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But sometimes there are secrets trying to understand people

@isfjmel-phleg / isfjmel-phleg.tumblr.com

Rebekah. English major, history minor, MA in English. ILL/cataloging assistant at a Baptist university library. Hypothetically a writer but mostly just a ranter. Sometimes I post about my writing, but this blog is mostly personal stuff and random (usally literary) interests. About the Annotated Psmith Project: From approximately 2013-18, I very informally annotated P. G. Wodehouse's Psmith series, most of his school stories, and a few Blandings, Jeeves, and standalone stories or novels with the intention of providing context and analysis. For personal reasons, this project is suspended for now, and the outdated annotations have been taken down. I may revisit this someday but not in the near future, although I welcome questions and discussion of Psmith anytime. This is NOT an MBTI blog, though I may occasionally address the subject, usually as it pertains to certain literary characters. This is a clean blog; I want everyone to feel comfortable viewing it. If you have any comments or genuine questions, the askbox is always open. Thank you for stopping by!
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The Blackberry Bushes Updated Masterpost

Because the previous post was getting out of hand.

My WIP is set in a sort of alternate 1900s Europe, where several young protagonists, royalty and otherwise, become entangled in the broader political situation but--perhaps more importantly--grapple with their own complicated interpersonal conflicts. Lots of character development, lots of dialogue, with a classic childrenโ€™s story tone because thatโ€™s my literary background.

#The Blackberry Bushes#The Blackberry Bushes masterpost#The Blackberry Bushes index#my writing
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Apparently the author of The Secret Garden on 81st Street is collaborating on a comparable graphic novel adaptation of A Little Princess, to be published next year. I don't have high hopes, it's likely going to be pretty watered down, but I do like the emphasis in the description on Sara's being a military child and think this would be an interesting facet of her character to examine in a contemporary setting.

#random personal stuff#I need to give some thought to Sara as a military child and what that entails - Mary is also and they're so different#it struck me that there are 80 gazillion retellings of T S G and hardly any for A Little Princess#so there's a lot of unexplored territory here#the details would have to be different of course#but if a contemporary retelling could retain the core of the story as about maintaining self-worth & integrity in an abusive situation...!
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A few observations on The Humming Room:

  • A lot of these contemporary Secret Garden retellings choose to re-set the story in New York, for whatever reason (and they need to branch out--why not try TSG in, say, a prairie or desert locale? or the Pacific Northwest?), but this is the one that uses the setting the most effectively. Rather than placing it in or near the city, Ellen Potter sets the action in the Thousand Islands region, a strong choice. It mirrors the sense of isolation of the moor of the original story, while also allowing for an emphasis on nature in a way that an urban setting can't. (Let's face it: The Secret Garden isn't a city-oriented story. But A Little Princess is, and that's the Burnett story that would be better served by being reset in modern-day NYC in a retelling.)
  • Potter's prose really captures the atmosphericness of the original. The vivid imagery often hearkens back to Burnett's. It's quite a poetic book.
  • Much more gothic than TSG though! TSG has definite and vital gothic elements, but The Humming Room dials that up to eleven.
  • Roo's background is different from Mary's. She doesn't come from wealth and privilege and hasn't grown up tyrannizing over others, and she actually has had a relationship with a parent--a complicated one, but a relationship nonetheless (and I'm fascinated that Potter chose to make the parent that Roo angsts over be her father, since most TSG adaptations/retellings concentrate on Mary's mother). But the outcome for Roo has been the same as Mary's, even the specifics aren't the same: neglect.
  • Aside from his affinity for nature and closeness to our heroine, Jack really doesn't parallel Dickon very closely. He's not the brother of Violet (Martha), and the emphasis is on his being Mysterious and possibly magical, rather than a friendly, down-to-earth local boy whose closeness to nature comes from practical experience. Dickon in the book is said to be "funny-looking," but The Humming Room pays a lot of attention to how Jack is "so beautiful that it was alarming" and "his beauty was almost otherworldly." He's described more like a sparkly anime boy than anything else, and he seems much more like an expression of all the Mary / Dickon shipping than an actual reflection of Burnett's Dickon. From an interview I've read with Potter, it sounds like this was an intentional choice from personal preference.
  • Some of the supporting characters are a bit underdeveloped, and, as with many adaptations and retellings, there's a lack of a present Susan Sowerby equivalent. Violet's mother is mentioned often but never makes an appearance, although she should have. It might have helped enhance the last quarter of the book (more on that later).
  • Phillip's version of Colin's issues--severe depressive symptoms following the death of his beloved mother--makes sense enough but recontextualizes the character. Colin's lack of any parental relationship, past or present, is vital to why he is the way he is. However, despite the differences in the nature of the character's problems, in some ways Phillip is closer to the spirit of Burnett's Colin than most other retellings. He's imperious, cerebral yet emotionally volatile, and has been stuck alone in his own head for too long. This narrative allows him to be as messy as Roo, and their relationship to be messy while still developing into a genuine friendship, and it works well.
  • However, the last quarter or so of the book is rushed and underdeveloped, which means that Phillip's arc doesn't get the space it needs to be fully convincing, especially since he's absent for the last couple of chapters before the epilogue, and we don't even get to see his reunion with his father. Once Roo and Jack get him to the garden, the plot speeds up and grinds to a screeching halt. The book could have stood to be several chapters longer to better complete not only Phillip's arc but even Jack's, and perhaps to introduce Violet's mother.
  • Nevertheless, I think this is my favorite TSG retelling. It captures something that many others don't, and it's clear that the retelling comes from a place of regard for the original. It changes things where it needs to but doesn't have an attitude of congratulating itself for "fixing" or intending to replace the original. It's a homage, a love letter, and I still find it worth the reread over a decade after its publication.
#The Humming Room
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March 2025 Books

#random personal stuff#I actually was going to read or reread some further T S G retellings#including one that I knew I was going to dislike because it apparently does everything that I dislike these retellings to do#but I got overwhelmed and stressed out and decided that it was better for my sanity that I didn't#I know I promised more T S G analysis and I'll get to it#I just need to be in the right frame of mind#and honestly I'm kind of afraid of advertently saying something that will cause internet strangers to pounce all over me#anyway it wasn't the best month for reading but I did that to myself and I'm hoping for better things in April
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Reblogged lady-merian
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The limit does not exist

#if I'm interested enough I'm willing to try it at any length#I have read War and Peace and Les Miserables (unabridged) of my own volition#the only case where length is an issue is if there's a lack of interest#a friend once foisted Way of Kings on me out of the blue#and it sat on my coffee table for months being terrifying until I finally admitted to her that I just couldn't#it's probably a perfectly fine book and plenty of my friends enjoy it but I just. was. not compelled.#which made 1000+ pages way too much to require
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Reblogged praise-the-lord-im-dead
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my mom didnโ€™t buy soda unless I specifically asked for it, i didnโ€™t think anything of it when I was a kid but most other kids i hung out with reliably had soda in the fridge so i sometimes wonder how common this is ๐Ÿค”

#in my 30s and no they didn't#they weren't anti soda and we did have it sometimes usually for get-togethers or maybe as a treat to go with pizza or something#but it wasn't a staple - we had other grocery priorities#my aunt on the other hand was a dedicated drinker of Diet Coke so if she was staying with us yes there was soda in the house always
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So far: I am bad at watching Small ville because I've seen at least some of the animated Justice League and Teen Titans series in which Michael Rosenbaum voices the Flash/Kid Flash, and so every time Lex opens his mouth I'm like "Wally West?! my good friend Wally West?!" and that is not helpful for getting into the spirit of the thing.

#comicsposting again#please note the joking tone of this post
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I've been thinking about that story I haven't written about the traumatizing incident that Elystan has with Delclis's Prime Minister that leads to the state he's in in "Visit with the Murderess." It would be told from the PM's POV, and then from his wife's as they have Elystan over for lunch after The Incident. They both strongly disapprove of his parents' methods of raising children and are very displeased with Elystan as a human being, and I mean, they're not wrong but they're lacking a lot of perspective and compassion and don't realize that they're just making things so much worse and...yeah, I should stop being afraid of the elements I'm not sure of yet and get around to writing this thing one of these days.

#random personal stuff#The Blackberry Bushes#the Mitchett-Scorbrooks are not bad people#they're just very biased against Talfrin's family for completely understandable reasons#and I'd like to tell the story from their POVs so that we better understand why this is happening#and because telling it from Elystan's POV...I don't know if it would work#I feel like we need some distance from him in this horrific moment#because it's more than he knows how to process#and his terror might be more effective if it's something that the audience#(who presumably would know him in a way that the Mitchett-Scorbrooks don't)#would be able to infer from his behavior#although the POV characters aren't picking up on it
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The university store is having a major sale and I got this thing of beauty for an absolute steal and am now very excited about Drawers and Organization and Sorting. No idea what I'm going to put in it, but it'll be here when I need it.

#random personal stuff
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