ladymirth

You know, I really wonder what a modern adaptation of Anne of Green Gables would be like. True, the quaintness of the place and time period and a good deal of the P.E.I charm would be lost. But in essence, I believe it would work, if realistically done.

Of course, Anne couldn't be half as innocent or naive as she would be in the nineteenth century. I also can't decide whether the current child protection and foster care system would screw her up more than what she faced then or not. I think it's an interesting social commentary that the orphans that appeared in popular culture in earlier times (when children traditionally had a lot less state protection and care) were portrayed as being bright, hopeful and less traumatized by the tribulations they faced than the average fictional orphan today. Nowadays, any orphan forced through the system is cast as rebellious, psychologically scarred and "problem children". I wonder whether it was because people believed more in original sin than psychology, or whether they expected children to be responsible for making the best of whatever rough hand life had dealt them without fuss. Or do we create juvenile delinquency in disadvantaged kids because we expect them to be incapable of functioning normally?

To get back on track, I wonder how the premise would need to be re-written if Anne were modernized. Perhaps Marilla and Matthew would be a reclusive brother and sister who had decided to take a new approach to being Good Samaritans and newly registered themselves as foster parents. Maybe then the boy-girl mix-up could still happen. I suppose Anne's chattering would be made out to be an expression of her pychological trauma or something, or a method of emotional self-defense. *shrug* Because otherwise, orphans are usually made out to be untrusting and uncommunicative.

The real problem with reworking a modernized version of Anne Shirley, is that "Carrots" does not fly as an insult in the twenty-first century. The only people facing discrimination via hair-color these days are blondes. *grins*

Maybe Anne could be fat, or too thin, or something. Or too pale. But it wouldn't feel the same.

Besides, it would be odd not to have the legendary slate-breaking scene. She could probably bung Gilbert over the head with his cell-phone or something. But it wouldn't be the same either.

I'm having far too much fun musing about this. Seriously, though, that would be something worth seeing.