My garden of musings

Of course my dad fit that description exactly and she was married to him for 41 years. But before him, she had a boyfriend who was also Russian-Jewish. And she tells me that as a teenager, she had a big crush on Topol as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, even though he was playing a grizzled middle-aged father.

Though admittedly, she hasn't always chosen that type. Her high school boyfriend was the now-famous Egyptologist Mark Lehner, who isn't that type at all. And she's confessed to me that her first childhood crush was on Mary Martin as Peter Pan, so in another life, she could have been a lesbian with a thing for androgynous blondes.

Yes. I think it started from a place of good intent, wanting to defend the three Walt-era Princesses after so many years of people bashing them and calling them anti-feminist. But it’s taken a turn so that a lot of fans just seem to want more heroines like the Walt-era Princesses and enjoy bashing all the heroines who are less sweet, poised, and delicate - or less white, for that matter.

Elizabeth Bennet isn't the narrator of Pride and Prejudice. She's not the only viewpoint character of Pride and Prejudice either. The book is narrated in third person by an omniscient narrator. And while of course there's some blurring of the lines, it's generally clear whether a scene is being described strictly from a character's point of view or whether the narrator is describing it objectively.

From the posts I've read on this subject before, I've learned that the Austen fandom has long had the habit of either trying to paint Darcy as better than he is (e.g. "He was never really proud, just shy") or as worse than he is (e.g. "He probably really did deny Wickham a living out of jealousy"), with the excuse that we only see him from Elizabeth's point of view. But that's not true.

Now I've been seeing the same thing, again and again, when people defend The Other Bennet Sister from complaints that it distorts the characterizations from Pride and Prejudice. They claim "Pride and Prejudice is from Elizabeth's point of view. The Other Bennet Sister gives us Mary's point of view, which is different but just as valid."

Negging is manipulation. Negging is when a man insults a woman or gives her backhanded compliments to break down her self-esteem. The point is to make her grateful that he likes her despite all "flaws," to stop her from thinking she's too good for him, and/or to make her think no one else would want her.

Darcy isn't negging Elizabeth when he insults her looks at the beginning: he's genuinely not interested in her and genuinely doesn't find her pretty at first. The omniscient narrator tells us that he only gradually becomes attracted to her as he gets to know her better.

Nor is he negging during his first proposal when he makes such a big, insulting deal of Elizabeth's lower social status. He's not trying to manipulate her into accepting him: he thinks she's already been flirting with him and has no doubt that she'll accept. He's just being excessively, brutally honest.

The cast of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Muny (St. Louis Municipal Opera), 1969.

The stage adaptation of Disney's Snow White that was performed at Radio City Music Hall in 1979, with its book by Joe Cook and its new songs with lyrics by Cook and music by Jay Blackton, didn't originate at Radio City. It was first performed in 1969 at St. Louis's famous outdoor musical theatre, the Muny.

Here we see operatic soprano Patricia Wise as Snow White and operatic tenor Frank Porretta (father of actor Matthew Porretta) as her Prince. And among these actors with dwarfism who play the seven dwarfs, there are two very notable names: Billy Barty as Dopey (his credits are too many to list), and Jerry Maren, the green-clad middle member of the Lollipop Guild in The Wizard of Oz, as Sleepy.

(This wasn't Billy Barty's only experience with the tale of Snow White, as eighteen years later he played the dwarf leader Iddy in the 1987 Canon Movie Tales adaptation. Nor was Jerry Maren the only former Munchkin to appear in a Snow White adaptation, as Billy Curtis, the "And oh, what happened then was rich!" Munchkin, played the eldest dwarf Barnaby in the 1984 Faerie Tale Theatre version.)

Also in this production were another operatic soprano, Marthe Errolle, as the Evil Queen, and Australian actor Laurie Main, whom some of us remember best as the kindly narrator of Welcome to Pooh Corner on the Disney Channel, as Snow White's father the King.

Every now and then, I've heard people claim that Elizabeth and Darcy aren't relatable characters. Repeatedly I've read the claim that Elizabeth is a heroine you aspire to be like, not a heroine you relate to. (To me that claim seems odd, though. She's far from a perfect role model: she spends the first half of the book getting things wrong, and the second half realizing she was wrong and changing her opinions!) And as for Darcy, I know what people who honestly do relate to him have to deal with: other people scoffing at the very idea, insisting that he's just a fantasy of a snob who transforms into a romantic ideal.

But I don't buy that. Both characters seem very human and believable to me. There must be more people who see themselves in them than some fans think there are!

Yes, even much later in the 19th century, Victor Hugo framed Mme. Thenardier’s red hair in Les Miserables as a part of her ugliness. For that matter, since that was how he felt about it, he probably made Quasimodo a redhead in The Hunchback of Notre Dame to further emphasize his ugliness too. And of course later still, in Anne of Green Gables, we see Anne Shirley's loathing of her own red hair.

Even today it's a sore point. Not from my perspective, of course: from the outside as a brunette, I've always thought or red, auburn, or strawberry blonde hair as beautiful, and until I read Anne of Green Gables for the first time I never heard anyone say otherwise. But when Halle Bailey was cast as Ariel in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, I remember the uproar. Not just from the blatant racists (although they could be heard too), but from redheads accusing Disney of prejudice against their hair color, claiming that all their lives they had been taught that red hair was ugly and garish, but that Ariel made them feel like they could be beautiful for a change, and now Disney was taking that away from them. Though as it turned out, that big fuss was fur nothing, because Bailey's Ariel had red hair after all: black people sometimes have red hair too.

Hmm... I may change my mind later, but for now these are my choices:

Cinderella

Snow White

Beauty and the Beast

The Snow Queen

All three of their viewpoints turn out to be right, but all three are "right for the wrong reasons." Jane wants to think well of Darcy because she wants to think well of everyone, and she doesn't suspect that Wickham is lying, but thinks he must be mistaken about Darcy's actions, because she wants to think well of Wickham too. Charlotte is only being pragmatic and thinking of Darcy's status and wealth, not his character. And Caroline ends her speech about Wickham's villainy with blatant classism, by adding that of course it's to be expected from a man of such low birth.

In the post I recently reblogged defending Elizabeth from Austen fans who accuse her of so many wrongdoings, one of the arguments was against the idea that she should have listened to Jane and Caroline, because between Jane's naïve idealism and Caroline's snobbery, their opinions at that point really do ring hollow.

Except now, having reread those chapters, I'm not sure if I fully agree. Amid Jane's simple idealism, she does make one sound argument: that Bingley, a man whom they know is genuinely kind and decent, is Darcy's close friend. Maybe Elizabeth should have more strongly considered that fact instead of deciding so easily that Bingley must be deceived by Darcy. Indeed, after Darcy's letter, she does realize that his friendship with Bingley would make no sense if he were really the monster Wickham painted him as. And everything Caroline says about Wickham and Darcy's history turns out to be true: she just puts her own classist spin on the story at the very end.