Five Things Meme the End!

Last five things meme post! Except that cordialcount asked if she could ask me five questions about Lily & Nina from Black Swan, and I take any and all excuses to talk about Lily and Nina all the time, so I will be answering those.

(Actually, that should be a meme! Ask me five questions about a character (or characters) you know I like! Repost to your journals. A chance for infinite squee!)

But! I shall finish up the Five Things meme first. carmarthen asked for the top five books I would like to see adaptation into faithful, high production-values miniseries. I have been repeatedly reminding myself that miniseries doesn’t have to equal costume drama, although that’s what I first think of: Anne of Green Gables, the recent Sense & Sensibility and Romola Garai’s luminous Emma...

Mansfield Park, though. It gets no love, because everyone in the world but me hates Fanny Price, and therefore she is always portrayed as infinitely spunkier and more tomboyish than the actual Miss Price, because it’s not like being continually belittled, bossed around, and neglected by pretty much everyone at Mansfield Park except Edmund would have had some kind of deleterious effect on Fanny’s self-esteem.

( Mansfield Park, Ella Enchanted, Crown Duel, the Queen’s Thief books, Code Name Verity )

And finally, cordialcount: Five favorite children-- whether they be fictional, real, or metaphorical? I am not sure what a metaphorical child is, but nonetheless I shall persevere.

( Phoebe in Wonderland, A Little Princess, the Little House books, Matilda, Barbara Newhall Follett )

Girl Books for Girls

Yesterday, after I completed my list of favorite child characters, I realized that all the characters I’d listed were girls. It’s not that I avoided male protagonists as a child - I read pretty much everything - but clearly I imprinted on the girls.

Every so often I’ll stumble on someone bemoaning the fact that there’s nothing for girls to read that has good role models, and, okay, have you looked at children’s literature recently? And by recently I mean “within the last two decades.” Because for most of my childhood I did nothing but read and I never had a problem finding books with heroines I enjoyed.

If you’re looking specifically for books about Girls Who Fight, then yes, the pickings are rather slim. There’s all of Tamora Pierce’s books. And Crown Duel. And The Hunger Games and Graceling and, oh, the Narnia books, and the Fearless series which is admittedly a bit out of date, and the Gallagher Girls series - they spy, I’m assuming they fight? - and the Samurai Girl books and, oh wait, I lied, there are PILES of books about girls who can probably beat you into the floor.

Which is great! But frankly, if Girl with Sword is the only kind of character who falls under your “good role model” rubric, then you - and I say this as someone who loves Girls Who Kick Ass books! - are doing this wrong.

There’s a huge selection of awesome girl characters, and moreover, there has been basically since Jo March in Little Women proved that awesomeness sold. Early twentieth century fiction teems with amazing heroines! I am an expert in the field. Brave girls (with swords and without!), smart girls, funny girls, artsy girls, imaginative dreamy shy girls, and any one of these characters can be a good role model.

Which is not to say that girls’ fiction is totally perfect in every way and we ought to stop fretting about it; but we should fret about things that are actually problems. Sheer quantity is not an issue in Anglophone fiction and hasn’t been for over a century.