soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2012-12-01 11:42 am
sophia_sol) wrote2012-12-01 11:42 am
The Blue Castle, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
I HAVEN'T FALLEN BACK OFF THE POSTING BANDWAGON. Not yet, anyways. Let's see, time for another book post, methinks. Let me post about The Blue Castle, which I most recently reread back in July but never actually posted the thoughts I wrote down. SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN.
Okay so The Blue Castle is SUCH A GOOD COMFORT READ OMG. Ugh I love practically everything about it. ALL THE FEELS, ALWAYS AND FOREVER. I ship Valancy/Barney HARDHARDHARD and also Valancy/John Foster's books and also Valancy/nature and also Valancy/delightful snark and also Valancy/learning to have personal agency and also Valancy/BEING AWESOME.
The Blue Castle is about a 29-year-old woman in the 1920s in northern Ontario, who's been stifled by her awful family her whole life: penned in, subdued, regimented, and unable to have any expressions of self. She is unmarried and no man's ever even shown interest in her, and her family of course criticizes her for this too.
But then she learns that she's going to die within the year (DON'T WORRY, THERE'S A HAPPY ENDING), and this frees her from her fear of the consequences that would result if she ever actually asserted herself. So she discovers previously-unknown depths of personal agency, frees herself from her awful family, and has a glorious and joyous life with LOVE and HAPPINESS and PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY APPRECIATE HER FOR WHO SHE IS and it is the BEST.
Also there is an extremely strong running theme through the whole book about how AWESOME the natural world is, particularly in the Muskoka region (which is part of Canadian Shield country aka THE SUCCOUR OF MY SOUL). And there is also a running theme about how books can save you when everything is awful (and hey, books: ALSO THE SUCCOUR OF MY SOUL).
Reading through this time, far more than any of the previous (MANY) times I have read this book, I was struck by Cousin Georgiana, who seems a genuinely decent soul. I feel kind of sorry for her! I rather want to know more about her! But in large part this book is about Valancy learning that it is okay to live for herself instead of for other people, so it has a very close focus on Valancy and ignores everyone else except when they are relevant to Valancy. So we don't get to know much about Cousin Georgiana. But I'm pretty okay with that because VALANCY IS AWESOME.
Okay so The Blue Castle is SUCH A GOOD COMFORT READ OMG. Ugh I love practically everything about it. ALL THE FEELS, ALWAYS AND FOREVER. I ship Valancy/Barney HARDHARDHARD and also Valancy/John Foster's books and also Valancy/nature and also Valancy/delightful snark and also Valancy/learning to have personal agency and also Valancy/BEING AWESOME.
The Blue Castle is about a 29-year-old woman in the 1920s in northern Ontario, who's been stifled by her awful family her whole life: penned in, subdued, regimented, and unable to have any expressions of self. She is unmarried and no man's ever even shown interest in her, and her family of course criticizes her for this too.
But then she learns that she's going to die within the year (DON'T WORRY, THERE'S A HAPPY ENDING), and this frees her from her fear of the consequences that would result if she ever actually asserted herself. So she discovers previously-unknown depths of personal agency, frees herself from her awful family, and has a glorious and joyous life with LOVE and HAPPINESS and PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY APPRECIATE HER FOR WHO SHE IS and it is the BEST.
Also there is an extremely strong running theme through the whole book about how AWESOME the natural world is, particularly in the Muskoka region (which is part of Canadian Shield country aka THE SUCCOUR OF MY SOUL). And there is also a running theme about how books can save you when everything is awful (and hey, books: ALSO THE SUCCOUR OF MY SOUL).
Reading through this time, far more than any of the previous (MANY) times I have read this book, I was struck by Cousin Georgiana, who seems a genuinely decent soul. I feel kind of sorry for her! I rather want to know more about her! But in large part this book is about Valancy learning that it is okay to live for herself instead of for other people, so it has a very close focus on Valancy and ignores everyone else except when they are relevant to Valancy. So we don't get to know much about Cousin Georgiana. But I'm pretty okay with that because VALANCY IS AWESOME.