Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell // Do You Have Gumption?

I finished Gone With the Wind yesterday, and goodness, that is some book! I know it was a reread, but I got ever so much more out of it than I did at 11.

In 1936, Margaret Mitchell was asked what her novel was about. This is her response:

"If the novel has a theme, it is that of survival. What makes some people come through catastrophes and others, apparently just as able, strong, and brave, go under? It happens in every upheaval. Some people survive; other don't. What qualities are in those who fight their way through triumphantly that are lacking in those that go under? I only know that survivors used to call that quality 'gumption.' So I wrote about people who had gumption and people who didn't."

The split between those with gumption and those without is pretty clear in the novel. Scarlett has gumption, that's for certain, and so does Rhett. Ashley doesn't, and neither does Mr. O'Hara, despite all his bombast. And then we come to Melanie. Does Melanie have gumption? You wouldn't think so, in the beginning. But as we progress further into the novel, we, along with Scarlet, discover things about Melanie that we would never have expected. She has her own kind of hidden, gentle gumption, almost more powerful than Scarlett's because it isn't obvious at first.

Scarlett has gumption and she knows it. She knows that it has helped her get where she is, and she is proud of it.
Melanie has no clue of her own strength and does not realize how many people depend on her.

I think that's the ultimate contrast in the book - Scarlett vs. Melanie, selfishness vs. selflessness, pride vs. humility. Everything Scarlett does is for herself and to further her own goals - everything Melanie does is for others.

I'm not at all like Scarlett - I can't just GO DO THINGS, and suddenly make friends with my enemies because that'll help me get where I want to be. I'd like to think that I'm rather like Melanie, but part of me is nervous that I'm actually more similar to Ashley. I haven't been tested yet.

If my world was completely torn apart, and nothing was as it used to be - what would I do? If nearly everyone I loved was gone, and I couldn't depend on anyone except myself, would I break down like Mr. O'Hara? Would I push it to the back of my mind to think about tomorrow and move ahead like Scarlett? Would I sit there wishing for the good old days to come back like Ashley? I'd like to think that I'd just go along calmly and loyally like Melanie, but a small part of me thinks that I might not be strong enough. I can see myself turning into the nostalgic, scared Ashley, who can't deal in a new, harsh world.

It sort of scares me. I'm living in a sort of perfect bubble right now, really, and I really don't want to have it popped. My grandmother and great grandmother had their bubbles popped, when World War II came to their small town in Ukraine. My great-grandma had Scarlett-like gumption, with a bit more selflessness. My grandma is very much like Melanie, to this day.Their gumption is what brought them here and what helped them survive. Would I have been able to do the same?

This post is turning into more of a self-reflection than a book commentary. But I suppose that's a good sign - excellent books make you reflect on your own soul. And Gone With the Wind is certainly an excellent book.

Have you read Gone With the Wind? What do you think of it? And how do you think you would fare if the-world-as-you-know-it crumbled around you?

~Sophia

Beautiful People #1: Zaneta

Welcome to my first ever Beautiful People post! Beautiful People is a monthly feature for writers hosted at both the Notebooks Sisters and Further Up and Further In. Its goal is to help us get to know our own characters better. You can read more about it at either of those wonderful blogs.

My first character is my main character from my July Camp NaNoWriMo. Clearly this yet-untitled novel is going to be set in Venice, but other than setting I really have very little to go off of as yet. So some of my answers may be vague, and I may feature Zaneta in another Beautiful People post once I figure out a bit more about her and actually give her a plot.
But for now, here goes!

1) What is their full name and is there a story behind why they got it?

Her name is Zaneta Soranzo. She is named after her paternal grandmother, Giovanna Soranzo, but everyone just calls her Zaneta. (Giovanna -> Gianeta -> Zaneta)
Also, the Soranzi are known through Venice as superior maskmakers. (Not really. Just for the story.)

(Why did I choose these names for her? No particular reason. I googled Venetian names and found some awesome databases, and then put them together because I liked how they sounded.)

2) How old are they, and when were they born?

Zaneta is somewhere between 17 and 20, and she was born sometime in the mid 18th century.
But most importantly, she was born during Carnevale, the day of the Doge's Grand Ball.

3) Describe their physical appearance. (Bonus questions: 1. What is their race/nationality/ethnicity? 2. Do you have a picture of them? If so, include it!)

Willowy stature and moderately tall, with long, thick, wavy brown hair, and large green eyes. A delicate nose and high cheekbones. A small, cherry mouth, with a fantastically charming smile. Long dexterous fingers (occasionally with dirty nails). Can do a lot of intricate handiwork, but is rather clumsy otherwise.
Bonus question 1. Why, Venetian, of course, and proud of it! The Soranzi family goes a long way back.
Bonus question 2. Sorry, no picture yet.

4) Describe your character's personality first in one word, and then elaborate with a few sentences.

(This one was hard.)
Whimsical. That word has a certain innocent and pure quality, and Zaneta definitely is both to a certain extent, but there's also a hint of secrets and mystery. Zaneta loves discovering mysteries and also has some of her own.


5) What theme song(s) fit their personality and story arc?

This:
(BUT DON'T THINK ABOUT THE TITLE. Ignore the title of the piece. Or the random weird picture of the redhead and the naked slenderman. Click play and close your eyes and just listen to the music. That is Zaneta, and her story. (Especially the beginning.))

6) Which one of the seven deadly sins describes your character?

Pride.

7) If they were an element (fire, water, earth, air), which one would they be?

Air.

8) What is their favorite word?

Mask. Maskmaking is in her blood.

9) Who's one person they really miss? (It could be someone who's passed away, or someone they're not close to anymore, or someone who's moved away.)

Her father, Bartolomeo Soranzo. He died a few years ago, and she took over his maskmaking business.

10) What sights, sounds, and smells remind them of that person?

His maskmaking tools that she inherited, his final unfinished mask hanging on the wall.

Well, that was fun! If you're a writer, consider doing one of your own.

~Sophia

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books This Year

Hosted by the lovely people at The Broke and the Bookish.
Today's topic is the top ten books I've read so far this year!

1. Persuasion by Jane Austen. The first book of the new year (though it was a reread).


2. Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett. This was my first never-before-read book I read in the new year, and it was a superb way to begin! (Fun fact: I'm going to see a theatrical adaptation of it soon!)


3. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. This book is just made of pure magic.


4. The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G.Wells. So much content in such a small book!


5. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. A fine introduction into Science Fiction for me. (Though this isn't entirely an introduction - I've read C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy.)


6. Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. What a fantastic way to finish out an excellent course on Arthurian Literature! (Post on this one coming soon.)


7. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I'm not quite done with this book, but it just had to go on this list! (Review also coming soon.)


I've only got seven today, which is the result of a very busy semester and very little reading time. Hopefully this summer will give me some more free time to work on that TBR!

I'm Hoooomme!

Yes yes, I know I missed the Bible Project post, but I've been getting things in order since my return. I'm back in the Windy City as of Wednesday afternoon, and goodness, it's nice to be home. But it was a truly fantastic trip, so I thought I'd share some things with you - especially bookish things. :-)

Rome is perfect for wandering - there are so many little side streets to get lost in. Even if you go to the same piazza four times, there are thousands of ways to get home. We thought we could get there without a map the third time. We were very, very wrong. 

One thing we found on one of our rambles was Geppetto's puppet shop! Here is a picture of Geppetto himself at work on a new Pinnochio. (He had a wooden nametag pin that actually said "Geppetto.") 

Also, here's a cool book fountain by our apartment. 

Over the course of our first bunch of days in Rome, we saw: the Pope, the Coliseum (and a cool little exhibit on ancient libraries), the Pantheon, Trevi fountain, Victor Emmanuele monument, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and St. Peter's. All the good Roman stuff. 

Then we went on to Venice. 

And my heart is mine no longer. Venice, that glorious city of dreams, has captured it forever. 

I've got to get back there. During Carnevale, if possible. :)

But most importantly, I've just GOT to write a story about Venice. It is THE ULTIMATE SETTING. It is made of pure MAGIC. 

Anyway, there were lots of mask shops (I bought a mask - how could I resist the charming enchantment?), but there was also this cool little bookbinding shop where the guy sold these tiny blank books. (That's my finger for perspective.) Aren't they adorable?

All of Venice is such a storybook village - my sister said it reminded her of Bree. (Except with some canals thrown in, of course.)

Ugh we only had three and a half days there. It was NOT ENOUGH.

Back in Rome, we saw the Vatican Museum, which is spectacular. And then we dashed off to Florence. 

The stalls in the bathrooms in the Florentine train station have become covered in tons and tons of scribblings over the years, in many different languages, but mostly English. There is one that I think deserves particular mention, and was the work of three different "artists". It looked something like this (if the first two are in sharpie and the last one is scratched in):

I am Satan

I am Jesus Christ

And I'm Javert

I laughed so hard at that. (Not out loud. I'm in a public restroom. That would be weird.)

We finished off the trip back in Rome, and spent our final days watching street performers on the piazza by our house. If you care to see a collection of a bunch of street performers that we saw around Italy, here's a video I recently put together:

So there you have it!

Some miscellany:

-The Bible Project from last Sunday will be combined with next week's post. Oh well.

-Ravens and Writing Desks now has both a FACEBOOK and a TWITTER. Go follow me! :-)

-Venice has so inspired me that I will be doing Camp NaNoWriMo this July, with my novel set in that glorious city. I don't have a plot yet, but that will come in time. Is anyone else doing July's NaNo? If so, I'd love to be in a cabin with you! Let me know your username so I can request you - mine is Philomena.

-Does anyone have any good books to recommend that are set in Venice? I'm clearly going through Venice withdrawal. 

~Sophia

Throwback Thursday: Moby Dick by Herman Melville // Non-fiction Disguised as Fiction

Most of the classics, I enjoy. A good bunch, I tolerate. And there are only a few that I absolutely dislike and will never read again in my entire life.

One of the latter is Moby Dick, which I read for AP Lit a few years back. 

It starts out all fine and dandy. "Call me Ishmael." Interesting characters, interesting places, interesting situations. An inn where the only two options on the menu are two types of chowder, which only come in Size Large? That's pretty funny. An awesome fellow named Queequeg with tattoos all over him? Neat character. And of course, Captain Ahab - who can disregard the fellow with the most famous motivation in all of literature? Spectacular.

But then, somehow, it all stops. And becomes, not a story of a man with a burning passion to revenge himself on the villainous white whale, but a nonfiction book on the methods and history of whaling. Yes, the story does pick up again somewhere near the end, and ends magnificently, but most people would have quit by then. (I have a rare and sometimes self-torturing persistence when it comes to boring books.) Why does Melville do this? Why can't he just stick the whole story together and add the informative parts to an Appendix at the back of the book?

Well, one reason is that it's not very common for the Appendix to be twice the size of the book itself.

But seriously, isn't one of the rules of historic fiction, "Don't inundate your reader with information."? Your're supposed to weave it into the story. Make sure the reader isn't in the conundrum of not seeing the forest for all the trees. The forest is the story. The trees are the twenty chapters on the methods and history of whaling. What was Melville thinking?

I have a theory. My theory is that what Melville really wanted to do was write a nonfiction book on whaling. But, it wasn't such a hot topic then in the literature market. Publishers wouldn't take it! "Aha!" thought Herman, "I shall disguise it as a fiction novel, and maybe then I'll finally get a couple bucks out of the deal." So he slapped his original manuscript in the middle of a novella about a crazy captain and an albino whale, made some minor tweaks, and - lo and behold - it became a classic. Who knew that Captain Ahab would become one of the most well known characters in fiction? Though I did read somewhere that the book was rather ill-received during Melville's lifetime, so he didn't get any revenue out of it anyway. Though I'm sure he got lots of enjoyment from writing it!

Also, our narrator Ishmael disappears after a while. It's not exactly nice of him to do that - he made a commitment to be the narrator, and then cops out. And he was rather a good narrator.

Now that I think about it, I actually really do like Moby Dick - if only it weren't for the twenty-something chapters in the middle.

~Sophia

Top Ten Tuesday: Books in My Beach Bag

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.
Today's topic is Books That Will Be In My Beach Bag this Summer! (Frankly, I'm not sure how different this is from June 17th's topic, Books on my Summer TBR list - unless today I'm supposed to list the kind of lighthearted books I'd read on a beach. If that's the case, then let me tell you: I don't read specific kinds of books in specific places. And if #2 (or #3) makes me cry while I'm sitting on the sand surrounded by all the people at a Chicago beach - who cares.)
Trust me, this was hard to narrow down to ten... :-) I've been waiting to read these books for months, and now that school's out, I'm going on a mission to the library!

1. Cinder by Marissa Meyer


2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - just in time for the movie!


3. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein


4. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo


5. Allegiant by Veronica Roth


6. All the Harry Potter Books!

(HBP gets featured because it's my favorite cover)

7. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker


8. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - it's my Classics Club Spin #6 book, so I've got to finish it by July 7th!


9. Dune by Frank Herbert - my sister is reading this and I  don't believe how jealous I am! Who knew that I could develop book jealousy?

10. The Once and Future King by T. H. White. For the Arthurian Literature Challenge, but also because for some reason, a couple people have strongly recommended it to me very recently. It's a sign! :-)


What are some books in your summer beach bag?

~Sophia

The Bible Project: Week 22 (Nehemiah; Tobit)

Woo, we're done with the Chronicler! He's a really thorough guy, but definitely not my style.
Thankfully, Nehemiah was more like Ezra then like 1 and 2 Chronicles. Nehemiah basically told the same story as Ezra except from Nehemiah's point of view. If Ezra was in charge of the spiritual rebuilding, Nehemiah was in charge of the physical rebuilding of the temple.

Tobit * is described in my Bible as a "religious novel," and that's exactly what it is. And that's exactly why I enjoyed it! :-)

It's partly narrated in first person by Tobit himself, an honorable and God-fearing fellow. The other part is in third person, mostly about Tobit's son, Tobiah, and his adventures with the angel Raphael in disguise.
This story reads like a Greek or Roman myth. The 14 chapters flew by faster than one chapter in Chronicles. And I think it is sort of a myth - the "historic facts" are all way off. I'd say it's more of a story to teach people that if you're a good person, good will happen to you. Maybe Tobit didn't even exist. It's a religious novel.

More myth comparisons: Raphael in Tobit reminds me of Hermes in the Odyssey, when Odysseus visits Circe. In this myth, Hermes gives Odysseus a magic flower that helps the hero be immune to Circe's magic. I see this as similar to Raphael telling Tobiah to capture the fish that attacked him and remove it's heart, liver, and gall. The heart and liver became useful in scaring away the demon that plagued Tobiah's future wife, and the gall healed Tobit's blindness. (Side note: Tobit became blind because a bird pooped on his eyes. Seriously.)

So, overall, I really liked Tobit. It's told very frankly, as though we are sitting listening to an ancient storyteller - maybe Tobit himself!

If you don't have a Catholic Bible, here is a link to the complete book of Tobit, if you care to read it. You can also find KJV translations online, but if you look in an actual KJV Bible, Tobit isn't there.

~Sophia


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*Tobit is not present in most (if not all) Protestant Bibles. It is one of the discrepancies between Protestant and Catholic Bibles. Which is a pity, because it's such a darn good story! :-)