#Eight Cousins

[nerdyrevelries]

Castles in the Air

I'm extremely excited to announce that the game I've been working on for the past 4 years is coming to Kickstarter! Castles in the Air (CitA) is a tabletop RPG inspired by the novels of Louisa May Alcott and L.M. Montgomery. Players start as children with boundless dreams who will change over the years based on the relationships they form and choices they make. I think it's a really special game, and I'm looking forward to being able to share it with everyone.

For more information or to sign up to be notified when the Kickstarter launches on May 14th, please check out the game's page on the Storybrewers Roleplaying website. If that name sounds familiar, Storybrewers is the company that created Good Society: A Jane Austen RPG. I feel very honored that they reached out to me about publishing Castles in the Air. While Castles in the Air is a standalone game, its mechanics are inspired by Good Society, and if you like Good Society, I think you'll like CitA too as it allows you to tell similarly compelling stories.

I will be creating some blog posts talking about the literary inspirations for different parts of the game in the weeks leading up to the Kickstarter and during its run. I will be using this as a master post to keep track of all of them, so make sure to check back here or follow my blog if you are interested.

Blog Posts

Meg March: The Nurturer

Jo March: The Pragmatist

[belgoncuval]

My fancast for the Eight Cousin/Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott.

Rose:

Charlie:

Mac:

Archie:

Phebe:

[littlewomenpodcast]

I was just rereading "Laurie Makes Mischief and Jo Makes Peace." You've often cited that chapter as showing teenage Jo's flaws, because she has too much sympathy for Laurie and not enough for Meg. But I'm not sure I see it that way. At first, Jo is furious with Laurie. She's nearly beside herself with rage over the prank. Maybe she does forgive him a little too easily once he apologizes, but so do Meg and Marmee; in fact Jo is the last one to show him forgiveness. Am I missing something?

I have always found it to be one of the more trickier chapters to analyze, mainly because of Jo's mood changes. Yes, in the beginning she seems angry and defends Meg

“Oh, the little villain! That’s the way he meant to pay me for keeping my word to Mother. I’ll give him a hearty scolding and bring him over to beg pardon,” cried Jo, burning to execute immediate justice. But her mother held her back, saying, with a look she seldom wore...

Then Marmee is scolding Laurie for what he has done, this is what Jo thinks.

Jo stood aloof, meanwhile, trying to harden her heart against him, and succeeding only in primming up her face into an expression of entire disapprobation. Laurie looked at her once or twice, but as she showed no sign of relenting, he felt injured, and turned his back on her till the others were done with him, when he made her a low bow and walked off without a word.

As soon as he had gone, she wished she had been more forgiving, and when Meg and her mother went upstairs, she felt lonely and longed for Teddy. After resisting for some time, she yielded to the impulse, and armed with a book to return, went over to the big house.

This all happens within an hour or so. The part that always bothered me, was Meg crying upstairs and being very upset, and as someone who has been a victim in a similar situation around the same age as Meg, I find it very hard to sympathize with either Jo or Laurie in this case.

Laurie knows that there is something going on with Mr Brooke and Meg, and he saw this prank as an opportunity to poke at them, and what I can gather from the chapter, there has been lots of arguments going on with grandpa at home (which in no way is an excuse, but can explain some of that behavior).

With Jo, I am conflicted, on one hand she is angry what has happened to Meg, on the other hand she can't seem to be mad at Laurie, and is hurt when she sees Laurie being shouted at for harassing her sister. Very conflicting.

In part 2, when Laurie is pursuing Jo, she can't say no to him directly, she travels to New York to escape him, and when he proposes and Jo says no, she extremely kind to him, she doesn't want to hurt him.

This is just my personal opinion, I think Alcott often struggles between the fine lines of feminism and misogyny. I am currently reading Eight Cousins, and there is a line where Uncle Alec says to his sister, that he would much rather see his niece Rose playing football than tufting lace.

As someone who enjoys traditional handcrafts, rather than sports, these comments make me feel a little icky, and no I don't think there is absolutely nothing wrong with a woman playing football. It is the comparison that I find frustrating. Then I always have to remind myself that during this time, women were looked down upon for playing any sports).

In Eight Cousins, in the end there is a chapter where Charlie (who is 16) is chasing Rose (who is his 14 year old cousin) all over the house, to get a kiss under a mistletoe. Rose constantly tries to outsmart him so that she does not need to kiss him. Eventually she ends up giving a cheek kiss to her elderly uncle Mac under the mistletoe and the whole family laughs and thinks it is funny and clever how she managed to escape not kissing Charlie.

I felt so uncomfortable reading that, now as an adult. It really makes me wonder how women dealt with harassment in the 19th century. Rose's relationship with Charlie is similar to Jo and Laurie, Rose sees him as her brother, he sees her as something else. (Imho Charlie is a lot worse than Laurie).

In Little Men, there is a moment where Daisy asks Jo to come up with a play just for her, because boys don't want to play games with her and Jo thinks to herself In the house full of boys, the only girl caused most trouble.

The reason she causes trouble is that she is a girly girl and Jo struggles to connect with that.

In Jo's Boys, there is a scene where Jo sees some of the male student being too intrusive with some of the female students and she puts stop into that. By that point Jo is in her fifties, and I wonder if it was this incident with Laurie and Meg that she had on her mind (or all those moments when she said no to him, but he kept pursuing her).

I hope that answered your question. Jo defends the victim but at the same time she is the enabler of this behavior, and she manages to grow out of that. She has some great growth in these books.

[sailforvalinor]

“Not all men,” you’re right, Alexander Mackenzie Campbell of Louisa May Alcott’s Rose in Bloom would never do this

[novelmonger]

Oh my word, Christmas has come early! I just got my hands on an old copy of Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott that belonged to my grandmother!

It's a very well-loved baby-blue clothbound book with a disintegrating silver dust jacket that has a lovely illustration of Rose and Phebe. (A pretty picture, though I would have gone with a picture of all eight cousins....) The copyright for this printing is 1927. This book is almost a hundred years old.

I'm feeling rather emotional, holding this light volume and realizing that my grandmother must have held it in her hands and read it, perhaps many times. I didn't read Eight Cousins until last year; in fact, I don't think I'd ever heard of it. And my grandmother is dead, so I can't go and talk to her about it, hear the story of where she got it or whether she liked it or not. But it feels like holding a small piece of my grandmother's life all the same, and that feels weighty.

[sneakysnowmannightshade07]

Least favorite book?

sorry I'm kinda late to this!

Uh I can't really say one for sure? If I had a least favorite book, it was so forgettable it slipped through my mind.

However, I could care less for this one dystopian series (A Brave New Girl, or something??) which was ridiculous and silly to me. I wasn't overly fond of A World Without Princes or a sequel to Eight Cousins.

There was also The Swiss Family Robinson, but that was more of "it started great but it infodumped."

Thanks for the asks and you are free to ask anything else as much times as you want! I should be free sometimes this upcoming week.

[accidental-spice]

Trick or treat!

Happy Halloween!!

[peregrin-tookish]

Just had the realization while responding to another post that the way I show affection for pieces of fiction is through writing papers about them.

-comparison essay between edmund and peter pevensie

-essay about the white witch

-creative writing piece centered on the white witch's sister who she talks about in magician's nephew

-multiple papers about sir gawain

-at least one non-gawain arthuriana paper

-my high school admissions essay was about les mis

-I don't know where I saved it but I have a vague memory of at least one silmarillion essay

-does that post about carrie campbell from eight cousins count??

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

I read rose in bloom today and oh gosh. charlie. I relate to him SO MUCH and I didn't realise it would be like that... I was crying in That Chapter.

also, the dialogue, "Is it so hard?" "Very hard." i FELT that

[kanerallels]

Someone should probably come make fun of me for borrowing Eight Cousins on my phone so I don't have to go downstairs to my room to get my sister's actual hard copy

[breadsoup00]

OUMG I fucking love eight cousins written by Louisa may Alcott and it has NOTHING to do with being a bsd fan

[littlewomenpodcast]

Mac, Rose and Dulcinea

All of you who have read Rose In Bloom, do you also think Mac and Rose adopted Dulcinea and raised her as their own or is it just me :D

I just love it when Mac brings the baby, Rose is like "Yeah we are going to keep her".

Mac and Rose aren't even together yet, but it's pretty great foreshadowing.

Also an interesting bit about Louisa May Alcott, when I have read Louisa's diaries it looks like she wanted to start an orphanage when she was in early twenties.

Also both Mac and Friedrich Bhaer are based on philosopher Henry David Thoreau, who Louisa wanted to marry and start a school/orphanage with.

[sailforvalinor]

Mac Campbell, AKA Alcott's Most Delightfully Unhinged Love Interest Ever

Nearly made himself blind (literally) by reading too much at an overcrowded family gathering

Once tried to study romantic love as if it were an illness and went around asking anyone who would give him the time of day what being in love was like. When it was suggested to him that he might have to come down with the "illness" to know, he asked how one would go about catching it.

Played escort to Rose (his eventual love interest) at a party, danced with her once (horribly), ran into a geology professor and proceeded to get so distracted talking shop that he accidentally ignored Rose for the rest of the party, walked part of the way home with the aforementioned professor STILL talking about geology and forgot Rose, leaving her to be escorted home by her friend’s mom, and when he got home and suddenly remembered Rose he freaked out and ran the three miles to the party to see if she was there, then ran three miles her house—all at midnight in January, no less—without a coat to make sure she was alright. He was so conscience-stricken that when Rose, perfectly safe and sound, offered him hot chocolate, he asked if she had any hemlock lying around.

Once accidentally implied that he would rather parade the streets as an organ grinder than dance with Rose. Proceeded to flee the premises dramatically quoting Cassandra when the error was realized.

Broke three chairs learning to dance properly to make up for the escort incident

Knocked his brother’s wineglass out of his hand and halfway across the room at a party for trying to coerce their cousin, who was struggling with alcoholism, into drinking; then proceeded to explode at the room of 20-something men for peer-pressuring his cousin and called them all cowards for leading him into temptation that he’s trying to avoid. And then apologized for the mess and left.

Adopted a child in fulfillment of a dying woman’s last request that he was caring for while working at a hospital, succeeded in rescuing the girl from horrifically destitute circumstances—but then abruptly realized that he had no idea how to take care of a child. Showed up on his mother’s doorstep with a distraught three-year-old like “MOM HELP”

Turns out, when he catches the “illness,” he becomes both shockingly romantically eloquent AND fond of really terrible puns in equal measure.

When he was rejected, completely undeterred, he declared he would go make himself worthy of Rose’s love, if he could. Proceeded to become a famous poet in six months. Still thought he hadn’t done enough.

[novelmonger]

4 for Alphonse Elric and 5 for Mac Campbell?

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in? (Alphonse Elric)

Ooh, this is hard, because he's already in just about every kind of media there is - manga, anime, live-action movies, video games, novels...what's left?

Okay, I've got it. I would have someone make an FMA musical, and Al would get a solo for the whole Lab 5 debacle, and there would be a song that keeps getting a reprise at regular intervals that's for the Elric brothers, and they would harmonize with each other. It would be great! XD (Alchemy would be portrayed by a mix of creative lighting choices and interpretive dance.)

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them? (Mac Campbell)

Well, this was the first one that came to mind, but maybe you can tell me if you think it fits!

"She Is the Sunlight" by Trading Yesterday/David Hodges

And if loving her is Is heartache for me And if holding her means That I have to bleed Then I am the martyr And love is to blame Cause she is the healing And I am the pain

Character ask game

[roseunspindle]

Rose Campbell