My horoscope said today was a good day for traveling and publishing, so here I am.
Anyway, for those of you who don't know, November is National Novel Writing Month. I fancy myself as a novelist in moments of supreme self-confidence, and I take on the challenge of writing new words about new topics every year. NaNoWo is supposed to be about writing without editing. It's supposed to be about letting your ideas flow as you type-type-type the Fall blues away. I always start off with a head full of steam, but eventually run out of gas because I'm pretty picky about my style and I honestly begin most mornings striking or erasing most of the things I wrote the day before. I've always been pretty darn good at writing dialogue, and I can put together a pretty decent scene. But my sequels suck.
What are sequels? I can hear you ask. And I'm glad you asked, although I'm pretty sorry that you asked me since, as I mentioned, I'm absolutely terrible at writing them. Essentially, sequels cap off scenes. Sometimes they are little more than a summation of what has come before, but sometimes they're a springboard for the next bit of action or simply a characters internal dialogue as they reassess whatever has just happened to them. I can knock out thousands of lines of dialogue without missing a beat, but sequels are the secret to good writing. It's what separates the amateurs from the professionals, or so I'd like to think.
MM was darn good at writing sequels, wasn't she?
One of my favorite sequels comes at the end of Chapter 26:
"There was hope now. The war couldn't last forever. She had her little cotton, she had food, she had a horse, she had her small but treasured hoard of money. Yes, the worst was over."
Scarlett has suffered and struggled since she left Atlanta, and in the hands of a lesser novel killing the Yankee would have been our heroine's nadir. But because GWTW is a great novel Scarlett's murder is almost celebrated, and it propels the action over the next part of the novel. Scarlett might be a murderer, but she's got food, money, and a horse, so what difference is a little criminal sin? MM doesn't dwell on Scarlett's soul or her mental well-being, here. She's just glad Scarlett is slowly finding a way to get by in a world gone mad, and you know what? I'm glad, too.
Except, uh-oh. As we turn to Chapter 27 we see that all is not well. Because the Yankees are back.
Is this overkill? You think this is overkill having the Yankees return twice to Tara? Perhaps you could make the argument that MM is laying it all on a little thick, but you know what? The Yankees were all over Georgia during late 1864 and early 1865. I don't know much about life in a war zone, but I have seen it on TV. And TV wars are never as cut and dry as we like to think war is. Atlanta is in ruins and we know the Yankees were massing up for the March to the Sea, but I'm pretty sure the Yankees were swarming all over Clayton county, and I'm pretty sure that they would have returned to Tara a few times to look for spoils and goodies.
Everybody else runs into the swamp when the Yankees are coming, and Scarlett is about to join them but she doesn't. Because she's afraid the Yankees will burn Tara over her head, and Tara is all she's got left in the world. Everybody else scampered away because they've got good sense and are totally afraid of confronting men with guns, but Scarlett isn't afraid. Tara is her home and she aims to defend it, and if the Yankees don't like it, well..."they're only a passel of damn Yankees!"
Interestingly enough, this Chapter also includes a little bit of rape panic ("For a moment Scarlett went faint, already feeling rough hands thrusting themselves into her bosom, fumbling at her garters"), and it's fairly interesting how MM keeps that threat bubbling under the surface of the story, isn't it?
But Lordy Lordy, the end result of Chapter 27 is that the Yankees who show up at Tara take almost everything Scarlett had left. All the things that gave her security during the sequel of Chapter 26 are gone by the end of Chapter 27. The Yankees even try to burn the house, although Scarlett and Melly put it out pretty quickly (but with a great deal of effort). I guess I could grumble a little bit about the slurs Melly and Scarlett toss around after they've put the fire out, but...sigh. I won't. I don't like to read those words anymore than you do, but I think they're pretty accurate here. Scarlett and Melly were women of the South, and they grew up on plantations. They were at the top of a very precisely structured hierarchy, and besides neither of these women were modern liberals, were they? Let's just say that the harsh words they use here rub me the wrong way, but they're not at all shocking or out of place. As a matter of fact, not using those words would ring false in this situation. This is historical fiction after all, and PC-talk hadn't been invented during 1864.
Anyway, Chapter 27 ends with a sequel that is almost as perfect as the one that winds up Chapter 26.
"I'll say this for her," Scarlett muses about Melly, "she's always there when you need her."
And so, for all that GWTW sometimes rubs me the wrong way regarding racial harmony and equality, I think the book is very modern in its portrayal of Girl Power. Scarlett hates Melly, but Melly loves Scarlett unconditionally. And as the book edges forward, we are able to experience the blossoming of Scarlett's love for Melly in what feels like real time. GWTW is often wrongly described as nothing more than a Love Story between Scarlett and Rhett, but in actuality I often think that the real romance in GWTW occurs between Melly and Scarlett. I love Captain Butler, but the ending of GWTW wouldn't be half as tragic if Melly were still alive in the final chapter, and Chapter 27 is one of those chapters that best demonstrates the way the women's relationship gradually changes.
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