Mariel's Reviews > Gone with the Wind

[I'm starting to get a little freaked out by how many of my reviews mention The Princess Bride and Fred Savage... There could be a Mariel drinking game with that in it.]

Gone with the Wind has been in and out of my life for as long as I can remember. I recall protesting, "No way am I gonna like this!" Like Fred Savage in The Princess Bride film, only I was waaay cuter than him. I changed my mind about liking it a lot. I'm still changing my mind. 'Gone' seems dated to me, now. Increasingly dated, I should say. There was always the riveting stuff to distract me before. I should say it is my overall impression that is dated, not the "good parts" as Fred Savage would request. Perhaps because of the whole "sweeping" epicness. I don't dig the grand effect. I have a problem with any historical picture that tries to say for everybody what it was like. The small details? Bring 'em on.

There's the kinda quaintly look at slavery. My mama embarrassed me to no end bragging about how she's the only person she knows of who had an "authentic mammy" (like Scarlett had). [I swear that I didn't make up that she said "authentic".] She'd also express her coughs theories why integration ruined the American public school systems. The thing is, I came to realize (after many early days of raging through tears that she was wrong, wrong, wrong) that there was like this split part of her brain: half of it thought the way she was raised to think (my grandpa was an honest to god racist! southern cliche, and my grandmother was bragging last presidential election about coughs preventing coughs voting in Mississippi during the '60s). Then there was the side capable of pure reason (school systems are ruined 'cause of politics and tax dollars and butt scratching and fraud). None of this ever changed any of the friendships she's had. I still don't get it. Why did Scarlett think owning slaves was hunky dory? She didn't especially hate anyone or want them to suffer.

I think it was because Scarlett viewed absolutely everyone as, "They are all pawns to serve me, the queen". She wouldn't think deeper about their situations, for the slaves or for her blood. For the most part, I agree with Melanie that you take Scarlett as she is, and it is your own fault if you are shallow enough to be suckered in by it. Unless you're a slave, or one of her poor kids. I also hated Scarlett for how she treated those kids. The men I could care less about. The ethics of boyfriend stealing doesn't interest me.

It was funny, years later, when a drama teacher forced the class to watch the film version. Kids: "No way am I gonna like this!" The teacher and I exchanged knowing expressions [probably not, she didn't really like me. For some reason I was made to sit at the pregnant girls table in some judgemental pronouncement I don't understand to this day (there were five of them! I loved it when they called my reading choices porn [Jude the Obscure!]. Me: "YOU girls are preggers.") Then she'd pause the movie for the day on the exciting parts. Fred Savage protests! There are a lot of those parts in 'Gone' the book and movie. Too bad I can't mesh with the whole big picture vibe. The expiration date on this baby isn't forever because no one reads news headlines of the past. They want something more personal than generic grand sweeping. Or maybe S. Morgenstern can write a just the "good parts" version. Hey, I like that idea.

[I'm going to make a Fred Savage tip jar. Every time I ever bring him up again I have to put a dollar in it.]