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sophia_sol) wrote2014-10-05 05:22 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2014-10-05 05:22 pm
Daddy Long-Legs and its sequel Dear Enemy, both by Jean Webster
I need to start posting about the various books I read while afk on my trip! Okay, here's two to start with:
Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster
I continue to be so conflicted over this book. Because, like, it's deeply charming and I love Judy to bits and her college adventures are great and she writes the best letters and everything. But. The Judy/Jervie relationship is DEEPLY CREEPY wrt power differentials. Jervis gets to find out all her deeply personal thoughts in the letters she sends to the anonymous benefactor, while also being in-person friends with her and never telling her they're the same person and that he knows all this stuff about her. Jervis through his role as anonymous benefactor gets to tell her what to do or not do (eg, do not go to the Adirondacks with the McBrides) and his orders often seem like they are deeply influenced by his...idk, his jealousy of her? Like he wants to keep her all to himself or something. And he has a lot of power over her because he's the one who's paying for all her college education and room and board and so on and so forth; he could choose to withdraw his support at any time, and then Judy would be left without any resources! Plus of course there's the significant age difference.
AND YET we're supposed to see it as romantic and delightful when we find out that Jervis and the anonymous benefactor are the same person and that he's in love with Judy. SIGHHHHHH NOPE.
Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
This is the sequel to Daddy Long-Legs and despite having read DLL a million times over the years, I've never actually read this sequel before.
And okay so I have FEELINGS about this book because it is so very nearly good!
Eg Sallie's growth as a person over the course of the book and what it means for her relationship with Gordon, and the stuff about how marriages where two people simply don't suit even if there's no misbehaviour are still not good marriages and are worth divorcing/breaking up over, and the various energetic efforts to make things better for the orphans, and the way Sallie feels relieved and happy to be free to be a single woman pursuing her passion for a difficult and consuming job, and so forth.
BUT there is a big but.
First of all: the book was clearly written in the era of eugenics. And theories of eugenics are pretty strongly supported in the book! AUGH NO. The notion that of course children of "feeble-minded" or "insane" or criminal or alcoholic parents are pretty well bound for the same path is just urgh. Sallie isn't so strong a supporter of these theories as the doctor but even so.
Second of all: not all the progressive notions of how to better raise orphans are actually...a good idea....
Third: racist appropriation of Native stereotypes = no thank you
Fourth: nooooooo after that beautiful paean from Sallie about the joys of being single she turns right around and decides she is in love with the doctor and is deliriously happy at the notion of marrying him! IMO everything about their relationship previously (except for one fairly late indication on the doctor's side) pointed to them being good as friends and colleagues! Theirs was not a romance the way Judy/Jervie (...for all I dislike that romance) had obviously been. And there was no reason it suddenly had to become a romance in the last two pages. Sigh.
Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster
I continue to be so conflicted over this book. Because, like, it's deeply charming and I love Judy to bits and her college adventures are great and she writes the best letters and everything. But. The Judy/Jervie relationship is DEEPLY CREEPY wrt power differentials. Jervis gets to find out all her deeply personal thoughts in the letters she sends to the anonymous benefactor, while also being in-person friends with her and never telling her they're the same person and that he knows all this stuff about her. Jervis through his role as anonymous benefactor gets to tell her what to do or not do (eg, do not go to the Adirondacks with the McBrides) and his orders often seem like they are deeply influenced by his...idk, his jealousy of her? Like he wants to keep her all to himself or something. And he has a lot of power over her because he's the one who's paying for all her college education and room and board and so on and so forth; he could choose to withdraw his support at any time, and then Judy would be left without any resources! Plus of course there's the significant age difference.
AND YET we're supposed to see it as romantic and delightful when we find out that Jervis and the anonymous benefactor are the same person and that he's in love with Judy. SIGHHHHHH NOPE.
Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
This is the sequel to Daddy Long-Legs and despite having read DLL a million times over the years, I've never actually read this sequel before.
And okay so I have FEELINGS about this book because it is so very nearly good!
Eg Sallie's growth as a person over the course of the book and what it means for her relationship with Gordon, and the stuff about how marriages where two people simply don't suit even if there's no misbehaviour are still not good marriages and are worth divorcing/breaking up over, and the various energetic efforts to make things better for the orphans, and the way Sallie feels relieved and happy to be free to be a single woman pursuing her passion for a difficult and consuming job, and so forth.
BUT there is a big but.
First of all: the book was clearly written in the era of eugenics. And theories of eugenics are pretty strongly supported in the book! AUGH NO. The notion that of course children of "feeble-minded" or "insane" or criminal or alcoholic parents are pretty well bound for the same path is just urgh. Sallie isn't so strong a supporter of these theories as the doctor but even so.
Second of all: not all the progressive notions of how to better raise orphans are actually...a good idea....
Third: racist appropriation of Native stereotypes = no thank you
Fourth: nooooooo after that beautiful paean from Sallie about the joys of being single she turns right around and decides she is in love with the doctor and is deliriously happy at the notion of marrying him! IMO everything about their relationship previously (except for one fairly late indication on the doctor's side) pointed to them being good as friends and colleagues! Theirs was not a romance the way Judy/Jervie (...for all I dislike that romance) had obviously been. And there was no reason it suddenly had to become a romance in the last two pages. Sigh.
no subject
I haven't read it since I was 10, though, so don't take this as a fair and balanced grown-up review. I'd be curious to read it and see what I think now.
no subject
It really does have many wonderful aspects to it - the story of Judy growing up and finding herself and finding her place in the world is really lovely. And maybe you'd appreciate that these days! But otoh maybe not because the creepy romance does pervade entirely too much of the book.