Gone With the Wind

[Danik 2016]

well danik, on your "important part of the story" sentiment!

a lot has happened in the book since I was least here---still slowly drawing out the ending (I only have 12ish pages left).

scarlett had a miscarriage, bonnie was killed in a riding accident, and melanie either just died or is about to---holy cow!

I was waffling quite a bit on watching the movie, now im sure i'll put it off for quite awhile. way too much sadness...

and to that point danik---maybe scarlett gives the reader a shot at happy ending redemption.

on the topic of redemption---the movie forrest gump is about a lot of things, but I think the bestest thing its about is how forrest's
dutifulness and steadfast love redeems lieutenant dan, and more importantly, jenny. it takes melanie being on her deathbed for scarlett to finally realize what a rock melanie has been in her life, and how foolish she has been to love Ashley, and to not give herself to Rhett as she could have/should have.

that all seems like a lead-in to the famous "frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" utterance...

Well, you have still 12 pages left! I didn´t remember about the illness of Melanie, thanks for reminding me.

[Danik 2016]

I appreciate your asking about spritzer, thank you. she's really good. its been about a month now that ive stopped feeding the birds so ive let her journey back outside. she knows she's not "captive" really as she comes and goes dependent on the weather and her desire to eat. she hasn't spent the night outside yet but i suspect that'll probably happen sometime soon. she loves having her face and especially her neck and chin scratched, and she spends some time every day sitting on my lap either getting petted, or napping. i have a few fake mouse toys she enjoys playing with, as well as the random pieces of bark laying around the floor. she cracks me up---if I bend down towards the floor she knows im going to slide something at her and she'll run around to hide herself behind something so she can pounce on it seemingly unawares. she's a really good goalie and lightening fast.on weekends she gets a special food treat, and every day she gets a little treat of vanilla pedia-sure that she laps right up. today I just got a flea collar for her---she's really sensitive to chemical smells so im hoping I can get it on her without her freaking out and running away.

"she hasn't spent the night outside yet but i suspect that'll probably happen sometime soon. she loves having her face and especially her neck and chin scratched, and she spends some time every day sitting on my lap either getting petted, or napping. i have a few fake mouse toys she enjoys playing with, as well as the random pieces of bark laying around the floor. she cracks me up---if I bend down towards the floor she knows im going to slide something at her and she'll run around to hide herself behind something so she can pounce on it seemingly unawares. she's a really good goalie and lightening fast.on weekends she gets a special food treat, and every day she gets a little treat of vanilla pedia-sure that she laps right up. today I just got a flea collar for her---she's really sensitive to chemical smells so im hoping I can get it on her without her freaking out and running away."

Do you expect that with all this vip treatment this cat will vanish easily out of your life? I am only a bit apprehensive about this flea collar. A free cat can easily get so easily tangled up with it while climbing, with no one near to help. One of my cats had one but she had to stay at home while using it.

[bounty]

I think she'll be okay danik. I have to have a collar on her already so I have something to attach bells too. otherwise she'd be killing things all the time. so far so good in that regard.

I finished the book the night of my last post.

at least two things come to mind that are worth talking about. I have a quote that i'll have to hunt up later that's germane to one of my points---it was tough to see scarlett be somewhat repenting, and have Rhett respond to her the way he did (even though I knew it was coming). was Rhett justified?

its been fun as I went along in the book trying to figure out the relationship between the goings-on in the story, and the title. that is, why is the book called what it is? what do you think?

[Danik 2016]

Bells, oh my! But I get your point,Bounty. You are a good ambientalist.


Congrats for finishing the novel. I thing the thing that started killing definitively his love for Scarlett, was Bonnie. First he channelled all his love to her and then she died very soon in a very tragic way.And both parents accuse each other. So, when he gives that answer to Scarlett, it sounds genuine, he doesn't care for her any more.There was some inversion of roles at the end with Scarlett now caring for Rhett and Rhett being indifferent.

The title is wonderful. If you take the first scene, the tableaux on Tara of the rich farmers of the south, and the last scene with Scarlett on the deserted farm, you can see that for them a whole era has come to an end, has Gone with the Wind.

[bounty]

im a little bummed its over danik. I really enjoyed Margaret Mitchell's writing.

yes, those are the reasons Rhett would give---but was he right to leave scarlett?

I think your title exposition is insightful. makes you wonder if the author wrote the book first, and then came up with the title, or if she started with it and had a feeling she knew how the story was going to end.

[Danik 2016]

Yes. It sure takes some time to get over its intensity. It was the author's world that was crumbling down. And it's US history.

[bounty]

ah but danik---was Rhett justified in leaving scarlett?

I have a quote I like that is fitting for the occasion: "a relationship is not about finding peace by being with another human being. it is about making a commitment to maintain contact and not run away when your partner is a mirror for the hardness in your heart."

[spikepipsqueak]

"a relationship is not about finding peace by being with another human being. it is about making a commitment to maintain contact and not run away when your partner is a mirror for the hardness in your heart."

Yes. Yes. Yes. ^^^

I've been watching a wonderful Irish TV series called Normal People which has made me think of both GWTW and you.

Not a direct parallel, but in many ways this is a modern equivalent of the love story component. Both sides unwilling to commit and loving so much as to be unwilling to make demands.

I think in both stories there are strong characters on each side unwilling to reveal their mushy core for fear of having it squashed, or worse, mocked. In each case they are losers thereby.

I've read the sequel. Worth a read but not quite up to Margaret Mitchell's standard. I think I can say without being too much of a spoiler that Scarlett grows and mellows.

[bounty]

spike---if you think you'll be around to join in on the conversation, I could read the sequel and continue on with the thread here...

[Danik 2016]

ah but danik---was Rhett justified in leaving scarlett?

I have a quote I like that is fitting for the occasion: "a relationship is not about finding peace by being with another human being. it is about making a commitment to maintain contact and not run away when your partner is a mirror for the hardness in your heart."

Sorry, bounty, missed that quote, thought the thread had gone to sleep.
It's a good quote, but people don't necessarily stay together for good reasons. Sometimes it's the habit that keeps them together.
In the case of Rhett and Scarlett they somehow switched roles
Scarlett fell in love with Rhett, while he grew indifferent to her.
Were they right to separate?It's difficult to say. They certainly weren't a conventional couple.

[bounty]

ah danik, should I let you off the hook that easily?? subsequent generations of litnet readers will be looking at our posts and wondering about your answer!

[Danik 2016]

I don´t quite know what to answer now. As for subsequent generations of litnetters, I just read in the German forum that older posts are deleted in order not to overload the server. Each user has a right to 500 living comments (please, Germans love organization) I should love to know how this is here.

[bounty]

i don't know how long the sites been in existence but i regularly see threads from back in the 2000s. i joined in 2008.

just took a peek around and see the site lists the copyright as starting in 2000.

[spikepipsqueak]

spike---if you think you'll be around to join in on the conversation, I could read the sequel and continue on with the thread here...

You've probably noticed I only get here sporadically, but if you're thinking of reading the sequel I could take it out of the street library where I donated it and reread.

We could conduct an extended discussion, if you're on. Made lengthier because I'm about to set off travelling.

[bounty]

i just started reading Stephen king's misery spike and i'll probably be in that for 2-3 weeks. does a delay work better for reading scarlett?

also, there is another book out there called Rhett butler's people. it's supposed to be gone with the wind from Rhett's perspective, which is a pretty nifty idea. that'd be a run read too.