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May 25th, 2012
07:01 pm - Anna Sewell, Black Beauty, 1877
Joanna Russ says no one ever writes only one novel. Unless they die at the age of 15 and never read anything else, every author is influenced by those around her.
Anna Sewell did, of course, only write one novel, but she was at the same time influenced by those around her (and she would possibly have written more if she had not lived only long enough to see her novel become a runaway success). To start with, there was the influence of her mother who wrote simple moral tales which were very popular and which Sewell helped edit. Then there was the influence of Horace Bushnell who inspired her to write a popular story promoting kindness to animals.
Sewell suffered an accident when she was fourteen which left her generally unable to walk for the rest of her life. She did, however, enjoy horses and drove her father five miles to the station every day. It was only when her injuries confined her to the house that she began writing *Black Beauty* in the 1870s.
Sewell’s unique twist was to write the novel from the perspective of a gentle and intelligent horse. It is this unusual point of view which ensured the novel’s immediate popularity, that it has never gone out of print, and that it has been consciously emulated many times (as in the Pullein-Thompson series *Black Ebony*, *Black Velvet*, etc).
Also, this use of an animal perspective is why I am classing this work as fantasy or maybe an SF-analogue in which she explores the point of view of a non-human. It’s certainly not straight fiction.
Black Beauty is an unusually articulate and rational horse who provides a running commentary on all the ways in which human cruelty, frailty, carelessness, and vanity impact on the dumb animals under their care. Only three of Black Beauty’s owners are genuinely competent and caring owners, and the others serve to point out various practices which Sewell condemns. According to Wikipedia one of these practices – using a bearing rein to force the horse’s head back because it was fashionable – fell out of favour as a result of Sewell’s stinging condemnation of its cruelty. *Zebra363*, my equine expert, confirms that the bearing rein is no longer generally used.
Sewell at several points has various good characters stop and urge others to not mistreat horses. This is always applauded by Black Beauty, and the arguments that the characters make are often put in explicitly religious terms. One character says that cruelty to animals is ‘the mark of the Devil’s work’. Another says that ‘we have no right to distress any of God's creatures without a very good reason; we call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.’
Black Beauty himself never comments on God’s stance on cruelty to animals. Perhaps this would have been a step too far for Victorians to contemplate – it verges on the unbiblical – but Sewell uses multiple versions of the same rescue scenario to make her argument that God wants humans to protect animals.
I had not read an unedited version of this story before and it was the repetitious nature of the plot which surprised me. Basically Black Beauty goes through a lot of owners, and virtually all of them provide an opportunity for Black Beauty to comment on the need for people to improve their treatment of animals. (This was perhaps edited out of the version I had because it was deemed too gruelling for children? Sewell did originally intend the work for adults, particularly cabmen and horse owners, not children.)
Having said that it is repetitious, I sound as though I did not enjoy it. Not so. The death of Ginger, the companion of Black Beauty’s youth, as an overworked cab horse continues to be terribly moving. (It made me weep as a child). The image of Black Beauty standing over the dead body of the drunken groom is vivid. (I have no memory of this as a child - perhaps edited out). The race where Black Beauty chases after a runaway horse is exciting. (This I do remember as thrilling - and it still is). The story really does hold up.
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May 14th, 2012
07:07 pm - *My Little Pony*
Pearl has requested an Emily the tank engine cake for her birthday, based on Emily, the sole female tank engine friend of Thomas. One girl/seven boy trains.1
Emily is a classic example of the kind of diverse cast which you see so often – white guy, white guy, white girl, black guy and another white guy. Though of course the sexism is kind of built in to a show called *Thomas the Tank Engine*.
Pearl much prefers to pretend to be Emily rather than Thomas. Just as she usually prefers to be Dashi the female dog photographer or Tweak the female rabbit engineer when pretending to be one of the *Octonauts*.2 Two girls/five boys/one neuter vegemal creature.
This leads me to a few conclusions:
1, It’s lucky for me that we are white because otherwise there would be zero characters in either show to identify with. (Well, you know, luck/white privilege).
2, There’s been very little progress in this area since the interminable arguments of the 1990s. I seem to recall endless debates about which *Trek* was the least sexist (Original series one/six; *Next Gen* two (or three)/six; *DS9* two/five; *Voyager* - three/six). Do women ever get to pass some critical mass and make up a majority? Or will it be like the endless studies showing that if women talk a third of the time they are seen as speaking just about enough?
3, While I have some mixed feelings about *My Little Pony* there is one thing I love about it: the default pony is female. All the main characters – girls. The bookish geek living in a treetop library – a girl. The plainspoken farmer – a girl. The party-loving cook’s assistant – a girl. The shy vet – a girl. The generous beautician – a girl. The daring physically bold one – a girl.
The average pony on the street - a girl. The supreme ruler - female. The musicians, the teachers, the magicians, the gardeners, the farmers - girls, girls, girls. And, OK, it does embody some of the worst aspects of a separatist utopia – in that Ponyville is a pink rococo explosion of cuteness. And sometimes I worry that the boys are cast in too narrow a range. (I’m looking at you Snips and Snails, the dufus-y light relief boy ponies).
But it makes such a huge change to have the whole range of human (well, equine) options portrayed as being undertaken by girls. I really, genuinely had not taken in how much Pearl would like having actual girl role models on the TV and I respect *MLP* for that.
· OK, the series was originally written by a clergyman in the 1940s, so one understands where the gender relations come from but it is still annoying to see that all the original female characters in the series were carriages, carted around by the engines. Emily was added to make things better. Emily, the sole female figure, represents the improved version.
· She will sometimes also be Captain Barnacles the male polar bear because she likes his immense strength.
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May 8th, 2012
07:02 pm - Ruby is now a big toddler girl and not my little baby any more
She stood up for several seconds on the weekend; she played with some play dough rather than eating it; she played with some toy animals rather than eating them.
I will never have a little baby again.
My mother says: ‘Never mind. Perhaps one day you will be lucky enough to have grandchildren.’
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May 4th, 2012
May 2nd, 2012
01:58 pm - NF1
Ha, reading over the information for parents on NF1 and school I had a sudden realisation. It may well be that I am not just really stupid at maths. It may actually be that I am one of the 50% of people with NF1 who have learning disorders in areas such as reading, writing or maths (usually just one of these).
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01:32 pm - School's back
So Pearl has been back at school for one day and the routine of stress and having to do too much has resumed.
The teacher would like her to get a teacher's aide. My first response was horror and instinctive denial but probably it would be for the best, not just for her but for all the kids in the class room.
So I am off to get documentation on NF1 and her history to support the application.
I do feel that miserable sometimes and I know it is because I am comparing the wrong way. I keep looking at people whose kids are healthy and whose experiences are straightforward whereas I should be comparing downwards.
1, I could live in America where I would have all the medical stuff but also be fighting with insurance companies who seem, over there, to be forces of pure evil.
2, I could have a child with a really serious illness.
3, I could have, I don't know, unsupportive husband or my leg might fall off or something.
But, really, bother. This is just another of the endless hoops we have to jump through.
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May 1st, 2012
07:26 pm - Norma K Hemming Short List
The Australian Science fiction Foundation today announced the short list for the 2012 Norma K Hemming Award for race, gender, sexuality, class and disability in Australian speculative fiction. The Winner will be announcedat the 51st Australian National Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne.
The Short List, in alphabetical order, is…
Black Glass novel by Meg Mundell published by Scribe Publications
Bluegrass Symphony collection by Lisa L Hannett published by Ticonderoga
The Devil’s Diadem novel by Sara Douglass (1957 – 2011) published by HarperCollins
Eona novel by Alison Goodman published by HarperCollins
Hindsight novel by A A Bell published by HarperCollins
Nightsiders novel by Sue Isle published by Twelfth Planet Press
Road To The Soul novel by Kim Falconer published by HarperCollins
The Shattered City novel by Tansy Rayner Roberts published by HarperCollins
Yellowcake Springs novel by Guy Salvidge published by IP
Congratulations to those short listed!
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April 30th, 2012
07:44 pm - How much do I love school holidays?
*Stretches arms out* - this much, people!
During the school holidays we were about 50% less stressed as I didn’t have to hurl Pearl out the door in time to get to kindy two days a week. Also, she was not rat-tired for the two days following. See how that frees up several days? Brilliant!
Because we were under so much less time pressure we could concentrate developing daily life. And both Pearl and Ruby leapt ahead in multiple areas.
Pearl – finally showing signs of being completely toilet trained during the day. It’s only been since July last year so the prospect is an exciting one. She has earned multiple My Little Ponies with her sticker chart for poos. She is actually disappointed if she misses an opportunity to get a sticker.
Also, I have put in *massive* work on expanding the repertoire of foods she will eat and she has made progress. Ham if cut into the shape of teddy bears! Lettuce if arranged as the antennae of butterfly cheese sandwiches! Cucumber if arranged as a salad person! Beet if boiled, pureed, and put into pink pancakes! Melon if placed in a milk shake!
I am worried that we may revert in this area as planning the meals is time consuming and creating the little masterpieces even more so. Do you know how hard it is to cut out a butterfly sandwich in artinisal bread? Being a parent is tricky.
(BTW: If you are rolling your eyes and thinking that I should just make her eat it, I would point out that it is impossible to ‘make’ someone else eat. Or sleep. All you can do is entice them and provide a routine and circumstances likely to encourage them.)
( Read more... )
Ruby – all she needed was her new orthotics to become super Ruby, able to stand unassisted (for at least a second), able to get into bear walking position (though not to move forward), able to climb like a young mountain goat, able to pull herself up independently, and all while being very proud of herself!
I think the right one may be slightly uncomfortable because she often pulls that one off and scoots around with just one shoe on. Otherwise, brilliant!
Also, the community nurse measures her as 76cm, a massive improvement over the 67cm the paediatrician recorded. I suspect one of the two has transposed the digits, because I am pretty sure she hasn’t grown 9cm in 7 weeks. Hoping it’s the lower measurement that is wrong. If she is 76cm tall she is only slightly below the bottom 3rd percentile. If it is 67cm she is way below, hence the whole wanting her to go on growth hormones.
My efforts to encourage Ruby to eat more have not really been successful but she has had a cold pretty continuously for the last two months so perhaps she is just not up for it. I have sneaked some extra fat into her diet by mixing full fat dried milk into her full fat milk (double milk! Like double cream!). Also, I have been giving her snacks of chips – probably the oddest thing a dietician has ever recommended. Now I think about it, doubly odd given that hypertension is associated with NF1.
The only area with no progress at all has been weaning Ruby. The dietician wants her weaned so she will eat more meat and fat in the day. But. First Ruby had a cold, then I had a cold, then it was Swancon, then I tried for two nights which lead Ruby to being awake for four hour periods over the night, then she had a cold, now I have a cold.
When I am better I suppose I will have to try again but frankly I see little prospect of success.
( Read more... )
However, I did use the holidays to improve some other areas of my life. Check out the back yard.
( Read more... )
Note how I hacked out the brush and ten years worth of dead leaves. And then put down brickie’s sand and concrete slabs and moved the sand pit up there. What you can’t see is that I also assembled a cheap cubby house. Way to go me with the hitherto undiscovered DIY talent. There must be at least twice as much useable (playable in) space in the back yard now.
In short, we have all loved the school holidays which gave us time to do the important things in life (eating, toileting, walking and playing).
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April 29th, 2012
01:34 pm - Ridiculous Things I Worry About #4
Why did they combine the Easter celebrations and the Anzac day celebrations at Pearl's school?
Now she thinks the Easter bunny sometimes brings flags with stars on.
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April 27th, 2012
01:51 pm - Louisa May Alcott, ‘Behind a Mask or A Woman’s Power’ and ‘Pauline’s Passion and Punishment’ (1860s)
Before she wrote *Little Women* Louisa May Alcott published many, many stories and novelettes as A.M. Barnard, all ‘blood and thunder’ novels or melodramas or gothics.
She wrote to Alf Whitman (a source for Laurie): ‘I intend to illuminate the Ledger with a blood & thunder tale as they are easy to ‘compoze’ & are better paid tha moral & elaborate works of Shakespeare so dont be shocked if I send you a paper containing a picture of Indians, pirates, wolves, bears & distressed damesels in a grand tableau over a title like ‘The Maniac Bride’ or ‘The Bath of Blood A Thrilling Tale of Passion’.
This is actually a pretty good description of the stories, except that in the two I read there are no distressed maidens. On the contrary, Jean Muir in ‘The Mask’ appears to be a demure, nineteen year old governess but is actually a thirty year old divorced actress who deceives everyone, compels every man in the house to fall in love with her, and triumphantly marries the head of the family.
Pauline, of said passion and punishment, is a firey woman who eventually, though not entirely intentionally, became a murderer. She is introduced with the following, amazing lines:
‘To and fro, like a wild creature in its cage, paced that handsome woman, with bent head, locked hands and restless steps. Some mental storm, swift and sudden as a tempest of the tropics, had swept over her and left its marks behind. As if in anger at the beauty now proved powerless, all ornaments had been flung aay, yet still shone undimmed and fillerd her with a passionate regret. A jewel glittered at her feet, leaving the lace rent to shreds on the indignant bosom that had worn it; the wreaths of hair that had crowned her with a woman’s most womanly adornment fell disordered upon shoulders that gleamed the fairer for teh scarlet of the pomegranate flowers clinging to the bright meshes that had imprisoned them an hour ago; and over the face, once so affluent in youthful bloom, a stern pallor had fallen like a blight, for pride was slowly conquering passion and despair had murdered hope.’
I really enjoyed her melodramas, though of course I am pleased that she gave up that genre once she found/invented a much better paying one.
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