JANUARY 2020: Crown the Little Women! Crown them!!!
Dear Kelsey,
HAPPY ONE YEAR OF OUR LITTLE NEWSLETTER!!!!!!!! You and I are both a bit exhausted and the worse for wear this month, but our little newsletter is alive and well and is old enough to walk!! This is my longest-lasting creative collaboration of my life thus far and I am thrilled to be doing it with you, my favorite collaborator.
It has been a month now since my one and only CATS viewing, and I am struck by how much of an impact it has made on me personally. The night after I saw the film, I had a dream to the tune of “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats”—the opening number of the musical and my personal favorite song of the show—that has stuck with me in the weeks since. How could a movie so horrible be given so much money? How is Tom Hooper allowed to do anything? I personally disliked the 2012 movie version of Les Miserables which was Tom Hooper’s first foray into movie musicals. How did no one take it as a sign of horrible things to come?
gif: the cats in CATS leaping
Just a few of the horrible choices that were made that I will never be able to unsee:
So, so many people have talked about the horror of the human hands with the fully fur-CGI bodies, but it still didn’t really prepare me for seeing it live on screen. Also, people failed to mention that they also have HUMAN FEET? Which is just as bad, if not worse, than the human hands.
Casting Taylor Swift as the sensual cat who sings “Macavity” was an absolutely terrible choice, not only because she doesn’t have the right voice for it, but also SHE CANNOT DANCE AND IS THEREFORE ONE OF THE LEAST SENSUAL CHOICES FOR THIS ROLE. It was truly uncomfortable to watch. Why did they do this?!?! (Please listen to the CATS Original Broadway Soundtrack to hear what Macavity should sound like.)
gif: Bombalurina shaking her chest
As if all that isn’t horrifying enough, LOOK AT THIS GIF. They gave T-Swift CGI CAT FUR BOOBS. SO SHE WOULD LOOK MORE SEXUAL? WHO CAN SAY. But 0/10, truly horrifying image that I never needed to see. Overall extremely uncomfy and not remotely sensual to watch. AUUUGGGGGHHHHH
Cockroaches with human faces. That’s all I want to say about that.
They did Jennifer Hudson dirty by cutting Memory so short in the movie and never giving her the chance to full-belt out that ending. A damn shame.
image: Grizabella
(Jennifer Hudson’s face when they told her what she was gonna look like in this movie, probably.)
Truthfully, I’ve never particularly liked CATS so I figured they were doomed from the start, but I never could have guessed (hoped? dreamed?) that it would be…...well…...this. Will our children one day watch CATS the way many of us watch The Room? Who can say. (Critics say that Dolittle, released this month, is actually worse than CATS, which I am frankly far too cowardly to find out for myself.) I know you love Skimbleshanks more than anything—forgive me for being a Mr. Mistofelees fan myself. To each their own, or something like that.
image: Mr. Mistofelees
There’s no good segue here, so let’s talk about The Crown!
I’ve been watching The Crown since its first season, and even though I’ve followed the show consistently since its release, I was watching it almost absentmindedly until Season 3. The first two seasons weren’t necessarily boring, but they weren’t gripping either, and I found Matt Smith’s portrayal of Philip so annoying that I could only watch the seasons in small doses.
To put it simply: everything about Season 3 is better than the first two seasons. It’s like a new show altogether—a stronger cast, more grounded personal dilemmas and character development, and a new frame that takes a much darker and more critical look at the institution of the British Monarchy—which, as an American who is pro-democracy and anti-monarchy, I was very pleased about.
gif: Queen Elizbeth looking out a car window
Olivia Colman is the perfect choice to anchor this show. I have loved her in every single role I’ve seen her in, from Hot Fuzz to Midsomar Murders to Broadchurch to Fleabag to The Crown. She has so much heart in her acting and she is so good at what she does.
My personal favorite episode of S3 was Episode 5: “Coup”, which seems very on-brand for me, but I am nothing if not consistent. The episode follows Elizabeth as she travels to study equine breeding and racehorse management, and we watch Elizabeth tentatively imagine what life might have been like if she was not destined to be queen. The episode ends with a harsh call back to reality for Elizabeth, and the reminder that she will never get to be “just Elizabeth”.
The show questions the ethics of monarchy, but even more than that, the show also points out the ways that monarchy as an institution is itself harmful to the people ruling it. We watch the ways that Elizabeth, Philip, Margaret, and Charles all struggle with their own humanity in the face of a history and institution that pressures them repeatedly to be more than human. Monarchists are not the ultimate victims of the monarchy, but the omniscient audience perspective shows us that there are costs both the ruling and the ruled pay for the continuation of the Crown. Which is, finally, what makes the title of the show so apt: all of England, including its royalty, must ultimately serve an idea and a legacy rather than a person.
image: Queen Elizabeth looking through a door
I feel very optimistic for Season 4 and curious to see where they continue from here. I feel as though I am an Elizabeth and you are a Margaret (or, more accurately, maybe an Anne?), which is almost as telling as which Little Women sister we are. Which leads me to the “crown” (ha ha see what I did there?) of this newsletter!
gif: the March sisters walking arm in arm
I don’t remember when I was formally introduced to Little Women, because its impact floats through the cultural atmosphere like particles in the air. As if that wasn’t enough, I was a white, middle-class, homeschooled evangelical kid growing up in the ‘00s, which means that there were only three iconic film/literature canons to choose from; Anne of Green Gables, the works of Jane Austen (most notably Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility), and Little Women. I personally chose Anne as my literary heroine and kindred spirit, but I was very familiar with Little Women, because it was impossible not to be.
(Truthfully, the primary deterrents from becoming a staunch Little Women fan were that 1) LW was not nearly romantic enough for me as a teen, and 2) I absolutely HATED Alcott’s book, which in my mind made it impossible for me to fully join the fandom.)
When I was in my late teens and early twenties (I can say that now that I’m 25), I worried a lot about settling for someone—whether it was myself I was worrying for at 18, or my many friends in the years since who have wrestled with the dilemma of wanting a partner but wanting that partnership to be more than simply filling the void.
When I was 21 and feeling greatly troubled by the concept of settling romantically or generally, I found one of my favorite essays of all time: “Hunger Makes Me” by Jess Zimmerman. I have thought about this essay in the years since—folding laundry, eating breakfast, confronting coworkers. Zimmerman writes of how women’s desire to minimize our appetites physically mirrors our collective desire to hunger for less emotionally—the idolatry of the “low-maintenance girlfriend”. This sentiment pops up again and again in modern feminist literature, notably in Roxane Gay’s book Hunger, and a creative nonfiction essay that went viral last July titled “The Crane Wife”. “Hunger Makes Me” and “The Crane Wife” read as if they could have been written by the same author, and the sentiment remains the same: Do not want. Your value is in not wanting more. The less you want, the more you will be content with what you have.
gif: Jo and Laurie arguing
Little Women reminds us that women’s painful inheritance is to settle. We’re so used to the concept of settling that we’ve even learned to celebrate unions where a guy gets a girl who is “out of his league”. When Jo rejects Laurie, our hearts go to him first. We pity him that his love for Jo will go (unfairly, in our eyes) unreciprocated. Laurie is somehow the one slighted by Jo’s decision to insist upon more. Jo’s hunger makes us squirm, because we see women’s yearning as impulsive, foolish, immature, reckless. Aren’t scraps from the table better than going hungry?
Enter Amy.
gif: Amy March turning around in a carriage
Amy, in many ways, is Jo’s mirror reflection; stubborn, independent, hot-headed, incredibly talented in their own unique ways. However, Amy comes to a different conclusion with Laurie. She knows he may never love her back in the way that she loves him, but she has accepted this reality. To Amy, being loved imperfectly (and the financial benefits that go with it) are better than not being loved at all.
Jo and Amy are at odds with one another in the same way that my soul was. I hoped for a love that gave me what I was hungry for, but I feared the possibility of emotional starvation. We all have a Jo and Amy inside of us. Some of us will choose Jo, and some of us will choose Amy.
There’s no shame in either choice. Not only did Greta Gerwig (and Florence Pugh!!!) do Amy justice in a new light, I also noticed that the years have softened me toward Amy’s pragmatism, and in exchange Jo’s idealism felt even more grating, irritating even.
The movie was beautiful, and Gerwig was absolutely robbed by not being nominated for Best Director. But rather than bringing back nostalgia or feeling inspired, I left the theater feeling troubled by this story (as I always have been), and how the choices women are forced to make and the options available to us are, in many ways, not dramatically different from the options available to the Little Women.
gif: Meg, Jo, and Amy walking with a cake
May you settle contentedly, or demand boldly, whichever your heart and gut and mind choose,
Hannah
Dear Hannah,
What a delightful anniversary!!! I’m so, so happy we started and continued to this. It’s wonderful to read and be read by you and I’m excited for all that we’ll get to discuss and dissect in the coming years.
Speaking of dissection, there is simply no dissection of CATS that I am not willing to enter into. Recently Anna Menta’s comparison of CATS and Midsommar brought me a great deal of joy, as has every single tweet about CATS, many of which you have thoughtfully compiled in a beautifully disturbing thread.
gif: Rum Tum Tugger speaking through a door panel
I’ve seen...a fair number of horror movies in the theater. Never in my life have I heard so many groaned “NOOOO”s echo through the theater (some of them coming from me) as I did when seeing CATS. There’s a moment in one of the dance numbers that’s SEARED INTO MY MIND when Munkustrap slides his stupid human cat hand down Victoria’s cat leg down to her human foot and it looks as if he is about to kiss her foot and as one my entire audience shuddered.
WHY ARE THE CATS SO HORNY???? My GRANDMOTHER noticed!!! (though she used the word ‘sensual’ while cringing) Perhaps the reason Skimbeshanks the railway cat is my favorite is that he is the least horny of the cats?? He is pure, respectable EFFICIENCY and is a shot of life to my veins. I need to stop because some friends have expressed a genuine interest in staging an intervention re: me+CATS but I fear that I can never be stopped. CATS is part of me now and it is probably time to simply accept it.
gif: Munkustrap, Skimbleshanks, and other cats dancing
As with you, I am completely stumped as to a segue, so...The Crown!
I was honestly HYPED about the first season. The costumes! The drama! Vanessa Kirby!! Elizabeth handing out stern talking-tos left and right! For me, it was a fun fun time, and the second season much less so, and therefore I was apprehensive about Season 3, thrilled as I was about the casting.
gif: behind the scene gif of Helena Bonham Carter and Olivia Colman holding a phone and dancing
You’re certainly going to roll your eyes at what I’m going to say next because it’s terribly on-brand, so buckle up: I think the major strength seasons 1 and 3 have in common is that they can both be handily summed up as “Learning, but make it Glamour.” HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO RESIST THAT!!
Back in the first season I felt like the storytelling was structured to actually teach me shit, along with looking great and being dramatic. I was learning about the rules of succession (unlike Boar on the Floor, in which there are no fucking rules as I recently found out) and its fraught recent-ish history in the British monarchy. I didn’t know about the Great Pea-Soup before then, or the complicated collaboration between Prime Ministers and monarchs! I couldn’t have told you who Wallis Simpson was if my entire life depended on it! (simplest answer: a Nazi)
I enjoyed the hell out of it, but then Season 2 tacked hard into Long Scenes of People Being Sad, which has got to be one of my least favorite genres of television, especially when the sad people are Men.
But that learning aspect was restored really wonderfully this season. I didn’t know about the Aberfan disaster, and though I knew the relationship between Britain and Wales has always been all-caps TROUBLED, I didn’t know how Prince Charles specifically fit into that relationship. I didn’t know about Philip’s mom Princess Alice and I sure as HELL didn’t know about Princess Anne, who deserves her OWN ENTIRE SHOW (if any of you didn’t know she stopped HER OWN KIDNAPPING go look it up right now!!!)
image: Princess Anne sitting on a couch wearing a red turtleneck dress
The show has finally found its footing when it comes to balancing the family drama and the historical context. Nearly* every episode managed to clearly communicate how the royals affected and were affected by the precise historical moments in the show. Plus, as you mentioned, they started incorporating clearer anti-monarchy leanings. It would honestly be immoral if they didn’t, and not just because monarchy sucks. It’s always ruined lives, but that wasn’t as exposed to the degree it is now until Princess Diana, and with her introduction coming up next season it would really be disturbing if they tried to dodge that reality.
*sorry ‘Moondust’ if I wanted to watch men be sad about space I’d go see Ad Astra again; that at least has Natasha Lyonne in it for 15 precious seconds
All due respect to the first cast, but they’re lucky they didn’t have to follow this one. In part it’s the benefit of experience — Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies, and Helena Bonham Carter have all portrayed historical figures before, and there’s just a sense of comfort and confidence in the roles that makes their characters more grounded and sexy. (also HBC had SEANCES with Princess Margaret before deciding whether to take the part??? look it up!!!)
gif: Princess Margaret saying “Nothing will make me happier
I hope this surer footing carries over into the 4th season and FOR THE LOVE OF PRINCESS ANNE GIVE HER MORE STORIES. Before I move on I need to remind everyone to read Nicole Cliffe’s recaps of the show on Decider and also say that it’s extremely flattering that you think I have the charm and glamour to be a Margaret, or the grit and confidence of an Anne. Maybe I’m a Harold Wilson???
Moving on to Little Women!
gif: the 4 March sisters
I too didn’t quite click with the story from an early age. I think *gasp* I actually read a novelization of the movie BEFORE the actual novel, and was absolutely WREKT by Beth’s death. But the story didn’t become a part of my BEING until my high school performed the 2005 musical. Yes, I was in it! Yes, I played a troll and had no lines! Yes, due to another actor’s medical emergency I ended up playing Marmee for the final 2 performances with less than 48 hours’ notice! That adaptation, along with the many discussions it engendered among the cast about home, ambition, grief, and love, honestly changed me, and those songs live in my BONES.
Formally, Gerwig’s adaptation is absolutely exquisite and thrilling. I highly recommend listening to her interview with the podcast Little Gold Men, where she talks about her early process of conceptualizing the story and how she was going to tell it. I was nervous at first about the way the movie switched back and forth between timelines, but I think it actually worked perfectly because Gerwig used it to emphasize the way particular themes recur in the story. And visually it is STUNNING. The costuming is absolutely gorgeous (read our fave Rachel Syme’s interview with the costumer, Jacqueline Durran).
gif: the 4 March sisters look out a window
I’ve been thinking a lot in the last couple of days about your reflections on the fear of settling and the way that plays out in LW. It’s a fear I harbored in myself for a long time too, but which feels foreign to me right now, though not because I have perfectly actualized and am now confident in my abilities, opportunities, and decision-making. (If anyone would like to believe that of me I invite them to cease reading now and carry on with that.) The truth is that what I want, romantically and/or professionally, feels so far away right now that scraps sound like a relief.
An even greater relief would be to actually know what I want. You and others have sometimes compared me to Jo (#brag), but in all honesty her clarity of purpose and desire have always intimidated me, along with her seemingly innate ability to not just articulate what she wants but to declare it. Jo is afraid that she will not be able to achieve her dreams; I’m afraid that I won’t even know what (or who) they are until it’s too late. That’s part of why I (and many others) found Jo’s emotional moment near the end of the movie, right after Beth has died, so affecting. For the first time she truly does not know what she wants, or perhaps this is the first time she’s willing to admit it.
The admission of loneliness is deeply difficult, which is why I’ve also been thinking a lot about this Ask a Fuck-Up letter, and Brandy Jensen’s answer. The question is from someone who feels bad that despite all of the goodness in their life, including a satisfactory career and a supportive circle of friends and family, they feel lonely without romantic love. Jensen’s answer gets very personal, both to herself and to me, and I found this parts particularly moving:
The problem, Single, is that try as I might, I have never been fulfilled by something like “throwing myself into my work,” for the simple reason that I am naturally indolent and also not a mark. Nor do I find platonic love, as meaningful and beautiful as it can be, a satisfying substitution for someone I can feel that same deep affection for while also wanting to do frankly shameful things to their bodies. Worst is the suggestion that I should spend my time learning to love myself. The appeal of romantic love is precisely that it can free me from having to regard myself for too long, which is as boring a concept as it is horrifying. Besides, a desire that can meet itself is no desire at all.
gif: Jo dancing with a group
I too am disturbed about the ways that the March sisters’ options aren’t terribly far removed from our own, but I think there’s also something comforting in knowing that our problems and fears are not just our own, but deep and lasting and far from trivial. I read the story and its many adaptations as always being about the challenge of making fulfilling choices in a world with limited options. The end of Little Women (the book) has long been a thorn in many people’s sides (Jo marries Bhaer and gives up writing), and I’ve heard and seen people talk about how Gerwig has “solved the problem” of the ending. While I absolutely love the ambiguous ending, I don’t quite agree that the end is a problem in need of solving, or the implication that anyone’s story is necessarily a problem in need of a solution. “Solution” itself implies a certainty and resolution I don’t know if anyone is ever granted, and certainly can’t be a requirement for a happy life.
image: Beth, Jo, Marmee, and Amy at Meg’s wedding
We’ve both mentioned on Twitter our appreciation of the Frozen II song “The Next Right Thing.” Maybe that’s all Gerwig is really doing, giving all of the Marches and their loved ones and her audience a way forward that only needs to be one step at a time, a way centered on community and warmth, and maybe that’s beautiful and important.
May you find your next right thing, today and every day after.
Kelsey
p.s. in these troubled times I watch the Lady Bird trailer for a dopamine boost 1-2 times a week, which means that I also listen to the song featured therein, [“As We Go Along” by the Monkees] on repeat and I highly recommend both