9/9 Finished Emily of New Moon, by Lucy Maud Montgomery. An immensely rich book, with many ponderous thematic angles and favorite moments I can only hope to do justice to.
As Emily begins to climb the ‘Alpine Path’, what encouragement does she receive along the way? Like Montgomery, Emily Byrd Starr is a fervent writer from an early age, always penning poems and stories. On encountering a poem that moved Montgomery in real life, she makes her own the vow to “climb the Alpine Path and write my name on the scroll of fame” (300-301).
Aside from the issue of a woman pursuing a literary career (her budding writings are certainly feminine and melodramatic enough), the ways Emily seeks her goal, and that others help her along the way, got me thinking about the larger effect of modern publishing on storytellers. The reading public, or friends and kin about the hearth, who will the audience be? Montgomery’s The Story Girl and The Golden Road presented the perfect example of a more pre-press audience might look like. In Emily of New Moon, Emily’s older Cousin Jimmy, supposed by many to be slow in the head, is actually a fine poet, but only shares his verse with a very few. Emily herself has bigger dreams, and in due time the new, challenging schoolteacher, Mr. Carpenter, offers her with some criticism (348, 350). After seeing charming excerpts throughout, I was aghast that he deemed there to be “only ten good lines” in all her poetry (he was more impressed with her prose profile of him). Earlier, Father Cassidy had jokingly called a derivative romantic drama “One av the seven original plots in the world” (206), and when Emily read him her poem “Evening Dreams”, the narrator reports, “Of course it was trash. Father Cassidy knew that well enough. All the same,” he too encourages her to “Keep on”, while making clear to Emily that she has not, as yet, accomplished much of anything (210).
As much as writers need to practice to improve in their craft, I cannot help but feel sad when Emily’s mentors are being so critical. I enjoy juvenilia because of its verve and unoriginality, the eagerness for telling a good story that has already been told again. In the publishing world, naturally, there is a lot of competition, and then getting one’s works accepted was even harder than now, so I understand the need to take pains and get better—isn’t it possible to simply say, “I especially liked these lines here”—but the very need to tailor a story, some verse to what an industry values smacks of phoniness. Naive efforts by the talented can be very pleasing, and even those with more modest ability can create handwritten lit or recited rhymes that entertain in the family circle. And, not all writers can endure criticism so well; such discouragement stops many who would have continued enjoying their craft had they “kept at it”. Emily actually burns many of her early works, convinced they have no merit—just as Montgomery, Lucy Maud Montgomery, burned a diary she had kept from age 9 to 14, for the same reason. What a loss to us! Conversely, how blessed we are that we have some of H. P. Lovecraft’s. The teenage years, when aspiring writers get more serious about honing their skills, are a time when we’re most eager to storm toward adulthood and make our hobbies careers, and are least likely to value childish writings without commercial appeal. I’ll bet many later wished they hadn’t destroyed their earliest works, as they may not have, had their mentors laid more stress on praising success than identifying shortcomings.
Also here, do not miss Emily explaining to Father Cassidy how she and Ilse creTed their own language, so that when French hired workers conversed in French, they would have their own cryptolect to confound them back (208-210)! Any takers, tired of hearing Spanish at work?
But what, exactly, is ’the shining scroll’, you ask? Now, it’s an annual publication for scholars and superfans of L. M. Montgomery’s oeuvre! https://lmmontgomeryliterarysociety.weebly.com/the-shining-scroll-periodical.html
Pic, a grave-looking Emily writing on one of her letter bills, from the tv show. #LucyMaudMontgomery #LMMontgomery #EmilyOfNewMoon #writing #poetry #criticism #juvenilia #languages #cryptolect #TheShiningScroll #childrensliterature #childrensbooks #literature #books
As Emily begins to climb the ‘Alpine Path’, what encouragement does she receive along the way? Like Montgomery, Emily Byrd Starr is a fervent writer from an early age, always penning poems and stories. On encountering a poem that moved Montgomery in real life, she makes her own the vow to “climb the Alpine Path and write my name on the scroll of fame” (300-301).
Aside from the issue of a woman pursuing a literary career (her budding writings are certainly feminine and melodramatic enough), the ways Emily seeks her goal, and that others help her along the way, got me thinking about the larger effect of modern publishing on storytellers. The reading public, or friends and kin about the hearth, who will the audience be? Montgomery’s The Story Girl and The Golden Road presented the perfect example of a more pre-press audience might look like. In Emily of New Moon, Emily’s older Cousin Jimmy, supposed by many to be slow in the head, is actually a fine poet, but only shares his verse with a very few. Emily herself has bigger dreams, and in due time the new, challenging schoolteacher, Mr. Carpenter, offers her with some criticism (348, 350). After seeing charming excerpts throughout, I was aghast that he deemed there to be “only ten good lines” in all her poetry (he was more impressed with her prose profile of him). Earlier, Father Cassidy had jokingly called a derivative romantic drama “One av the seven original plots in the world” (206), and when Emily read him her poem “Evening Dreams”, the narrator reports, “Of course it was trash. Father Cassidy knew that well enough. All the same,” he too encourages her to “Keep on”, while making clear to Emily that she has not, as yet, accomplished much of anything (210).
As much as writers need to practice to improve in their craft, I cannot help but feel sad when Emily’s mentors are being so critical. I enjoy juvenilia because of its verve and unoriginality, the eagerness for telling a good story that has already been told again. In the publishing world, naturally, there is a lot of competition, and then getting one’s works accepted was even harder than now, so I understand the need to take pains and get better—isn’t it possible to simply say, “I especially liked these lines here”—but the very need to tailor a story, some verse to what an industry values smacks of phoniness. Naive efforts by the talented can be very pleasing, and even those with more modest ability can create handwritten lit or recited rhymes that entertain in the family circle. And, not all writers can endure criticism so well; such discouragement stops many who would have continued enjoying their craft had they “kept at it”. Emily actually burns many of her early works, convinced they have no merit—just as Montgomery, Lucy Maud Montgomery, burned a diary she had kept from age 9 to 14, for the same reason. What a loss to us! Conversely, how blessed we are that we have some of H. P. Lovecraft’s. The teenage years, when aspiring writers get more serious about honing their skills, are a time when we’re most eager to storm toward adulthood and make our hobbies careers, and are least likely to value childish writings without commercial appeal. I’ll bet many later wished they hadn’t destroyed their earliest works, as they may not have, had their mentors laid more stress on praising success than identifying shortcomings.
Also here, do not miss Emily explaining to Father Cassidy how she and Ilse creTed their own language, so that when French hired workers conversed in French, they would have their own cryptolect to confound them back (208-210)! Any takers, tired of hearing Spanish at work?
But what, exactly, is ’the shining scroll’, you ask? Now, it’s an annual publication for scholars and superfans of L. M. Montgomery’s oeuvre! https://lmmontgomeryliterarysociety.weebly.com/the-shining-scroll-periodical.html
Pic, a grave-looking Emily writing on one of her letter bills, from the tv show. #LucyMaudMontgomery #LMMontgomery #EmilyOfNewMoon #writing #poetry #criticism #juvenilia #languages #cryptolect #TheShiningScroll #childrensliterature #childrensbooks #literature #books
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