So wow. For the Sake of His Sorrowful Passion. Well, after the atrocity of The Nest, I decided to keep it easy and enjoyable of late. A while back, I found this beautiful gem in a used bookstore on sale. I got the entire 1971 boxed set for only TEN DOLLARS. And it's in pristine condition!
Returning to the reading material of my childhood was such a joy after slogging through all the crap lately, but I gotta tell you, reading this series was like feeding a crack addiction. Once I started reading it, I didn't want to stop. Seriously. I flew through the entire series in one week. Once I finished one book, I'd just go seamlessly to the next- even late into the night. I was sleeping so horribly anyway because of the virus that it was the only thing to keep me distracted. But seriously. There was this incredible itch to keep reading them and to finish.
Instead of going through my typical format, I'd just like to share a few thoughts.
First of all, this: http://www.scarymommy.com/ma-ingalls-thinks-im-an-asshole/
I think this is the funniest damn thing I've ever come across, and this kind of mentality has been helping me get through the "rougher" parts of the pregnancy and not worrying too much about what's to come in the future. Especially after reading the description of Laura's home-birth. She just passed out from the pain and then the baby was there when she woke up. Woohoo!
Anyways. This set has all the feels of my childhood in it, but it was interesting to re-read it thoroughly as an adult. It certainly wins the Word Nerd Seal of Approval, because Little House, but I want to share some feedback.
Firstly, LIW does an amazing job with description. You are there in the log cabin, in the shanties, on the prairie, in the blizzards, with the Ingalls family. That didn't diminish with my age or the fact that I probably hadn't read them since middle school. It's such a stark contrast to the contemporary writing styles of juvenile/YA lit authors.
Obviously, things were a lot different back then. Amidst the hysteria of helicopter parenting and the over-sexualization of our culture, the culture in these books was a breath of freaking fresh air. There is discipline that is sturdy and charitable, and we get to see the effects of excellent boundaries because we are inside Laura's head most of the time. She knows that she has faults, and she tries to deal with them by overcoming them. It's so beautiful. Pa and Ma are strict, but they both have a sense of humor and they dearly love their girls. They want them to grow up to be strong, hard workers who aren't whiny, selfish idiots. Their family culture is really what I want to strive for in my own family, except that it would be overwhelmingly Catholic.
Reading these books made me immediately want to buy a hobby farm and live off the grid independently. These people lived such admirable lives of simplicity. They had next to nothing, but they appreciated the things that they did have. The love of beauty, especially Ma's desire to "make things pretty," is substantially clear.
It also made me realize how completely unfortunate the entire work is. The Ingalls family sustains tragedy after tragedy, and just as things start going great again for them, grasshoppers eat their crops, a prairie fire strikes, they are almost starved to death by a blizzard, and more. It's freaking depressing! There's finally a glimmer of hope when Laura starts making some money and teaching. Mary goes off to college, and the Ingalls can finally start saving. But then Laura gets married to Almanzo, and the same struggles and strife are encountered! They can barely get ahead. The series is super depressing, but so charming. So charming and lovable and completely realistic. It's not fluff and snowflake crying like we see today, though. It's full of tough-as-nails men and women who withstood the challenges and strife, and kept going to settle our country.
One thing that smacked me in the face this time around was the Wilder family's wealth. Holy freaking crap. They have 3 or 4 barns on the farm and a crap ton of animals?! They were like millionaires! I was completely oblivious to this as a child.
The only thing that struck me as odd was the same thing that I've found odd since I was a child- how rigid, serious, and strict these people were on Sunday. Yes, Sunday is a day of rest, but it is also a celebration of the Resurrection- we should be rejoicing and relaxing, not silently suffering to be still and serious for the entire day. Another thing was that all of their church hymns were completely unfamiliar to me. In the books, it's very unclear what religion the Ingalls family practiced (they attended Congregational churches), but their spirituality left me feeling cold and questioning. I know they're pioneers and couldn't attend church regularly, and they did celebrate the Sabbath in their own way, but it is all rather joyless.
I started reading these in about 2nd or 3rd grade. I can't wait to read them aloud to my children. My mom was a huge fan of the Rocky Ridge Farm series, and really anything else by LIW and Rose Wilder Lane, but I kind of lost interest in middle school. We moved to Wisconsin a few days before 7th grade, and it was a tough transition for me (middle school is hell anyway, without a move thrown in there). As a reward for getting through the year, me and my mom took a road trip to the Big Woods of Wisconsin and visited the site of the Little House near Pepin. Also, our only "big" family vacation was spent in the Ozarks of Missouri when I was in 3rd grade, and we visited all of the LIW stuff there, too. Pretty neat.
Lastly, I'd like to say that Pa Ingalls is the unsung hero of the Little House books. His persistence and determination are jaw-dropping. A man who supports 5 women on his own with no sons to help him with the heavy work is just admirable and heroic. He sustains failure after failure and keeps going. It's such a beautiful thing to read.
Also, Ma Ingalls was born in Brookfield, WI!!
To sum up- this one is a timeless classic and Word-Nerd Approved for a few reasons:
1. The description is there. No other author does it the way LIW does. Her language is so vivid; you're there with the characters.
2. It hit me right in the childhood feels. Again and again and again. No disappointment here (other than the grown-up realization of all of the struggles).
3. It made me hungry to read. I didn't want to stop. (I'd say I'm cured of this nonsense.)
4. It also made me want to revisit other works that were contemporaries of the Little House series.
5. Knitting!
It also made me realize how completely unfortunate the entire work is. The Ingalls family sustains tragedy after tragedy, and just as things start going great again for them, grasshoppers eat their crops, a prairie fire strikes, they are almost starved to death by a blizzard, and more. It's freaking depressing! There's finally a glimmer of hope when Laura starts making some money and teaching. Mary goes off to college, and the Ingalls can finally start saving. But then Laura gets married to Almanzo, and the same struggles and strife are encountered! They can barely get ahead. The series is super depressing, but so charming. So charming and lovable and completely realistic. It's not fluff and snowflake crying like we see today, though. It's full of tough-as-nails men and women who withstood the challenges and strife, and kept going to settle our country.
One thing that smacked me in the face this time around was the Wilder family's wealth. Holy freaking crap. They have 3 or 4 barns on the farm and a crap ton of animals?! They were like millionaires! I was completely oblivious to this as a child.
The only thing that struck me as odd was the same thing that I've found odd since I was a child- how rigid, serious, and strict these people were on Sunday. Yes, Sunday is a day of rest, but it is also a celebration of the Resurrection- we should be rejoicing and relaxing, not silently suffering to be still and serious for the entire day. Another thing was that all of their church hymns were completely unfamiliar to me. In the books, it's very unclear what religion the Ingalls family practiced (they attended Congregational churches), but their spirituality left me feeling cold and questioning. I know they're pioneers and couldn't attend church regularly, and they did celebrate the Sabbath in their own way, but it is all rather joyless.
I started reading these in about 2nd or 3rd grade. I can't wait to read them aloud to my children. My mom was a huge fan of the Rocky Ridge Farm series, and really anything else by LIW and Rose Wilder Lane, but I kind of lost interest in middle school. We moved to Wisconsin a few days before 7th grade, and it was a tough transition for me (middle school is hell anyway, without a move thrown in there). As a reward for getting through the year, me and my mom took a road trip to the Big Woods of Wisconsin and visited the site of the Little House near Pepin. Also, our only "big" family vacation was spent in the Ozarks of Missouri when I was in 3rd grade, and we visited all of the LIW stuff there, too. Pretty neat.
Lastly, I'd like to say that Pa Ingalls is the unsung hero of the Little House books. His persistence and determination are jaw-dropping. A man who supports 5 women on his own with no sons to help him with the heavy work is just admirable and heroic. He sustains failure after failure and keeps going. It's such a beautiful thing to read.
Also, Ma Ingalls was born in Brookfield, WI!!
To sum up- this one is a timeless classic and Word-Nerd Approved for a few reasons:
1. The description is there. No other author does it the way LIW does. Her language is so vivid; you're there with the characters.
2. It hit me right in the childhood feels. Again and again and again. No disappointment here (other than the grown-up realization of all of the struggles).
3. It made me hungry to read. I didn't want to stop. (I'd say I'm cured of this nonsense.)
4. It also made me want to revisit other works that were contemporaries of the Little House series.
5. Knitting!
Finally, a remake of Disney's Beauty and the Beast came out last Friday. Please allow me to canonically ruin your childhood:
I think I'll wait to see it until it's in the cheap theatre, because, if what I've heard is true, it won't hold a candle to the remake of Cinderella. And that, my friends, will never do.
Next week, I may or may not post. It's my plan to read True Grit by Charles Portis (which, I just found out, is a first edition copy).
The John Wayne version is the best.
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