Not boring things, not everyday things like work projects or bad television shows or whatever. But I hate when good things are over. I didn't mourn the end of the year during the month of December because 2014 was rather run-of-the-mill as a year when all is said and done. But I have been in a funk lately because I can now see the light at the end of this blog tunnel. I've been working my way through Gone With the Wind for ages, but there are only eight chapters left for me to chew on now. We're 91% through Scarlett's tale and I'm totally bummed about methodically blogging my theories and opinions about everything that happens in the tragic end of the novel.
It's so sad, isn't it?
It's so sad I had to take a break for a moment, to let my words and thoughts breathe. But we're talking about GWTW here. And I'm clearly obsessed with Margaret Mitchell's masterpiece. So when I say I took a break to get away from the book, I actually mean I took a break to immerse myself even more fully in the story and the characters and the historical era in general and the South in particular. In other words: I headed to Atlanta for a long weekend.
The South is a cheap holiday during the month of December. The hotels are empty and the planes from Chicago are flying half-full and we had no trouble getting a deal on transportation that did Scarlett and Rhett quite proud. We stayed at the Marriott Marquis and ate at Waffle House every morning, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. But when I got back from all of that fun in the sun, I was still sort of sad.
Because this blog is still ending, no matter what I do. I mean that's not strictly true, since I could abandon it and therefore not actually finish it at all, but I'm sure you know what I mean.
I mean that things are over.
Things are changing for Scarlett and Rhett and Melly and Ashley. The bulk of their adventures are behind us now, and there's nothing left but uncertainty. This is one of those bits of GWTW where nothing feels certain and everything feels weird and we fear the worst but hope for the very best.
Except--and this is the wonderful thing about GWTW and the wonderful thing about life itself--we don't know what the best actually looks like.
What is Scarlett's best case scenario at this point?
I don't know.
And Scarlett doesn't know, either.
Nobody knows what they want by this juncture in the novel, actually.
Scarlett has loved Ashley with all her heart for the entire novel, but lately her love for Melly's husband has started to fade. So much so, in fact, that Scarlett starts to wonder "if indeed Ashley had played the manly part in this mess." Which...I'm not sure if I agree with Scarlett that Ashley should have shot Archie and admitted everything, but I do agree that Ashley shouldn't be so content to hide behind Melly's skirts. The mature reader realizes that Ashley is maddeningly weak of course, but what should he have done here? Killing Archie and shouting about his love affair from the top of his lungs wouldn't have accomplished much of anything. But at some point you have to take a stand, don't you?
After all, every character in this novel is a Confederate or an ex-Confederate or a Confederate widow, and Confederates are all about taking a stand, aren't they?
But where did that get them?
And I suppose that's MM's point in all of this, isn't it? MM may or may not be dewy-eyed and nostalgic for the Old South, but I don't think any serious reader could ever accuse her or her characters of being full-fledged supporters of the CSA. Violence is everywhere in GWTW, but MM only seems to approve of it when it's in the case of self-defense (i.e. Scarlett shooting that guy at Tara). Any other violence or loss of life is presented as a foolish waste of time and resources, which is a remarkable stance considering that GWTW was written between the World Wars. Or maybe it isn't all that remarkable after all. I think that more than anything MM presents the Civil War from the perspective of the exhausted, impoverished southerner, which is to say that MM's Civil War has more in common with the outrageous futility and ineptitude of World War I than with the glories of World War II. So while I think MM and her characters could be as easily moved to rage or violence as any other southerner, I believe she thinks that shootings and wars are terrible solutions to the world's problems.
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Speaking of wars, here's the funniest thing I found at the Margaret Mitchell museum in Atlanta, GA. There's a big wall featuring the covers of GWTW in dozens of different languages, and for me this one was the most memorable because it's hilarious and totally weird and wrong in almost every way. Is this Greek? Why is Scarlett's hair red? Or is that supposed to be Belle? Shit, maybe that is supposed to be Belle? And okay, are Rhett's eye's blue? And forgetting the cosmetics of the image, I suppose this is supposed to be a cartoon depiction of their little showdown the night Atlanta fell? Right before Rhett leaves Scarlett to join the army? And if so, why are they embracing in such a weird and totally uncharacteristic pose? And why--
Oh, never mind. I would like to get a blown-up version of this for my office, although I doubt it would be well-received given that I work at a law firm. And no, I don't do divorce law anymore.
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And speaking of wars a little more, isn't it a shame that Melly has no choice but to wage social war on India about all of this dirty Scarlett/Ashley business? We've never learned to like India, but she's been part of the background noise of the novel for so long that it seems utterly ridiculous to believe that she could simply be cut out of the story at this juncture. And yet, that's precisely what Melly does. She cuts India dead because she realizes that the only way to save Ashley and Scarlett is to throw shade at India and pretend that her sister-in-law is a liar. The first third of GWTW was all about coming together. The war made the most peculiar widows and friends and bedfellows and all that, but the important thing I took away from all of that was that you don't have time to hold a grudge during an emergency. And so during the war and the early reconstruction period, Scarlett had no choice but to befriend Melly, India, Honey, Rhett, Aunt Pitty, Archie, Will Benteen and an entire host of other characters she hated, because she needed them to survive.
But now, all those bonds are breaking bit by bit.
Things are unraveling.
Everybody is food secure now. And now that reconstruction is basically over and they're all safely back in the upper class again, our characters have plenty of time for drama. They've climbed Maslow's hierarchy of needs to the third and fourth level, which mean they have plenty of time for sniping and gossiping and meddling. So while Melly served as the social glue that kept everything together through the first 2/3 of the novel, even Melly starts engaging in social sabotage. I'm not saying I disagree with her reasons, but wasn't it surprising to see Melly Mean Girl her way through this chapter? I didn't know she had it in her. I'm proud of Melly for taking a stand when Ashley can't and Scarlett won't and Rhett has left town, but I honestly didn't know she could ostracize India so quickly.
That takes talent, is what I'm saying.
And then there's poor, hilarious, utterly correct Aunt Pitty. My Aunt Shelia was sort of similar to Aunt Pittypat, and I think of her every time the POV shifts and we're given some insight into Pitty's inner thoughts. She reminds me of my Aunt Shelia because....well, Aunt Pitty might be a little silly, a little flighty, a little sheltered, but she's also very perceptive and she's always on time with her observations, isn't she? How about these gems:
- "Ashley sent India money every week and every week India proudly and silently returned it, much to the old lady's alarm and regret." Every week? She's alarmed and regretful every week? Poor Pitty!
- "Pitty was not overly fond of India, for India intimidated her with her dry, stiff-necked ways and her passionate convictions." The war is over, India! Passionate convictions aren't in style anymore!
- "She could not live alone. She would have to get a stranger to live with her or she would have to close up her house and go and live with Scarlett." That's a false dichotomy, but a hilarious one!
- "And that frightening, fascinating Captain Butler--" There are a lot of descriptions of Rhett in this novel, but I think this is pretty much the best in the entire novel. Mostly because it's so simple. But also because it's so accurate. Scarlett has been married to Rhett for a million years and even with all her day-to-day knowledge of the man she hasn't yet advanced beyond frightening and fascinating. Rhett is many things to many people (and all things to me, of course), but more than anything he's a scary puzzle, isn't he? He's unpredictable and intriguing and endlessly interesting and even Pitty isn't immune to his charms.
The same kind of tears that are welling up behind my eyes now that GWTW is coming to a close.
Next up: Rhett returns, gravity shows up and everybody and everything that's not nailed down starts falling.
