A Tangled Blog

I was glancing through my files this weekend, and saw some of the pictures I'd saved to serve as mental reference points for LMM characters - both canon and my own creations. It made me smile kind of wistfully; I don't have any ambition to go back and write more LMM fanfic, especially not now when I barely have enough time for any of my original writing, much less stories set in someone else's world, but honestly, I miss the fun and camaraderie of when all (or many) of us were all writing LMM stories around the same time, commenting on each other's works and sharing ideas, things that drove us nuts from the original books, and everything else.

I know that moving forward from one interest/activity to a different one is natural and healthy, and that it makes sense that our involvement in LMM fanfic would wane, especially with kids and life taking over, but I still miss it! I miss reading all your stories, and even miss writing my own.

Who knows, maybe five years down the road, kids in school and life calming down, we'll find ourselves returning to our PEI stories, revisiting old characters and stories. Maybe not, maybe the gate to the road is closed for good, but ... I guess only time will tell.

I've been thinking a bit about the whole concept of "The race that knows Joseph" lately--some ideas that I want to work into my story, and I thought I'd toss them out here first, to see what sort of discussion springs up (look at me mixing my metaphors!).

I think that in some ways, the whole "Joseph's race" idea can become a snobbery, as in, we can only be friends with people who think like us and act like us. It wasn't that way with the original concept of "kindred spirits." There it seemd that Anne made more of an effort to find something kindred in everyone she meets and because of that is able to befriend almost anyone.

Later on, though, it just acts (in my opinion) as a dividor: "Well, he's not of Joseph's race so we can't ever be good friends, end of story." And how boring is it to only be friends with people who think like you? How are you ever going to be stretched and challenged, which is one of the blessings of friendships?

Look at all of us on here--we all come from wildly different backgrounds, beliefs, ideals, etc., and yet we are able to be friends. That is how I think of kindred spirits--those who can be friends despite many differences because of one common spark--call it the spark of humanity, if you will!

And I suspect that's how LMM originally intended it, but the message seems to have gotten muddled in later books, as though perhaps the second generation didn't quite understand and just took the term "Joseph's race" as a way to distinguish themselves from the rest of the world.

Or maybe that's just my flawed interpretation. What do you all think?