Collapsing a Triangle

I’ll be honest. I took way too long to settle on a topic for this issue, “Love Triangles.”

I sat and stared at my blank computer screen, racking my brains for something—anything!—yet coming up empty. Finally, I complained to a dear friend (and fellow Femnista writer). “Where have all the good love triangles gone? Why, oh why, can’t I think of one?”

Her response was immediate: “Sense and Sensibility! Your favorite Austen story!”

And lo, out of darkness, there appeared a great light… in my brain, that is. “Oh.”

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A Siren Call: Love in The Pirates of the Caribbean

Have you ever wondered why a heroine makes the romantic choice she does, because you would have chosen someone else? That difference of opinion has often happened to me over the years, but never more than in the first Pirates of the Caribbean. Seated in the theater, my hands in a popcorn bucket and eyeballs glued to the screen, I knew if I had been lucky enough to be in Elizabeth’s shoes, I would have picked not the dashing and romantic Will Turner, but the witty and reliable James Norrington!

For the Love of a Musketeer

The BBC’s take on this classic work of fiction by Alexandre Dumas captivated me almost from the start with its gorgeous cinematography and costumes, historical time period, and strong bonds of brotherhood that make for interactions both poignant and hilarious. Most importantly for this article, however, are the abundance of romances it gives audiences to fall in love with, all of them playing out in the form of triangles. Divided into three distinct types, the showrunners cleverly wove each one into the fabric of the show.

Nonsensical Geometry: The Two Love Triangles of Jane Eyre

The central romance in Jane Eyre resolves happily. (Do I need to mark that as a spoiler? Surely not! Surely, if you haven’t read Charlotte Bronte’s triumph of a novel by this time, you’ve at least watched a movie version?) Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre overcome every obstacle, including those within themselves, to meet as equals at last in the eyes of all, marry, produce offspring, and live happily ever after. Good for them.

What Are Little Boys Made Of?

One reading subject dominated my growing-up period–The Hardy Boys. Most little girls I knew were reading either Nancy Drew, which I get because my mother is a huge fan even today, or Goosebumps, which was not up my alley. No, my passion was to be one Frank and Joe’s “chums,” off on crazy and reckless adventures with them.

Fight the Nothing: The NeverEnding Story

Experiencing stories not only exercises a child’s imagination, it also progresses their emotional development. When a child reads (or watches) a tale that touches them, they can learn more about the world around them and how to deal with the things in it. Particularly the difficult things. Many children’s novels do this. One of them is The NeverEnding Story. It serves an important purpose by providing kids with a fantastical way to process true life problems.

The Wonder of Little Boys: Stranger Things

I have a particular fondness for little boys. Their humor, their antics, the orneriness. I love it when my dad talks about his boyhood antics. Never in a million years would this girl have thought about dropping a cherry bomb down a chimney or hopping on a train! I enjoy reading about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn because Mark Twain knew what it was like to be a little boy. He wrote what he knew. He was, most probably, an ornery little kid. And the best fictional boys come from those who were ones.

Life in a Dark Room: Lydia Deetz of Beetlejuice

Sure, I loved Disney Princesses. I loved watching Aurora wander through the forest and talk to magical owls; I sang along with Ariel as she swam through her grotto; I flew on the magic carpet ride with Jasmine. Although I loved them, I aspired to be them; I never saw myself in them. The first character in whom I saw myself reflected was decidedly not a Disney Princess.

Not a Fool: The Importance of Portraying Dr. Watson Correctly

All but four of the original sixty Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle (also known as the “canon”) are narrated by Dr. John Watson.

You know what that tells us?  Watson is not merely a sidekick.  He’s not an afterthought.  He’s not just the comic relief.  He’s not a cardboard cut-out for Holmes to bounce ideas off.

Sherlock: The Value of Human Life

Sherlock Holmes is undoubtedly one of the most famous characters in literary history. His popularity continues to grow as modern storytellers adopt and reinvent his character in cinematic spinoffs like the Robert Downey Jr. films, CBS’s Elementary, and BBC’s Sherlock.