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Anne of Green Gables, A Sweet Retreat

I know it’s hopelessly out of my age and gender group, but I just don’t care. I loved watching the CBC’s production of Anne of Green Gables last night. That’s Anne with an “e.” How comforting to know that in these trying times, with a little bit of pluck and a fair number of freckles we can find that bosom friend. I found it to be the perfect childish retreat for a world that is increasingly intolerant of innocence.

Are there any other closet Anne of Green Gables fans out there? Or am I alone in my admiration of the corny and sweet?

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Date: October 25, 2006

Author: Jim

Categories: media, reviews

Tags:

(446 votes, average: 2.97 out of 5)

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  Peregrin Wood

  in October 26th, 2006 @ 00:14

  I admit it. I like Anne of Green Gables. I liked the sequel too.

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  Scott

  in October 26th, 2006 @ 08:56

  I’d often wondere if you were an 11 year old girl, Jim. This just adds fuel to the fire.

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  Scott

  in October 26th, 2006 @ 08:59

  And a word of warning concerning Canadian “drama.”
  If we encourage this sort of thing, it’s just never going to go away.
  If we simply ignore this sort of thing, eventually it will just go away on it’s own
  Down with this sort of thing!
  Down with this sort of thing!
  Down with this sort of thing!
  Down with this sort of thing!

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  Laurie O

  in October 26th, 2006 @ 09:10

  I have the series on tape at home. Yes, I’m hopeless.

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  Scott

  in October 26th, 2006 @ 13:35

  Listen you crazy Americans. You are emboldening the CBC. You may feel safe and cozy being far removed from the effects of living in a society under the shadow of the CBC, but up here in Canader we have to live it every day.
  Just say No to emboldening the CBC!
  Friends don’t let friends watch Canadian drama!

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  Alan

  in October 26th, 2006 @ 14:09

  Ann who? Okay, I did pick up the book once but couldn’t get past the first page. The stuff just makes my teeth hurt.

  This Jim fellow is the same guy who told us he was singing ‘Tomorrow’ from the Little Orphan Annie thingy in a supermarket a few months ago. But if Jim wants get all cheerful about it, that’s sort of charming; I say he should go right ahead and knock his socks off.

  Last night I picked up a book–can’t seem to sleep without reading a few pages of something–and got all the way to page 12 before nodding off. The book–An End to Innocence: Facing Life without Illusions 1978 by Sheldon Kopp as in “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” A sample:

  Desperately holding onto the fairytale vision of a life in which the face of the enemy is clear and the good guys always win, we waste our lives in waiting for the happy ending.

  As very small children, most of us saw our world as a safe, familiar well-ordered place. Too soon, we began to find it filled with danger, contradiction, and unfairness. Eventually, just “being good” no longer provided assurance that someone would take care of us.

  The illusion of reclaiming such innocence requires the dangerous immersion in faniatic devotion to a cause or system that promises to make everyting right again.

  One of the ways that grown-ups take care of children is by telling them fairy tales. These truncated myths are poetically symbolic ways of instructing and comforting a child. Fairy tales instruct by teaching the idealized virtues that each culture purports to value and those behaviors that each deems “appropriate.” Promising the rewards of a well-ordered universe, these simple tales assure the child that being “good” will always lead to fulfullment of our heart’s desire.

  In other words, you can build castles in the air, but don’t try to live in them.

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  Laurie O

  in October 26th, 2006 @ 16:09

  My mother used to get upset because I let my son watch the show “Cops” when he was young. 7ish? Anyway, she would preach to me about how it was going to ruin him and how it was bad for him. One day, my parents came over, my son was watching “Cops”, she was appalled, and I asked my son, “What are you watching?” and he quickly retorted “Stupid people!” Fairytales are nice when you need to hide for awhile and wish of days gone by. My son has never had any illusions of this world, I wish others would do the same.

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  Alan

  in October 26th, 2006 @ 23:30

  Here’s some more excerpts from the Kopp:

  The pretend atmosphere of fairy tales shelters the child from the overwhelming uncertainties and the confusing sense of helplessness that adults must face from time to time. No matter how scary or violent a fairy tale, the struggle beteween good and evil is always clear. Good always triumphs. In this simple, unshaded opposition between black and white, the poverty of subtle content is balanced by the clarity and incisiveness of the moral forces. The characters are prepackaged, unchanging figures, pure forms in external classic struggle. ‘Within the hero himself we find no psychological conflicts, he is not partly this and partly that–each quality is personified in the simplest form: courage is opposed to cowardice, envy to innocence, kindness to malice, renunciation and self-sacrifice to unrestrained lust or greed.’

  There is no harm in maintaining a child’s need to believe in a world that can be trusted, at least for a while. Gradually, as he or she grows, there will be time enough to learn about life’s unfairness…My own children enjoyed believing in Santa Claus for a time…We allowed each one to let go of this piece of innocence at his own pace…I am grateful to our culture for providing the contemporary fairy tale of Santa Claus as a way of helping my kids to learn to be generous, and as an opportunity for me to see each through one piece of his needed loss of innocence.

  I think COPS is an example of the first type of fairy tale. I can’t watch it–I get bored and antsy. We have these types of fartwarming stories for 11 year old girls, but are the boys just stuck with the boring old bang-bang stuff? Is that why someone creative like Jim jumps over to this genre? Of course he reads that tedious Jane Austin stuff too. Personally I’m with Bob S-K and his preference for Graham Greene.

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  Terry

  in October 29th, 2006 @ 09:30

  Jim;

  Don’t worry, I am 70 years old and have a favourite book that I have read every year since I was 10.

  It is Kenneth Graham’s Wind In The Willows. It is always exciting, funny and comfortable.

  Each of my children received a copy on their 10th birthday and three of my grandchildren who have reached the age of ten, also have copies.

  And no, it is not the only book I have read and continue to read since childhood. Just the best.

  Go ahead re-read the books of your youth,. They are worth it

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  Truby

  in January 13th, 2007 @ 02:35

  I’m another fan of Anne of GreenGables. Life is too short to worry about things. I live my life everyday to the fullest because I do not take for granted that the next second will be there for me to enjoy. I treat others as I wish for them to treat me – with trust, honesty and integrity.

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