Thread by @lainasparetime

Okay, got distracted for a minute, but it's time for #LainaReadsAnne

#LainaReadsAnne It is midsummer now, so either July or August. What midsummer is kind of varies depending on where you live, I've found, but since we know their break is July-August, I assume late July to early August.

#LainaReadsAnne Idlewood, the pretty little circle of trees where Diana and Anne made their playhouse once upon a time, was cut down in the spring. Mr Bell didn't feel as romantic his back pasture as they did.

#LainaReadsAnne However, they're "big girls of thirteen" now so they're okay, and instead have spent most of their summer "on and about the pond". They fish for trout under the bridge and they often row about in Mr Barry's "flat-bottomed dory".

#LainaReadsAnne Today they are hanging out on the pond with Ruby Gillis and Jane Andrews.

#LainaReadsAnne So in the winter, the school studied Tennyson's poem... I assume "The Lady of Shallot" which is based on Elaine of Arthurian legend. Tell you the truth here, I mostly just wikipedia'd all that, as that whole mythology isn't super my thing lol.

#LainaReadsAnne As young girls do, they decide to re-enact her death/funeral scene.

And I'm not being sarcastic. Girls totally do this kind of thing. If you've got a kid who plays with Barbies, really pay attention to their plot sometime.

#LainaReadsAnne They'd previously discovered if the flat (basically a row-boat with a flat bottom) was pushed off from the dock on one end of the pond, it'd drift under the bridge and "strand itself on another headland lower down which ran out at a curve in the pond".

#LainaReadsAnne They've done this plenty of times before.

They have a short discussion about who should be Elaine. Diana and Ruby are both too nervous about the idea of floating across the pond while lying down in the bottom of the boat, and Jane wouldn't be able to stay still.

#LainaReadsAnne So that leaves just one left... who else but our girl. Anne protests she can't be Elaine due to the red air, but the others say it's actually darkened to a lovely auburn. Obviously this pleases Anne, as she's been hoping for this for a while.

#LainaReadsAnne It's also grown out long enough to be a cluster of short curls, held in place by a black velvet ribbon and bow. Diana's idea when Anne first had to cut her hair - Anne calls it a snood.

#LainaReadsAnne Anne mentions something about Elaine's "bright" hair, and I'll admit I only did a cursory wikipedia search since it wasn't that important, but it didn't seem like a ton of the paintings or whatever really even depicted her as a blonde or anything?

#LainaReadsAnne Anyways, more importantly, Anne chooses Ruby to be King Arthur, Jane to be Guinivere and Diana to be Lancelot. Remember, Lancelot, the dude Elaine dies from pining over?

Anne, please.

#LainaReadsAnne They push the flat (with Anne lying in the bottom) off, with it "scrapng roughly over an old embedded stake in the process" and the other girls head to the other side of the pond to meet the boat.

#LainaReadsAnne For a while, Anne is fine, and enjoying "the romance of her situation" - til the flat begins to leak.

The stake had torn off "the strip of batting nailed to the flat" and there's a BIG crack in the bottom. And they left the oars, of course. Oars aren't romantic.

#LainaReadsAnne By sheer luck, the flat floats down to the bridge and Anne is able to grab onto one of the bridge piles.

Bridge piles, fyi, are what a bridge's legs are called. Did I know that before this chapter? Wouldn't you like to know.

#LainaReadsAnne The ones on the pond's bridge are old tree trunks with "lots of knots and old branch stubs" so Anne has something to hang onto.

And then she's stuck.

#LainaReadsAnne The flat drifted under the bridge and promptly sunk. The other girls see it, figure she's gone down with the ship, and run for help. So she's alone and stranded.

Anne can't swim, of course. And it's a pond but man is it easy to drown in a pond if you can't swim.

#LainaReadsAnne I did a little research on swimming here, since I was curious. It wasn't a popular recreational activity in the US til the 1920s to 1930s, or as a popular sport til the 1950s and 1960s. That also seems to be true in Canada but you know. Less easy to find sources.

#LainaReadsAnne Also I wanna link to where I got the numbers here because they're really well written. Mostly not related to this thread, but history nonetheless.

TW for drowning, child death, racism and assault though. bbc.com/news/world-us-…

theconversation.com/swimming-while…

#LainaReadsAnne Like I said, not entirely related, but still

Also, PSA about drowning linked here because that never hurts to do ajc.com/lifestyles/hea…

#LainaReadsAnne Lucky for Anne, however, Gilbert Blythe happens to row under th bridge in "Harmon Andrew's dory".

"Gilbert glanced up and, much to his amazement, beheld a little white scornful face looking down upon him with big, frightened but also scornful grey eyes."

#LainaReadsAnne I honestly love that line. The girl is literally hanging onto a bridge hoping she doesn't fall in and drown, and she's still like, "Ugh does it have to be you?"

#LainaReadsAnne Anne scrambles into his boat, reluctantly explains what happened and asks if he'll row her to the landing.

#LainaReadsAnne He does, and (on dry land) catches her arm before she can take off. He apologizes again for teasing her about her hair (and calls it pretty) and asks if they can be friends.

Honestly, I'm not against this at all?

#LainaReadsAnne It has been two years. Gilbert is (around) fifteen and Anne is thirteen. He's sincerely apologized more than once, and he's been trying to make it up to her the entire time. In two years, he's never treated her with anything with respect.

#LainaReadsAnne Note also for both Gilbert's "half-shy, half-eager expression" and the "quick, queer little beat" Anne's heart gives. (Yeah, we're pointing that out here. Queer girls who are attracted to boys are just as queer. Fight me.)

#LainaReadsAnne For a minute, she hesitates, tempted. But she remembers the Carrots Incident, and coldly denies him, saying she'll never want to be his friend.

#LainaReadsAnne "'Alright!' Gilbert sprang into his skiff with an angry colour in his cheeks. 'I'll never ask you to be friends again, Anne Shirley. And I don't care either!'"

I think you care a little bit, Gilbert.

#LainaReadsAnne Honestly Anne's being a little unreasonable. Gilbert did do something that was a little rude, but remember, the other girls in school didn't particularly mind being teased that way. It never upset them like it did Anne.

#LainaReadsAnne When it did upset Anne, he apologized immediately. Like literally, she smacks him in the face and he apologizes for it. Most people... wouldn't so much. He immediately takes the blame to try to keep her out of trouble, and apologizes later that day.

#LainaReadsAnne He's probably apologized other times, and he's been nothing but respectful to her. (He picked flowers for her. Flowers that she adores. He's probably gotten teased quite a bit by other boys for that.)

She's kind of holding a grudge for not a lot of reason!

#LainaReadsAnne Anne begins to feel regret almost immediately. "She almost wished she had answered Gilbert differently. Of course, he had insulted her terribly, but still!"

Between the bridge thing and this, she's ready for a good cry.

#LainaReadsAnne Diana and Jane are rushing back to the pond as Anne is heading back towards home. They'd found nobody at either the Barry's or Green Gables and had to leave Ruby in a pile of tears and panic at Orchard Slope.

Anne is going to drive poor Ruby to an early grave.

#LainaReadsAnne Honestly this does drive home how scary an emergency could be. The Barrys really were lucky that Anne knew what to do for Minnie May's croup. If you're not in the right place at the right time...

#LainaReadsAnne Diana grabs Anne and weeps in "relief and delight" that Anne's okay. They'd assumed she was dead since, you know, none of them can swim and they didn't see her get off the boat.

#LainaReadsAnne After a good cry, Anne assures Marilla she'll have more sense now as she's learned from all her mistakes. This mistake, she says, has taught her "it is no use trying to be romantic in Avonlea". She doesn't even want to HEAR the word again, she says.

#LainaReadsAnne After Marilla leaves the room, though, Matthew tells Anne not to give up "all your romance" as "a little of it is a good thing". (Remember we're using romance as a synonym for wonder here.)

Nice. Good chapter. And that's it for today!