Judy Nichols's Blog - Posts Tagged "gone-with-the-wind"
My Best Liked Review..
..is not for a mystery, or a biography or a New York Times best selling contemporary literary novel.
It's for Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, a popular book on Goodreads. There are more than 420,000 ratings and nearly 10,0000 reviews. If you're interested, you can read my review here.
I wrote my review in 2008 and I still receive notifications from Goodreads that someone has "liked" it. I've also received 19 comments, some from people who agree with my view and some with people who think I missed the entire point of the story and should lighten up.
I wrote as someone who'd read the book as a teenager, and re-read it decades later.
What a difference forty years makes.
The first time around, I focused on the love story and how life as they knew it changed dramatically for the O'Hara family and everyone else in their social circle during the course of the Civil War.
On the second read, I noticed the racism. The word "noticing" doesn't really describe the experience. It was more like being hit over the head with a sledge hammer. At times I wanted to throw the book across the room.
Human beings are quite literally property. Gerald O'Hara wins his first slave in a poker game. Pork is submitted as a bet, like a ring or a pocket watch. And the Tarleton twins receive their first slave as a gift for their tenth birthday. Instead of a pony, they get a person.
Yes, you never forget your first slave.
And don't get me started on the glorification of the Ku Klux Klan.
I gave the book two stars. I am in the minority, as its average rating is 4.2 stars. There are pages of five star reviews.
I have enjoyed the discussion that followed. Since the book was written by a woman living in the relatively modern era of the 1930s, and a feminist to boot, I don't buy the opinion that the period in question was a racist time, and Mitchell was just telling it like it was.
Maybe so, but Scarlett is a 20th century style feminist. She takes over running Tara and starts several businesses, managing them herself. The societal matrons disapprove, but she doesn't care. This was not your typical 19th century female.
It's been 77 years since GWTW was published. The fact that we're all still reading it and talking about it says a lot about the power of its story.
And even though I didn't care for it, I'd still recommend reading it, if only to see how far we've come since 1936.
It's for Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, a popular book on Goodreads. There are more than 420,000 ratings and nearly 10,0000 reviews. If you're interested, you can read my review here.
I wrote my review in 2008 and I still receive notifications from Goodreads that someone has "liked" it. I've also received 19 comments, some from people who agree with my view and some with people who think I missed the entire point of the story and should lighten up.
I wrote as someone who'd read the book as a teenager, and re-read it decades later.
What a difference forty years makes.
The first time around, I focused on the love story and how life as they knew it changed dramatically for the O'Hara family and everyone else in their social circle during the course of the Civil War.
On the second read, I noticed the racism. The word "noticing" doesn't really describe the experience. It was more like being hit over the head with a sledge hammer. At times I wanted to throw the book across the room.
Human beings are quite literally property. Gerald O'Hara wins his first slave in a poker game. Pork is submitted as a bet, like a ring or a pocket watch. And the Tarleton twins receive their first slave as a gift for their tenth birthday. Instead of a pony, they get a person.
Yes, you never forget your first slave.
And don't get me started on the glorification of the Ku Klux Klan.
I gave the book two stars. I am in the minority, as its average rating is 4.2 stars. There are pages of five star reviews.
I have enjoyed the discussion that followed. Since the book was written by a woman living in the relatively modern era of the 1930s, and a feminist to boot, I don't buy the opinion that the period in question was a racist time, and Mitchell was just telling it like it was.
Maybe so, but Scarlett is a 20th century style feminist. She takes over running Tara and starts several businesses, managing them herself. The societal matrons disapprove, but she doesn't care. This was not your typical 19th century female.
It's been 77 years since GWTW was published. The fact that we're all still reading it and talking about it says a lot about the power of its story.
And even though I didn't care for it, I'd still recommend reading it, if only to see how far we've come since 1936.
Six Degrees of Bacon for August
Happy first day of August. First of the month means another round of Six Degrees of Bacon. Hard to believe we're up to the eighth film in my 2017 Classic Movie Poster Calendar.
This month it's "Stagecoach," (1939), described on the poster as "A Powerful Story of 9 Strange People."
I admit I didn't know much about "Stagecoach," other than John Wayne was in it and John Ford directed it. And it was a western filmed on location in Arizona's Monument Valley.
Sure am grateful for IMBd.com.
Turns out Westerns were not all that popular once talkies came around. People had lost interest in the genre, but with the breathtaking scenery of Monument Valley, and the climactic chase scene in which stuntman Yakima Canutt jumped from galloping horse to galloping horse while they were pulling the coach, audiences now couldn't get enough cowboy shoot-'em-ups.
Because I can't resist powerful stories about strange people, I decided to watch it this morning. Right off, I noticed that Doc Boone, played by Thomas Mitchell, looked really familiar but I couldn't place him. A quick check of IMDb explained why. He also played Scarlet O'Hara's father Gerald in "Gone With the Wind," and the scatterbrained Uncle Billy in "It's a Wonderful Life."
By the way, Mitchell won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "Stagecoach."
All right, let's make our way to Bacon starting with John Wayne,
Who was in "The Sons of Katie Elder" with Dean Martin,
Who was in "What a Way to Go" with Shirley MacClaine,
Who was in "Terms of Endearment" with Jack Nicholson,
Who was in "A Few Good Men" with KEVIN BACON!!!!
Any different routes to Bacon are always appreciated. See you next month.
Judy Nichols is the author of several mysteries available on Amazon.
This month it's "Stagecoach," (1939), described on the poster as "A Powerful Story of 9 Strange People."
I admit I didn't know much about "Stagecoach," other than John Wayne was in it and John Ford directed it. And it was a western filmed on location in Arizona's Monument Valley.
Sure am grateful for IMBd.com.
Turns out Westerns were not all that popular once talkies came around. People had lost interest in the genre, but with the breathtaking scenery of Monument Valley, and the climactic chase scene in which stuntman Yakima Canutt jumped from galloping horse to galloping horse while they were pulling the coach, audiences now couldn't get enough cowboy shoot-'em-ups.
Because I can't resist powerful stories about strange people, I decided to watch it this morning. Right off, I noticed that Doc Boone, played by Thomas Mitchell, looked really familiar but I couldn't place him. A quick check of IMDb explained why. He also played Scarlet O'Hara's father Gerald in "Gone With the Wind," and the scatterbrained Uncle Billy in "It's a Wonderful Life."
By the way, Mitchell won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "Stagecoach."
All right, let's make our way to Bacon starting with John Wayne,
Who was in "The Sons of Katie Elder" with Dean Martin,
Who was in "What a Way to Go" with Shirley MacClaine,
Who was in "Terms of Endearment" with Jack Nicholson,
Who was in "A Few Good Men" with KEVIN BACON!!!!
Any different routes to Bacon are always appreciated. See you next month.
Judy Nichols is the author of several mysteries available on Amazon.
