Gone With the Wind - Is Gone ("Temporarily" from Some Streaming/Broadcast Services)

[Libby1]

10 minutes ago, Ellener said:

 

@Libby1 author Geraldine Brooks wrote a book 'March' based on the Little Women father: An idealistic abolitionist, March has gone as chaplain to serve the Union cause. But the war tests his faith not only in the Union - which is also capable of barbarism and racism - but in himself. As he recovers from a near-fatal illness, March must reassemble and reconnect with his family, who have no idea of what he has endured. A love story set in a time of catastrophe, March explores the passions between a man and a woman, the tenderness of parent and child, and the life-changing power of an ardently held belief. I loved it because it revisited the whole world of these books which was real to me as a child ( Anne of Green Gables was too ) They were the places I learned to think about the issues of human relationships and unfairness and prejudice. 

 

Spin off books can be fascinating.  In fact, I remember reading a spin off book about Scarlett O'Hara post Gone With The Wind.  I don't recall it being much good, but a genuinely good read is Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.  Rather than trying to come up with my own summary I'll just borrow wiki's...

Wide Sargasso Sea is a 1966 novel by Dominica-born British author Jean Rhys. It is a feminist and anti-colonial response to Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre (1847), describing the background to Mr. Rochester's marriage from the point-of-view of his mad wife Antoinette Cosway, a Creole heiress. Antoinette Cosway is Rhys' version of Brontë's devilish "madwoman in the attic". Antoinette's story is told from the time of her youth in Jamaica, to her unhappy marriage to a certain unnamed English gentleman, who renames her Bertha, declares her mad, takes her to England, and isolates her away from the rest of the world in his mansion. Antoinette is caught in an oppressive patriarchal society in which she fully belongs neither to Europe nor to Jamaica. Wide Sargasso Sea explores the power of relationships between men and women and develops postcolonial themes, such as racism, displacement, and assimilation.

Every madwoman in the attic deserves to have her backstory told by a sympathetic writer.

Edited June 16, 2020 by Libby1

[sothereiwas]

1 hour ago, Libby1 said:

I think a reworked Gone With The Wind could be fascinating.  Not to replace the original, but to challenge it to a certain extent.  The problem with reworking anything like that, though, is that it could actually end up being far less realistic than the original it sought to add gritty reality to. 

The potential for it to end up being more realistic is there, and I would watch that movie. However I don't think that's what would end up being made, we don't seem to have much appetite for things that are hard to watch and think about any more. Maybe we never did, but then movies like Sayonara managed to send a message somehow. 

[Ellener]

@Libby1 Mental illness is very misunderstood and attracts prejudice all of its own!

[preraph]

5 hours ago, schlumpy said:

Anne of Green Gables was a wonderful book to read and the series starring Megan Fellows was a gem.

If I know that a book has been rewritten to "bring it up to modern standards" I would decline to read it. I read to gain perspective, not reinforce opinion I hear daily.

I really find it troubling that a book would be rewritten like that. I suppose it's about money or maybe pressure from activist groups?

Anyway, wonderful post as always Libby. Gives me much to think about.

I loved Anne of Green Gables.