A Certain Slant of Light

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Sadly, there is no more “I’m buying you a house whether you like it or not” drama in Caroline Fraser’s Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, but Rose Wilder Lane remains a spitfire up through to the end. She semi-adopts yet another fourteen-year-old boy, Roger Lea McBride; this one sticks around to the end of her life, which is how he ends up with the copyrights to the Little House book, which is how television got its hot little hands on the property and turned it into the series Little House on the Prairie.

This TV series crushed me as a child because it was so completely unlike the books. I saw about one episode before revolting against not merely this particular show but, briefly, the entire medium of television. Why is their house gigantic? Why do the episodes revolve around Pa rather than Laura? Why doesn’t Pa have whiskers?

It turns out that the answer to all these questions is Michael Landon, who played Pa and was the producer of the series and might be even more self-aggrandizing than Rose Wilder Lane herself, which is saying a lot. Landon turned himself into the star of the series, refused to wear whiskers because he felt he didn’t look good in them, and also did not wear underwear under his britches because he felt that the world deserved the chance to ogle his hindquarters. He also insisted on a gigantic “little house” because he didn’t want his imaginary TV daughters to be, gasp, poor. Clearly the whole point of the books went RIGHT over his head.

I also read James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk, which I might have skipped if I had realized it revolved around a false rape accusation, although it becomes clear ( spoilers )

And finally, I finished Jeanine Basinger’s The Movie Musical! The exclamation point is part of the title, but it also feels like appropriate punctuation for this sentence, because this is a hefty book. I suspect ultimately that this is a book meant to be dipped into (“What was it about those Judy Garland/Andy Rooney musicals?”) rather than read straight through, but I did end up with a long list of musicals to watch this way.

What I’m Reading Now

I’ve begun Deborah Yaffe’s Among the Janeites: A Journey through the World of Jane Austen Fandom. I feel like Yaffe is maybe trying a little too hard to dissociate herself with the Austen fans who were drawn in by the wet shirt scene, but nonetheless it’s interesting reading about all the different ways that Austen mania manifests itself.

I’ve also been rereading David Blaize, as research for a story I’ve been poking at (I’ve been poking at a lot of stories this month, I can’t seem to settle down for one) which actually takes place entirely after boarding school, but our heroes originally met in boarding school so obviously it’s important for BACKGROUND. Then they trooped off to fight in World War I, lost a limb or two, reconnected in a convalescent home etc., banged in a cottage on the coast of Cornwall.

What I Plan to Read Next

littlerhymes and I have been discussing what to read after we finish the Swallows & Amazons series (although we’re only on book six, so this eventuality is a long way off). I commented that we’ve done England (Swallows & Amazons), Canada (two L. M. Montgomery series, Anne and Emily), and Australia (Billabong), so maybe New Zealand next… if we can find an early to mid twentieth century series of beloved New Zealand children’s books. Or even a single book, if no series is in the offing. Anybody have a suggestion?

Although the supposed theme of this 100 books list is "100 books that influenced me," it's not always easy or even possible to pinpoint any measurable influence from a particular book. But Jeanine Basinger's Silent Stars is an exception: it had a clear and concrete influence on my life and my movie-going habits.

Before I get to that, however, let me sing the praises of Silent Stars, which is one of the most exuberant, enthusiastic, but nonetheless measured and thoughtful nonfiction books I've ever read. Each chapter is the profile of a different star (or occasionally thematically grouped stars) from the silent movie era. In her introduction, Basinger explains that her choices were "influenced by pleasure, by surprise and delight." That delight shines through in all her profiles.

In short, this is the book of a fan. The style isn't internet-fannish (not enough capslock, not enough exclamation point), but the feeling behind it, the willingness to watch and rewatch movie after flickering, poorly preserved movie - this is a labor of love. The melodrama of silent movie plots, the terse and snarky title cards, the sometimes ridiculous costumes: it would be easy to mock silent movies for their excesses, but instead these things fill Basinger with glee.

Her chapter about Mary Pickford encapsulates this beautifully: critics today often see the immensely popular Pickford's films as sentimental sexist twaddle, but Basinger notes instead the immense toughness of Pickford's characters. She was sweet and also an unholy hoyden: as one critic observed, "Good may have prevailed in Mary Pickford's movies, but the set of her tough little jaw told you it damn well better."

Forgiving is not quite the right word for this attitude. There's an element of focus to it: Basinger sees and notes what is bad about these movies, but the parts that she holds onto and internalizes are the parts that are good and useful to her. It's a nuanced and generous approach to criticism.

And generous, I think, is the word that I'm looking for to describe Basinger's attitude. She is generous in her love for these movies, generous in sharing it so enthusiastically with her readers, and generous to herself by focusing on what she likes best, without ignoring what is bad.

Silent Stars is the reason that I branched out beyond recent Hollywood movies. If Jeanine Basinger could get such joy out of Rudolf Valentino flaring his nostrils at the camera, then who knows what kinds of cinema might surprise and delight me? Golden age Hollywood, anime, French films, Bollywood - you never know until you try.

Oddly, given that Silent Stars is the book that started it all, the one kind of movie I've had trouble getting into are...silents. But I live in hope.