{"id":5402,"date":"2006-09-29T15:15:16","date_gmt":"2006-09-29T19:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5402"},"modified":"2016-11-29T08:53:37","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T13:53:37","slug":"in-praise-of-laurie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5402","title":{"rendered":"In Praise of Laurie"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Little Women<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. Yeah. I had a crush on him too.<\/a><\/p>\n

My God, how I resented Jo falling for the stupid tender-eyed German professor with his dumb-ass poetry and his boring umbrella. I just hated the thought of Laurie – wild, sensitive Laurie – being with Amy, who, even though she learned her lesson with the stolen apples and getting whipped at school, and even though I did cry a tear or two during the chapter when she fell through the ice — still and all: Amy burnt Jo’s book<\/i>. It is unforgivable. Also: Amy wasn’t Jo! It was Jo and Laurie who needed to hook up!<\/p>\n

I suppose that was an adolescent attitude. Maybe Jo and Laurie were too alike. Maybe Laurie needed a conventional woman, a housewife type, and he knew it. I also know the story of how Louisa May Alcott felt pressured by her publisher to “marry Jo off”. She wanted Jo to remain a bachelor, like herself.<\/p>\n

Which is why, I believe, teary-eyed German dumb-bum annoyed me so much.<\/p>\n

Get outta here, pal,, you’re an afterthought. I despised the illustrations of the German in the copy of the book I had. He had a full flowing beard coming down over his chest. Words cannot express how much this disgusted me. I almost had to stop reading the book.<\/p>\n

I love the scene when Jo and Laurie meet up at the ball and Jo is so embarrassed about her burnt dress that she hides in the hall so no one will see the burn marks on the back of the skirt. And she and Laurie end up talking, and then dancing – by themselves – out in the big empty hallway.<\/p>\n

Come on. Romantic.<\/p>\n

I am not at ALL wacky about Laurie’s name, and I never was. Maybe androgyny was the point, but it did nothing for me. But Laurie’s personality was appealing enough to me to overcome these difficulties.<\/p>\n

I will go to my grave wondering: But … but … what would it have been like if Jo and Laurie had just … given it a shot?<\/p>\n

But then again: I’m a romantic. A romantic who has lost much. A romantic who has been severely disciplined<\/i> by the universe just for being a romantic. I have never gotten what I wanted or needed on that score. So I stand on the sidelines and I wonder about the alternate paths of fictional characters.<\/p>\n

Either Jo and Laurie should have hooked up or Jo should have stayed single.<\/p>\n

The German didn’t work for me when I was 10 and it doesn’t work for me now. Put your umbrella away, dude. It’s not wanted here.<\/p>\n

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