Comments | reading_lmm: Discussion Post: The Blythes Are Quoted

myr_soleil in reading_lmm

Discussion Post: The Blythes Are Quoted

Jul 03, 2011 11:24

Hi everyone! Welcome to our final discussion of the Anne series, on The Blythes Are Quoted. I know some of you didn't manage to get your hands on it, so I tried to make some questions more about the short stories that you can also find in The Road To Yesterday, although I don't know if they have as much Blythes references as the ones in The Blythes ( Read more... )

discussion post, book: the blythes are quoted

Comments 24

spyglass_ July 3 2011, 15:58:47 UTC

I ordered The Blythes are Quoted but my copy hasn't come from Amazon yet, so I'll be back later about that. But I'd like to do one of the discussion posts for Emily! It doesn't matter which since I actually haven't read any of them before. :D

myr_soleil July 14 2011, 01:20:18 UTC

Yay, thank you for offering! Would Emily Climbs (the second one) on August 21 work for you?

spyglass_ July 14 2011, 02:48:44 UTC

Sure! That works :D

empressearwig July 3 2011, 16:05:59 UTC

I can do one of the Emily books, too. I'd prefer either two or three, but I'm not picky.

I actually forgot to even reread The Road to Yesterday, but Di Meredith! I didn't know about that one. Walter Jr. and Gilbert Ford, yes. Aw.

myr_soleil July 14 2011, 01:19:47 UTC

Thanks for offering! Would Emily's Quest on August 28 work for you?

empressearwig July 14 2011, 01:25:48 UTC

Sure! That should be fine.

mardia July 3 2011, 18:06:02 UTC

1. What was your reaction to having one more book in the Anne series? If this isn't the first time you read it, do you remember how you felt when you discovered it? Do you consider it part of the series, or superfluous? Did you like it?

Hahaha, my reaction was kind of funny. I immediately went "What the hell do you mean there's ANOTHER BOOK?" And then I realized it was an unedited version of The Road To Yesterday (which I own) and was, "Huh. Wait, UNEDITED?" So all in all, I was fairly excited. As for considering it part of the series...honestly, not really. The Blythes are such minor characters in the stories that it doesn't really jive with the other books, to me. I...liked some of the stories, and I liked the glimpses of the Blythes we got through the poems, but I have to admit, by the end of the book, some of the stories did grate on me.

2. My copy's back cover makes a big deal of how this book is darker than the rest of what LMM wrote (Adultery, illegitimacy, revenge, murder, and death - these are not the first terms we ( ... )

mardia July 3 2011, 18:06:36 UTC

5. Are you happy to get more info on what happened to our Blythes? Jem and Walter Jr, Gilbert Ford, Di Meredith, Di's mysterious beau... Did you want more?

It was nice to get some info, but I wanted more, definitely. I also really wish they'd picked different names for the grandkids, it was really difficult at times figuring out which Gilbert was which, or which Anne, or which Walter.

6. Did you like the format in The Blythes Are Quoted? What did you think of the poems and the vignettes?

The format was okay--I'm not always the greatest fan of poetry, so some of that didn't work for me, but the vignettes were nice--I particularly liked, for example, the moment where Gilbert was all, "Honey, you can write whatever you want, believe me--but some of these poems are CREEPING ME OUT. Uh, you wanna talk about that?"

Also, this moment may be cheap, but it still creeped me out like crazy:

Walter: I hope I meet a friend like that someday.
A Voice no one hears: You will. And his name will be death.

MEEP.

7. I won't ask questions about ( ... )

h_loquacious July 3 2011, 18:54:21 UTC

I think in the latter half the people falling in love so quickly was in part a function of the fact that they were all going off to war ASAP, but still, agree that it was ridiculous and didn't always work. And it's such a contrast to how the stories started with Anne and Gil, yeah.

I agree the plot of Brother Beware is a bit problematic, but for some reason it doesn't bother me in that one. Also, was Anne complicit? I just thought that Anne and that woman had been over earlier and unlocked the door and left it unlocked absentmindedly, pre-kidnapping. That's how I read it. Now I have to check. Okay, yeah, she says that she and Anne were over and forgot to unlock it. So I don't think Anne was complicit, unless Anne could magically predict the dude's kidnapping scheme... That would bring the ridiculousness to a new level.

katayla July 3 2011, 20:32:15 UTC

The love at first sight thing was especially ridiculous in the last story! Oh, we just met for the first time and I let you think I was someone else, but let's get married!

Thread 9

h_loquacious July 3 2011, 18:36:14 UTC

h_loquacious July 3 2011, 18:37:20 UTC

6. Did you like the format in The Blythes Are Quoted? What did you think of the poems and the vignettes ( ... )

myr_soleil July 3 2011, 20:06:04 UTC

1. What was your reaction to having one more book in the Anne series? If this isn't the first time you read it, do you remember how you felt when you discovered it? Do you consider it part of the series, or superfluous? Did you like it?
I was surprised, and I think at first I felt that it was something of a marketing scam, in that in wasn't really a new Anne book, but a collection of short stories that happened to mention the Blythe. But in reading it, and reading about how it came to be, I guess I can see how you could consider it a real part of the series. I don't think it will be for me, though - I didn't like it that much, and I think Rilla is a better conclusion.

2. My copy's back cover makes a big deal of how this book is darker than the rest of what LMM wrote (Adultery, illegitimacy, revenge, murder, and death - these are not the first terms we associate with L.M. Montgomery.). Did you find it noticeably darker than the Anne series? Darker than other LMM books, if you read them?It's not darker than some of her short stories, ( ... )

myr_soleil July 3 2011, 20:06:17 UTC

5. Are you happy to get more info on what happened to our Blythes? Jem and Walter Jr, Gilbert Ford, Di Meredith, Di's mysterious beau... Did you want more?
I am! And I did want more! The names were a bit confusing, but I'm pretty sure Jem Jr and Walter Jr were Jem's kids, and Gilbert was obviously Rilla's, and I thought it was a nice touch that Nan would give her sister's name to her daughter. It is weird that none of the names seemed to be new, though. ;) And I wanted to know what was up with Di's love story! People mentioned it once or twice and it seemed to be interesting, but we had no more details than that...

6. Did you like the format in The Blythes Are Quoted? What did you think of the poems and the vignettes?
I didn't care much for the poems. I'm not a big poetry fan in the first place and those weren't my style at all. The vignettes were uneven - it felt like they were not really themselves, and the dialogue felt forced. The thing with A Voice no one hears: You will. And his name will be death. was so weird I burst out ( ... )

katayla July 3 2011, 20:40:12 UTC

I did feel a bit like it was a marketing scam, like I said at first, and the reworking of the stories to include them was too obvious)

Haha, especially since I noticed sometimes they were REALLY repetitive, like I think one character noticed how much someone's eyes looked like Anne's twice within a few paragraphs!

I wanted to hear more about Di's love story, too! Though I was happy to hear she had one!

The thing with A Voice no one hears: You will. And his name will be death. was so weird I burst out laughing!

LOL YES. I didn't think it even really made sense?

h_loquacious July 3 2011, 20:42:53 UTC

The thing with A Voice no one hears: You will. And his name will be death. was so weird I burst out laughing!

I didn't laugh, but I was knocked right out of the story. It was a bit weird to say the least. Even stranger than Dog Monday's random comments in Rilla, etc.

For some reason I like Brother Beware. I suspect it has something to do with the woman's completely blase attitude towards the kidnapping. Like it's no big deal. Because yeah, that story probably should irritate me more than it should).

Thread 6