Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Gone With The Wind
Margaret Mitchell
1936
This is an American novel about social upheaval in the South during and after the Civil War.
Anyone wanting insight and stories on how to live, how to appreciate life, and how to cope, could do much worse than reading Gone With The Wind. The book is steeped in contrasting approaches to life, some noble, some embarrassing. The trauma and disruption from the Civil War was so severe that everyone's capabilities to deal with life come extremely into focus. Many thrive, many wilt. The book is a great love story (with a wonderful, deserved ending), a gripping historical account, and crucial writing on race. But, it is the didactic role that really stays with the reader after the book is done. There are just so many people trying to get by, they are all so tragic, but some of them are admirable, and the rest, pathetic. The admirable ones, all in common, push through, work hard, endure, complain little, and look back rarely. Such a guiding way to live through any stage in life. Those who look back, think about how things were, are left behind. The post Civil War south, was, I suppose, built by those, both black and white, that worked and endured. The ones who lamented, had no role in the building.
The book is excellent. It's not as weighty as Les Miserables, not as vast as Roots, but for an epic novel it is touching and emotional. Getting drawn into it is easy. The characters become familiar. I didn't cheer for them. It's hard to not see them as racist. It's hard to sympathize with them, given that I kind of side with Lincoln and his whole idea of abolishing slavery. But, as a chronicle of the era, the book, I guess is accurate.
I liked it much more for it's historical aspects than the romance. The relationship between Scarlet and Rhett was intense, but it seemed like they could have solved a lot of there problems if they just communicated a bit more. Which is another key part of the didacticism. The writing on the war was as good as Hugo's writing on Waterloo. Much more interesting than a history book, and so much more real.
Margaret Mitchell
1936
This is an American novel about social upheaval in the South during and after the Civil War.
Anyone wanting insight and stories on how to live, how to appreciate life, and how to cope, could do much worse than reading Gone With The Wind. The book is steeped in contrasting approaches to life, some noble, some embarrassing. The trauma and disruption from the Civil War was so severe that everyone's capabilities to deal with life come extremely into focus. Many thrive, many wilt. The book is a great love story (with a wonderful, deserved ending), a gripping historical account, and crucial writing on race. But, it is the didactic role that really stays with the reader after the book is done. There are just so many people trying to get by, they are all so tragic, but some of them are admirable, and the rest, pathetic. The admirable ones, all in common, push through, work hard, endure, complain little, and look back rarely. Such a guiding way to live through any stage in life. Those who look back, think about how things were, are left behind. The post Civil War south, was, I suppose, built by those, both black and white, that worked and endured. The ones who lamented, had no role in the building.
The book is excellent. It's not as weighty as Les Miserables, not as vast as Roots, but for an epic novel it is touching and emotional. Getting drawn into it is easy. The characters become familiar. I didn't cheer for them. It's hard to not see them as racist. It's hard to sympathize with them, given that I kind of side with Lincoln and his whole idea of abolishing slavery. But, as a chronicle of the era, the book, I guess is accurate.
I liked it much more for it's historical aspects than the romance. The relationship between Scarlet and Rhett was intense, but it seemed like they could have solved a lot of there problems if they just communicated a bit more. Which is another key part of the didacticism. The writing on the war was as good as Hugo's writing on Waterloo. Much more interesting than a history book, and so much more real.
# posted by mz @ 5:57 PM 
