(Message misc/childlit:27) showproc misc/childlit/27 /home/mjd/bin/mailpager /home/mjd/MH-Mail/misc/childlit/27 Forwarded: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 04:17:33 -0400 Return-Path: null@stmartins.lambeth.sch.uk Return-Path: Delivered-To: mjd-list-childlit+@PLOVER.COM Received: (qmail 2441 invoked from network); 22 Jun 2001 07:59:05 -0000 Received: from mx1.ifl.net (213.18.248.74) by plover.com with SMTP; 22 Jun 2001 07:59:05 -0000 Received: from server2.stmartins.lambeth.sch.uk ([213.72.119.6]) by mx1.ifl.net (8.10.1/8.10.1) with SMTP id f5M7wlJ15611 for ; Fri, 22 Jun 2001 07:58:48 GMT Received: from server2.stmartins.lambeth.sch.uk (server2.stmartins.lambeth.sch.uk [127.0.0.1]) by server2.stmartins.lambeth.sch.uk (NTMail 3.02.13) with ESMTP id qa008856 for ; Fri, 22 Jun 2001 08:32:18 +0100 From: "administrator@stmartins.lambeth.sch.uk" To: "mjd-list-childlit+@PLOVER.COM" Subject: Failed mail: Banned or potentially offensive material Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 08:32:17 +0100 Message-Id: <07321799720589@stmartins.lambeth.sch.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="==_07321799720590==_" This is a MIME-encapsulated message --==_07321799720590==_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" This mail message contains banned or potentially offensive text. --==_07321799720590==_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The requested destination was: hans@stmartins.lambeth.sch.uk The text of the message follows: --==_07321799720590==_ Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline Return-Path: Received: from mouston.rutgers.edu (mouston.rutgers.edu [165.230.4.99]) by mx0.rmplc.co.uk (8.10.1/8.10.1) with SMTP id f5LHE6W19586 for ; Thu, 21 Jun 2001 17:14:06 GMT Apparently-To: Received: (qmail 13587 invoked from network); 21 Jun 2001 17:15:43 -0000 Received: from mouston.rutgers.edu (HELO mouston) (165.230.4.99) by mouston.rutgers.edu with SMTP; 21 Jun 2001 17:15:43 -0000 Received: from EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU by EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8d) with spool id 5285488 for CHILD_LIT@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU; Thu, 21 Jun 2001 13:15:39 -0400 Delivered-To: CHILD_LIT@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU Received: (qmail 12925 invoked from network); 21 Jun 2001 17:05:38 -0000 Received: from plover.com (circumflex@209.152.205.5) by mouston.rutgers.edu with SMTP; 21 Jun 2001 17:05:38 -0000 Received: (qmail 784 invoked by uid 119); 21 Jun 2001 17:03:03 -0000 Message-ID: <20010621170303.783.qmail@plover.com> Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 13:03:03 -0400 Reply-To: mjd-list-childlit+@PLOVER.COM Sender: "child_lit: theory and crit. http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~mjoseph/childlit/about.html" From: Mark Dominus Subject: Re: Deadly Urban Infrastructure To: CHILD_LIT@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU X-UIDL: 118b5745a0b0f1404f108594ab47da01 Says Melynda Huskey: > Louisa May Alcott unsurprisingly emphasizes the importance of ruralizing for > health in *Eight Cousins* _Eight Cousins_ doesn't seem like a good example of this to me. Rose's ill-health is caused by highfalutin finishing schools ("which was a regular Blimber hot-bed, and turned out many a feminine Toots") and meddlesome aunties; I can't think of any part of it that is ascribed specifically to city living. The book does say that her new home is near (but not in) a large city, and devotes a chapter to the spiritual and educational value of a visit to the wharves where her uncle operates his import-export business---hardly a rural setting: As they rounded the Point, the great bay opened before them full of shipping, and the city lay beyond, its spires rising above the tall masts with their gay streamers. Maybe a better example would be _Understood Betsy_, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. (Also a much better book, in my opinion.) Again there's the meddlesome aunties, but the evocation of the physical environment and its effects on Elizabeth Ann's health seems much more forceful than in _Eight Cousins_. It's funny that you bring up _Eight Cousins_, because I was thinking of it in another context today, because of the thread about the dangers of reading. A substantial part of _Eight Cousins_ concerns the tribulations of Mac, who is forced to stay inside wearing a blue eyeshade because he has ruined his eyes through abusive reading: What a fool I was that day to be stewing my brains and letting the sun glare on my book till the letters danced before me! I see 'em now when I shut my eyes; black balls bobbing round, and stars and all sorts of queer things. Wonder if all blind people do? _Eight Cousins_ is a weird book. For example, in spite of its being about Rose's extended family, at least fifteen people total, there are hardly any men and women who live together. Uncle Alec is a bachelor. Rose's parents are dead. Aunt Plenty has never married. Aunt Peace was to be married, but her fiance died on their wedding day: When Peace was twenty, she was about to be married; all was done, the wedding-dress lay ready, the flowers were waiting to be put on, the happy hour at hand, when word came that the lover was dead. They thought that gentle Peace would die too; but she bore it bravely, put away her bridal gear, took up her life afresh, and lived on,---a beautiful, meek woman, with hair as white as snow and cheeks that never bloomed again. She wore no black, but soft, pale colors, as if always ready for the marriage that had never come. Aunt Myra is a widow. Aunts Jessie and Clara are married, but their husbands Jem and Steve are kept away at sea for months at a time; it's a big deal when Jem makes it home in time for Christmas. Only Aunt Jane has a visible husband, who is a nonentity: Uncle Mac was a merchant, very rich and busy, and as quiet as a mouse at home, for he was in such a minority among the women folk he dared not open his lips, and let his wife rule undisturbed. Most of the time when we see Mac, he's asleep. I haven't read enough Alcott to know if this is a recurring theme in her books, but it certainly is striking here. --==_07321799720590==_--