Montgomery of the Island

I am currently sitting in the Toronto airport waiting (more hours than I'd like to admit - darn layovers) for my flight home. I am returning from Prince Edward Island, where I attended the bi-annual Montgomery conference at the University of Prince Edward Island.

The University (my photo)

Ever since I realized that travel was a thing (thank you, Rick Steves' Europe) PEI jumped to the top of my travel bucket list.

Anyone doubting the importance of public television, stop right there.
I travel because of this man and PBS. Image found here.

This was due mainly to L.M. Montgomery's books. In case she sounds familiar, but you can't place her, she is the author of Anne of Green Gables, the quintessential Canadian girls' text, or perhaps Canadian text, period. I won't make that claim here.



What I will say is that Montgomery's love for her Island emanates from her writing. Of her 20 novels, only one wasn't set on the Island. Anne arrives on PEI an outsider, permitting her to introduce the reader to the beautiful landscape surrounding her: the red roads, the blossoming trees, the shimmering lakes. We are introduced to Emily of New Moon as she communes outside with the Wind Woman (the Wind Woman was definitely a presence on the Island yesterday). Jane of Lantern Hill first comes to the Island to find a home - due to her father and arguably, the land on the Island.

With beauty like this, can you blame Montgomery? (my photo)

Place for Montgomery, so it would seem from her journals, is crucial. Her books (almost) all include the additional character of Prince Edward Island.

So, what happens when you travel to a place you know intimately from reading? I won't say that it was like coming to a place I know - that's too cheesy, and I'm not very good at picturing things in my head. But after working on Montgomery throughout graduate school and using Anne during my first year of teaching, it was magical returning [genuine Freudian slip] going.

That an author can write so vividly of a place that tourists from all over the world want to visit - that is magic.

Through the Looking Glass: Feminism!

Last week, in the midst of getting ready for the upcoming ChLA conference, I treated myself to the new Alice film, Alice through the Looking Glass. I've always had a indifferent relationship with Carroll's Alice and the many iterations of the film, but I had a friend who was eager to see it and I had read a Vogue piece about the fashion in the film (Alice in pants - gasp!). Plus, this theatre doubled as a restaurant, which sounds like something in a fantasy. So, I went. 

Image found here

(Please note: I've tried to be very good at not giving spoilers, but there may be information ahead that you'd rather wait to see the movie to find out.)

There are many reviews of the film discussing whether or not it is good as a story, true to Carroll, a waste of money for Disney. (For the record, I thought it was okay as a story, a poor imitation of Carroll, and not Disney's best investment, but certainly not their worst.) What surprised me the most was the feminist character of Alice.

Frequently in these stories the empowered female is what Lissa Paul calls a woman in drag (cite). The female takes on masculine traits, just as she dons masculine attire, using logic, strength, and general machismo to realize her ambitions. But Alice is still feminine. 

She sets off on her adventure through time out of concern for the Mad Hatter, because he is her friend. But she is still able to drive a time machine that sort of doubles as a ship and looks all sorts of cool. And she makes this journey on her own. So, yes, the feminine drives her decision, but she isn't bound to subordination or deference to a male character.

The resolution to her real-world story is rooted in the feminine, too. Without spoiling anything, Alice looks to her mother for resolution. All of this time she has been striving to follow in the footsteps of her father, as she is captain of his ship the Wonder. She has largely ignored her mother, who wishes Alice to follow convention. In order to have a successful resolution, though, Alice decides to take care of her mother by giving her mother a voice. 

In her seminal text, Waking Sleeping Beauty (1997), Roberta Trites observes:

Another method feminist characters use to transcend gender roles is to embrace and celebrate certain characteristics traditionally linked to femininity…. feminist protagonists recognize and rely on traits that gave their literary foremothers strength: compassion, interconnectedness, and communication. (5)

Alice succeeds in doing each of these things: she acts out of compassion; she cares about her connectedness with her mother; and she communicates with her mother and the Wonderland characters. There is a spirit of unity amongst female characters by the time the story is over.

It's not that Alice must give up her pants (you'll have to see the film to truly appreciate it!), she embraces her feminine and therein lies the power. For that reason, I cannot recommend this film enough. From the studio that has brought many partially-empowered females (see my previous post), I was so pleased to have found this version of Alice.

Works Cited

Alice through the Looking Glass. Directed by James Bobin, performances by Mia Wasikowska, Johnny 
Depp, and Helena Bonham Carter, Disney, 2016.

Trites, Roberta Seelinger. Waking Sleeping Beauty Feminist Voices in Children's Novels. U of Iowa P, 1997.