I've often spoke of how many of L.M. Montgomery's fictional works I read in my formative years- not just the Anne series, but many of her other novels and short stories as well. The Blue Castle, The Story Girl, and Jane of Lantern Hill were particular favourites. And the last book in the Anne collection- Rilla of Ingleside- which is set during World War I is probably the best of that series. I've also visited Green Gables on Prince Edward Island numerous times, been to L.M. Montgomery's grave site, seen the musical twice, and am going to the Anne ballet in April. And of course, I've also seen the Anne of Green Gables mini-series and it's sequel starring Meghan Follows (don't watch the third one; it's bad and doesn't count). You know what I've never thought of in all of that watching and reading? The colour of Anne Shirley's skin.
"Federal commemoration of Anne Of Green Gables will be reworked with “new narratives” from Indigenous, Black and French perspectives, says @ParksCanada "
Of course it will. Never mind that Montgomery was writing Anne based largely on her own childhood experiences; her mother died when she was a year old and her father gave baby Lucy Maud to her grandparents to raise in Cavendish P.E.I. and he eventually left the province for the North West Territories. Lucy Maud, like Anne, had a lonely childhood which she made more bearable by conjuring up a number of imaginary friends. One would think that the government, led by self-declared super feminist Trudeau, would want to amplify this woman's voice, but no- on the oppression pyramid, white women fall below persons of colour. This means that Montgomery's actual truth must take a knee to progressives' fantasy "truths". And fantasy (otherwise known as lies) is what these "new narratives" are. Were there French on the Island back in the day? Yes, though not nearly as many after the expulsion of the Acadians. Were there some indigenous people? Yes but again, not that many. And most did not maintain permanent residences on the Island: they would travel over to hunt, and to plant some crops in the warmer months, then return to the mainland to winter. Very sensible. Even today, the native population on PEI is less than 2%. The fact is, Prince Edward Island has the second most racially homogeneous population of any province in Canada, surpassed only by Newfoundland. Around 90% of the residents are of English/Scottish/Irish decent. There are very few visible minorities, and the largest group of those are Asians. Which makes the government trying to work a Black perspective into Anne of Green Gables particularly weird. The black population on P.E.I. even now is so small as to be statistically non-existent. One of my brothers-in-law grew up on the Island, and he never saw a black person in person until his family moved to Nova Scotia when he was a teen. So while L.M. Montgomery would no doubt have seen a native on occasion, and run across some French, it's doubtful that they would have interacted to any great degree. And it's extremely unlikely that she would been acquainted with any black people during her childhood. So all this drivel about "Indigenous, Black and French perspectives" needing to be shoehorned into Montgomery's fiction is just that- drivel.
One of the reasons we read books is to be transported to different places and different times and encounter different people from all walks of life. How narcissistic and narrowminded to declare that every book must reflect your person- race, sex, and modern ideals- and that you can have nothing to learn from characters who do not look, think, or act like you. Now if that's all someone wishes to read, well, I find that silly, but each to their own; what people choose to read is not my business. Unfortunately however, often instead of telling their own stories with their own characters, the people who insist on being seen in their reading material decide to insert themselves into existing works of fiction, twisting the plots and characters into barely recognizable caricatures of the authors' original works. Then, inevitably, when fans of the original erupt over this intentional mangling of a book they love, the progressives start in with remarks such as, "Oh, so you only want white people in your books, racist," or "Why do you care so much?" People care because they love the characters in their favourite novels as they are written, whoever or whatever they are. People care because these progressive malcontents, who are quick to screech 'cultural appropriation' at white people sporting braids, have no problem absconding with other peoples' work and twisting it to suit their own purposes. But it has nothing to do with ethnicity or skin colour; I don't want Sherlock Holmes to be rewritten as a Rastafarian because that's not who he is. Nor do I want Agba (the boy in King of the Wind) to be changed into an Australian rugby player because- again- that's not who he is. Enough with this needing to feel seen nonsense: you don't have to be a horse to appreciate Black Beauty.