#Higgins and Margaret

[thatscarletflycatcher]

Advisor asked me to write about two or three relationships that illustrate the intuitions I have about Gaskell's ethical-political framework in N&S, and, granted, how can he tell without having read the book, and I cannot expect him to read the whole thing, but boy is that a much more difficult task than he thinks.

[not-undead-yet]

I know that this fandom might be dying, but I just watched Sir. Sir? Sir!!! For the first time, and, aside from the fact that it is a cinematic masterpiece, there is something endlessly funny to me about the plants, every time somebody would walk by and just eat some plant was strangely hilarious to me.

[musicalyeetreblr]

I may be obsessed with this meme template

[johnsspacesuittight]

Brackenreid has literally so many kids my god, there are his actual three biological kids, and then there's Higgins, Crabtree, Watts and Mrs. Hart, at LEAST

[vickyvicarious]

So... Masters and Men, eh? There are several different perspectives at play in this chapter:

Mrs. Thornton

"[Workers strike] For the mastership and ownership of other people’s property [...] they are a pack of ungrateful hounds [...] they want to be masters, and make the masters into slaves on their own ground. They are always trying at it; they always have it in their minds".

Mrs. Thornton speaks very harshly of the workers, and she seems to explicitly view the situation as opposing sides, with the 'lesser' one being the aggressor. Part of the pride she takes in her lifestyle is linked to being brave enough to face them and 'fight' against them. In fact, the quote about that is really interesting to me, because she claims they're "a people who are always owing their betters a grudge, and only waiting for an opportunity to pay it off," but in some ways, she could be seen that way as well. At least in the sense of family history/social status, the Hales are supposedly the Thornton's superiors, right? And Mrs. Thornton is very prickly about being seen as inferior herself. A lot of it seems to be genuine pride and dislike of their (Southern) priorities, but some is definitely defensive. And I could see some nasty high society person using similar wording about Mrs. Thornton herself having a grudge against her betters. Certainly, as someone who herself had to struggle tremendously to climb to the point she's at now, I find it easier to see her believing others will want to do the same (though she attributes more malevolence to their actions).

Mr. Hale

"I should say that the masses were already passing rapidly into the troublesome stage which intervenes between childhood and manhood, in the life of the multitude as well as that of the individual. Now, the error which many parents commit in the treatment of the individual at this time is, insisting on the same unreasoning obedience as when all he had to do in the way of duty was, to obey the simple laws of ‘Come when you’re called,’ and ‘Do as you’re bid!’ But a wise parent humours the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and adviser when his absolute rule shall cease."

Mr. Hale doesn't attempt to dispute the idea that the workers are inferiors, and he's clearly not willing to go too far because he wants to keep the peace. But he tries to suggest that Mr. Thornton look upon them as growing and learning, and be indulged of their 'mistakes' or 'outbursts', so to speak. When talk again turns to the two sides as being opposed to one another, Mr. Hale says, "is not that because there has been none of the equality of friendship between the adviser and advised classes?" He's certainly in favor of mending relations, and he doesn't believe that opposition is inherent/necessary, but his approach is sort of benevolently condescending. This too fits well with his background and the kind of thing Margaret was used to before they move here.

Nicholas Higgins

...it were the interest of the employers to keep them from acquiring money—that it would make them too independent if they had a sum in the savings’ bank. [...] I heard, moreover, that it was considered to the advantage of the masters to have ignorant workmen... [...] But he—that is my informant—spoke as if the masters would like their hands to be merely tall, large children—living in the present moment—with a blind unreasoning kind of obedience.

Higgins (who isn't here and whose words are being relayed second-hand) is the one who first brought up the workers-to-children comparison, but he did so in a distinctly scathing way. He's very bitter about the 'masters' and is definitely displeased at being looked down on. But it's not just resentment. He recognizes the balance of power that is at least in many cases being deliberately maintained. The workers aren't allowed to be too independent because then they can't as easily be used however the masters want. His views are sort of a reverse of Mrs. Thornton's... the employers are the aggressors constantly shoving the workers back down. Wanting them to be ignorant, never to think for themselves, to be dependent and unquestioning. As someone who has very few options even when it comes to helping his daughter dying due to a factory-related illness, his bitterness is fully understandable.

John Thornton

"But because we don’t explain our reasons, they won’t believe we’re acting reasonably. We must give them line and letter for the way we choose to spend or save our money." [...] "I agree with Miss Hale so far as to consider our people in the condition of children, while I deny that we, the masters, have anything to do with the making or keeping them so. I maintain that despotism is the best kind of government for them; so that in the hours in which I come in contact with them I must necessarily be an autocrat." [...] "And I say, that the masters would be trenching on the independence of their hands, in a way that I, for one, should not feel justified in doing, if we interfered too much with the life they lead out of the mills. Because they labour ten hours a-day for us, I do not see that we have any right to impose leading-strings upon them for the rest of their time. I value my own independence so highly that I can fancy no degradation greater than that of having another man perpetually directing and advising and lecturing me, or even planning too closely in any way about my actions."

Mr. Thornton has quite an interesting mix of views here. He claims that it is necessary for him to be a despot; but he feels he has no right to interfere with their personal lives. He talks scornfully of their strikes and says if they knew why he's taken his stance, then they would act differently, but he refuses to tell them why. He agrees that they're like children, but then says he respects their independence and is treating them like he'd want to be treated. Thornton does seem to have a better understanding of the independent nature of the people here, but he uses that reasoning to justify remaining completely uninvolved in bettering the situation. He asks if he has any right to impose his own views on them just because he's their boss - and that's a fair point, but also, he's kind of doing that regardless? It's his belief that an honest and straightforward, if demanding 'master' is both more respectable and incurs loyalty/becomes an example to follow. It's his belief that the workers should blindly obey him because he's in charge, and that this is better for them. And as someone with so much power over their livelihoods, he can operate based on these views. If they feel otherwise, they don't have the power to change that. When they try with strikes, he's willing to get into a power struggle that he admits will hurt him as well as them, rather than let them 'win' even just enough to make him admit his reasons why. Even though he claims their interests align with his, he seems to feel that they don't or can't understand this, and thus conflict is inevitable. In fact, I think he was the first one to call it a "battle of the classes." Thornton's backstory is very much a "pulled myself up by my own bootstraps" success story, and because he did it by working really hard and practicing lots of self-discipline, he seems to think anyone else who fails to succeed is at fault for not working hard enough. He didn't question his bosses, he just put the work in! And so on. Of course, pretty sure he was always of a higher class, and that's going to be a factor for all of these people regardless, but still, I can easily see him thinking that it's their fault for not knowing how to save their money carefully enough. And thus dismissing their complaints.

Margaret Hale

All I meant to say is, that there is no human law to prevent the employers from utterly wasting or throwing away all their money, if they choose; but that there are passages in the Bible which would rather imply—to me at least—that they neglected their duties as stewards if they did so. [...] ...I see two classes dependent on each other in every possible way, yet each evidently regarding the interests of the other as opposed to their own: I never lived in a place before where there were two sets of people always running each other down. [...] ...you are a man, dealing with a set of men over whom you have, whether you reject the use of it or not, immense power, just because your lives and your welfare are so constantly and intimately interwoven. God has made us so that we must be mutually dependent. We may ignore our own dependence, or refuse to acknowledge that others depend upon us in more respects than the payment of weekly wages; but the thing must be, nevertheless.

Margaret relays Higgins' words, and speaks on his behalf. She seems to have a position closest to her father, in the sense that she feels it is Mr. Thornton's duty to aid the people under his rulership. She seems guided ultimately by religious ideals of the relationship between people, but also recognizes that the situation involves an inherent power imbalance and thus responsibility on the part of the one who is at the top. As much as Thornton might deny it, he does have incredible power over the people. But he is also dependent upon them. Her talk about dependence is really interesting because she's the first person to portray it as extending in both directions. They are dependent upon him to employ them; but he is equally dependent upon them to work for him. In this way, she goes a step further than Mr. Hale seemed to, and recognizes both sides as at least closer to equals. She clearly isn't suggesting that every worker should be seen as having the same rights and roles as Thornton, but neither does she view them as either entirely isolated in their independence, or entirely subservient in their dependence. It's a complicated web in which everyone plays a valuable part. Fighting against one another is by necessity acting against your own interests, in a way. Once again, I think her having these beliefs fits very well with her background as someone who did operate in a more noblesse oblige way and clearly felt she was better than certain other classes, but also experienced being the social lesser/supported one when taken in by her Aunt.

[dianakc]

'“You may well smile, my lass; many a one would smile to have such a bonny face.” This man looked so careworn that Margaret could not help giving him an answering smile, glad to think that her looks, such as they were, should have had the power to call up a pleasant thought. He seemed to understand her acknowledging glance, and a silent recognition was established between them whenever the chances of the day brought them across each other’s paths.'

[canadachronicles]

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A post shared by Murdoch Mysteries (@cbcmurdoch)

A bit early for me to watch it (and I have heaps of episodes to catch up on before I can anyways!), but I am so thrilled and so excited there will be a Christmas Murdoch Mysteries episode this year!!! And I know it's going to be a gift!

Source: CBC's Murdoch Mysteries' Page

[lothiriel84]

Chapters: 1/19 Fandom: North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Margaret Hale/John Thornton, Margaret Hale & Hannah Thornton, Margaret Hale & Fanny Thornton, Henry Lennox/Fanny Thornton Characters: Margaret Hale, John Thornton (North and South), Hannah Thornton, Fanny Thornton, Henry Lennox, Nicholas Higgins, Adam Bell Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Head Injury, Post-Concussion Syndrome, Injury Recovery, Forced Cohabitation, Pining, Family, Grief/Mourning, Female Friendship, Developing Relationship, Medical Inaccuracies, Historical Inaccuracy, Canonical Character Death, Non-Canon Relationship Summary:

Margaret Hale is more seriously injured in the riot, and the Thorntons have no choice but to take her in as she struggles to recover from the lingering effects of her head trauma.

(The story is completely written, chapters will be posted daily.)

[thatscarletflycatcher]

Reading so much commentary on North and South is maddening, because I have perused 100+ texts, and for the most part there's so much emphasis on the riot scene over and over and over again, and I have yet to find a text that explicitly signals as a turning point in the narrative the first moment where Higgins and Thornton respectively express that they want to hear what Margaret has to say, even when they think she's wrong and misinformed. That's to me such a crucial pivot in the narrative, because until then nobody listens to Margaret, nobody thinks what she has to say matters at all. Her conversations with Henry Lennox are marked by his refusal to take her seriously. Her father does what she says about the move and the house not because he values her judgment but because he doesn't care and cannot bring himself to care or put any thought into it. Mrs. Shaw, Edith, and Captain Lennox are, of course, incapable of rational thought so there's some excuse to be made for them.

To me it's such an important point in N&S that Margaret is able to develop and mature morally and intellectually and become an independent practical reasoner BECAUSE people in Milton, specially Thornton and Higgins, treat her like one; and this also reinforces the way in which Margaret's role in the social plot of the novel is not that of a teacher, but of a liaison. Thornton and Higgins don't need to be taught to dialogue, they need to come to a recognition of each other as a person.

[popculturelib]

Uppity Women: A Legacy of Liberation (1974) by the Lilith's Rib Collective at Hunter College

From the introduction:

We are a group of women students at Hunter College who are working for the implementation of a Women's Studies Department at Hunter. Given an enrollment that is 73% women and a long background as a women's college, we feel that it is time for us to learn about our HERitage and with this goal in mind we are working both politically and educationally. We have chosen to name ourselves after Lilith. She was first mentioned in Assyrian myths as a wind spirit and later played a major part in early Hebraic lore. She is mentioned in the Alphabet Ben Sira as the first woman, created simultaneously with Adam. Being thus created, Lilith refused to accept Adam's claim of supremacy and left him, after refusing to lie beneath him during intercourse. She went to live by the Red Sea. We have chosen her as a symbolic starting point to our heritage. Our motivation to write this book comes out of our own experiences as women. It is an effort to connect with a rich past that has been denied us. Our purpose is to briefly introduce you to some of these women whose lives have been lost to us and who were the Foremothers of our Woman's Culture. We hope that this will encourage you to rediscover Women's history and to participate in the struggle that lies ahead. In Sisterhood, The Lilith's Rib Collective

It includes biographies of Susan B. Anthony, Mary McLeod Bethune, Marie Sklodowska Curie, Isadora Duncan, Amelia Earhart, Emma Goldman, the Grimké Sisters, Anne Hutchinson, Mother Jones, Maria Mitchell, Esther Hubart Morris, Emmeline Goulden Pankhurst, Sacajewa, Margaret Higgins Sanger, Gertrude Stein, Lucy Stone, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Ross Tubman, Mercy Otis Warren, and Victoria Woodhill.

The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States.  Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.

[perfettamentechic]

21 ottobre … ricordiamo …

21 ottobre … ricordiamo … #semprevivineiricordi #nomidaricordare #personaggiimportanti #perfettamentechic

2022: Silvana Suárez, Silvana Rosa Suárez Clarence, modella argentina vincitrice del concorso di bellezza Miss Mondo 1978. Dopo aver invano tentato la carriera di cantante (all’età di diciassette anni era stata anche direttrice di un coro locale), divenne una delle prime Miss Mondo a posare nuda per Playboy, facendosi fotografare senza veli nel 1985. Nel 1988 sposò l’uomo d’affari Julio Ramos,…

[little-mooose]

William Murdoch: Absolutely not. I feel like I would try and surprise him, but he'd see it coming and kick my ass. Man is just too smart

Julia Ogden: I think I could take Julia in a fight. She has a height advantage, but I kick and hit hard enough that I could take her down. I think it'd end up being a pretty close fight though

George Crabtree: I could take George in a fight. I don't think he'd see it coming and he's too nice to hit anyone and I'd be able to jump him

Llewellyn Watts: No, definitely not. Simply because I don't think I could bring myself to fight Watts. I feel like I'd end up simply giving him a hug (because that man definitely needs one) and buying him a pretzel

Violet Hart: I'd like to think I'd be able to fight dirtier, catch her off guard, and kick her ass, but I honestly don't know. I feel like I would think I'd won and then she'd pull out some dirty trick and end me

Henry Higgins: Oh I'd 100000000000% win. He'd never see it coming and he'd be too confused to fight back

Thomas Brackenreid: Oh hell no. Nope, nope, nope. He'd definitely end me and I wouldn't get a single hit in. You couldn't pay me to fight this man

Margaret Brackenreid: Definitely not. We're pretty evenly matched height and build-wise. She's crafty and feisty though and I think she'd take me out

Detective Edwards: No one would be able to stop me from kicking this man's ass. I would destroy him. I don't think anyone would stop me either

Murdoch Mysteries characters and whether or not I could beat them in a fight

By a hobbit sized toddler who has a BMI of -2

William Murdoch: No. Absolutely not. Murdoch is not only very physically capable, he's also incredibly smart, which means that I'm not going to be able to be crafty and surprise him at all. He would turn me inside out like a pair of socks in the laundry.

Julia Ogden: I think Julia and I would be fairly well matched physically. She has a height advantage, but I have a mean kick so I think I could knock her down to my level and get a few hits in. At the end of the day, though, no, I'm still not beating her. Julia's very crafty in a fight, and I think she'd outsmart me.

George Crabtree: Look, you have to remember that George canonically can hit someone so hard it sends them back to the future. This man would take turns with his future self beating me up. I would have a century's worth of internal bleeding. Without this power, I might have a chance, simply because George is too nice to hit anyone, but with it, there is no way.

Llewellyn Watts: Yes. I am confident I can kick his butt right here, right now. He's taller than me, but I have a low centre of gravity, and I feel like any hit to that man would send him toppling over like a Jenga tower. Once he's down, I can just kick him. I would beat this man into the ground.

Violet Hart: She's a bit tricky, because while I think I might have a chance to overpower her in a physical fight, she would fight DIRTY, and I think she'd probably have a knife strapped to her ankle and she'd just shank me. Probably not.

Henry Higgins: Yes. I feel like I could just surprise attack him and knock him down and he'd be completely subdued. I'd be able to outsmart him simply by just jumping him.

Thomas Brackenreid: .... I mean, no. Like, no. Just. Just absolutely not. This man would annihilate me. The only time anyone has ever beat him in a fight is when they jumped him in the dark, and that was only when it was like four against one. My tiny, scrawny ass would have absolutely no chance against this man. This man would flatten me into a sheet and fold me into an origami crane. No way.

Edna Brooks: You would need all of Station House Four combined to hold me back from liquefying her organs. I would destroy her.

[maniacalshen]

I'm about halfway through North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell,* and I so enjoy how medium-terrible every parent in it is. There are no Mary Sues in this novel, and if any side-character is one-note, that note is off-key.

Dear Margaret's parents primarily have a completely inappropriate idea of boundaries. From the moment she comes home to Helstone as an 18-year-old, they're complaining to her about each other and using her to accomplish things the other parent wouldn't approve of.

Mrs. Thornton has massive cognitive dissonance about her own seemingly-useless daughter, when she has such high standards of everyone else. And she rules her son's home in an unconsciously rigid way that I find very realistic. You might see that in any household where the adult children have never lived apart from the matriarch.

Mrs. Shaw, Margaret's Aunt, has never stopped complaining about her own choice to marry rich, but she also never looked for love once her elderly husband kicked it. She just seems to enjoy complaining.

Boucher cries poor-mouth to exaggeration and breaks ranks with the Union to incite violence.

Nicholas Higgins is the most decent, but I'm not sure he provided enough social education to "slatternly" Mary.

And yet, Boucher aside, everyone is kind. Mrs. Shaw half-raised Margaret for her sister and put her own daughter's happiness above any concern about reputation. Mrs. Thornton doesn't like Mrs. Hale or Margaret but freely, materially helps them with illness and injury care. Higgins suffers visitors to his home (not something he is accustomed to) and answers many ignorant/vexxing questions from Margaret for the sake of his ailing daughter. And the Hales live to help the less fortunate.

It's a fun book with great characters; I recommend it so far!

*I signed up to North and South Weekly with the best of intentions and utterly failed to keep up with it, but boy am I absorbed now!

[fictionadventurer]

After I fell down a YouTube rabbit hole of someone reviewing episodes of Wishbone, my favorite game has been coming up with books/short stories/plays that would make good Wishbone adaptations. The criteria for qualification are:

In the public domain

By an author that hasn't already had a story adapted by Wishbone

A leading male role for an adorable Jack Russell terrier to play

A plot that can be condensed down so the important plot points fit into a roughly fifteen-minute adaptation

Content that is or can be adapted to be suitable for a middle-school audience (though they seem not to have let that stop them as often as you'd think)

Lends itself to a companion story that parallels the plot or themes of the novel in a modern-day middle-school setting

With those criteria defined, the options I've come up with so far are:

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Wishbone plays: Mr. John Thornton Adaptability: You'd have to cut everything except the strike and the love story. Start with Margaret coming to Milton and disliking Thornton. Have her meet the Higginses and dislike mill owners. Defend Thornton during the strike. Refuse the proposal. Show Higgins and Thornton coming to an understanding, suggest Thornton loses his money, have Margaret save him and propose. The book has way too much for such a short adaptation, but everything else by Gaskell doesn't have enough plot to adapt into a short version or doesn't have a male role for Wishbone. And it would be so cute to see Wishbone in Thornton's Victorian outfits. Modern-day story: At school, a situation comes up that divides students into two rival camps, and they have to learn how to work together and come to a compromise that benefits everyone.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Wishbone plays: Jack Worthing (you'd want a human actor for someone as lively as Algernon) Adaptability: Pretty high. Plays seem to work well for Wishbone adaptations, and you can tell the story in a few scenes. Modern-day story: Modern-day retelling focusing on the importance of honesty. One of the kids gets out of chores at home by pretending they have to help a new student with homework, but their lies come back to bite them.

"The Absence of Mr. Glass" by G.K. Chesterton

Wishbone plays: Father Brown (imagine him in a cute little clerical collar!) Adaptability: Great. Wishbone has done several detective stories, and short stories easily fit into the short time frame. I chose "Mr. Glass" because it doesn't involve a murder or a lengthy philosophical discussion, and lends itself well to a funny modern story about not jumping to conclusions Modern-day story: One of the kids' parents is acting strangely. The kids investigate and build up the clues until they believe some wild and terrible situation is happening. It turns out to be something innocent (like a surprise party)

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

Wishbone plays: Henry Higgins Adaptability: Pretty good. Plays work well, and the story is very condensable. Not sure how well a story about the intricacies of British accents would adapt to an American show, but it would still work if you make it about "learn fancy manners and don't talk like a hick". You could get some great puns out of the dog telling a human to "Speak!" Modern-day story: The classic school story plot of changing yourself to impress a potential love interest. The girl tries to doll herself up for a dance and learns it's better to be herself.

[ed-recoverry]

List of free audiobooks on YouTube for anyone interested

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Alice in Wonderland

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H P Lovecraft

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Village by Caroline Mitchell

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (fuck JKR)

Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Upside Down by Danielle Steel

The Fiancée by Kate White

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Theif

Accidentally Married by Victoria E. Lieske

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

The Collector (book one) by Nora Roberts

The Lies I Told by Mary Burton

Dead Man’s Mirror by Agatha Christie

The Hobbit

The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey

The Good Neighbour by R J Parker

The Island House by Elana Johnson

Desperation by Stephan King

The Healing Summer by Heather B. Moore

The Last Affair by Margot Hunt

To Be Claimed by Willow Winter

Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Inn by James Patterson

Wonder by R J Palacio

Faking It With The Billionaire by Willow Fox

The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark

Forrest Gump by Winston Groom

The Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum

The Catcher in the Rye

The Lottery Winner by Mary Higgins Clark

Where Eagles Dare by Alistair MacLean

Death of a Nurse by M C Beaton

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Sonnets by William Shakespeare

Frozen Betrayal by Clive Cussler

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Line of Fire by R J Patterson

Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen

The Remnant by Tim LaHaye

The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins

The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie

Payment in Kind by J A Jance

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida

The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn

The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A Marriage of Anything but Convenience by Victorine E. Lieske

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

The Inheritance Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

The Kama Sutra by Mallanaga Vatsyayana

The Wisdom of Father Brown by G K Chesterton

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Robin Hood by J Walker McSpadden

The Poor Traveller by Charles Dickens

Days on the Road: Crossing the Plains in 1865 by Sarah Raymond Herndon

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Atomic Habits by James Clear

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Man After Man

Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Charlotte’s Web

Midsummer Mysteries by Agatha Christie

Out of Silent Planet by C S Lewis

The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle

Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

The Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harai

Hamlet by Shakespeare

[vickyvicarious]

Bessy feels a lot more honest and unfiltered than Margaret is used to, both in general and specifically with regards to her views on religion. And I think her obvious genuine feeling (and the condition of her illness) makes it hard for her to be dismissive of her exactly (I mean - she does do that, sort of, but in a clearly uncomfortable way which suggests she herself can't just ignore it as nothing), but it's still kind of hard to know how to react to, maybe? Like, before that Father in Heaven line, Bessy is raging against her doubt and the injustice that she has suffered, and which clearly has led her to think and feel very deeply about her faith and what she believes. Margaret hasn't had these experiences. And Bessy means so well and it's hard to just write off her pain, her death, and her interpretation of religion. But they aren't the kinds of things Margaret has had to consider or heard spoken about so openly and emotionally, and it's difficult for her.

I find it interesting in chapter 13 how Margaret - whose faith, barring one lapse, is strong - is still uncomfortable with how Bessy speaks about her faith and particularly about Heaven. Her responses are very simple compared with Bessy's passion ("we have a Father in Heaven") and as soon as she can, she changes the subject altogether ("I would rather hear something about what you used to do when you were well").

Partly it's that she's uncomfortable with discussion of Bessy's death, but there's also a contrast between Bessy's open, passionate, literalist belief and Margaret's much quieter faith. I get the impression that Margaret isn't used to people speaking like Bessy does.