When Imaginations (Fail to) Run Wild

POLL!

Who here loves Lord of the Rings? Or Redwall? The Chronicles of Narnia? 

I'll wait while you leave your vote in the comments below.

True confession?

I don't love any of those -- or any of fantasy-esque books -- at all. Maybe I can give you A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Maybe . . . on a good day.

My husband, on the other hand, has always loved that genre of books. He gets lost in them more easily than I get lost without Google Maps in a big city.

And that is very easily.

We tried to figure this out the other day -- why it is that I'm an English major who wrote and edited words for 10 years but who can't get behind books that aren't "believable."

Trees don't walk. Beavers don't talk.

And there's no such thing as an elven language. (Please don't send me hate mail, LOTR people.)

I'm contending that my husband loves that style of book because it follows the quest genre of literature -- the hero who's been displaced and has to contend against hardships and difficulties to find his way back home -- and that that style of writing could potentially resonate better with men because they are problem solvers and fixers who overcome challenges and enjoy it.

The farmer says, "No dice."

Maybe it's because I've been writing for too long and I know the tricks too well. Or perhaps it's because I'm just too tightly wound and can't loosen up enough to let my imagination work in a book of that style. I've been reading biographies and autobiographies and history books since I graduated from college . . . because they are (mostly) factual enough to be believable.

My husband has too, but he also loves to read books that conjure up ideas and images and his imagination, and I'm over in the corner saying, "But it's not real. That's just a literary device meant to draw you in! And how does that split infinitive not drive you nuts? And he just used the same verb three sentences in a row! Mix it up, man!"

#killjoy

So I'm looking for help. How does an adult learn willful suspension of disbelief? I want to like that style. I'm just, well, failing at it.

Do I need to try the audio version of one of these books? Stop being so analytical? Hope that my enjoyment of this genre develops as I read these books to my kids?

Please advise, rebuke, encourage. Whatever it takes. I'm listening!

(And reading . . . just not the classics apparently. So please send help.)

anne of green gables - #141

Today was Lucy Maud Montgomery's 141st birthday. In this era, of course, there's apparently no better way to celebrate an author than to make a Google doodle out of her. 

Or her most well-known character . . . Anne of Green Gables. 

I grew up on Lucy Maud Montgomery. I've read every one of her books, and as a young girl, I read and re-read them every summer. 

I loved Kilmeny and Eric and Marigold. I loved Emily of New Moon and Ilse and the nickname Star and Pat. 

I loved the movies. I loved Matthew's shyness and Marilla's rough exterior. I loved all the scrapes Montgomery's characters got themselves into and the way they loved country life and only bits of city life, just like me. And I hated that the character who played Gilbert died last year and a little part of me couldn't believe it was real.

I was even fascinated by the odd back story to Montgomery's life: falling in love with a man who didn't love her and rejecting the love of a man who did and eventually marrying a minister she was indifferent to. 

But I will always love Anne of Green Gables the best. And I will always love Anne and Gilbert together even more. I loved their daughter Rilla and their home in Ingleside. And I hated that one of the Blythe boys died in World War 1. 

I can't wait to read each one of those books to our kiddos someday. Perhaps it will be on Montgomery's 142nd or 143rd or 144th birthdays. Or maybe all of them. Because this mama loves Anne of Green Gables just that much, Google doodle or not.