#Louisa May

[70ssmut4]

[littlequeenies]

July 13, 1985 - Chrissie Mullen May and baby Louisa May, Brian May's wife and daughter, can be seen onstage during the "Live Aid" concert finale, where big stars such as George Michael, Freddie Mercury, Paul McCartney, David Bowie and Bono, sang "Do They Know it's Christmas?".

Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a movement that started with the release of the successful charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in December 1984. Billed as the "global jukebox", Live Aid was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, attended by about 72,000 people, and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, attended by 89,484 people.

On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative were held in other countries, such as the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan, Yugoslavia, Austria, Australia, and West Germany. It was one of the largest satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time; an estimated audience of 1.9 billion, in 150 nations, watched the live broadcast, nearly 40 percent of the world population.

[drspacepoodle]

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A post shared by Brian Harold May (@brianmayforreal)

This is so adorable

[andibuilds-simblr]

Saltbox: A Little Women Inspired Build

Download and details under the cut!

40x40 · Fully Furnished · CC Heavy, Included

The Saltbox style home is a New England staple. Built during the colonial period of American history, these homes were simple and functional.

One of the most famous colonial era homes is Orchard House, where Little Women author Louisa May Alcott lived with her parents and sisters, and was almost a character in the novel itself. To bring your cozy autumn to a close this year, I wanted to create a house inspired by the Alcott home, in all its eclectic warmth. Like Orchard House, this build is early colonial in architecture but mid-19th century in furnishing and decor. Where possible, I’ve tried to keep the appliances and plumbing off-the-grid, as a nod to the time period. It has a kitchen, dining, formal parlor, sitting room, mud room, three bedrooms, and a flexible attic space to stage all your childhood plays. This build is very CC heavy, but I have included a sortable CC list and folders this time which should allow you to only keep the Build CC and eliminate the Buy if you’d rather furnish it yourself CC-free.

Required/Recommended Packs:

Horse Ranch

High School Years

Cottage Living

Eco Lifestyle

Seasons

Cats and Dogs

Get Together

Werewolves

Realm of Magic

Jungle Adventure

Outdoor Retreat

Laundry Day Stuff

Basement Treasures Kit

Thank you to all the wonderful CC creators out there who make historical builds more fulfilling! This build has a lot of beautiful CC from @pierisim @harrie-cc @felixandresims @lilis-palace @anachrosims @sooky88 and many more! Full list and credits are in the drive folder below.

Download Here (GoogleDrive)

[astrophysicist-guitar-god]

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A post shared by Brian Harold May (@brianmayforreal)

[debdarkpetal]

Brian May with daughter Louisa.

[therealbrianmay]

...I think she had a good time yesterday? Not quite sure.

[queenofclogs]

screaming and crying rn

Brian, before Love Of My Life: “We don’t usually make dedications, as those of you who see us every night know, but we’d like to dedicate this just once to all of you who have sweated long and hard to get here and see us. I hope it’s worth it.” He then acknowledges his daughter who is on hand to see the band for the first time. “I’d like to dedicate this to someone else too. It’s a little lady with very big eyes and blonde hair and only three years old. Louisa May, this is for you.” Brian plays a bit of Brahms’ Lullaby for her during the interlude.

London - September 7, 1984 - (x)

[wigglybunfish]

Been rereading Little Women recently... or technically, properly reading it for the first time. The last time I touched this book was when I was ten, and the book I touched was a shortened chinese edition (or was it just the first half? anyway) Here are the sisters in 21 century post covid and I think Beth would've loved the groundbreaking invention that is the Hoodie

[elephantlovemedleys]

Winona Ryder and Christian Bale as Jo March and Theodore "Laurie" Laurence Little Women (1994) dir. Gillian Armstrong

[bookaddict24-7]

"Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again."

― Louisa May Alcott

[littlequeenies]

Bbc Montreux Music Festival Switzerland - 8 May 1986

[laurenillustrated]

The March Sisters 📚

Little Women illustration based on the book!

[drspacepoodle]

Dr Sir Brian May everyone

[princesssarisa]

As I've read different people's views on Little Women, I've realized that for different readers, it's a fundamentally different book.

When I see someone describe the "universal" experiences of identifying with Jo, wanting her to marry Laurie, and disliking Amy, I remember all the proof I've seen that these are far from universal. The latter two weren't even my experiences: identifying with Jo, yes, but shipping her with Laurie and disliking Amy, no!

Even people with equal amounts of knowledge of the historical context and of Louisa May Alcott's life seem to come away with vastly different feelings about the story and characters.

I suppose there are a wide variety of reasons for this. First and foremost, which of the four March sisters you personally admire or relate to the most. Then there are other factors like your gender, your age when you first read the book, your relationship (good or bad) with traditional femininity, whether you read Parts I and II as a single novel or as Little Women and Good Wives, your relationships with your own family members, your religion and ethical values...

The list goes on.

That post from @theevilanonblog that I reblogged recently about the different interpretations of Frankenstein makes me want to write out a similar list of ten different views I've read of Little Women. Here it is:

Little Women is about the March sisters learning to be proper virtuous women of their time and place. With Marmee as their role model (a role later shared by Beth as she becomes increasingly angelic in her illness), they learn to conquer their flaws, give up their wild ambitions, and settle down as good wives and mothers. This is especially true for Jo, whose character arc is a slow taming from a rough tomboy to a gentle nurturer. It's a conformist and anti-feminist message, which Alcott probably disliked, but she wrote it to cater to public tastes. (This reading seems mainly to come from critics who dislike the book.)

Little Women is about Jo's struggle to stay true to herself in a world that wants to change her. She struggles with whether to stay a tomboy or become a proper lady, whether or not to marry Laurie despite not loving him romantically, and as an author, whether to write what she wants, write what earns the most money, or give up her writing altogether. In the end, she changes only in ways that make her happy, e.g. by learning to control her temper, and later by embracing romantic love. But in more important ways, she stays true to herself: always remaining slightly rugged, clumsy and "masculine," finding success as a writer, and marrying Friedrich, a man just as plain and "unromantic" as herself, but whom she loves and who respects her as an equal.

Little Women is about learning to "live for others." That phrase is used often and could well be the arc words. Beth is the only March sister to whom a selfless life comes naturally, but the other three master it by the end of the story (as does Laurie). They learn to conquer their moments of pettiness and selfishness, to live in better harmony with each other and with their friends and love interests, and to give up their self-centered dreams of fame and wealth, building lives that focus on service instead.

Little Women is about growing up. The first half is mainly about the March girls' maturing by surviving hard times and learning to be better people, while the second half is about reaching adulthood and bittersweetly parting ways to start new lives. At the beginning, Jo is a girl who doesn't want to grow up: she wants to always be a wild young tomboy with her family (and Laurie) by her side forever. But of course, she can't stop time or womanhood, and is eventually forced to accept the loss of Meg, Amy, and Laurie to marriage and Beth to death. After grieving for a while, she lets go of her old life and willingly builds a new one with Friedrich.

Little Women is about family bonds and the fear of losing them. We meet and become attached to the wonderfully close, cozy March family, which gradually expands through friendships, marriage, and new babies. But throughout the story, the family is in danger of breaking apart, whether due to conflict (Jo and Amy's sibling rivalry, Meg and John's marital problems), or separation by distance (Father going away to war, Amy going to Europe, Jo to New York), or death (the danger of losing Father and Beth in Part I, and the ultimate loss of Beth in Part II). But in the end – unlike in reading #4 above – the family doesn't break apart and never will. Conflicts are resolved, travelers eventually come home, the surviving family members always live near each other and stay as close as ever, and even Beth isn't really gone, because her memory and influence live on.

Little Women is about femininity and each March sister's relationship with it. Meg and Amy happily conform in different ways: Meg to "domestic femininity" as a housewife, Amy to "ornamental femininity" as a society lady. Beth pressures herself to conform to self-effacing domestic femininity, until sadly, it kills her – either because she's too selfless and nurturing when she cares for the fever-infected Hummels, or because she has anorexia, as Lizzie Alcott might have had. But Jo strikes a successful balance in the end, conforming just enough to fit into society, but only on her own terms, and otherwise living a happily unconventional life as a writer and schoolmistress.

Little Women is about Jo's unlearning of internalized misogyny. At the beginning, she's a "Not Like Other Girls" tomboy, who wishes she were male, disdains feminine girls (especially her sister Amy), doesn't care enough when "her boy" Laurie behaves badly toward women, and is afraid to be vulnerable. But gradually, and without losing her strength of character, she learns to embrace the sweeter and more tender aspects of herself, sees that Amy's ladylike manners have practical benefits, and learns to say "no" to Laurie when he turns his childish, unhealthy romantic attentions to her. Then after Beth dies, she realizes how precious Beth's utterly domestic, feminine life was, and embraces a more domestic life herself. Yet by doing so, she becomes a true feminist, as she enters an egalitarian marriage and devotes her life to teaching boys to be good, respectful men.

Little Women is only what US Americans know as the first half. It's just about the March sisters getting by and learning moral lessons over the course of the year their father is away at war. Nobody gets married and nobody dies. Everything else is in Good Wives, which is a sequel with different character arcs and different themes, and which should be published separately, as it originally was and still is outside the US. Trying to tie them together into one narrative never feels quite right.

Little Women is Alcott's idealized version of her own life and family, where no one suffers quite as much as they did in real life, everyone is slightly less flawed, and Jo ends up happily married to a man very much like Alcott's lost love Henry David Thoreau. She wrote the life she wished she had.

Little Women is just a semi-autobiographical slice-of-life that Alcott wrote quickly for money.

Which is the truest to Alcott's intent? I don't know. But while some of these readings I like better than others – and some of them I despise – I'd say they're all understandable and reasonably valid. Some aren't even mutually exclusive, but can be used together... although of course, other readings are mutually exclusive, like whether the story is feminist or anti-feminist, or whether the March family ultimately breaks apart or holds together. And they're all worth using as springboards for discussion.

Alcott wrote more books than she ever realized she did, because Little Women can be many different books to different people.

@littlewomenpodcast, @joandfriedrich, @thatscarletflycatcher, @fictionadventurer, @fandomsarefamily1966

[metamorphesque]

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women