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Found this story via Bookshelves of Doom: Author Hilary McKay has written a sequel to one of my favorite childhood books, A Little Princess. As usual in these situations, I am simultaneously horrified and intrigued. I don't like the idea of some stranger messing with those wonderful characters, but at the same time I can't help feeling a little curious.

This part, though, unequivocally bugged me:

You introduce several new characters in your novel, including Alice, the feisty, outspoken new maid. She’s quite different from Becky, the maid who leaves to live with Sara.


Yes, she is. I knew that there had to be a maid helping out, and I felt I couldn’t have anyone remotely like Becky.
Well, as Ms. McKay has taken on this task, that's her prerogative. But sometimes I think that we're spoiled in this day and age, you know? We see other ages through our own eyes, and often that leads to tweaking our vision of them so that things are as we would have liked them to be. It's all to the good that we want to write strong, self-reliant female characters for little girls to emulate, especially in the Age of Bella the Bumbling and Brainless -- but sometimes I think we deliberately close our eyes and ears to the truth when we say we simply "can't have" characters who are cowed by their circumstances. Seriously, in the time and place when the story was set, who would be likelier to be working as a maid for a tyrant like Miss Minchin? A "feisty, outspoken" Alice, or a poverty-stricken, timid Becky who didn't dare speak up for herself, for fear of literally starving to death?

I suppose what I would say to Ms. McKay is this: Write Alice the way you need to, but don't blow off the Beckys of the world while you're at it. There were an awful lot of them -- and there still are, all over the world. And their voices shouldn't be drowned out just because they make us uncomfortable.

Date: 2009-12-22 02:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] middlegirl.livejournal.com
I completely agree, from one A Little Princess fan to another. People of Becky's station were generally not allowed to speak up, as it was her lot in life to be a scullery maid, and especially with a mistress like Miss Minchin, to rebel even the tiniest bit would have ended with her being thrown out into the streets, where who knows what would have happened. I mean, that's exactly what would have happened after the Ermengarde's Hamper incident, except Miss Minchin knew that it would be hard to find a scullery maid for such little pay. Even Sara became a bit more subservient in her new station, because that's who she became. She kept her head up, though, because she figured she could still be a princess and because she recognized Miss Minchin for the hard-hearted woman she was.

To write our own morals and attitudes into a time period where they didn't exist (or weren't welcome) is completely wrong, if only because it clouds people's judgments to what life was really like back then, which in turn hampers our ability to recognize the events that brought us to where we are now.

Also, I just hate it when people mess with the history. :)

Date: 2009-12-22 05:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mockingbird39.livejournal.com
I hear you. I get annoyed by what I think of as the Buffy Syndrome. Authors have become so accustomed to the shortcut of writing strong heroines as Buffy clones - because that's what feminism has boiled down to, somehow - that they write off women who stiff-upper-lipped their way through trials as weak if they weren't marching in the streets or demanding to be treated as equals. Let's face it: the idea of humans as equals is a new one and not one your average scullery maid or wealthy heiress would have been exposed to for the vast majority of history. A woman who lived with that, accepted it and managed to be a strong, capable woman anyway is a woman to be admired. Bravery and strength of character doesn't have to manifest in ass kicking, IMO, and for an author who doesn't recognize that to take on a classic like A Little Princess is disappointing.

Date: 2009-12-22 11:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tempestsarekind.livejournal.com
I don't have much to say here except "yes, this." It's so frustrating, this idea that there is only one way to be strong or to be a "worthy" heroine. Especially when it involves imposing our own modern ideas upon the past.

[rant about teaching for last year's Victorian lit class redacted]

Date: 2009-12-22 11:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] litlover12.livejournal.com
I'd kind of like to hear the rant, actually. :-) If you have time, that is.

Date: 2009-12-23 12:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tempestsarekind.livejournal.com
Hee. I'd decided not to do the rant because I've already sort of done it here, among other places:
http://tempestsarekind.livejournal.com/131060.html
http://tempestsarekind.livejournal.com/129629.html

It was a crazy experience: lots of non-majors, all convinced that they "knew" what the Victorians were like, and that politeness is totally oppressive, and the only positions for female characters were a) to be Oppressed (and therefore not worth our time, or only worth our dismissal); or b) to be Rebelling Against the Patriarchy. *sigh*

Date: 2009-12-23 01:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] litlover12.livejournal.com
GREAT rant! I love "Murder is bad, kids, except when Victorian women do it." So true.

Date: 2009-12-23 01:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tempestsarekind.livejournal.com
They really seemed to believe this. It was very distressing!

Date: 2009-12-23 03:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mary-j-59.livejournal.com
Gosh! This really makes me not want to read this sequel - which, for some reason, has been getting raves. Have people never heard of context? One of my pet peeves is modern-day people looking down on people who lived before them as "primitive" or "ignorant", while thinking us modern people so civilized and advanced. I think the Beckys of this world (and you're right, they do still exist, by the millions) deserve a great deal of respect. I don't think I could have survived her life with as much grace and dignity!

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