robin’s-egg blue.

I love how LMM has a way of making things like teapots romantic.

So, Barney has a nickname for her. Moonlight. Very fitting for a Blue Castle chatelaine.

She also amused herself by picturing Barney and herself going to the dances and dinners in the houses on the islands, but she did not want to go in reality. Once they did go to a masquerade dance in the pavilion at one of the hotels up the lake, and had a glorious evening, but slipped away in their canoe, before unmasking time, back to the Blue Castle. “It was lovely—but I don’t want to go again,” said Valancy.

I still think they should go to some of these events. I get why they don't--they're still on their honeymoon, and Valancy has already achieved so much. But I don't think they need to dismiss them completely. They could make friends with that millionaire dude. Imagine the Stirlings get to hear about Mr and Mrs Snaith being invited to the millionaire's house. 'Mrs Snaith is such a charming woman. She's a Deerwood Stirling you say? What does that mean, who are the Deerwood Stirlings?'

So many hours a day Barney shut himself up in Bluebeard’s Chamber. Valancy never saw the inside of it. From the smells that filtered through at times she concluded he must be conducting chemical experiments—or counterfeiting money. Valancy supposed there must be smelly processes in making counterfeit money.

Is it drugs, lol.

The way I have to remind myself that this is a story and the Bluebeard references are author's deliberate choice.

"You think you are free now because you’ve escaped from a peculiarly unbearable kind of bondage. But are you? You love me—that’s a bondage.”

Dude, she's not complaining.

I guess we'll go with the "Barney eats enough wild berries to prevent scurvy" theory.

His former eating habits sound so dire! I will just have to headcanon that his digestion was strong enough to handle it, because I cannot cope with the idea of Barney farting up a storm during those three hours of Valancy's romantic awakening in the car.

Valancy continues to love her new home and I'm starting to get anxious because we've still got about a third of the book left so clearly this is a peaceful interlude and not a happy epilogue and Something is going to Happen very soon.

I'm amazed and impressed anyone in the book club has managed to stay unspoiled so far.