Literary Nostalgia
Thanks to my new (well, newish) internet radio I’ve been listening to all sorts of pod-casts and audio books. Recently I listened to Anne of Green Gables and it was so fun and enlightening. It’s easily been more than a dozen years since I last read it, the last time I remember reading the whole series (which was the only way I would read them once I had all the books) was when I had a terrible cold in 7th or 8th grade and had to stay home sick. The first time I read it was a revelation, and I couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8. I can’t count how many times I re-read it after that. I read all but 2 or 3 of L. M. Montgomery’s novels and most of her short story collections and I hadn’t realized the degree of influence her style still has on me.
I was amazed, not by how much I remembered (there are bits I could almost recite) but the things I had forgotten, or not understood at the time. Anne’s history of her life before Green Gables is so brief that I completely missed the fact that she was little more than a half-starved servant before being sent to the orphan asylum. And Marilla is so very strict! Anne’s melodrama was totally lost on me, probably because I was in the middle of being just as melodramatic. Many of the classical allusions were completely lost on 10 year old me, and I admit that while I can place more of them now it’s more a matter of being able to recognize that something is one, without being familiar with the source material.
What really stuck with me this time was just how cheerful and happy Anne is. Whatever happens, she finds a bright side to it. Each morning brings a new day “with no mistakes in it”. I’m hoping that’s what will stick with me this time.