Little House series: book vs reality

[missbrooklyn]

calm down, dear posters! I mashed the books and series together in my mind. I meant to say forget those saccharine episodes. My bad. Yes I have read them, and read them again with the Brooklynettes. To me as a child they seemed otherwordly, because my own ancestors were raised in Little Houses in the Shtetl, but I enjoyed them anyway

[katecake]

Phew! That's better :lol:

[Deleted01]

I finished LTOP last night, and hit a chapter which I'm sure is the reason that certain families don't allow the whole series. There's a revival meeting and Laura doesn't want to go because she wants to study for the School Exposition. Nellie says, "People who don't attend revivals are atheists!" Which guilt-trips her into attending and she hates the hellfire and brimstone sermons.

[Loveday]

Looks like we might be getting a feature film version of Little House on the Prairie soon.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=95359 (not breaking the link as it's just an entertainment news site)

Not sure how I feel about this. If they do it right--get the right cast, do their historical research and then USE it, and STICK TO THE STORYLINE, then I'm all in. :clap: If not...er, no. :hand:

[Deleted01]

Looks like we might be getting a feature film version of Little House on the Prairie soon.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=95359 (not breaking the link as it's just an entertainment news site)

Not sure how I feel about this. If they do it right--get the right cast, do their historical research and then USE it, and STICK TO THE STORYLINE, then I'm all in. :clap: If not...er, no. :hand:

ITA. My favorite TV episodes were the ones that came straight from the books.

[freejoytoo]

Just remembered something I was curious about. In Plum Creek I remember a chapter where Laura comes across an animal which bars her from the deep water which Pa says is a badger, but it certainly doesn't sound like the kind found in Britain. Is there a breed of badger in that area?

[dawbs]

Just remembered something I was curious about. In Plum Creek I remember a chapter where Laura comes across an animal which bars her from the deep water which Pa says is a badger, but it certainly doesn't sound like the kind found in Britain. Is there a breed of badger in that area?

almost all of the US has American badger--but from what I know, they're very different than the European variety. I think they're a little bigger and more aggressive/territorial. (picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_badger)

(I've never actually had a direct run-in w/ a badger here. But I've had run ins w/ woodchucks--which are smaller at 10 lb [and cuter] and, honestly, I've had woodchucks, as small and cute as they are, shot because they wouldn't run [so not acting right] and won't risk letting my 50lb dog risk a tangle with them. And by all reports, badgers are significantly more of a risk)

(in trying to find the size differences, i found this: http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/20 ... adger.html

"Comparing the American badger to its British cousin (Meles meles), sometimes called a brock, is rather like comparing a high-speed blender to a swizzle stick. The Mr. Badger, of 'Wind in the Willows,' is far milder and much more gregarious than his American counterpart. The brock's face is white with black stripes on either side, and the face and body are slender, more weasel-like. The brock lives in a more or less permanent system of burrows and shares its quarters with others. The American badger is solitary, always on the move, traveling perhaps five to eight miles a night and digging a new burrow each morning to hole up in through the day. Some British householders hand-feed their resident brocks. Anyone taking a notion to hand-feed an American badger would probably be better served by putting his hand directly into a buzz saw.")

[freejoytoo]

Thanks so much! I have to say though that it would be a pretty bad idea to try feeding a 'brock' - for one it would be bad for them and mmore importantly they might take your hand off, they can be pretty vicious.

[PennySycamore]

I can't believe I avoided this thread for so long. I love, love, love the LHotP books; I even made them a part of my Master's Thesis. Seriously, if they had been more respected academically, I think I would have devoted my career to studying them.

My box set is packed away in the garage, but I think I am going to hit the library this afternoon.

I want Mr. Edwards to save my Christmas with a white sugar dusted cake, a penny, a peppermint stick, and a cup. I also want Almanzo's mother to make ALL my meals (although, not my clothes.) Whoever said food porn was spot on!

ETA: I am pretty sure Steve Maxwell would go ape shit crazy with lust over blackberry shaped buttons.

I loved that description of Aunt Docia's dress! What I loved even more was the description of her hair style. (I think it was her.) Back when my hair was long, I always wanted to do that.

[Deleted01]

I loved that description of Aunt Docia's dress! What I loved even more was the description of her hair style. (I think it was her.) Back when my hair was long, I always wanted to do that.

I have always, always wanted hair long enough to wind a braid around my head, but I can't get it to grow that long. I tried. I can't even get it to grow long enough to sit on. :cry:

[hoipolloi]

Glad to see some discussion here again! Just finished Alison Arngrim's Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, Wendy McClure's The Wilder Life, & Ann Romines' Constructing the Little House (a feminist reading of the series).

All of them are worthwhile, and the Arngrim & McClure volumes are laugh-out-loud funny at times. Romines provides a really close analysis of the books from the perspective of gender & cultural studies as well as relying on information drawn from LIW's other writings & correspondence with daughter Rose. She tries to put both LIW & her later writing into the contexts of the times.

Still can't believe what Michael Landon did to those books. So glad that the TV series never existed when I first discovered the LH books in the early 1960s.

Still working my way through John Miller's Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder.

[moreorlessnu]

I have always, always wanted hair long enough to wind a braid around my head, but I can't get it to grow that long. I tried. I can't even get it to grow long enough to sit on. :cry:

I wasn't the only one who wanted to grow my hair below my knees like Laura??

Oh, as Anne of Green Gables would say, we are kindred spirits!

[Claddagh]

I wasn't the only one who wanted to grow my hair below my knees like Laura??

Oh, as Anne of Green Gables would say, we are kindred spirits!

I tried to as a kid. I really tried.

[Trynn]

I never could get my hair to grow that long either. I'm told it's because I never made the effort to trim it on a regular basis. Now that I'm an adult and told I look older with it short (I'm 23 but really young looking)I don't LET it get too long. I want to grow it out to donate next time, though.

[dawbs]

I tried to as a kid. I really tried.

I've never made it that far, but, FWIW, I highly do NOT recommend getting it long enough to sit on. The risk it can land in a toilet is just to much of a PITA. Because, really, the only thing that can make being horribly ill WORSE is rushing to the bathroom at 2 am, and, uh, having to worry about soiling your hair.

(that and mine is waist length right now--I got it caught in the zipper to a skirt this weekend, lost a chunk :lol: )

(and, yes, in theory, you can solve that by having it up, but, if it's always up, you don't get to enjoy it and hair is HEAVY and it hangs differently when 'up', so finding you get headaches and sore spots in your scalp is a part of that too)

[PennySycamore]

I did grow my hair out past my knees. At its longest, my hair just about reached my ankles. No, I did not wear it loose. I always wore it up in bun. I cut it shorter at some point only to let it grow again, but NOT that long. I eventually ended up braiding my bun, but it did not look a fancy as Aunt Docia's was described.

[hoipolloi]

I had hair to my waist for a number of years but it never really grew well beyond that point - got straggly with split ends. It was/is thick, straight & fine so that up-dos inevitably became falling-down-dos unless I used an unlovely hair clip of industrial strength. When waist-length my hair never really braided very well either. I mostly wore it down with the sides held back by prettier (& frailer) clips or barrettes.

[Maul the Koala]

You can do the braid around the head without having really, really long hair!

eGaTcuEEZdw

[Sunnichick31]

Digging this up again to let ya'll know that you too can wear a bonnet just like Laura! I found this on a hijabi fashion blog. The blog was writing about some current styles in Turkey, and this was mentioned. (kinda weird hijab style, but whatever!)

aiseesarp.com/UrunDetay.aspx?urunid=270

Anyway, off to buy this, a prairie dress, and a covered wagon.

[Deleted01]

Digging this up again to let ya'll know that you too can wear a bonnet just like Laura! I found this on a hijabi fashion blog. The blog was writing about some current styles in Turkey, and this was mentioned. (kinda weird hijab style, but whatever!)

aiseesarp.com/UrunDetay.aspx?urunid=270

Anyway, off to buy this, a prairie dress, and a covered wagon.

Happy trails! :dance:

[thekate]

A Little House movie!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/20 ... ared_.html

Please, please be better than the TV show.

[DrPusey]

Here's an interesting article, via USA Today, about the real cause of Mary's blindness, which was probably not scarlet fever.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/03/little-house-books-scarlet-fever/1880397/

[HOTW]

I remember reading years ago that Meningitis was the cause of her blindness but since SF was a better known disease it was used by LIW in the books. SF was still very much feared at the time the books were written. I wish I could remember which book it was but it really gave a LOT of info on t he real story of LIW life and filled in a lot of cracks I wondered about after reading the series as a teen.

[BravaAmica]

Here's an interesting article, via USA Today, about the real cause of Mary's blindness, which was probably not scarlet fever.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/03/little-house-books-scarlet-fever/1880397/

Cool, thank you for posting this link.

[PhiMuLady]

I DVR'd the Little House On The Prairie miniseries a few years ago and it was so much better than the television show. It was more true to the book(s) and didn't sugarcoat the struggles, from what I remember.