Oatmeal, Nebraska

As usual, it took me the weekend to catch up, but thank you, organizers, for TBCBC 2.0, and thank you, club, for all the great discussion and insights.

Thanks as well to the club for participating in the fancasting polls, whether they were for green dresses or Uncle Benjamin.

Uncle Benjamin especially - he was such a Problematic Fave for the club and I had no idea how y'all were picturing him. I was surprised and delighted to see David Hewlett win the poll, because it meant I could spend this last week imagining Uncle B's keyhole-listening and other antics as performed by this legend:

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BONUS: because apparently there are only 20 Canadian actors and they all end up working with each other at some point, here's David Hewlett back in the day as Rodney McKay in Stargate: Atlantis, attempting to bully a tween version of Jodelle Ferland (my Canadian-actor fancast for Valancy). I say "attempting" because tween!Jodelle's character actually has the power in this situation and she is absolutely faking those tears.

The fact that LMM never commits to a specific date for the action of The Blue Castle has been a running gag of TBCBC 2.0, but I've been having equal difficulty pinning down where TBC takes place.

Not in the broad strokes, of course - TBC was inspired by LMM's time in Muskoka (in general) and Bala (in particular), so that's fine. It's when you start trying to map the action of TBC onto specific places that it becomes complicated.

A little while back, @moonlightredfern raised the question: Do we think Deerwood is like an east coast USA beach town where it feels radically different in the summer than winter? Businesses only open during tourist season and people coming from all over and a much lower population in winter? and there was a good discussion in the tags that settled on Deerwood being the non-tourist town in a touristy area:

@kingedmundsroyalmurder: I'm wondering if Deerwood itself is stable year-round and Port Lawrence is the tourist hub. I'm projecting a bit from where I live, but out here we have the Tourist Town, with a population that changes dramatically depending on the season and the neighboring Locals Town where most of the people live year-round and whose businesses don't cater to the tourists nearly as much. I kind of like that vibe for Deerwood, because my experience is that the Locals Town is a)deeply snooty and hostile towards the tourists and the Tourist Town and b)noticeably less prosperous and more run down. Which feels pretty Stirling to me - hostile to newness, clinging to past glory, not doing as well as they'd like to be, and blaming everyone else for their problems.

More recently, @mzannthropy has highlighted the train station in Deerwood, that Valancy can see from her window: Wait, why have I not thought of this station so far. Where do the trains go? Can you get to Port Lawrence on train? It was said in the early chapters that the only time Valancy got to go anywhere was when someone remembered to take her in a buggy. Yet there's a train station right outside her house.

So Deerwood isn't a port/tourist town, but it is a town with a train station.

1920s Bala, by contrast, was all three:

Bala was well connected and once was connected only to other Muskoka communities via the steamship lines that plied the Muskoka Lakes. The Cherokee, Islander and Segwun were frequently seen at the dock below the CPR station, and the Ahmic was based on the other side of Bala Bay in Torrance. Steamships have been unable to visit Bala since 1964, when the swing bridge at Bala Park Island was sealed shut. A portion of the former steamer dock remains, maintained for many decades by the MNR and today by the Township of Muskoka Lakes. In 1907 the Canadian Pacific Railway opened a prominent "summer" station at the harbour, complete with freight elevator (a "winter" station was located a half-mile north). There was also a seasonal Grand Trunk Railway (later CN) station across the bay on Bala Park Island. In 1927, six CPR train routes each way served Bala, four on a daily basis. With the influx of many American cottagers, Bala even became a Customs Port of Entry. The Bala Weekend trains continued to serve the tourists until 1963, when the station was demolished.

So did Bala inspire the fictional Port Lawrence, then? At first I thought it must be too small. TBCBC 2.0 has emphasized how cosmopolitan Port Lawrence seems, with its movie theatre and hot dogs and Chinese restaurant - and Bala's census population in 1921 was 362 people (versus a place like Gravenhurst, the "Gateway to Muskoka," at 1,482).

Here's the train station at Bala in 1917:

And here's the wharf at Gravenhurst (from which all the Muskoka steamships set out), in the 1920s:

So, could Deerwood have been inspired by the non-touristy parts of Bala, with Gravenhurst being the inspiration for Port Lawrence? Gravenhurst is too far away from Bala to be reached in a 20-minute drive in Barney's car, though - you could do the drive today in a little over 20 minutes, but not in the 1920s. (That's not to say LMM couldn't have brought the two places closer in her fictional geography.)

If we go back to the idea of the touristy-part-of-Bala as Port Lawrence...it's still a pretty small place.

Image credits [x] [x]

It was apparently a pretty major hub, though - so you could potentially think of Bala's non-touristy parts as inspiring Deerwood and its touristy parts as inspiring Port Lawrence (maybe with a sprinkle of Gravenhurst for added cosmopolitan flavour).

One other point - those millionaire's cottages that they look at across the water? It sounds like those would have been inspired by Millionaire's Row in Beaumaris (also known as "Little Pittsburgh" for all the wealthy American families who built cottages there).

Anyway, for anyone who's trying to work this out for themselves, here are a couple of maps - showing Gravenhurst to Bala, and Bala to Beaumaris:

Early in TBCBC 2.0, a bookclubber pointed out how well The Blue Castle would work as a kdrama. It's got the stifling family expectations, the class issues, the secret chaebol heir! (I'd love to link to the post but have looked for it and can't find it, so OP, if this was you, please let me know.)

So - a quick kdrama Valarney fancast! Instead of my typical imaginary modest CBC production, I'll assume the TBC script warrants a fully financed kdrama, so no budget constraints here. I'm also not going to worry about finding actors who are as close as possible to the characters' ages, because in kdramas they are perfectly happy to put a 40-year-old actor in bangs and a school uniform and say they're a teenager.

For Valancy, I think the one physical aspect of her character that really wouldn't survive translation is the emphasis on her skinniness as an embarrassing thing for which the Stirlings constantly criticize her, because I don't see how that could work in a kdrama culture that treats actresses as "fat" for being, say, only 10 pounds under a healthy weight as opposed to 20. And if you were to flip the reason for the Stirlings' criticism so that Valancy started out being seen as "fat" and underwent a journey where she was no longer seen that way at the end of the story, I think there are multiple levels on which that wouldn't be true to Valancy's evolution as a character. So I think I'm just leaving weight out of the equation altogether, and assuming kdrama!Valancy's family oppresses her in other ways.

When I think of a kdrama actress who can play quietly downtrodden, and who can undergo a journey to happy and blooming, the one who comes to mind is Shin Hyun Bin:

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And for Barney, when I think of someone who can play scruffy and weird and loves disguises, who else but Lee Je Hoon?

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Thanks for reminding me that I totally forgot to provide bio links for the actors, which I normally do when fancasting - they've been added to the original post!

Except...it's not exactly the same, is it? She who always had to be under surveillance has been left quietly alone in her room. Her space is being respected, they're trying (somewhat) to call her by her real name.

Because the clan has been through quite a year as well. Even when Valancy didn't have her identity as Mrs Redfern to back her up:

They've had to start considering her moods and feelings ("It was so important that Valancy should be kept in good humour, if possible, until it was over. Mrs. Frederick did not reflect that this was the first time in her life that she had thought it necessary to consider Valancy’s humours.")

They've heard Valancy say what she thinks of them

They've had to (already) start respecting her space ("She had moved her bed in her room to the opposite corner. She had read Magic of Wings Sunday afternoon. When Cousin Stickles had rebuked her Valancy had said indifferently, “Oh, I forgot it was Sunday”—and had gone on reading it.")

They've realized that - without using force, which would cause a scandal - they can't force her to do something she doesn't want to do ("Uncle Benjamin found he had reckoned without his host when he promised so airily to take Valancy to a doctor. Valancy would not go.")

They've seen how competent she can be when she gets a chance

They've seen her inspire a respectable proposal

They've seen her look stylish and youthful

Her rosebush has bloomed, and has buds again

She's no longer an old maid - she's become a married woman and will be either a separated one or a divorcee

Unfortunately, it doesn't narrow down the timeline. Our understanding of "flapper" is not as black and white as reality. According to Wikipedia the term goes back to 1631 when "flap" meant a young prostitute, and in the 1890s in some localities "flapper" was used for both "a very young prosititute" and any "lively mid-teenaged girl." More from the article:

Except...it's not exactly the same, is it? She who always had to be under surveillance has been left quietly alone in her room. Her space is being respected, they're trying (somewhat) to call her by her real name.

Early in TBCBC 2.0, a bookclubber pointed out how well The Blue Castle would work as a kdrama. It's got the stifling family expectations, the class issues, the secret chaebol heir! (I'd love to link to the post but have looked for it and can't find it, so OP, if this was you, please let me know.)

So - a quick kdrama Valarney fancast! Instead of my typical imaginary modest CBC production, I'll assume the TBC script warrants a fully financed kdrama, so no budget constraints here. I'm also not going to worry about finding actors who are as close as possible to the characters' ages, because in kdramas they are perfectly happy to put a 40-year-old actor in bangs and a school uniform and say they're a teenager.

For Valancy, I think the one physical aspect of her character that really wouldn't survive translation is the emphasis on her skinniness as an embarrassing thing for which the Stirlings constantly criticize her, because I don't see how that could work in a kdrama culture that treats actresses as "fat" for being, say, only 10 pounds under a healthy weight as opposed to 20. And if you were to flip the reason for the Stirlings' criticism so that Valancy started out being seen as "fat" and underwent a journey where she was no longer seen that way at the end of the story, I think there are multiple levels on which that wouldn't be true to Valancy's evolution as a character. So I think I'm just leaving weight out of the equation altogether, and assuming kdrama!Valancy's family oppresses her in other ways.

When I think of a kdrama actress who can play quietly downtrodden, and who can undergo a journey to happy and blooming, the one who comes to mind is Shin Hyun Bin:

GIF credit

GIF credit

Image credit

And for Barney, when I think of someone who can play scruffy and weird and loves disguises, who else but Lee Je Hoon?

GIF credit

Reblogging to credit @no-where-new-hero as OP for the TBC-as-kdrama idea. I'm glad you like the fancast!

"Then she thought of him inescapably. She ached for him. She wanted his arms around her—his face against hers—his whispers in her ear. She recalled all his friendly looks and quips and jests—his little compliments—his caresses."

Girl... this is the man who you're still 100% convinced does not love you and is solely motivated by pity? I'm losing my mind, and I think Valancy has already lost hers a while ago. Such a shame that Cissy had to die – I think Valancy could really use a bestie to tell her that she's being insane.

~

Valancy wants to remember everything, but she has forgotten something already: Barney's eyes were violet when we last gazed into them, but in Valancy's recollection, they're dark blue. Not to mention how they started out brown and will soon go black!

I think the likeliest explanation is that during his outdoor wanderings, Barney has encountered a fairy that has enchanted his eyes with a magical mood ring spell. Black is anger, but which moods might the other colours signify..?

~

"Redfern had not said anything of the kind, but Uncle Benjamin thought he was that sort of a fellow. Valancy knew he was. She understood that she might as well go down first as last."

Does this mean... is Uncle Benjamin, of all people, the Cupid that gives our lovers the final push they need to reach their happily ever after? Amor works in mysterious ways!

~

Three short points about Barney's backstory:

Valancy has regained her health, but in general, this book has not been kind to young women: Cissy's mom, Cissy herself, and Barney's mom have all died decades before their time.

The story of Barney's one friend feels more painful to me than his failed romance with Ethel Traverse. The fact he doesn't even say his name makes it feel like it still hurts him to remember. "Said a good idea was worth more to him than a friend, any time." Ouch. And for a college magazine?? Man. If you're going to betray a friend, at least make it count and squeeze a regular column in a large newspaper or something else actually worthwhile out of it!!

This book clearly exists on its own timeline where certain historical events did not take place... but maybe, in the realm of fanfiction and speculation, a scenario could exist where Barney actually disappeared into Yukon for years to evade the WWI draft.

~

"It’s always been a hard thing for me to tell things, Valancy—anything that went deep. And most things went deep with me."

I feel you, Barney.

I do believe that some of us get a bigger spoonful of the "knows how and when to put their feelings into words" kinda incredient poured into our baking mix than others while we're being made, but that's only the beginning of it – you need practice, too. With his history of bullying and false friends, it's no wonder telling things doesn't come easily to Barney. Wonder if, before Valancy, he has ever had a chance to truly open his heart to someone without it backfiring on him somehow?

Once he gets going, though, he's not too bad at it. Maybe writing all that so-purple-it-approaches-ultraviolet nature prose has taught him a thing or two about putting things into words... I'd say it's mainly the "go into the forest to buffer for an entire day" part that that he needs to work on, going forward.

And then Valancy just keeps insisting she can't believe he cares for her?? These two!! They're truly perfect for each other: one finds it hard to tell things, while the other has an even harder time understanding what she's being told. It's wild.

~

"Girl, you’re in the very core of my heart."

This is such a beautiful way of putting it, and I love the callback to their promise to never lie to each other – even though, momentarily, even that is not enough for Valancy! But all's well that ends well. Love wins!

He would send for his lawyer right away and alter his will again.

I love that word "again" - making it clear that Uncle Benjamin had altered it recently, cutting Valancy out of his will once she left the family / married Barney / had the audacity to shop at his store with her husband / whatever the final straw was for him. And the funny thing about that is that I imagine Uncle Benjamin's original will left Valancy such a pittance that it probably cost him more in legal fees to cut her out than he would have gotten back from the process.

I love how Barney is clearly Not Okay in this opening - a strange man (hatless!) in a dreadful car, ringing a bell vehemently. It's another moment when the narration pans away to a new angle. This isn't Barney, yet, this is just "a man" - a wild, distracted man - like he's lost his personhood in his drive to get Valancy back.

Uncle Benjamin. That fucker. I don't even know if I like him or hate him at this point. Like, as a personhe is definitely not someone I would want to have dinner with, but as a character? He's somehow completely right about everything is the wrongest way possible. "Tell her he says he won't go away until he's seen her." Uncle Benjamin would say that in a self-important way, but Barney would say that in an obsessed way. And who knows if he would actually have said it if not for Benjamin? (and then he drops another stupid misogynistic joke because Uncle Benjamin).

"You've been lying awake at three o'clock too long, that's all that's the matter with you." First of all, how dare you call me out like that, second of all, spoken like someone who knows.

I don't think that Barney needed to be Redfern's son specifically, but I do think it's important to have his backstory as "sad son of millionaire." And having Redfern's be a household name in the book (at least in Deerwood) does make the revelation have more of an impact than, say, Barney's dad showing up as some random timber baron from Montreal. I do stand by my idea that it would have been better to make him the son of John Foster (which would have made the timeline of his book publications a little different, but is probably doable).

Anyway, Barney was absolutely bisexually in love with his college friend.

"You made me believe again in the reality of friendship and love" I am going feral over this line, how he loves her but also they are friends!! "The very core of my heart" blah blah don't care. This is the line that makes me care about them.

You know, we've talked about Valancy's Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, but Barney is also having A Day of it. Realizing he's in love with a woman who is going to die soon and then finding out she's probably not going to die but she left him and then having to talk to his dad on top of it?

Barney: ~pours out his entire heart to Valancy~ Valancy: yeah but u don't rly mean it do u Barney: for fuck's sake! Valancy: ...oh shit fr? <3

It makes sense, though. The Stirlings don't get angry at Valancy. Disappointed, shocked, dismissive, but never angry. And seeing that someone cares enough to get angry at her - about her - is what convinces her.

AKA, some great comedy, finally we get Barney's life story--and some cheap silly melodrama that I, for one, could have done without.

It was not until early afternoon the next day that a dreadful old car clanked up Elm Street and stopped in front of the brick house. A hatless man sprang from it and rushed up the steps. The bell was rung as it had never been rung before—vehemently, intensely. The ringer was demanding entrance, not asking it. 

FINALLY you showed up, it was about time, Mr Snaith. I mean, Mr Redfern.

This scene is pure gold in comedy. Barney, storming into the house in absolute frenzy. Uncle Benjamin, giggling to himself in strategy "nice to meet you, Mr Redfern, Valancy will be down presently". And then he commands Mrs Frederick to go get Valancy, and listens at the door to make sure it goes well. He takes no chances.

“Valancy dear,” said Mrs. Frederick tenderly, “your husband is in the parlour, asking for you.”

Calling her Valancy and speaking to her tenderly after she unexpectedly found herself a mother-in-law to an heir--who would have thunk it.

“Oh, Mother.” Valancy got up from the window and wrung her hands. “I cannot see him—I cannot! Tell him to go away—ask him to go away. I can’t see him!”

Okay but why? WHY? Can't help feeling it's purely for melodramatic reason (it's such a stereotypical scene that it makes me groan). Thank the gods for Uncle Benjamin. It is not proper to spy through a keyhole but, well, sometimes you gotta.

“Valancy, darling—oh, you darling little idiot! Whatever possessed you to run away like that? When I came home last night and found your letter I went quite mad. It was twelve o’clock—I knew it was too late to come here then. I walked the floor all night. Then this morning Dad came—I couldn’t get away till now. Valancy, whatever got into you? Divorce, forsooth! Don’t you know——”

And what the fuck did you expect her to do when you never spoke but two sentences to her after the narrow escape at the train tracks and then disappeared into the woods? What was she supposed to think.

Although. Sigh. Married me out of pity. He is kind so he will make me think he cares. Goody, but it is tiring, I want to shake her. (Previously I wanted to shake Barney, so maybe both should be shaken, like tree branches in the wind. Very fitting for them.)

Uncle Benjamin, tiptoeing through the hall, heard the laugh and frowned. Surely Doss wasn’t going to be a stubborn little fool.

You and me both, Uncle Ben.

Thankfully, she lets him tell his story without protests.

I like his story (I mean, I don't like that he was so unhappy, obviously, but I like it as a story) and it makes a lot of sense with what we know about Barney. How ironic that when his dad got rich, Barney started suffering those bullies. Kids are such cruel creatures.

Dad had gone out to see an old friend in the country and took me along. I was turned loose in the barnyard and I spent the whole day hammering nails in a block of wood. I had a glorious day.

This is so cool.

That stunt his so-called friend pulled with the sketch was beyond shitty. A good idea was worth more to him than a friend, he said? I wonder how he's doing now. I wonder if he ran out of ideas and whether he has any friends at all.

Now onto Ethel Traverse. (Sigh.) So, he fell in love, they got engaged and then he once happened to overhear her say

A girl friend of hers was asking her how she could stomach Doc. Redfern’s son and the patent-medicine background. “‘His money will gild the Pills and sweeten the Bitters,’ said Ethel, with a laugh. ‘Mother told me to catch him if I could. We’re on the rocks. But pah! I smell turpentine whenever he comes near me.’”

LMM going for a lazy trope of a gold digger.

“Oh, Barney!” cried Valancy, wrung with pity for him. She had forgotten all about herself and was filled with compassion for Barney and rage against Ethel Traverse. How dared she?

Indeed. How dared she. How dared she come from a family that was losing money, how dared she get pressured by her mother to get engaged to a man she didn't love and seemingly didn't even have any respect for (which is worse), how dared she be put off by the smell of turpentine. How very dared she.

I left civilisation and those accursed dopes behind me and went to the Yukon.

And this is IT. This is what makes him a dreamboat.

I said this during the Anne of the Island Book Club regarding Billy Andrews sending his sister to propose to Anne for him bc he was too shy: 'You know what makes you not an incel? Not behaving like an incel'. If you don't want to be an incel, all you need to do is to make a decision not to become one. And then do the work. That's it. Barney did it. He went away, worked on himself, toughened up and started writing books. He made his own money and bought a house. Of course, he still had unresolved issues--being avoidant and all that, but that is his own arc in the story. That's where Valancy came in and made him believe that true friendship and love exist.

Young Barney, of the Ethel Traverse era, was not the Barney of Blue Castle, the Barney we know and love. He was probably quite an insecure young man, and too sensitive. That Barney would not be seen driving the 'dreadful' Lady Jane, he would not roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty fixing her. He would not buy oranges for a disgraced girl like Cissy Gay, he would not be friends with Roaring Abel. He would not buy an island on Mistawis, he would not smoke a villainous pipe. And he would most likely not be a hero of Valancy's Blue Castle, in any era. It's what he went through that made him the man he is. Who wants a guy who smells of turpentine?

After being homeless all my life it was beautiful to have a home. To come home hungry at night and know there was a good supper and a cheery fire—and you.

Gold standard LMM romance! Love feels like home. It's like when Anne and Gilbert (finally) get engaged. Gilbert proposal was: “I have a dream,” he said slowly. “I persist in dreaming it, although it has often seemed to me that it could never come true. I dream of a home with a hearth-fire in it, a cat and dog, the footsteps of friends—and you!” (Midsommar has that famous "do you feel held by him, does he feel like home to you?", a dark example but true nonetheless.)

Melodrama, yadda yadda YAWN. It's just so silly. He fucking told you he loved you, why do you insist on not believing him. He drove up to your mother's house, rang the bell like a madman and probably scared the living daylight out of poor Stickles. You're not dying, so what would he be pitying you for? Jesus, Valancy. *headdesk*

Uncle Benjamin, who had been frozen with horror at the keyhole, suddenly thawed out and tiptoed back to Mrs. Frederick and Cousin Stickles. “Everything is all right,” he announced jubilantly.

Mrs. Frederick, returning to her comfortable belief in an overruling Providence, got out the family Bible and made an entry under “Marriages.”

"Valancy, before this year you’ve spent all your life in ugliness. You know nothing of the beauty of the world." I don't think this is meant to be insulting, just facts. It's not "you know nothing Jon Snow" it's just "you've only begun to see the beauty the world has to offer." He's acknowledging a lack she's had in her life, and something that caused her a great amount of pain, and then his plans to give her what she's been missing.

Barney spent most of the last chapter meeting Valancy as an equal, being vulnerable with her, and telling her his true feelings - and she refused to listen to / believe him. He's not going to convince her today that she's clever; that's going to take him literal years. The man is picking his battles.

Re: his making all sorts of plans for the two of them - consider that Barney's spent the last two days realizing that he's in love with Valancy and wants to spend a lifetime with her, while thinking that they'll never get to spend that lifetime together because a) she's dying, and then b) she's not dying but she is leaving him. Of course, the moment they get past all that, he's going to blurt out, "I want to show you this (thing I never thought I would have the chance to show you) and do this (thing I was terrified we'd never be able to do together)."

"But, Barney,” protested Valancy after a few minutes––"

👀💋🤭

I guess that this is as good a post as any to admit that I just felt like rolling my eyes at first when I learned there had been a did-they-or-didn't-they debate during the first book club – like, duh, obviously they did – but the further I've read and the more I've thought about it, the murkier the situation has become in my mind.

I guess for me, it's been a bit hard to imagine "friends with benefits" being a thing in the 1920s in a way that would allow Valancy to delude herself into thinking that Barney likes her as a friend, has sex with her, and yet, doesn't love her. Like, all signs point to the two of them having a very happy and satisfying sex life, and it's not like he does that only because he pities her – would a man engaging in some creepy kind of pity sex bother complimenting his partner's kissable dent and her nice voice for love-making?? At the very least, he very clearly feels erotic love towards her! So how is it possible that Valancy doesn't take that into account when telling herself that he doesn't care for her?

But then I started thinking about two things. One: maybe Valancy thought that it's every married couple's Christian duty to do it like rabbits, no matter what their personal feelings towards each other really are. Two: maybe this is one of the reasons why the tale of Cissy and her ex is featured in the novel? That relationship resulted in a pregnancy, and yet, in the end, he did not love her. Maybe by telling us that story before Valancy and Barney's marriage, LMM is trying to plant this little seed of "hey, remember, men are only after one thing" into both Valancy's head and our heads. Maybe that's what Valancy's been thinking about when convincing herself that Barney doesn't love her.

Oh well! I'm glad that every misunderstanding has been cleared now. May our lovebirds keep having amazing, mutually loving marital sex for years to come!

~

Anyway, I do wonder how Valancy is going to spend her days after their globetrotting honeymoon is over. I'm assuming that now that Barney's secrets have all been revealed, he won't be too proud to use some of his father's money to hire housekeeping staff for them, so that all her time won't be spent in scrubbing the floors... but what will she do while Barney is working on his books?

Maybe they will have those fat babies she dreamed of in the beginning of the book, and they'll keep her busy – but if they do not, or if they turn out to be perfect little cherubs that sleep fourteen hours non-stop every night and don't demand every single ounce of their mother's attention when they're awake, what kind of a project or a hobby might she pick up? Maybe not everyone feels this way, but personally, I think it'd drive me crazy to just lounge around while my husband is writing his eleventh bestseller in the next room – to feel fully content, I'd need to have a productive thing of my own to focus on.

To me, Valancy doesn't seem like an artist type, and I doubt she wants to pick up sewing again after all those useless quilts... but maybe she could find a passion in gardening (I mean, the rosebush incident goes to show that she has a way with plants), or cooking all manner of international recipes she'll soon start collecting during their travels. Any other ideas?

~

Also. Uhh. Did I miss something, or did Barney never explain why he felt the need to keep his John Foster identity secret from Valancy for so long, even when he thought she was going to die very soon?

I guess at first, he didn't know her well enough to trust that she would keep it secret – but after finding her to be "the best and jolliest and dearest little pal and chum a fellow ever had"? Was it fear that her being John Foster's #1 fangirl might make their relationship dynamic weird? Or did he just feel an overwhelming sense that it'd be too awkward to bring it up after keeping it a secret for such a long time?

~

Also also. Since the Tierney portrait is back on the table now, was the real reason Barney didn't want Valancy getting her portrait painted earlier that it would've been too painful for him to see the painting after her death??

While Valancy says she's not clever, she loves reading, and they're going to be spending a lot of time in Montreal - if she wanted to, she could study towards a BA at McGill. Women had been graduating from the BA program at McGill for decades by the time of TBC.

Noooo our beloved overall wearing long haired hobo man

Extract from letter written by Miss Olive Stirling to Mr. Cecil Bruce:

Wait, isn't his name Price? Has Olive changed Cecils somewhere along the way without anyone noticing? Is there more to her than would seem?

“It’s really disgusting that Doss’ crazy adventures should have turned out like this. It makes one feel that there is no use in behaving properly.

What was it that set off Valancy's villain arc? Let's go back to Chapter 8, AKA The Dark Night of the Soul.

I’ve been trying to please other people all my life and failed.

People pleasing is the real villain of the story. (Uncle James and Mrs Frederick are really horrible people, but that's not the point here.) Repressing your true self, performing, keeping up appearances, all of that. It's why I say this book should be required reading for mental health people. And I think nearly all members of the clan perform to some extent--and Olive might be the one who performs more than anyone else. If you see someone being the perfect daughter, the golden girl of the family, that's almost always a role they play. Nobody is that flawless. Yes, she was much luckier than Valancy--born to better parents with money, pretty. But that doesn't mean that there no expectations bestowed on her. Wasn't the school she graduated from some sort of finishing school, I think one of the book club members said it? Even if not, good manners would be expected of her at all times. Insert Toy Story meme: expectations, expectations everywhere. Valancy has been taught it was unladylike to have feelings, and it's likely the same was taught to Olive.

Also note, Olive was pretty but how much of it was thanks to growing up in a healthier environment, where fires were lit when they needed to be, where she had loving parents, ate nutritious food, was encouraged to wear clothes that fitted her figure, colours that complimented her, and style her hair the most flattering way; not to mention her parents had money. Valancy started looking better as soon as she went apeshit.

I see her point 100%. Olive follows all the rules religiously--yet Valancy, who has shamelessly broken them, bags herself a Redfern heir and gains respect of the whole clan. Olive broke off a relationship with a man who the clan marked as unsuitable, who for all we know was the one she truly loved. She got engaged to Cecil, who her family approved of--and whose own family was probably even more strict than the Stirlings (I take it that LMM made a mistake here and the correct name is Price). The night of the Chidley Corners dance, when she and her father encountered Valancy and Barney on the road is I think the only time we get her POV. She's thinking back about Cecil's concerns over derangement running in the family.

The Port Lawrence Prices were not accustomed to ally themselves with families whose members “worked out.”

Valancy asks her whether it hurts 'looking like that'. But nobody chooses to feel tense or anxious, nobody. It's why Olive has that sudden idea to 'induce the prodigal daughter to come home'. Imagine the points she'd score with the clan if she was the one to get Valancy to return! She'd get praise from both the Stirlings and the Prices!

I’m sure her mind was unbalanced when she left home. 

It sort of was. In a good way, from Valancy's POV. It's why I refer to it as going apeshit.

Of course I don’t think there was ever a thing the matter with her heart. Or perhaps Snaith or Redfern or whatever his name really is fed Purple Pills to her, back in that Mistawis hut and cured her. It would make quite a testimonial for the family ads, wouldn’t it?

She's not wrong here. There was nothing the matter with Valancy's heart--nothing fatal, at least--but she still had a condition that did get cured while living with Barney--not by Purple Pills, but by living well, but Olive cannot know that. Though it would be funny if the Doc used it as an advert, lol.

Olive has her own taste in men, she's not really obliged to like Barney, but even she calls him distinguished looking.

I really think, Cecil, you should exercise more. It doesn’t do to get too fleshy.

Yeah, Cecil, go chop some wood.

They’re going to spend the fall in Italy and the winter in Egypt and motor through Normandy in apple-blossom time. Not in that dreadful old Lizzie, though. Redfern has got a wonderful new car.

Italy! *heart eyes* Olive (not so) subtly hinting to Cecil what she wants from her honeymoon.

Well, I think I’ll run away, too, and disgrace myself. It seems to pay.

DO IT!

In the first recap I said that I hoped Olive and Cecil will be very happy together but it would be good to see Olive go apeshit as well. We're not told much about Cecil, he seems very stiff, but again, that might be due to his own family expectations too. I don't really have anything against him, but now I'm thinking that Olive should follow her cousin's footsteps and get together with a scandalous guy. Well, she already has one, what is to say she can't come across him again? Will Desmond was the name, right? But another image a couple of chapters ago gave me an idea of how Olive's going apeshit arc might start: those flappers at the train station. What if Olive went out one evening, feeling a bit mad over everything (bc of everything that went down with Valancy and Cecil being an idiot or whatever), walked towards the station and those flappers were there and she'd know one, or more, of them, and they'd invite her to join them? 'We're going to a party, come with us!" And she'll go and next thing you know, she becomes one--she turns up with the haircut, clothes, make up, smoking a cigarette at one of the clan's function and shocks everyone. (Cousin Gladys faints, as ever.) Just an idea.

Uncle Ben is a scream. Likewise Uncle James. The fuss they all make over Doss now is absolutely sickening. 

I was wondering about Uncle James. Of course, he now acts as if Valancy was his favourite niece all along.

To hear Aunt Amelia talking of ‘my son-in-law, Bernard Redfern’ and ‘my daughter, Mrs. Bernard Redfern.’

That checks out for her.

And they can’t see that Valancy is just laughing at them all in her sleeve.

And she's right here too, and clearly she can see through everyone's hypocrisy. Really, aside from maybe that little bit about John Foster, she is correct about everything in her letter.

Olive has really not done anything bad. The dust pile incident, that was not her idea--it was the other girls'. Olive probably doesn't even remember it. Olive cannot know that Mrs Frederick showed such strong preference to her over her own daughter. Just like we don't know what went on behind closed doors at Casa Wellington. If it came down to it, Valancy and Olive might find they have more in common than would initially appear. At worst, they could be like Story Girl and Felicity (Felicity made me think of Olive often during the book club). They bicker but they're not enemies. If Valancy had a better mother--it always goes back to Mrs Frederick.

Excuse me, are we forgetting the button-string?