#the long winter

[fictionadventurer]

The Long Winter hits very differently in a post-pandemic world. Now it's not just "we almost died because it was such a long, cold winter." It's specifically a story about supply chain issues.

In other books, the Ingalls family could have weathered a snowy winter pretty well. They almost never went to town, and they raised and stocked up enough supplies to get through the whole winter. But in South Dakota, they didn't have time to raise much of a crop their first year there. They lived a mile from town and relied on trains getting through to bring supplies. So they were out of almost everything by Christmas.

Instead of homemade candles, they were burning kerosene--which came by train. Instead of meat they hunted or slaughtered themselves, they were living on salt pork--sent by train. Instead of wood, they had only coal for fuel--which comes by train. And so on and so forth. They relied on a vast shipping infrastructure to bring what they needed, which meant they were out of luck when that supply line was stopped. The problems in this book come not so much from their world being too primitive, but because they relied on it being too advanced. And it all feels very familiar from personal experience.

#the long winter #little house #laura ingalls wilder #and that's why i now classify this story as a science fiction book #it's all about how technology affects the lives of these characters #you could tell the exact same story about settlers on a colony world waiting for supply ships to arrive #it's all the same thing

[balanceoflightanddark]

"Nonetheless, ease and peace had left this people still curiously tough. They were, if it came to it, difficult to daunt or to kill; and they were, perhaps, so unwearyingly fond of good things not least because they could, when put to it, do without them, and could survive rough handling by grief, foe, or weather in a way that astonished those who did not know them well and looked no further than their bellies and their well-fed faces. Though slow to quarrel, and for sport killing nothing that lived, they were doughty at bay, and at need could still handle arms. They shot well with the bow, for they were keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and arrows. If any Hobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew well."

-J.R.R Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Prologue 1. Concerning Hobbits pgs. 5-6

This paragraph fascinates me for a few reasons. Often in fiction, a long period of peace is often used for explaining why people are so slow to react to a rising threat. That prolonged prosperity dulled the senses and breeds complacency. Indeed, Frodo himself does express some exasperation and almost wishes for a dragon or some evil force to invade the Shire to shake the Hobbits out of their complacency.

Which to some level is true here. It's a known fact that Hobbits like to keep out of the affairs of the "big people". Yet at the same time, even if they want to keep themselves isolated, it doesn't mean the world won't march into the Farthings regardless of what they want. After all, there wasn't a whole lot stopping the Nazgul or Saruman from entering their borders.

Yet at the same time, the paragraph does illustrate that just because Hobbits have grown accustomed to peace, doesn't mean they're pushovers. Consider Bandobras "Bullroarer" Took and the Battle of the Green Fields. When a goblin warband led by Golfimbel descended from the Misty Mountains and broke through the Dunedain's encirclement to invade the Shire, Bullroarer charged straight at the goblin ranks. He then proceeded to knock Golfimbel's head off and shatter the morale of the warband.

The story was repeated in the Battle of Bywater when Saruman decided to set up a criminal ring in the Shire after his defeat at the hands of the Ents. Long story short, once Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin returned, the Hobbits proceeded to raise up a sizeable force and effectively kicked Saruman out of the Shire. Mind you, Saruman used to be the greatest wizard in Middle-Earth, and the Hobbits led to his final defeat. That's two accounts of invasions of the Shire going badly for the invaders.

And that's not even getting into the adventures that Bilbo, Frodo, and his friends got into during the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings respectively. Bilbo was able to save the asses of Thorin's Company multiple times, discovered Smaug's weakpoint and indirectly relayed that to Bard via the Thrush, and risked life and limb to forestall a battle between the Dwarves, Men, and Elves till Bolg showed up. Frodo and Sam were ultimately able to destroy the One Ring, while Merry and Pippin were able to rouse the Ents into attacking Isengard. That's not even counting Merry being partially responsible for the death of the infamous Witch King.

So even though the Hobbits were accustomed to peace, they weren't complacent enough to be pushovers when presented with a threat. Personally, I think part of the reason this is so is because the Hobbits never forgot the basic necessities of a good life: a comfortable home, friends, family, and basically everything needed to live simply. They never indulged too much in luxury to become lax like Smaug, nor constantly scheming to take more power like Sauron or Saruman. They were happy with living simple on the farm.

It turns out, that's what gave them their edge. They were down to earth, so they had a good sense of morality thanks to living humble lives. Safeguarding their farms from wild animals meant that some Hobbits could recognize a threat when they realized it. And their sense of community and friendship got them through some of their hardest trials, like when Frodo almost succumbed to the Ring and Sam never gave up on him. Their sense of community and toughing it out through the hardest times such as during the Long Winter when Gandalf began to really warm up to the Hobbits, seeing the value and courage in them.

So while they're not the flashiest or most "badass" of Middle-Earth's free peoples, the Hobbits are some of the hardiest and "purest" races. And how ironically, peace never dulled their senses but served to toughen them up for the dark times ahead.

#tolkien #tolkien legendarium #lord of the rings #the hobbit #hobbits #bilbo #bilbo baggins #frodo #lotr frodo #frodo baggins #samwise gamgee #lotr samwise #merry and pippin #merry brandybuck #peregrin took #pippin took #brandobras took #saruman #the shire #battle of green fields #battle of bywater #the long winter #lord of the rings meta

[oldfarmhouse]

"𝐇𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫."

https://www.pinterest.com.

#hot coffee #the long winter #coffee tags

[darkacademiaarchivist]

my aesthetic is "greenhouse in space" actually

#I started the audiobook of the long way to a small angry planet #and oh my god I want to be in a greenhouse / kitchen on a spaceship?? #this also applies to the girl in space podcast #becky chambers #the long winter #wayfarer #girl in space #girl in space podcast

[itspileofgoodthings]

His blue eyes twinkled down at her as if he had known her a long time.

#the long winter #I love the subtlest of romance-building in my stories

[jade-island-lives]

Chapters: 8/? Fandom: Original Work, The Nimbus Saga Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Aither Thorin, King Caspian - Character, Aslan Wills, Leofine Callway, Gallus, King Boris, Peppercorn, Nutmeg - Character, Archimedes, Ramses, Original Characters, Other Character Tags to Be Added Additional Tags: Fantasy, Medieval, Mental Health Issues, Original Fiction, Dragons, Fairies, Pixies, Magic, Kingdoms, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Chronic Pain, Goddesses, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Physical Abuse, Physical Disability, Back Pain, Car Accidents, Abusive Relationships, Abusive Parents, Elemental Magic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change, Tags Are Hard, Ballet, Dancing, Found Family, Recovery Series: Part 1 of The Nimbus Saga Summary:

Aither Alastair Thorin was 25 years old. Fresh out of medical school and now an intern at a local hospital, arranged to marry a rich yet cold woman at his mother’s wishes, and was addicted to opiates after enduring a rather gruesome car accident some years prior.

To say his life has been a mess is an understatement. Aither was forced down the path of being a doctor by his almost absent father and overbearing mother. His dreams of being a ballet dancer were further crushed by this, along with the car accident that injured his back. And to say he was trapped in a loveless marriage is to say too little.

Depressed, feeling like a shell of a person, and seemingly just existing and not living. One night, Aither is transported to the world of Elvra, to the Mountian kingdom, Candos. A world of kingdoms, dragons, fairies, pixies, and magic.

Here, Aither learns he was gifted by the goddess Uru with the elemental power of air. A power only given to the ruler of each kingdom.

At the moment, he feels more out of place than ever. Will he find his place? Or will he forever be a puzzle piece from a different board?

#writing #writeblr #writing community #wip #the nimbus saga #the long winter #adventure #fantasy #medieval

[leguin]

Now that spring is no longer to be recognized in blossoms or in new leaves on the trees, I must look for it in myself. I feel the ice of myself cracking. I feel myself loosen and flow again, reflecting the world. That is what spring means.

An Imaginary Life, David Malouf

#words #david malouf #the long winter

[ladyinrainbowglasses]

“The Long Winter”

This was always my least favorite of the “Little House” books. And Lord knows, I love the series. I know a lot of it is fictionalized and I know it is hella problematic, but it was and is a comfort read for me. Except “The Long Winter”. I have always hated it. I was reminded of a few metrics as to why I hate it and wanted to discuss them. 1. The most obvious - the greed and selfishness of the people in town nearly kills all of them. The trains aren’t running. Everything is buried under snow. People are slowly starving. Some people have more food supplies than others. They still use money to exchange food among themselves.  Even as a kid, being raised by a dyed-in-the-wool Reaganite who hates Communists more than Satan, I was bothered by this. When Mr. Foster slaughters his oxen to make up for scaring off the antelope herd, Pa says he got a great deal on a few pounds of meat. The only single mention of banding together to make sure everyone in town has food is when Almanzo and Cap refuse to let the storekeeper price gouge on the wheat they brought back. He must sell at cost. The idea that maybe they should share never seems to occur to a one of them, despite the town priding itself on it’s devoutness. 2. Pa eats a meal while his family starves. Pa goes over to Wilder’s Feed Store twice. Both times, he is treated to a meal of flapjacks, once with bacon. His wife and four daughters are all starving, with one clearly doing much worse than the others. He does not even ask if he can just bring this generously offered meal home to share it. It wouldn’t be much, but I can’t help but feel this act highlights how selfish Charles Ingalls really was. It was a major crack in the mythos his closest child tried to build up around him.  3. It is treated as good and noble that no one turned to thieving to survive. It would have been easier and healthier to just FUCKING SHARE YOU DIPSHITS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

#little house series #problems in kid's lit #the long winter #would it kill you to share

[fiction-quotes]

And as they sang, the fear and the suffering of the long winter seemed to rise like a dark cloud and float away on the music. Spring had come. The sun was shining warm, the winds were soft, and the green grass growing.

  —  The Long Winter (Laura Ingalls Wilder)

#book quotes #historical fiction #children's fiction #laura ingalls wilder #little house series #the long winter #description #seasons #winter #spring #weather #sun #sunshine #wind #grass #survival #hopefulness #optimism #music #singing #happiness #family

[symphonyoflovenet]

The sky was coldly blue and the whole world was white.

Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter

#Laura Ingalls Wilder #quotes #quote #lit #literature #winter #The Long Winter

[fictionadventurer]

It's kind of hilarious how The Long Winter goes on this extended tangent where it ties itself in knots explaining how Almanzo illegally filed a claim at 19, but it's okay, because the law is stupid and Almanzo is really responsible and totally deserves to run his own farm, so this is much more moral than those guys who are filing claims legally and then handing off the land to corporations...

And it's all completely unnecessary, because the real-life Almanzo was a few years above the 21-year age requirement, and this plot problem only exists because they aged Almanzo down because they didn't think children's book audiences would accept the ten-year age gap between the romantic leads.

#the long winter #little house #laura ingalls wilder #i've done the math on farmer boy you're not fooling anyone #usually i'm very sick of people who insist that the books have to match history #these are not supposed to be the real people just fictional characters heavily drawn from real life #that doesn't stop this from being funny though

[ladysnowangel]

Spring reading: The Long Winter, Little Town On The Prairie, and These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

#booklr #books #Little House #The Long Winter #Little Town On The Prairie #These Happy Golden Years #Laura Ingalls Wilder #book photography #read #reading #photography

[netmassimo]

The novel "The Solar War" by A.G. Riddle was published for the first time in 2019. It's the second book in The Long Winter trilogy and follows "Winter World".

The Long Winter seems to slowly come to an end and the survivors start thinking about repopulating the world. James Sinclair and Emma Matthews have a daughter and for a few years, the situation seems to be improving. Everything changes when asteroids are spotted heading towards Earth.

A fleet of drones is set up with atomic warheads to be launched towards the asteroids, which are intercepted. James is concerned that this might be the obvious threat which distracts attention from other more hidden ones, and his fears are soon confirmed.

#science fiction #scifi #novel #review #The Long Winter

[ionomycin]

Maiden of Light

#artists on tumblr #i'm so ready to be over winter #spring and warm weather can't come soon enough #my mood is directly linked to the temperature #so i'm trying to cope by channeling my nordic roots #lucia maiden is a cool bit of culture that i always liked as a kid #the whole school would be standing along the long hallway #in the dark #holding candles #while the one chosen as lucia would walk through it with a wreath and candles on her head and we all sing the Sankta Lucia song #i'm not religious but #the VIBES #were immaculate

[darklingichor]

The Long Winter; Little Town on the Prairie, by Laura Ingllas Wilder

The Long Winter tells of a historic winter with cold, storms and blizzards that ran from October 1880 to April of 1881. The weather stopped the trains, leaving the territory cut off from supplies. Everyone must exist on fewer and fewer resources and deal with the uncertainty, the relentless cold and the boredom that comes from having to find something to do other than worry.

It's no wonder that reading of these books had an uptick during the pandemic. The Ingalls deal with it all with as much cheerfulness that they could muster. Of course it's not all cheery. Pa begins taking less and less food so as to ensure his family gets the most of what they have. When Laura realizes this, she too starts eating less. It is in this context that we get the most interesting scene, with a rare perspective shift. We see things from Almanzo Wilder's viewpoint a few times in this book, but I feel like this is the first time we see Charles through someone's eyes, other than Laura's.

Charles, faced with his family's dwindling food supplies, decides to do something.

You know that Charles is an intelligent, if impulsive man, at this point, but you see just how shrewd and observant he is in this scene.

Charles walks in to Royal's feed store, where the two men are staying. He asks for wheat, the Wilders tell him that they don't have any. Charles simply walks up to a wall, takes a plug that had been placed in a hole, and catches wheat in a bucket. He then informs them that he will be taking this wheat.

This hidden stash is Almanzo's seed wheat, and he had built a false wall so as to hide it from anyone who would try to buy it or take it. Almanzo is amazed, how did he know it was there?

Charles tells him that on his last trip into their place, he noticed that the dimensions on the outside of the building did not match the room inside, and he knew there had to be something that could pour out because of that plug.

The Wilders tell him to take the wheat, and to come back if he needed more.

Soon there is a rumor that someone far from the town had a big supply of wheat, enough to hopefully keep everyone from starving until they can get the trains moving again.

Almanzo and one of Laura's schoolmates Capp Garland go out, find the guy, buy his wheat and save the town. Eventually things start to thaw out and the trains start running and things slowly get back to normal.

I listened to most of the podcast Wilder before I read Pioneer Girl and the series. I have to remember that one of the hosts and a lot of the people they talked to read the books as kids.

I say this because a lot of people said that The Long Winter was upsetting, and the darkest of the books. I disagree.

Don't get me wrong, it's not cheerful by any stretch of the imagination, and yes, somethings happen that would not sit well with kids. But for me there was something about By the Shores of Silver Lake that felt darker than this one, I can't really put my finger on why.

Maybe it’s because this book signaled the end of Laura’s childhood, between Jack the dog passing away, and the expectation of marriage looming on the horizon, maybe it was Caroline being a coiled spring – Silver Lake feels like a desperate grasp to stay carefree, almost dream like… I found it unsettling for some reason.

Long Winter on the other hand, despite the danger, just shows the Ingalls capacity for resourcefulness and positivity in the face of hardship.

 We do see Charles from the outside - and while others have found him hard to take, especially when he sits and eats pancakes with the Wilders, while food supplies are dwindling at his house. This didn’t bother me, and I’ll tell you why.

First, it wasn’t as if he was gorging himself while his family starved. He was not eating much to save as much as possible for Caroline and the girls. Second, like everyone else, he was doing a lot of work just to keep everyone well, and it was wearing on him. The Wilders noticed how sunken and thin he appeared. Third, the rules of hospitality dictate that when someone offers you food, you should accept, and Charles had just come in and taken wheat, and the Wilders had let him. I don’t think his upbringing would allow him to just say: “Later” and leave. Fourth, it wasn’t as if Caroline and the girls had so little that staying a little while, making nice with the men who just helped you would be a big deal. Fifth, there is no indication that this actually happened and was likely just a scene Laura put in so she could describe some good food. Either to accentuate stress of the food shortage, or because she was doing a call back to the lavish descriptions of food in Farmer Boy, or because she just liked describing food, and the food at the Ingalls place was getting monotonous.

In Pioneer Girl we find out that the winter of 1880-1881 was hard for other reasons, not entirely related to the weather. It turns out that the Ingalls hosted George Masters, his wife Maggie and their baby during this time. To give you an idea of the Masters’ way of thinking: Geniveve Masters was one of three girls who inspired the character of Nellie Oleson.

While the rest of the family worked, grinding wheat in the small coffee grinder and twisting hay to take the place of the long ago used firewood, the Masters, especially George, did nothing.

This mooching behavior made Laura angry, but instead of venting it in her fiction, she chose to simply not include their irritating house guests.

 

Little Town on the Prairie

This one reminded me of a season of a teen sitcom. Overall, we get a year in the life of Laura as a teenager. Going to school, getting caught up in trends, taking notice of, and getting noticed by boys.

The book is a fun read, and is also really interesting beyond the fact that it seems like teenagers have been the same for a long time.

One of the first things that happens is that Charles asks Laura how she would like to work in town. Everyone is shocked and Caroline asks if Charles is thinking of letting Laura work in the De Smet hotel. Pa says of course not, no daughter of his will work in a hotel.

This is, of course, Laura writing what she wanted to have happened, and probably what Charles would have wanted to happen.

We know from Pioneer Girl that both Mary and Laura worked in the  Burr Oak hotel when Laura was nine.

It turns out that the job is helping sew shirts for all the men traveling out to the territory for work without wives or family.

Laura eagerly accepts, thinking that this will provide money for Mary’s college fund. Laura is a good seamstress, despite not really liking to sew. This is in parallel to when she gets her teaching certificate and isn’t a bad teacher, but doesn’t like the job.

Mary is able to go to college thanks to the family saving money for transportation and to make her clothes. Everyone is very lonely after she leaves, adjusting to her absence.

One thing that was interesting was Mary and Laura's conversation on Mary's serenity - I admit I can't remember if this happened in Little Town or Long Winter. One of the drawbacks of reading a series all at once is that things start to blend into one big story.

Anyway.

We are told that Mary never cried over the loss of her sight. The girls talk about how calm and happy Mary is in the face of all she went through. Laura tells Mary that she had always been good. And Mary admits that there were many times that she was showing off being as good and dutiful as she was. But now she is truly happy because after her blindness, she gave everything up to God.

All of the evidence points to Mary being devout in her faith, but I wonder if a conversation like this actually happened between the two.

The part I liked best was when, after Eliza Jane Wilder, Almanzo’s sister takes the towns teaching position and almost instantly develops  a dislike to Laura because Nellie Oleson tells her that Laura thinks she runs the school because Charles is on the school board. EJ makes the mistake of going after Carrie.

First by punishing her by making her rewrite words on the blackboard. Carrie, we have been told, is frail. The humiliation of the punishment has so upset her that Carrie almost faints while writing the words.

Laura manages to call EJ’s attention to this before it happens and is made to take on Carrie’s punishment.

And then

Carrie and her seatmate are unconsciously rocking their desk while they are studying, just normal kid fidgeting. Eliza Jane, annoyed by the noise, tells the girls to put their books away and just sit there and rock the two person desk until she says they can stop. Carrie’s seatmate bails, and that leaves Carrie to rock the desk on her own. EJ is relentless and keeps telling Carrie to rock the desk, even though Carrie is starting to wain. Laura jumps up and says that if Carrie’s rocking is not suiting Eliza Jane, let her do it. In one of the funniest duel of wills I have ever read, Laura tells Carrie to just rest, and proceeds to rock the desk, hard, never breaking eye contact with EJ until she angrily tells the Ingalls girls to go home.

Don’t mess with Laura’s little sister!

Although I enjoyed the book, I sort of feel like there isn’t a lot to write about. We simply have the fun of following Laura through pretty happy times and the start of Almanzo’s interest in her.

Both books are well worth the read, but The Long Winter has a bit more meat to it.

#Book #books #book blogging 2023 #The Long Winter #Little Town on the Prairie #Laura Ingllas Wilder

[jade-island-lives]

Chapters: 8/? Fandom: Original Work, The Nimbus Saga Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Aither Thorin, King Caspian - Character, Aslan Wills, Leofine Callway, Gallus, King Boris, Peppercorn, Nutmeg - Character, Archimedes, Ramses, Original Characters, Other Character Tags to Be Added Additional Tags: Fantasy, Medieval, Mental Health Issues, Original Fiction, Dragons, Fairies, Pixies, Magic, Kingdoms, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Chronic Pain, Goddesses, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Physical Abuse, Physical Disability, Back Pain, Car Accidents, Abusive Relationships, Abusive Parents, Elemental Magic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change, Tags Are Hard, Ballet, Dancing, Found Family, Recovery Series: Part 1 of The Nimbus Saga Summary:

Aither Alastair Thorin was 25 years old. Fresh out of medical school and now an intern at a local hospital, arranged to marry a rich yet cold woman at his mother’s wishes, and was addicted to opiates after enduring a rather gruesome car accident some years prior.

To say his life has been a mess is an understatement. Aither was forced down the path of being a doctor by his almost absent father and overbearing mother. His dreams of being a ballet dancer were further crushed by this, along with the car accident that injured his back. And to say he was trapped in a loveless marriage is to say too little.

Depressed, feeling like a shell of a person, and seemingly just existing and not living. One night, Aither is transported to the world of Elvra, to the Mountian kingdom, Candos. A world of kingdoms, dragons, fairies, pixies, and magic.

Here, Aither learns he was gifted by the goddess Uru with the elemental power of air. A power only given to the ruler of each kingdom.

At the moment, he feels more out of place than ever. Will he find his place? Or will he forever be a puzzle piece from a different board?

#writing #writeblr #writing community #wip #the nimbus saga #the long winter #fantasy #adventure #medieval #dragons