Possibly my crippling clumsiness was seen as endearing rather than pathetic, casting me as a damsel in distress. (Twilight; chapter 3)
Over at Bites, Donna has started a meme about exposing cliches in Young Adult literature. I read a lot of YA lit and I love this kinds of analysis. The first cliche is “The clumsy kid, most likely female and usually endearing to the point of fawning over.” This is a trope that seems more prevalent outside of literature but we can thank Bella Swan for making it part of this discussion (and super-mainstream).
Thoughts:
- All teenagers are clumsy. It’s a byproduct of the changes their bodies are going through.
- High school is a scary place and I agree with the post that someone who is truly accident prone is more likely to be made fun of than considered adorable.
- But if someone is attracted to another someone and that someone is clumsy the first someone could find that clumsiness endearing.
- Bella has a point about the damsel in distress bit. People do respond to that, I know this from personal experience.
- I was a clumsy girl in high school and college. You know that other cliche about trained dancers being super clumsy when they are not dancing? Cliches have some truth to them folks!
Grade: Joey Potter ~ overdone is overdone, but I relate.
Anonymous asked: Can The Food Network count as a fandom?
Yes, because that is AMAZING.
• favorite character: Anthony Bourdain
• least favorite character: Bobby Flay
• 5 favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Anthony Bourdain/Eric Ripert, Dweezil/Lisa… that’s all I’ve got
• character I find most attractive: Giada!
• character I would marry: Um. Giada!
• character I would be best friends with: Rachael Ray
• a random thought: I love Jamie Oliver’s accent.
• an unpopular opinion: ???
• my canon OTP: I guess Dweezil and Lisa (they were cute)
• non-canon OTP: I’m gonna go with N/A (this smacks of RPF)
• most badass character: Tony Bourdain, obvs
• pairing I am not a fan of: (see RPF)
• character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Bobby Flay!
• favourite friendship: Bourdain and Ripert
• character I want to adopt or be adopted by: I just wanna go to Cupcake Wars one day
Anonymous asked: The DC Comics universe, pre-New 52.
• favorite character: Wonder Girl (Cassie)
• least favorite character: Idk. The Joker
• 5 favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Tim Drake/Cassie Sandsmark, Bruce Wayne/Talia Al Ghul, Bruce Wayne/Zatanna, Superman/Wonder Woman, Cassie Sandsmark/Kara Zor-El
• character I find most attractive: Dinah Lance
• character I would marry: Clark Kent
• character I would be best friends with: Lois Lane
• a random thought: I couldn’t answer this post-New 52
• an unpopular opinion: Damian Wayne is the best Robin
• my canon OTP: Tim/Cassie
• non-canon OTP: Wonder Woman/Kate Spencer
• most badass character: Batman
• pairing I am not a fan of: Batman/Catwoman
• character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): LIAN HARPER
• favourite friendship: Cassie/Kara, Cassie/Cissie
• character I want to adopt or be adopted by: Tim Drake!!
vasnormandy asked: The Hunger Games ;)
favorite character:
• least favorite character: Katniss
• 5 favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Hm. Gale/Johanna, Katiniss/Johanna, Finnick/Annie, Haymitch/Effie, Peeta/Madge
• character I find most attractive: Liam (Gale)
• character I would marry: Finnick
• character I would be best friends with: Uh. Buttercup
• a random thought: I think I’ll like the movies better than the books.
• an unpopular opinion: Katniss is not better than Bella Swan
• my canon OTP: Finnick/Annie
• non-canon OTP: Gale/Johanna
• most badass character: JOHANNA
• pairing I am not a fan of: Katniss/Peeta AND Katniss/Gale
• character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): everyone in the third book except Johanna?
• favourite friendship: Katniss and Rue
• character I want to adopt or be adopted by: …also Buttercup
Ask Box Open; entertain me?
Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:
• favorite character:
• least favorite character:
• 5 favorite ships (canon or non-canon):
• character I find most attractive:
• character I would marry:
• character I would be best friends with:
• a random thought:
• an unpopular opinion:
• my canon OTP:
• non-canon OTP:
• most badass character:
• pairing I am not a fan of:
• character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another):
• favourite friendship:
• character I want to adopt or be adopted by:
Love Letter to a Novel: Rilla of Ingleside
Rilla of Ingleside is the seventh and last book in the Anne of Green Gables series and as the title indicates it’s not about Anne. It’s about her youngest daughter Bertha Marilla Blythe, called “Rilla”.
I like the Anne books, especially Anne of the Island (the third and the one that most directly deals with the romance of Anne and Gilbert). I read them all, obviously, in order to get to Rilla, and for the most part I enjoyed Anne and her adventures. But I love Rilla and her adventures. There’s a line in the first chapters that sums up why Rilla rather well:
“She liked Una better than Faith, whose beauty and aplomb rather overshadowed other girls — and Rilla did not enjoy being overshadowed.”
This isn’t a book about a plucky orphan who pulls herself up out of the weeds with imagination, ingenuity, and sheer determination. Rilla is the spoiled and sheltered youngest child of a well-to-do doctor and his wife. She says early on that she has no talents, will never measure up to her clever and compassionate older siblings, and she’s perfectly fine with the situation. She has no ambition to be anything beyond a well-liked pretty young thing. It’s easy to admire Anne Shirley. Rilla Blythe is the type of heroine who is derided for being selfish, whiny, and most notably useless. Easy to dismiss.
But World War I intervenes and Rilla grows up. She doesn’t fundamentally change; at the very end of the book she still doesn’t want to be anything more than a handsome gentleman’s pretty wife. But she is more than that now. Or rather, she always was, but now she, and the reader, knows it. I’m a huge fan of young adult fiction, historical fiction, home front romance and this book has all those. But it’s that realization I want to write a love letter to.
I want to thank Lucy Maud Montgomery for writing more than one kind of heroine. Because I like Rilla better.
[Written for this project; thanks to Leap Day, I got it in on time.]
