Little Women Podcast: That John Brooke Appreciation Episode

It is time for that John Brooke episode. John is the underrated love interest in the Little Women canon, but he is actually really great. He is a gentleman and a wonderful father and he adores Meg. I am joined by Little Women expert, the author of March Sisters Sweet Romance Book series, Jen Brady. In Jen's book "Falling for the tutor" we get John's point of view on things. What does he think about the March family and how did he fall in love with Meg? Join us in this wonderful discussion.

Transcript

Hello everybody,

Welcome to the Little Woman Podcast.

Those of you who are new here,

My name is Nina and I am the host and the creator of this podcast.

I am very excited about this new series and I look forward to share all these new discussions with you.

When I started to do this podcast,

In the beginning I really wanted to focus on episodes that handled Amy's,

Laurie's and Thravik's characters because they tend to be those characters who are most misunderstood in the Little Woman fandom.

Amy and Thravik notably the most,

They tend to get a lot of hate,

Which I believe is a result of the romanticization of Laurie in the adaptations.

But pretty much from the beginning of this podcast,

People have been asking more episodes about Meg and Beth as well.

When it comes to Meg's and John's marriage,

It is important to know that it was very much based on reality.

Their characters were partially inspired by Louisa's sister,

Anna Alcott and her husband,

John Pratt.

After John passed away,

Louisa wrote in her diary that she came to love him like a brother and that without him the family could not have gone through many of the hardships that they had faced.

John in the Little Woman fandom doesn't always get that type of similar respect.

Maybe it is once again because of the adaptations.

I think he is a good,

Very stable character in the novel.

When it comes to the male characters,

The focus is not that much on John.

It is more on Laurie and Thravik.

That is just the way it is.

My guest,

Jen Brady,

Has written a young adult book series called March Sister Sweet Romance.

And in these next three episodes,

We will be discussing about her second book in the series called Falling for the Future,

Which is a modern day Little Woman story told from Meg's and John's perspective.

I'll put a link to Jen's website in the description box so you can get to know her as well.

Here is a little passage from this book.

He hadn't had nearly enough time to complete all the math problems,

So I was skeptical as I crossed the room and sat next to him.

He flipped the sheet of paper towards me and went back to the love seat.

Asher Wyatt's greatest hits started up again as I flipped to the back of the book where the answers were to compare them with Ted's bubble sheet.

He'd gotten the first answer correct.

No surprise there as I'd basically told him how to solve the problem,

But still,

It was a good start.

The good start ended there because when I checked question 2,

I found that he'd filled both A and C.

The answer was B.

Hey,

Why'd you fill the two bubbles for number 2?

He stopped singing but kept strumming the guitar because it's the cat test.

That made no sense so I kept checking the answers.

For question 3,

It once again filled in two bubbles A and D.

At least D was the correct answer,

But test takers weren't allowed to fill in more than one bubble per question for the cats.

It would make the entire answer invalid.

Did he even know how to take the test?

I couldn't fathom how someone could get the spring of their junior year without knowing the procedure.

For taking a standardized test,

But this was the same guy who'd wanted to sneak a John Darling Tiger Lily romance subplot into Peter Pan.

I think we need to start at the beginning,

I said,

Trying to raise my voice over Ted's music without actually yelling.

The CAT,

Short for College Aptitude Test,

Is made up of four parts.

Math,

Reading,

Science,

Reasoning and writing.

You can only fill in one answer by question.

Ted stopped strumming.

Duh!

I hold up his answer sheet.

Then why did you fill in multiple ovals for most of the questions?

He grinned.

Because it's the cat test.

I know,

And it won't give you credit for a correct answer if you fill in more than that.

Get it?

He interrupted.

The cat test!

Then he laughed like crazy and pinged out a new melody.

I didn't get it.

All I knew was that the cat test was an important part of college acceptance and his grandfather was paying me a lot of money to help him raise his score.

He'd gotten a barely average score on the pre-CATS this fall and that wouldn't get him into a great college.

I was starting to wonder how he'd even managed the average score.

I let out a frustrated sigh and set the answer sheet down on the table.

That's when I saw it.

When I looked at his answer sheet from a distance,

The ovals he'd filled in combined to make rudimentary outline of a cat figure.

The cat test!

He muttered to himself,

Laughing again.

Okay,

Okay,

Very funny,

I said,

Ripping another blank answer sheet out on the back of the study book.

Take it for real this time.

We need a baseline so we can measure your progress.

Ted curled up his upper lip and shook his head.

Yeah,

I'm not going to do that.

You have to.

No,

I don't.

Your grandpa is paying me to teach you this.

He shrugged one shoulder and flippant chest there that was quickly starting to grate on my nerves.

Then I'll tell him you taught me.

That's lying.

No,

It's not.

You showed me how to do the gas mileage problem.

That's teaching me something he won't know.

That's the only thing you taught me.

He will when you take the real test and get a crappy score.

He waved his hand as if it would wave away the problem too.

We'll worry about that when it happens.

I'm serious.

If you want to do decent on this test,

You need to do the practice ones.

That's what I did.

I took practice test after practice test and checked all my answers and figured out my mistakes on the ones I got wrong.

Okay,

Fine.

He grumbled.

He stood up,

Set the guitar back on the coffee tape and took the new answer sheet out of my hand.

When he sat down in the chair across from me,

It was in an exaggerated huff,

Like I totally unconvinced him.

He glanced over at the first page and the practice test and I set the alarm on my phone.

I watched as he filled in one of the bubbles for the first problem,

Then one for the second,

Satisfied that he was going to take the practice test for real.

I slipped my card book out of my backpack,

Getting a little studying in for Monday's test.

Wouldn't be much productive than wondering.

Mr.

Lawrence says,

Collect taste in reading material.

I mean,

Twilight,

Really?

Before long,

My phone peeped.

I was in the middle of working on a problem,

So I didn't look up.

Five minutes,

I warned,

But before the words fully left my mouth,

Ted's answer sheet sailed over my work.

I picked it up and immediately saw that he'd filled in multiple ovals for several questions again.

Ted,

I ground,

Squeezing,

My eyes shut in frustration.

It's the dog test,

He announced,

Sounding pretty proud of his joke.

I opened my eyes and sure enough,

A big dog head complete with whiskers and a color decorated page,

Made completely by shading in bubbles.

I looked away and my eyes fell on the bookcases.

So many bookshelves,

So many books in a room so vast that most of my trailer would fit inside.

And a housekeeper who served as his personal alarm clock.

He had all this and a grandfather who was willing to overpay for tutoring service so he could get a CAT score good enough to get into his college of choice.

He didn't even have to worry about paying for college.

All he had to do was get in and he wasn't even trying.

Laurie in Louisa Mayankos' Woman,

He really doesn't like school or studying and he is like 16 at this point.

But that's why we have Amy who helps him to shape up his act.

And quoting Laurie 10 years after,

He says I'm not going to be a humbug any longer.

One of the reasons why I think John is not as well known character as Laurie and Fredrick is because those two tend to be more extroverted and John is more introverted.

And one thing that I really like in Jen's version is the way she highlights John's amazement when he is working for the Lawrence's and really sees how the other side lives.

Because he comes from a very poor family and that is already written into the original Little Woman.

I am giving you all a free month on Skillshare so if you wish to become a writer yourself you can check out all the courses on writing and other awesome skills.

Link to your free month on Skillshare is in the description.

And this is Small and Brown in the Rain,

Little Woman podcast,

The Joan Brooke appreciation episode.

Music My name is Jen Brady,

And I'm an author.

I have in the past published several books that are more middle grade in nature,

And a couple years ago I decided to branch out into young adult sweet romance.

And the first project I took on under this new genre to me was a retelling of Little Woman.

So I have four books,

And there's one for each of the sisters are you can read them independently.

You don't have to read one before the other,

But if you read them in order.

There are threads that kind of weave along,

Along the whole series so it's best to read them in order but you don't have to.

And then I just had a lot of fun adapting Little Women for,

You know,

2021.

One of my friends on Instagram.

She had read some of your books,

And I told you that you are coming back,

And then she sent a question.

Oh,

Yeah.

So,

I was thinking,

What did you especially focus on when writing the Meg and Joan relationship in this century.

I did not too.

She married for love.

And in this day and age Yeah,

That still can be something that happens,

But women have a lot more opportunities now.

To,

To be told that they need to consider that kind of thing so well,

The money issue was kind of in the book,

It was more the social aspect of the popularity and the.

Can this person get you where you want to be in life,

And you know that kind of thing,

Rather than the money,

Though I guess I focused mainly on the social aspect and what what the friends think and what you know your social circles are going to say if you date someone who is maybe out of your social circle,

That kind of thing because I see that a lot in,

You know,

Teenagers and social media and high school life and I think that that is kind of a tough issue,

Maybe more so than some of the things that were involved in the original book,

I think,

Social aspect was also important in the 19th century but they definitely put way more weight on how well the person was.

Yeah,

Unfortunately,

Like you said there wasn't that many opportunities for women to have a job at all.

So,

It's kind of makes sense that you had to marry someone who could provide to you and your family.

Yeah,

Definitely.

When I was reading your book,

I did feel that it translated very well to this century because you brought the story to high school world where reputation is very important.

And there are all these different social classes in high school,

In same way that there is in little woman,

I thought it translated very well to this particular story.

Well,

Thanks.

I kind of thought that it was the easiest one to adapt.

Some of the other ones,

I kind of really had to think hard about,

You know,

What would that,

What would that look like in our time.

That one it pretty much kind of fell into place.

There were a lot of really easy parallels.

Yeah,

Like Meg going to Vanity Fair.

Yeah,

That's pretty easy to put into the context of trying to be popular in high school.

I would like to ask you,

When did you begin writing?

I have old notebooks that you can barely read because my printing is so bad because I'm in like second grade,

That are basically fan fictions of various Saturday morning cartoons that my friends and I used to like to watch.

So,

Yeah,

I've been interested in writing and creating stories.

And,

You know,

Even what I did here,

Adapting or kind of expanding the world of characters and stories that I already enjoyed.

So,

I like to do the fan fiction when I was younger and as I got older I started creating my own stories and I just kind of never stopped writing.

What other fandoms you liked besides the old woman?

A big one for me growing up was Star Trek.

My mom loved Star Trek,

The original series.

So,

When I was old enough,

I never really got into that one,

But I loved The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine,

And I still every now and then I'll go back and be like okay I'm going to watch a season of Star Trek.

So,

I was real big into science fiction and fantasy.

Star Wars is another one.

I don't know why people think you have to have a favorite or choose between them because they're both awesome.

My husband and I have just been recently into The Mandalorian and the Boba Fett and now we're waiting for our son to have some time so that we could all watch the new Obi-Wan Kenobi one.

So,

I was into a lot of science fiction and fantasy fandoms.

My sister's a massive Star Trek fan.

Well,

There's so much Star Trek.

You can go down that rabbit hole for days.

She only agreed to watch the 1978 Little Woman because it had William Shatner.

Oh,

That's funny.

But she did like it.

Oh,

I thought of one other fandom that I was huge into I still like but as a teenager,

Oh my gosh,

North and South,

The mini series.

Oh yeah,

I,

I kind of watched that for the same reason as your sister,

Because Jonathan Frakes,

Who was on The Next Generation.

He was one of my favorite actors on that he was in North and South.

And so I started watching North and South and then I think it was like 30 minutes into it.

I was in love with that,

That fandom and my friends and I also wrote fanfiction about North and South.

I think we talked about this a little bit the last time that perhaps john is not that popular as a Laurie and Freddie because he's more introverted than he's extra.

He's not one that really stands out on your first read,

Or your first viewing of the movie as much as maybe the other men,

But I've always really liked john he just kind of seems like a strong,

Maybe that strong and silent kind of type.

But he's not as much focused on and things either well he really wasn't as well.

That's not true.

I was gonna say he wasn't in Little Women,

The original book as much,

But when you read the second half,

The good wives,

There is quite a bit of john,

And then he is in some of the sequels too so he's fair he just,

Yeah,

He isn't as,

I guess exciting but I don't know I thought he had some really good qualities to.

I've always kind of been a fan of him.

When I read Little Women as a child I didn't really pay that much attention to him,

But then when I read Little Women more as a mature person in Camp Lawrence chapter.

And I think that's the moment when he tells this story,

Or they're like telling the story together,

You know that play where you make make up something.

Yeah,

And they each told their own little paragraph and,

And it's a story about a knife that goes to save a princess.

And john's princess is Mcmarch.

Yeah,

He's pretty cool.

But when I read it for the first time,

When I realized what I was reading as a teen,

I was like,

That's a good,

That's kind of racy.

Yeah,

For back then I kind of probably was because Nick was 17 and he was maybe in the seven,

28,

There was some kind of an age gap there as well.

Yeah,

It was pretty normal back then so I think it's appropriate for the time period.

In a company.

They didn't even bad and I added it didn't seem because they would talk about Joe and Frederick having a big age gap but no one ever said anything about Megan john even though you know they had 10 years or eight years or whatever but yeah that was pretty common to some algo she had a thing for all their guys,

Their guys Yeah,

And I think as a kid when I was reading,

Little women,

And maybe this is where he kind of gets lost in the shuffle.

You're more focused on the kid characters,

The teenage characters and he's always an adult,

So maybe,

Maybe that's why he doesn't make as much of an impression especially on our first read throughs because a lot of times where kids are teenagers they don't really first,

First read the story.

I think in the chapter,

Camp Lawrence,

There's also the moment when he is throwing the boat with Meg,

And then Lori's that his cousins,

The rich cousins.

Friends,

Friends,

Yeah,

I'm England,

The girl is like,

What are you doing for living and make it like I'm a governess and she's like,

Oh,

You have to work.

Yeah.

Why do you have to work.

So it's like,

I think,

Being a current assistant really cool thing,

And I just later on realized that,

Well,

They're both teachers.

Yeah,

They are.

I liked how he kind of kind of swoops in and tells us that Kate.

Kate,

Sister.

Yeah,

Yeah.

Fred,

You know,

Maybe it's different in England but here it's looked up to if you can go support yourself and working isn't a bad thing.

He would he really valued that Meg was helping her family and a hard worker and kind of went in and was talking about that to get Kate off her back almost.

That was one of those moments that really made me fall in love with John's character.

Later on,

But yeah I think he's more,

More of an introvert and with bet,

Maybe,

And then the other to be more extroverted.

Yeah,

I think so.

And that's probably why he isn't as focused on,

But he's still a great character.

Can you use your own high school,

College memories when writing this book,

Maybe a little,

But I was not like Meg at all.

I was more of a shy Beth.

I was never in with the in crowd or doing things like going to prom and I guess I was more like the john character,

Not really feeling like I fit in in high school and I was quiet and like to read and so maybe,

Maybe you're right and I did try on my high school experiences,

I'm just now realizing but it wasn't for Meg it was for the john character,

You know the movie Mean Girls.

Yes,

When they go through all the clicks in the high school scenario,

And then they go to the art,

Art students.

That's where I was.

Okay.

Good place to be too.

Yeah,

That's why I didn't like school that much but when I went to art school,

There was no clicks because we all came from that.

All art students.

Yeah,

Yeah,

High school wasn't my favorite time at all.

It wasn't like a horrid experience or anything I wasn't like horribly bullied or anything like that but I just didn't really feel like I fit in there.

I found my friends my true friends in college and also at summer camp.

I was really big into summer camp and that's actually what I wrote about for the my first series for 1015 years.

That's kind of what I worked on summer camp because that was more my things that had made an impression on me and the place where I'd had really good time.

I know.

Oh,

You should have it so far.

I mean,

I'm not in art school.

That's okay.

I bet it's probably very similar in the whole finding people that you have things in common where,

Like you said there are clicks anymore because everybody loves art,

Has the same kind of viewpoint.

That's kind of a campus.

That's true.

I was thinking what does the woman the original novel tells about Jones background because I don't think it tells that much.

I remember is he took care of his mom or something it kind of made it kind of alluded that she might have been elderly and ill or something.

I kind of went with the having to take care of the mom but in a different way with addiction and stuff like that that's kind of what I'm thinking about.

I don't think it's much better than this.

They really don't say much.

You don't know.

It's kind of a mystery but that's basically what they say and that I he might have had a brother,

Maybe in the original.

I've written to my knowledge he had ill mother who he sent money to,

And maybe a brother.

Very much.

It's the same as Fredrick's character,

Only that he had a sister.

Right.

Sadly died,

And two nephews and the nephews and John went to war.

And in your version he's planning to go to the Marines,

Was that right.

I did National Guard,

Which is because I wanted him to be able to be accessible for other books.

If I would have sent him off to the Marines or the army or something he'd be gone so I did National Guard because they have their regular boot camp and stuff but then they live,

Basically civilian lives but they have training every,

I think it's once a month,

They'll have a training and.

Okay.

So in your version John's mom had addiction with alcohol.

He came from a very poor background,

And he tried to fake to his friends and everyone else that he came from a normal home.

And then we have Meg also trying to fake to her friends that she enjoys being the popular it girl.

Yeah,

Because in the Meg goes to Vanity Fair.

A lot of times what they focus on is,

Oh,

Meg dresses up and Meg,

They,

They almost make it out that,

Oh,

She's having fun and this is great and this is what she really wants and,

And she did she did want to,

You know,

Run with that crowd,

But she also realized things she didn't like about it,

When she's being talked about.

And when she's just realizing,

You know,

I thought I wanted to run with this crowd but maybe there's some negatives too so I tried to focus on that in my book,

The discovering who you are and maybe that's not what you thought you wanted in life when you mature and grow up a little bit.

I think that's a huge theme in little woman in the original book as well,

That the things that you want as a teenager are not necessary those things that you want as an adult.

Yeah,

Definitely that's,

You can see that in a few of the different storylines.

Yeah,

Louis,

May all cuts,

Joseph's at her castle in the air is to write books and own horses and be filthy rich.

But then the second book there's the chapter,

All alone.

She realizes she wants companionship and she wants to have a life with exactly.

She still does want to be a writer and she,

She does.

Right,

But I think she is happier with the life that she ends up making for herself,

Then the life that she may be imagined as a 15 year old.

And I think,

Let's make wanted.

She wanted to be popular.

Oh yeah,

Nice things and rich and she wanted to be like her friends and throwing the balls and buying the expensive fabric and keeping it.

The pretty dresses and the servant and all that.

And then in the second part she no longer wants those things.

No,

She just wants to be wife and mom and her own little,

Little family and seems like she's pretty happy doing that.

It is a big part of Little Woman storylines,

Then you had Lori making pranks.

That was one of my favorite parts in the original and they don't,

They don't often adapt to that,

But they did in my introduction to Little Woman which which was the cartoon from Japan in the 80s.

I totally remember the episode where,

Where Lori is doing the back and forth,

Um,

Letters.

And one of the reasons I remember it is because they changed the name on the paper,

They called him Carl or something that when the people were speaking they said John.

And then when they show the letter in the,

In the cartoon.

It says like Carl or Kevin or something at the bottom and my friend and I would always rewind it.

And the character says,

As she's reading it.

Your servant John Brooks or something but it clearly says a different name and my friend and I always thought that was hilarious so we'd rewind that part in the,

The tapes that my grandma would take for us so I distinctly remember this prank part,

And it's never in the movies and I'm always disappointed.

So I wanted to make sure that I adapted the prank of the fake letters to and from Megan john only now it's 2021 so it was texting.

Of course,

When I read your book I thought this is the language is something that I could imagine him to use.

He wrote in a way that could recognize that wasn't written by john.

Yeah,

But it's worse in the original because make actually thinks that the letters came from john and she even replies to them.

Yeah,

It's really vicious thing that he does in the original but nobody speaks about it.

Well,

I do,

But nobody else seems to do that.

There's a few parts that really stuck out to me either from the cartoon,

Or the original book.

When I was younger,

That like have stayed with me and now when I read it I get to that part I'm like,

Oh,

That's one of my favorite parts.

And they don't often pick it to do the adaptations like one of my other favorite parts is the Amy and the art fair.

So I made sure to put the art fair in my,

My fourth book which is the Amy book,

But they never have the whole art fair debacle with the rival artist who gets her table and it's,

It really shows how she's grown as a character because she handles that disappointment.

Pretty classy.

Yeah.

Whereas,

Amy from the first book,

Little women rather than good wives,

Or is that in that in.

I can't remember the younger Amy definitely would have not handled that well she would have picked up a fit and freaked out and older Amy was very gracious and I always liked that part and they never put that in any of the adaptations,

The pranks and the art fair the two big ones I can think of that I wanted to make sure got in there so that is the benefit of creating your own version that you can add the things that you want to have their true.

Another thing that they never add is the symposium with children,

Frederick was one of my favorites in the novel.

Is that in the one on a writer one.

There's something similar when they meet and they have the discussion about philosophy.

And he kind of cuts in and says he thinks women should be able to tell their opinions.

Yeah,

But it's just like a 30 seconds in probably.

Yeah,

You're right,

They never do put that in.

Oh yeah and then I did it for film they kind of show that but yeah you're right they never showed in fall.

And I think that's the only one that's the only one I can remember having it in.

Yeah,

The symposium part in the 2017 he invites her to the symposium but then they don't include the symposium and it makes me so angry.

Is that the mini series?

Yeah,

The mini series.

Yes,

Like it was two or three episodes or something.

Yeah,

I liked that one I've only seen it once though.

I don't remember that one as well as some of the other.

Oh,

The Hollywood people bring the symposium to the Little Women adaptation.

Please.

And thinking about the art fair.

I think they should also include that,

Or something like that because if I remember right,

There are these moments there where Amy and Laurie are a bit flirtatious in the book.

But that is not in the movie.

I don't know.

Well,

I mean I've always said they need to do a good old fashioned like we were talking about North and South 80s mini series where it goes on for like six or seven days for two hours a day they need to do something like that with Little Women because it's such a massive book and 90 minutes or two hours just isn't enough time.

I mean I had trouble putting everything in to four different books that I wanted to fit in some things had to just fall by the wayside.

And that was four different books,

So I'm sure that the time restraints,

Make it so that they can't but man wouldn't it be great to have an actual long mini series that you can fit all these fun little lesser known scenes into.

I would love that.

And I have the whole idea that they should include like Laurie's point of view and then Frederick's point of view,

And his life in Berlin.

Oh,

Yeah,

That would be fun.

That was something that was fun about writing the book.

I ended up doing eight viewpoints.

In the end,

Two per book.

It was kind of funny to write from the john point of view or the Laurie point of view or the Friedrich,

Because I think we mainly get Joe's.

And then a little bit of Megan Amy in the original.

Yeah,

But not.

It was all kind of under the lens of Louisa may okay,

Which is great.

She's a great writer,

But it kind of all.

I don't know it was like all under one viewpoint and I always kind of wondered you know what these other characters thought,

You know how to.

What does that think about being the peacemaker of the family know is it is it exhausting.

Or is it.

Someone's coming into my room.

Sorry.

My husband and my cat just walked in so.

Waving back.

I was thinking about them.

The 1949 film,

There's this moment where Larry is like,

Why do you need to work,

Joe,

Do you need money I have lots of money,

Like he doesn't really understand why the girls have to work.

And right.

I think I saw some of that in your,

In your book as well because Larry's unproductive and he's lazy because everything has been handed over to him.

He doesn't have to work and he doesn't have to,

To really try for anything.

And I think when you grow up like that you don't really understand,

You can't really comprehend that there is another way of life for other people.

I liked your book because it showed clearly that how john is blown away when he interests the Lawrence home.

And then he lives in the trailer park is really poor.

But I think in the original book.

It's hard for us to realize because as modern readers.

You know,

Big deal I bet a lot of people didn't have characters but it's it's hard.

And most of us come from middle class families.

Yeah,

So it's difficult to put yourself into that position because you don't see that in your everyday life.

Whereas for us now it might be like,

Oh,

Your family can't afford a car or tech tech is a big thing probably.

So I tried to put it in terms that people would understand nowadays like,

Oh,

You can't afford a phone or that kind of thing.

It is hard for us to immerse ourselves in the world of the 1800s and to know what would what would show that you had money or didn't or that is that is a tough,

Tough thing to figure out as we're we're reading the original.

I also understood why John had to lie about this background because when you were in high school you don't want to stand out too much from the crowd.

I think right.

I know it's early be different.

Yeah,

You want to you want to blend in and have people pay too much attention to you in your version john and make they meet in the trauma class.

Oh yeah,

That's another thing that they don't adapt very much they that may really wanted to be an actress,

And she loved acting,

And they'll show like Joe's plays and the Christmas scene where all the kids fall through the couch because there's too many people sitting there and Amy's messing up our lines and not fainting right but they don't really center around the fact that Meg was really into acting.

So I tried to kind of put that in the show,

Bits of their place in the movies.

I think the 1994 film they do mention that in 19th century,

You know,

Being an actor,

It was seen bit,

Spacious as a career.

When I read some of these books that was my I would like to read like will help Meister and like a third German type of literature get the he criticizes life of act,

Google lock me out and I have to log in.

Oh no,

Geez,

Google.

Don't you know that people want to talk about little women for more than 40 minutes at a time.

Yeah.

They should know my habits already.

They should lose a male cheek,

Sometimes kind of criticizes actors life like in Joe's voice I think Maggie still like acting,

But she,

She still prefers to be mom and doing those homely things.

I was thinking maybe it's because of that sort of bad reputation that the actors had back then.

Maybe that's why she,

She didn't become a full time actor,

Maybe,

Maybe.

I mean it's still not something that like a parent would be thrilled to hear.

I want to be an actor,

My mom wasn't very happy when I said I want to go to art school.

I don't know how many of our kids wants to go to art school,

My sister she.

She's an actress in improvisation theater.

Oh,

Okay,

But she never wanted to make that her full time job.

Right,

As like a fun thing that you do.

It's like a outlet for her.

Yeah.

Oh,

I get it because with writing.

When it was just a hobby.

I had ideas and couldn't wait to sit down and write and now that I'm trying to,

You know,

Make a writing career.

And you look at the numbers and the money and sometimes it can be a little daunting to sit down and and actually come up with something,

Because it's just so much more pressure.

And that's why it's taken me this long to finally,

After finishing the March sisters series get back into really the groove of writing and several months where I was organizing my house and purging things from the closet and scraping paint off of our out buildings and I was like,

I want to create them and a lot of that was,

You know,

Avoiding,

Avoiding having to sit down and come up with another world so I get that it's,

It's hard when you're artistic endeavors merge with career,

You know,

Maggie is not the only one who has the questions because then we have Joe who really struggles with her writing career.

In the second part of the books,

She wrote those trashy novels.

And then when Freddie came,

She started to take herself more seriously as a writer.

And I find a balance between right to market and writing,

You know what you really love to write,

And what you,

You feel drawn to writing,

But if you're going to make a career out of it,

It has to sell so yeah it's it's not something just from Joe's time.

Definitely.

Definitely influenced me wanting to change genres and do the young adult romance because it's,

It's popular.

The key is finding something that's popular that you really want to write,

Like Little Women adaptation.

It was,

It was so much fun that I didn't mind doing a popular genre,

When you enjoy it.

That's the best part in 19th century if you were an actor.

And then if you would like to combine that with with a family that might not have been so easy.

I'm sure it wasn't.

I'm sure those kinds of careers are hard now too and we have,

You know,

More quicker and more reliable forms of transportation.

And we have the internet and we have zoom and I'm sure it's,

It seems like it's really hard now but I can't imagine back then when they didn't have any of these forms of communication and travel.

It would have been almost impossible for someone like Meg to have a family and acting career.

Sometimes I come across these people who complained that Meg doesn't become an actress.

When I read the book,

I don't think she's that much into acting I think she cared more about having a family.

Yeah,

I think so too.

And also how many,

How many times do we say as a kid oh I'm going to be an actor I'm going to be an astronaut,

Or I'm going to be a whatever.

And most of us when we're older,

Don't end up being an actor or an astronaut or some lofty goal that very few people in this world actually end up doing so.

I wanted to be an archaeologist.

Oh,

That's,

That sounds really fun I have a friend who actually is an archaeologist,

But she's the only one I know who is.

Yeah.

And I was really very close to applying to university to go to study archaeology but I ended up going to art school.

Okay.

But,

You know,

Maybe I could go back.

Yeah,

You definitely could.

Yeah,

If I would want to but not so much now.

Yeah,

I still like history and doing this podcast that's one of those things.

Like when you're a historian,

It's a good podcasting to do.

Yeah,

Alcott's life.

And what you do is kind of like archaeology because you're looking into all these sources and,

You know,

With Elisa May Alcott's letters and all the things written about her and,

Okay now,

What were the times like?

When you read the original.

You said,

Like you said he was,

He was funny,

But then also annoying.

I think there is some kind of this sort of thin line when funny becomes a bit annoying.

Especially when you're a teenager.

Yeah,

I think so.

There is a fine line between being funny and crazy and goofy and taking things too far,

And I think especially with teenagers it's easy to cross that line,

Especially when you're with your friends or there's people,

People you want to impress.

We all have that one friend that we can really get into trouble with and I think that with Jo and Laurie we're each other's one friend.

And it's funny in the original when he's composing the opera in Vienna after Jo has rejected him.

There's this moment when he calls Jo a torment.

And I was like,

When you call her a torment.

Why are you pinning on her?

Right.

For that,

I think it was the art fair chapter.

There's this moment when Laurie is really frustrated when Jo is preaching him about college.

Yeah,

Because he kind of did,

He was like going to gambling rooms or whatever and being wild.

Sometimes it's just my point to me that people want Jo and Laurie to get there because Laurie has a crush on Jo but then he also thinks Jo is a torment.

And he is so annoyed with Jo.

Laurie doesn't like Jo always that much.

I think there was some kind of a need to have Jo in his life because he needed someone to tell him what to do with his life.

When I was reading your book I thought it was interesting because there were some moments when John makes these observations that Laurie goes to do these things that Jo wants to do that he doesn't want to do himself.

He just wants to be with her,

Do stuff she wants to do.

He watched films that all Yeah,

The movies that she wanted to watch that he thought were stupid.

Stuff like that.

And it was very close to the book.

I kind of feel sad for Laurie because I felt like he was wasting his time on on Jo.

Then I feel bad for Jo because he was really like pinning on her when she didn't want his attention.

Yeah,

It's not romantic.

There's not much romantic about about their relationship.

And that's why I loved that cartoon because they were very clearly friends and had like a brother and sister kind of relationship and they fought in that cartoon and I remember a scene where Laurie gets mad at her and comes into his house and is like kind of huffing and puffing and like throws his hat at the door and it clearly shows that they drive each other crazy but are still very dear friends which,

You know,

Is pretty common with a close friend,

Brother,

Sister kind of relationship but yeah so when I was watching the movies as a teenager or a kid,

I didn't understand that either like why,

Because from what I read,

And seen in the cartoon.

I'm like why is this like a love thing when they never really were one of my friends said that it's not really a love thing,

It's actually Laurie just that he just wants to have sex with her.

Maybe there is some,

But I think it was more I mean maybe,

I don't know,

But I think it was more like he,

He just felt like he belonged in the family and and loved the whole family and nowadays you can be an add on to a family in any way,

Shape or form but in those times.

I think you added on by getting married and that was kind of the logical progression,

Because when Laurie proposes Joe it feels like there is,

He feels a lot more immature than Joe in that scene.

Because he says these things like,

I gave up being here to be with you.

Yeah,

He gets a little silly there.

It's a really funny line when he says that it's such a bad reason for Joe to marry.

He just wants to like play house with her.

Yeah,

And it shows how he's grown up and been handed everything so he's like well but I did this.

That was probably a lot of work for him.

Wow,

I gave this up,

I gave something up I this is big stuff and she's not reacting the way he thought she would.

Everything else is I want this.

Okay,

Here you go.

Yeah,

He didn't he didn't know what to do,

Or how to act when he doesn't get the thing he says he wants.

That was our discussion for today.

Thank you so much for listening.

Take care and make good choices.

Bye.