Tuesday February 23, 2010

I'm reading Little Women on the subway.  At least it wasn't as bad as reading Flannery O'Connor and having a Black man sit down beside me only to look over at a page of N-words that he managed to misunderstand entirely.  He must have thought that I was actually saying the N-words on that page because he started screaming at me and calling me a racist.  But reading Little Women, especially the illustrated copy, is worse because it's for five year olds.  I mean I can't believe Prose recommended it.  I trust her and so I keep reading it, but it does feel like a book for girls or, at best, for women.  It reminded me of Brenda Ueland's book "If you want to write."  The writing that she quotes is like Louisa May Alcott's.  That's the writing that she praises.  Imagine a list that includes Samuel Beckett and Louisa May Alcott!  So I'm lost to even find anything that I might not know about writing that Alcott knows.  Quote of the day: "After various lesser mishaps, Meg was finished at last, and by the united exertions of the family Jo's hair was got up, and her dress on."  Don't get me wrong, I love children's books.