When I was about 14, I was watching the Disney Channel and happened upon Anne of Green Gables, the Canadian miniseries based on the Lucy Maud Montgomery novels from the early 20th century. I had NEVER seen anyone like Anne in any show or movie, and was so taken with her that I forced everyone in my family to watch the series with me. Fortunately, they loved it as much as I did, so they didn't resent me too much. She was so awkward, full of mistakes and so SMART, and Gilbert, dreamy, darling Gilbert loved her for her "queer ways." I was like Anne, so caught in books and daydreams that they seemed more real than my actual life. I taped the miniseries and the sequel, Anne of Avonlea, and watched it over and over, hooking all of my girlfriends, with whom I would bake cookies, stay up all night and sigh over the very hopeless situations in which Anne found herself, only to come to the end and all that was right in her love for Gilbert. My college roommates and I would stay in our pajamas on Sundays where we didn't feel like studying and watch the whole miniseries and cry over the fact that no one would ever love us. We won't discuss the recent revival of the miniseries with a new installation. No, we won't. What new installation? I don't know what you're talking about. Shut up.
So, bored at work and thinking of things to do, I remembered that I hadn't read any but the first novel in the Anne series, and that many years ago. There is a site called www.gutenberg.org (when I mentioned this site to a singing colleage, he said, "Steve Gutenberg has a site?) that has books online whose copyright has expired (go there now), so I started reading Anne of Green Gables, cried, had to keep reading, read Anne of Avonlea, needed more, read Anne of the Island, and cried again when Gilbert and Anne finally got engaged, and now I'm finished and want to start on Anne's House of Dreams, but one has to draw the line somewhere when reading novels while working.
I'll just buy it at Powell's next week. Mmmmm...Powell's...boooooooks....what was I saying? Oh yeah, love me some pitching and mooning. Sigh.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Not long after I moved to the GWN Shellswick made me watch the entire mini in four-hour blocks. I may be betraying my gender by saying this, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Megan Follows was adorable, and is now as beloved a figure in Canada as Anne herself. And for you Kids In The Hall fans, Bruce McCulloch did indeed have a small part--as did Dave Foley.
And we also shall not speak of the series, the Road To Avonlea. Anne of Green Gables without Anne? What were they thinking?
The cartoon is mildly amusing, though.
My friend Maura got me to watch them, likd of like a Canadian Laura Ingalls Wilder, so I liked it alot.
the Guteenberg site is great! Very cool concept.
Post a Comment