Comments on: The Bright Star: part seven

By: lindberg

lindberg — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 20:47:46 +0000

Such a promising start, with the promise so unfulfilled in the end! She really did seem like she had some good ideas going in, but couldn’t quite figure out what to do with them.

By: Mina

Mina — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:43:30 +0000

I liked the awkwardness and bad points of this story. It’s instructive to see what doesn’t work sometimes. The insertion of “church stuff” in the plot was not very organic. Instead of the meaningfulness of family life from a gospel perspective, it becomes a convenient romance story trick.

The giving up of art dreams was also super annoying. As you said, Ardis, some of that is borrowed from romance story tropes, but there is bit there I kind of want to “blame” Mormon culture for. (Though I would not take this story to be simply illustrative of “Mormon belief” by any stretch of the imagination).

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 06:12:33 +0000

I don’t think we can pin this on Mormonism, Julia. I think it’s the author’s idea of romance, written without a great deal of skill.

By: Julia

Julia — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 03:57:41 +0000

I share the disappointment in the ending. We’re couples really encouraged to marty other members because they were members, even if they didn’t really know them. I realize courtship has become generally longer, but this seems 7 Brides for 7 Brothers quick.

By: Alison

Alison — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:53:56 +0000

And when she was on the last chapter, realised she was almost out of typewriter ribbon…

By: deb

deb — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:52:12 +0000

I was enjoying this, until it turned so sappy. The syrup is so deep, my keyboard is sticky. How can they be in love, for pete’s sake, without even a decent conversation!?

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:46:34 +0000

Yeah, not the brightest moment in Relief Society lit, was it? It’s like the author knew what form she wanted to imitate, but didn’t know how to get from here to there!

By: Coffinberry

Coffinberry — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:45:50 +0000

Sweet, but …. oh, I don’t have the right words. There’s something just too — simple, unexamined, convenient? — about how this turned out. (this plot could’a provided years’ worth of soap opera fodder)

Were the 1950s really this simple?

(I take this back… a quick adventure into new.familysearch.org indicates that the author had plenty of sorrow in the 1950s.)

By: Jenn

Jenn — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:31:16 +0000

Wait wait wait, just a second ago she was rushing through her chores so she could spend every spare moment on a painting, and now she’s not dedicated enough to be an artist? She just won a fairly impressive contest, but she’ll never be good enough? I thought her desire to be an artist was one reason she didn’t want to marry Jim, and now she makes the same bargain to marry this Marc person? What the heavens is going on here?