Brian Jacques Signs Off

Brian Jaques

1939-2011

You filled hours of my life with stories.

Thanks for getting kids reading, for your great descriptions, your humor, your love for writing, and your awesome accent.
You will be missed. Goodbye, Brian Jaques.

I feel like my childhood is officially dead.

By it I See Everything Else

I stole this quote of my brother's profile because it is absolutely amazing. So, yeah...he was the one who found it. :-)

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
~ C. S. Lewis

Tolerence is Intolerance

"There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions." - ILN, 1/13/06
G K Chesterton

Random Squib on "Daniel Deranda"

If you haven't, please read my post, The Author You know as George Elliot Thanks. :-)

So, this is just a mildly random post on what I liked and didn't like about the Masterpiece Theater portrayal of Daniel Deranda.

The strengths of the movie to me were the characters. (That's basically the strengths of any movie I like. ;-) They all seemed complex, and if sometimes extreme, believable...developed... interesting...

The most interesting character to me was Gwendolyn. She has obviously been pampered by her mother and hates being poor. She knows she beautiful and she uses it. She is pretty much utterly selfish. She marries a rich creep thinking she can control him. Before marrying him she even promises not to accept his proposal to his mistress who is raising his children with little money. Hello? Caution light, you'd think.

Basically she makes a series of miserable choices and she pays for it. She continues to see Daniel and makes us nervous being a little to friendly. Her husband becomes jealous etc...

Anyways...at the end she does not get what she wants, but she is a very, very different person. She lost, but she's changed and content with where she has come. She now knows how to act like a considerate human. I know it was unusual, but where the story ended for her was actually very cool and satisfying for me.

The other characters, Daniel, Mirah, and Sir Hugo (especially Sir Hugo) really made the movie for me.

I can see why a lot of people do not like Daniel Deranda and I'm really not defending very well here, but I think it makes it as an interesting delve into human character. Obviously not every character is probably realistic, but I just found it a very interesting study. It really made me think.

The costumes and acting were done very well. I was very impressed, especially compared to many period dramas and George Elliot ones in particular. I really enjoyed Hugh Dancy, Jodhi May, Romola Garai, and Jamie Bamber's performances.

My main bone to pick (which you would known if I you did what I told you at the beginning of the post) was the story being pro-Jews vs. pro-Christian.

So...that's all very unclear and not a very cool squib....but that's it.
I've been working all day on a book project and my brain has been dead for the last hour or two. ;-)

Love to hear more discussion on Daniel Deranda or George Elliot in general.

Thanks for reading. I know it wasn't too thrilling.
Miss Pickwickian

One of the best things about it being Daniel's white suit....

Originality

"Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it."

~C.S. Lewis~

Vision

"Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision." - Orthodoxy, 1908

G. K. Chesterton

The Author You Know as George Elliot

George Elliot (1819-1880) was born Mary Anne Evans, the daughter of a farmer in Arbury.
There are a lot of reasons why we know her as George Elliot...first she preferred her pen name to be that of a man, because she believed she would be taken more seriously, second she wanted her private life screened from the public eye, and perhaps the best for us, it gave her a steady name on all her works instead of her rapid and sometimes arguable name changes.

George Elliot is by no means my favorite author. We can learn little from her personal life, besides what not to do, but she did have some excellent insights. Even if there was bias towards women novelist in her day, the world benefited from her illumination of the female soul. Some complicated ladies of the classics come close to her own characters, but they way she shows the influences, weaknesses, and complex uncertainty of several of her own heroines is genius.

Elliot's novels include Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Mariner, Ramola, Felix Holt- the Radical, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda. She also was a gifted translator of several works and wrote some successful poems.
Like many novelists her stories improve the further you go into her life. Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda being by far my favorites, and not just because those movie versions are done so much better. :-)

I am not an Elliot expert. I have read Middlemarch cover to cover twice, but we don't own any of her other works. I think Middlemarch is an interesting book because it follows several courtships and how they begin, how they are controlled, and how they end up. The happiest people are certainly Fred and his gal. His gal is amazing because she stands firm, and because of it makes Fred into a much better man. He becomes a real worker and real gentleman. The doctor gets what he wants when he wants it, has a pretty rotten marriage, and money troubles for the rest of his life.

Daniel Deronda has so many cool character things going on it I won't try to summarize it. The only thing that bugs me much about that one is it ends more pro Jewish then pro Christian. But I think it is an actual satisfying ending in one of those stories when you know it can't all turn out happily ever after for everyone. Everyone obviously is a better person.

George Elliot certainly has original plots. She is gifted in her portrayals of human nature and where it can lead.
One thing that is a common theme through her books is interest outside of an already established marriage or engagement. This never gets out of hand, but can make one uncomfortable. What I think is very interesting is that she always portrays it as bad and that it only leads to more badness...especially since all her own romances were outside of the guy's marriages. (She's certainly no domestic role model.)

She was obviously a confused person. Her own life reads even more improbable then her novels. There not the books or movies that you'd want to pick up for a happy afternoon, but her characters, their choices, and their consequences show what happens when we choose to follow what is right and when we choose to follow our own desires and whims. I've found her novels to bring up wonderful conversations.

George Elliot was not afraid to try and draw complex, unique, yet believable characters, and most of the time she pulled it off. There is certainly a lot of human nature and of writing that can be learned from her less then perfect life.

I'm not sure I got all my ideas across very clearly...or very quickly. Sorry about that.
Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian

(Please note: We watch movies on ClearPlay so movies that are recommended may have inappropriate material.)