[stylist] Gone With The Wind; some interesting thoughts

Tue Sep 26 18:36:53 UTC 2017

Bill,
I am just getting to reviewing some threads that sounded interesting.
This discussion of "Gone With the Wind" surely got different responses.
I believe that I read it once in high school and again later, and have seen
the movie at least ten times.
My feelings about Scarlet are very mixed. Basically I feel her selfishness,
her heartlessness, the ability to lie and manipulate all to her purposes.
Then I see this woman with an obsession about a man that keeps her from
seeing the reality of what love is, her courage, her perseverance and her
many quick reactions to her false perceptions.
In other words, she is a very human characterization of a conflicted woman.
I wanted so much for her to know she was in love with Rhett. 
In my poetry class a member was reading something I had written about being
born in Georgia. At the outset I mentioned having a big black Mammy who baby
sat me, rocked me, and could spit across the room, dead-on into the fire.
There is a black poet in our group who was visibly jarred. I asked if it
offended her, and the answer was Yes. We had a good discussion about the
historical nature of such incidents, and whether they have any place in our
writing anymore.
Actually, I loved my big, black Mammy, and perhaps that is why I felt such
an affinity for Scarlet's mammy.
When I read the story, I do not remember having   so many conflicts over
what it meant in terms of either romantic or racial relationships, and
acceptance. I was not blind until much later in life. 
My parents were unusual for their time, in that my father supported a black
college, my mother was an artist and had a black protégé who came to our
home in a very white suburb of Chicago. I was about to leave for my first
teaching job, and offered to drive Ted home to his in South Chicago. He
would not let me park in front of their apartment in case someone would
thing he had a  white girlfriend. I guess that was the first time I realized
that prejudice went both ways. 
And, yes, I think "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus," is a good
book to internalize.  Though perhaps the distinctions are blurring a bit
more now, I still think it holds much truth in the interpretations of the
sexes.
You are a thoughtful and deep person.
I do hope things will continue to become easier for you as the years
progress.
I, myself, do not feel  good right now about how race relations are moving.
My book in progress is about the five years my husband and my three young
boys spent in Uganda, East Africa during the years when Idi Amin took over
the country in a coup. I almost see similarities here when looking at our
leadership. It scares me. 

Jackie Lee

Time is the school in which we learn.
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz	 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bill Outman
via stylist
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 4:51 PM
To: 'Writers' Division Mailing List'
Cc: Bill Outman
Subject: [stylist] Gone With The Wind; some interesting thoughts

Good day.  

I have recently finished reading Margaret Mitchell's classic Gone With The
Wind and have had a number of insights that are relevant to myself and may
also have import to all of us as people with a disability issue, namely
blindness.  This can be seen through the lens of other people groups that
struggled with their place in society.  

To be sure, the tale is told from the point of view of slaveholders and must
be viewed with this bias in mind.  Still, there is much to consider in the
characters and how they interact with each other and the larger society.  

For the first time I gained some critical insights into relationships at
some deeply granular levels I have struggled with.  I have been frustrated
with not knowing about and being uncomfortable with the games people play
with each other when pursuing romance.  It seems coquetry is rewarded ahead
of forthrightness, that if one is forthright one is perceived to be
childlike and incapable.  That could be an issue for some of us as people
with disabilities and blindness in particular, we know.  Rhett at the end
considers Scarlett to have childlike emotions, though this is actually
questionable.  

Though she has some inner dfear, Scarlett is actually a person of strength
in many ways, and ahead of her time in terms of success as a business woman.
While on some levels encouraging, people are uncomfortable with her success,
and we may have some similar issues when success does come our way.  

I think we can also identify to a degree with the struggle of black people
to become integrated after emancipation.  Note that some were uncomfortable
with their new position, while others may have said the right words but
didn't offer the correct support through the system of the society.  

There are some interesting coincidences with my personal story.  

I am looking forward to making use of these insights as well as those in
JohnGray's relationship book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, a
serious treatment of gender issues of relatively recent vintage, which I am
currently reading.  For many of us with vision loss from youth, adequate
advice about pursuing social relationships effectivelycan be hard to come
by.  It certainly was for me.  

I welcome feedback from those who have read the Mitchell book on their
thoughts.  One thing I'm curious about is if there is a minimum recommended
age for reading this novel.  I ask because of the coming of age aspects of
the story.  I wonder if books like this would have been helpful with my
coming of age issues back in the day.  

Bill Outman 

I lost my vision totally at age 19 and found I had to seriously adjust my
way of life just as I was coming of age, just as Scarlett suddenly had to
manage Tara.  Her first born son was named Wade, and I have a nephew by that
name.  Scarleet's ancestral lineage contains the family name Robbilard, and
I had a teacher by that name during my brief seminary experience before
losing my vision.  

_______________________________________________
Writers Division web site
http://writers.nfb.org/
stylist mailing list
stylist at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
stylist:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/jackieleepoet%40cox.net