I HATE wonderful books. Why should they be so heart- wrending? Why should I have stolen hours from my life over days and weeks, late into schoolnights, in preference to my studies, to have my heart broken over people I don't even like? Who can like Scarlett? "One of fiction's great idiots," my mother called her the other day. Throughout the first 700 pages I was angry with Scarlett, and now, at page 733, I'm just heartbroken for her, and that is not fair!
And then, who can help liking Rhett? During the first 400 pages I swear, my heart almost pitter-pattered over him. But I don't even want to like him. The last 300 pages had me on a rollercoaster ride of I-love-him-I love-him-nots over Rhett; I'd thought that it would be easy to not love a man like Rhett: not only is he a scoundrel, unscrupulous, cruel and cowardly, he's FICTIONAL! And here I am, pouring my heart into cyberspace, tears rolling down my face, glasses fogging up unromantically over poor Captain Butler's unrequited love. Why? Not because he's dashing, charming, rich and mysterious. There's something so NONfictional about Rhett, unwritten but not untold, raw.
It's midnight and the unrequited love is mine, the sheer idiocy is mine, the pain of heartbreak is mine, and the distinction between fiction and nonfiction has vanished. Because everything that Scarlett is is REAL and everything that Rhett is is TRUE and they are both made up of what I am and what YOU are and so the heartbreak is just as REAL and TRUE as any, and it's MY heartbreak, and it really hurts.
2 comments:
Hi Emily,
You truly bared you soul on this post, girl. I have heard and said very similar things about my experience with Gone With The Wind. You love Scarlett and then you hate Scarlett.....you love Rhett and then you hate Rhett.
Yes, they are fictional but....you are correct when you say distinctions fade when you read this novel or see the movie. We are all like Scarlett when we are selfish, rude,conniving and in love with the wrong man but we all want to be like Scarlett when she is daring, caring and determined.
Get yourself something from http://gonewiththewindcatalog.com and put it in front of you as you work on your blog. It may help with your determination.
sissy
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