#The Misselthwaite Archives

[misshyperbolemakes]

“Just please don’t say you love me, ‘cause I might not say it back.”

[galwithalibrarycard]

Top five LIWs?

Oooooh thank you, okay, *rolls up sleeves*

1. Nothing Much to Do

2. Away From It All

3. Twelfth Grade or Whatever

4. All for One

5. The March Family Letters

And I need to rewatch all of them bc it’s been years!

[isfjmel-phleg]

A few adaptations/retellings don't get the significance of the fact that Mary has grown up unloved and for whatever reason try to soften her relationship with her parents. But many of them do grasp just how neglected she's been and highlight it, especially in light of how prickly it has made her. These versions tend to understand the root of her issues relatively easily.

But an overwhelming number of recent adaptations/retellings do not do the same for Colin. It is extremely common for these versions to give him/his equivalent a warm relationship with his now-deceased mother/equivalent. In The Humming Room, Phillip "adored [his mother] and she adored him back," and he is in the depths of depression after losing her. Callie in The Misselthwaite Archives has fond memories of her late mother and footage of the family enjoying happy times in the glade, as well as a father who, even though he's gone frequently, regularly keeps in touch with her through affectionate postcards. When Mary meets Colin in the 2020 film, he talks about his relationship with his mother, how she "loved me hugely" (painfully awkward wording), and her letters back that up. Colin in The Secret Garden on 81st Garden mourns the apparently very recent death of a loving father and, despite his anger toward Mr. Craven, is still surrounded by adults who appear to genuinely care about his wellbeing. Although Clement in The Edge of In Between was an infant when his mother died, he apparently had such a close bond with her already that he lost all color (something that happens to those who succumb to grief in this book's world) after losing her. It's been a while since I've read A Bit of Earth, but if I recall correctly, Colin in that book also knew and loved his mother before her death and struggles more with living up to (perceived?) familial expectations than feeling rejected or unloved.

And I'm not saying that these creative choices were necessarily ineffective within the stories that these authors/creators chose to tell. But it does take the character in a fundamentally different direction. Not only does it eliminate one of the deliberate parallels in his and Mary's backgrounds, but it also alters the root of the character's problems.

There are a lot of messed-up reasons for why he is the way he is, but what it ultimately comes down to is this: Colin is unloved. He has never been loved. Like Mary, he exhibits the behavior he does because he has never learned how to connect with others. It's easy to miss this about him, easy to get so caught up in what a horrid little brat he genuinely is that it might not immediately occur to the reader how loveless his existence has been--every bit as loveless as Mary's. His mother died giving birth to him, his father rejects him because of this, and his caretakers are all "tired of him" and (in one case) have even said in front of him that it would be better for him and everyone else if he died.

No wonder he has such ambivalence toward living. Dickon tells Mary once that his mother believes that unwantedness is "th' worst thing on earth for a child," that "Them as is not wanted scarce ever thrives." And that is the root of Colin's problems, the reason his expectation out of life is to die. This is more of the point than any psychological condition that we might be able to pin on the character--those things are symptoms, not causes. This is why developing strong friendships is so important to his arc, why his getting hugged (possibly for the first time in his life) by Mrs. Sowerby and telling her that he wishes she were his mother is such a poignant moment, why his arc ends with being reunited with and accepted by his father.

(Weirdly enough, an adaptation that did seem to pick up on this was the 1986 musical, in which Colin is introduced with a solo entitled "No One Needs Me." A bit too on-the-nose and self-aware for him to be able to spell out like that, perhaps, but as a summation of the problem? Spot on.)

If, as recent adaptations and retellings interpret him, he is a child who has been loved and has lost that, his behavior as Burnett depicts comes from a different place and possibly makes less sense, his whole character changes, and the themes shift. He becomes someone who needs to work through traditional grief--which in the original book is his father's arc, not his--rather than someone who needs to learn that his existence has meaning and that he can matter to other people (and they to him).

And I think that's why a lot of these reinterpretations of the character feel a bit off to me? There tends to be so much concern for remolding him in light of themes of disability or mental health (which are significant to his character! but not all that there is) that the original point of his being as much an emotionally neglected and unloved child as Mary can get lost in translation.

[panneshirley]

anonymous asked:

mary lennox or liddy smallbury?

[misselthwaitearchives]

It's been five years since we released our first episode of The Misselthwaite Archives! We're so thankful to all of our fans for supporting the show while it aired and afterward—your kind words, passionate discussions, and beautiful fan art really encouraged us in 2015 and continue to inspire our creative endeavors. If you haven't seen the series in a while, give it a re-watch to prepare for the coming of spring!

[mylifeeinfandoms]

the misselthwaite archives → favorite quotes 1/x

[musical-theatre-encyclopedia]

undefined

Series title(s): The Misselthwaite Archives

Channel(s): Pencil Ink Productions

"The Misselthwaite Archives" is a modern adaptation of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, told through a series of online videos, images, and written vignettes.

@pencilinkproductions on Tumblr

[pencilinkproductions]

Four years ago today, we aired the very first episode of The Misselthwaite Archives! If you're feeling a little despondent at the cold winter months, now is a great time to re-watch the whole series on YouTube. Stay tuned for several exciting announcements about new projects!

[wbywebseriesreviews]

What are some good webseries that have positive rep for people with disabilities?

I’ve seen a few (definitely looking for more though). Disability rep is one of the areas where most forms of media are lacking. 

Lucy Lewis Can’t Lose - the main character Lucy is an awkward student with a fear of public speaking. She has a walking aid and another character uses a wheelchair. 

Call Me Katie/Nothing Like the Sun - First season based on Taming of the Shrew, second season is an original storyline but uses the same characters. One of the Georges (a pair of zany bffs who are secondary in the first season and central in the second) has two prosthetic legs below the knee. 

All For One - Based on Three Muskateers, following college freshman Dorothy as she seeks to join her dream sorority. In the second season, Dorothy and Owen have ADD. Alex also has complex PTSD. 

The Roedell Project - An original series about a group of college students filming a class project. Dylan has ADHD.

Any Other Vlog - Based off Romeo and Juliet, following high schooler Bianca through her friendships and experiences. Marcy has dyslexia. 

Twelfth Grade or Whatever - Based on Twelfth Night, Viola goes undercover as their twin sibling and encounters romantic drama. Liv has agoraphobia.

Misselthwaite Archives - Based on The Secret Garden, Mary is a wayward youth who is brought to her uncle’s mysterious estate. Mary’s cousin has agoraphobia and severe asthma. 

The Grey Tarmac Road - Based on The Wizard of Oz novels, Trudy finds herself in an entirely new world when she moves to a new town. Two characters have autism (I can’t remember who other than Nimmie rn tho). 

I have also seen many webseries with anxiety/depression rep, which not everyone includes when they talk about disabilities; so please send another anon message if you’re curious about those being included in this list. ❤️

[panneshirleyarchive]

turtle

[fakefandominsta]

Mary Lennox from The Misselthwaite Archives

[tomato-stained-genes]

I’m currently watching through all the web series based on classic lit that i kept saying i’d watch and then never did. Just finished Green Gables Fables and now i’m on to The Misselthwaite Archives.

[isfjmel-phleg]

I'm trying to wrangle all the TSG research into some kind of outline that makes sense, and a few thoughts have come up.

There were a lot of adaptations of The Secret Garden in the late 1980s and 1990s, coinciding with the book's coming into public domain in 1987. This died down for a while, but there's been a resurgence of adaptations and retellings within the past decade or so. These responses to the story would thus have come from people who were likely to have been influenced by such well-known adaptations as the 1993 film or the 1991 musical.

The adaptations of the 80s/90s tended to emphasize gothic elements, like the eerieness of the manor, the tragedy of lost parents, and an interpretation of Colin as the agency-less damsel in distress victim of villainous/misguided adults. They also tended to downplay the more down-to-earth elements, such as the influence of the Sowerbys and Ben Weatherstaff and the practical side of the children's recovery. Mrs. Sowerby, who is the book's personification of ideal parenthood, is notably absent from most of these adaptations. Since these adaptations were so well-known, they have had an impact on many people's understanding of the story, to the point that inventions of these adaptations are often treated as if they come from the book. (For the last time, everyone, Mary's uncle is not a lord, and Burnett never wrote the "whole world is a garden" line or anything like it.)

Therefore, we can look at the more recent adaptations and retellings as responses to not just the book but to earlier adaptations as well. And the influence of these adaptations has probably been a factor in these versions' reframing the story as about traditional grief rather than emotional neglect. It fits in better with the gothic perception of the story, which is more about the Tragedy and Loss and Drama. The elements that were downplayed in 80s/90s adaptations are also either downplayed or entirely omitted in recent versions. For instance, despite Mrs. Sowerby's prominence in the text, she or an equivalent does not appear/plays no meaningful role in such works as The Humming Room, The Misselthwaite Archives, The Secret Garden (2020 film), The Secret Garden on 81st Street, The Edge of In Between (maybe--I need to reread this one to confirm), The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn, and A Bit of Earth, all of which date from 2012-2023. Without a positive maternal figure as a point of comparison and a force for good, the narrative is not interested in examining the effects of failed parenting versus successful parenting, and the themes have to go elsewhere. These are not necessarily "bad" adaptations or poorly done works in their own right! But their themes and priorities often significantly differ from those of the original text. Recent adaptations/retellings have tended to turn into a translation of a translation, and in the process some of the original's essence has been lost.

[panneshirley]

some of my favorite LIW episodes!

[misselthwaitearchives]

From the camera of Mary Lennox (part two).

The Misselthwaite Archives is a modern adaptation of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, told through a series of online videos, images, and written vignettes.

View the trailer and first episode, and find out more at misselthwaitearchives.com.