A Curious Statistical Anomaly

With Jane, Elizabeth, and Lydia married, Mrs. Bennet has set her sights on marrying off Mary and Kitty. Since Kitty is currently away visiting her sisters, Jane and Elizabeth, Mary is taking the brunt of Mrs. Bennet’s efforts. While Mary is willing to meekly follow Mrs. Bennet’s instructions to smile and dance, she has no intention of marrying as she firmly believes that it is not a state she wishes to enter, having observed her sister’s marriages.

Ward has chosen to focus on Mary, the least understood and most overlooked of the Bennet sisters– in fact, in some movies based loosely on the original Austen story, they leave Mary out altogether. In A Match for Mary Bennet, Mary is very much as she was in Pride and Prejudice. She studies and reads but does not always get from the reading what most people would expect. She sees only the surface and assumes that what you see is all there is to a person. She doesn’t lie herself, and assumes everyone tells the truth. In a society based so much on hiding a person’s true emotions, Mary’s character leaves her ill prepared to deal with the world as it is. Luckily for Mary, she is somewhat protected by her family.

Mary also believes that people with authority are voices of reason; I believe that this is why she has been so taken with Mr. Collins. Her mother tells her Lizzie married Mr. Darcy to make up for refusing Mr. Collins and it was a huge sacrifice on Lizzie’s part. Mr. Collins tells Mary to never speak of Lydia again–to pretend she died. If authority says something, Mary doesn’t question–until she meets the new minister Mr. Darcy has chosen for Kympton, Mr. Oliver.

Without her sisters, Mary finds she’s asked to dance at the assemblies and that she also has to take part in conversations. We find that she’s not shallow. Mary has a good head on her shoulders, she just assumes that people are what they appear to be and when they ask a question — that is the question they are asking. As readers we find that Mary gives good advice. After meeting Mr. Oliver, she begins to pay more attention to the people around her and learns that she has often missed seeing the true person. Mary grows.

Her sisters’, Jane and Elizabeth, and their husbands, are aware that Mary doesn’t wish to marry and they manage to assist her in finding security in case she doesn’t change her mind.

There’s a lot going on in this book besides Mary finding herself and new inner strength to stand up for herself. Many of the original characters from Pride and Prejudice appear and continue their lives in concert with the way they were set in motion in that original book. Life goes on in the world of Pemberly and the people live their lives. Ward has fashioned an interesting story and has given us an interesting take on a Mary Bennet. It may not be to everyone’s taste as religion is a large part of Mary’s life and thus is a large part of her moving forward to become a more independent person. It’s not preachy and it’s totally in character.  And as it shaped Mary in Pride and Prejudice it shapes her thoughts and actions in A Match for Mary Bennet. And as readers, we come to know her better for spending some time with her.

I was sent the link to this YouTube video yesterday and just loved the sentiment and the music. Originally published on YouTube on September 17th, 2009 it is a beautiful tribute by Melodysheep (John).

Here’s what he says about this piece:

A musical tribute to two great men of science. Carl Sagan and his cosmologist companion Stephen Hawking present: A Glorious Dawn – Cosmos remixed. Almost all samples and footage taken from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos and Stephen Hawking’s Universe series.

If you click on “more info” in the upper right-hand area with the links the words are listed so if you have a problem hearing the lyrics you can check the actual wording out.

Enjoy. I did. I miss Sagan’s simple explanations of complex topics and his apparent joy in science.

Creator: Russell T Davies
Actors: John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd, Peter Capaldi, Paul Copley
Directors: Euros Lynn
Summary: In this new series, re-join Captain Jack, Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, who are still coming to terms with the death of two of their closest friends, Tosh and Owen. This time the Torchwood team are faced with their fiercest threat to date – one which throws the future of Torchwood and the entire human race spiraling into danger. They battle against the odds but do they stand a chance of saving mankind?

I’d already posted here earlier about how dark and emotional the first three episodes of this season where. Now I’ve seen the full season. Usually a season is more than six episodes but at the point this season was done they thought it might be the last. The entire season is one story so there’s continuity between the episodes.

In 1965, aliens contacted Britain and demanded 12 children. The government gave them the children and the aliens went away. They were supposed to never come back. But, now it’s present time and the aliens have returned, heralding their return by speaking with the voice of all the children of the world. This time they want 10% of the world’s children or they will destroy the human race.

What makes this season so powerful is that it’s so believable. Putting myself in the mindset of the show, we gave in before why not do it again. Isn’t 10% of the children of Earth a small price to pay to keep the rest of the species alive? If you do give them 10% shouldn’t they come from the worst schools, the dregs, the projects, the children who’ll only grow up to be trouble makers anyway? How do you decide? And, of course the children of all the politicians would be exempt; after all their children will be good citizens.

Does the good of the many out weigh the good of the few? Shouldn’t we give up those 10% so that the rest can live? What if they were your children? Would that make a difference? If it does make a difference when it is your child then can we really justify taking away the children of other parents?

This season is dark and it asks many ethical questions? You see the politicians making the plans and already putting a spin to make it look like a good thing? Reduce the worlds population. That can only be a good thing right? Get rid of the dregs — that’s got to help everyone?

This review is mostly questions because as I sat and watched the final episodes, that’s what I was left with. Questions and the belief that if there were aliens and if our government was faced with such a threat — could I trust them? Based on what I’ve seen of the world’s various governments and justice systems over the last twenty years or so — no, I can’t trust them. Not when ethics are involved. If such a scenario was to occur could the remaining citizens of planet Earth live with themselves, with what they did, no matter what choice they made.

Of course, the kicker which we and the viewers and the government officials know is what they want the children for. Even knowing that the aliens will be back again and again for their 10%, they are still willing to take the deal. Luckily Torchwood, now down to only three members is still around trying to fight. But even for them the cost of winning may just be too high — or at least too high to live with. Just how much guilt can a person take and continue to function?

Filled with action and suspense and some moments of sheer frustration and fury — this one will wring tears, anger, frustration, and hopefully some soul searching out of its viewers. This is amazing writing and acting — drama doesn’t get much better than this.

If you’ve seen this season, I’d really like to hear about your thoughts and opinions.

First off, I found this Breast Cancer Awareness PSA hilarious.  But it’s raising eyebrows everywhere and there are many who feel it is too sexy to be on TV and sends the wrong message.  I want you to watch it and see for yourself:

It’s about time the giggle factor be used to heighten awareness. Let’s face it breasts are used to sell everything from cars to computers to guns to sailboats–if it’s for sale they drape a scantily clad women over it. Sex sells as the saying goes and sex is personified in boobs. I’ve never been able to understand how we manage to get so caught up in two lumps of fatty tissue that also contain milk ducts–but it’s that societal emphasis on the breasts that keep many people from touching their own breast to learn how they feel so they can recognize changes in the tissue. It’s fear of losing a breast that cause some women to ignore lumps and pretend everything is fine when they know deep down it is not fine.

I’m a breast cancer survivor.  My mother had breast cancer and so did my uncle.  My mother is also a survivor, but my uncle died of complications of the treatment for his breast cancer. It’s not just women who get breast cancer but it’s women that the awareness ads and Breasat Cancer Awareness Month focuses on.

Each year 182,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer.  Each year 20,000 women die of breast cancer.  The key is to recognize the symptoms and get treatment early.  For women that means breast self-exams and regular mammograms or MRIs.

Breast cancer in men is something most men don’t want to talk about but you can learn about symptoms, causes, and risks. While breast cancer is rare in men, it does happen so if you’re male and have a lump in your breast area, get it checked out. The survival rates for men are similar to the survival rates in women with breast cancer in the same stage. The problem is that since breast cancer is so rare in men, when it is found it’s usually fairly advanced — when in doubt check it out.

I don’t want anyone to die of breast cancer. It’s treatable when found early and the survival rates are rising each year. Educate yourself about your family history of breast cancer. Be aware of your own body and the changes that occur as you age — what’s natural and what doesn’t seem right. If you have doubts ask your doctor if this is a normal change in tissue or should it be checked out.

Meanwhile, I still find this PSA hilariously funny. I hope it does make young people aware of the danger their boobs could be in if they don’t do self-exams, see their doctor regularly, and have mammograms at the proscribed intervals.

Do you think this type of public service announcement is helpful or harmful? Would you remember it?

Wow, I sat glued to my seat for these first three episodes of Children of Earth. We’d been catching up with Torchwood via Netflix and though things started a bit rough in season one they’ve improved steadily as the cast found their footing. I was really upset when one of the characters got killed but I cheered when one of the others finally, finally, died for keeps. So, I was looking forward to the next season.

We’d been spacing them out one disk of the show and a couple of movies between then back again to another disk. I’d forgotten just how intense British drama can be. The tension built steadily from the first to the second and now the third and ends on a shocking cliffhanger. It’s times like these that I wish we had one of the multiple disk plans but, no. Ordinarily, I’m very happy with our one disk at a time unlimited plan — but now I have to wait to send out this disk and then wait for the next one to come.

If you’ve seen the ending of Season 3 don’t spoil it for me. There are very few US TV dramas that are as nakedly brutal as some of the British shows. I’m not talking so much the story lines as their delving into the really human issues. In this case children. What kind of government would turn over 12 children to an alien race as a gift? In the setup, 12 children from an orphanage were given as a gift to an alien race 456. Now it’s the present and the aliens are back. You can guess what the first thing the government tries to do–I’m sure you got it in one. Hide the evidence of what they did in 1965.

I find myself thinking that as awful as that was — after what was done by this country under our previous government that I’m not really surprised that a government would do such a thing. I think over the last few decades I’ve seen things done by various governments that have put the bar for base and horrible acts pretty low. I’ve lost faith that government actually works for the good of the people they represent. Maybe that’s why I find Torchwood, a show about a secret government sort-of agency that works without oversight to be so absorbing. Fighting aliens and stuff — not so much. But lying to the citizens and covering up their mistakes — that, unfortunately, I don’t have trouble believing in.

Wonder what the popularity of these shows says about us — people/humans/citizens of Earth? Don’t know but I wonder if we actually learn from them and keep a closer eye on our representatives? Those who speak for us without asking us what we think about things. I know I tend to be a bit more concerned about what my leaders are saying about “us” to others and most of the time it’s attitudes that I certainly don’t want to be associated with. But then that’s me. Maybe other people really don’t care or agree with what’s going on in the world of government whatever.

Mr. Darcy has married Elizabeth Bennet. Caroline Bingley is devastated and mortified by this turn of events. After the ceremony, she finds an empty room and gives way to her heartbreak and sorrow. Imagine her surprise when she realizes that her blatant display has been witnessed by a gentleman who had been in the room before she entered. They agree to never mention it again. Carolyn believes that is the end of the matter until months later when she is introduced to Mr. Darcy’s American cousin, Mr. Robert Darcy, the man who witnessed her loss of decorum and who, because of his station and relations, will be thrown into her company as he waits out the war before returning to America.

Most of the follow on books that continue the story of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, deal with the lives of Elizabeth and Darcy. Monica Fairview has chosen to focus on Caroline Bingley. In Pride and Prejudice, Carolyn was depicted as a proud, jealous, status seeking, snarky, conniving woman who had set her sights on Mr. Darcy. In the very first scene, Fairview changes our perception of Carolyn by showing us that she didn’t just want Darcy’s fortune and status–she actually loved him. We can’t help but feel for her loss and sorrow–but can we come to like her? How will she take this loss — will she accept it and move on to try again, or harden her heart and become the woman we all thought she was?

It doesn’t take much effort to guess that Robert Darcy is smitten with Caroline Bingley. He was privy to her outpouring of emotional tears and had been touched by the depths of her feelings. He wants to get to know her better and perhaps take his cousin’s place in her affections, or at least gain her good will. We don’t get into his head, so we can only guess at his motives and wishes. However, it’s obvious that the two of them come from different backgrounds even though their status might be equal. So, there’s plenty of misunderstandings and cultural differences to add to the mix.

The major stumbling block is that Caroline is a woman of her times. She’s been trained from a young age in how to behave and what is acceptable and what is not. Over time she has had to give up almost everything she loved in order to become the woman that society expected her to be. But underneath, Caroline still remembers bits of what she lost and it’s only now, with the loss of Darcy to Elizabeth Bennet that she wonders if it was worth it. Caroline begins to question all her assumptions about society, her way of life, her status, and reputation. She’s beginning to see herself, her family, her sister, and her friends with some new insights. When Robert Darcy comes to the rescue of her reputation it just adds to her confusion.

Over time Robert Darcy and Caroline Bingley have their own dance of approach and avoidance and pride and prejudice. Some of the best and wittiest dialogue is during the fights these two have over their perceptions of right and wrong, society, reputation, and trust. You find yourself wishing you could reach within the pages of the book and give a shake or whisper in an ear — as with Pride and Prejudice, we can only sit and continue reading and hoping that these characters will eventually work out their differences and realize their true feelings for each other.

Along the way, Caroline reclaims herself, finding that many of the preferences and talents that she’d suppressed in order to be deemed “proper” are ones that if she’d had any say she’d never have abandoned. As she examines her life and her future, she becomes a person that this reader, at least, found she actually liked.

Fairview gives us a Caroline Bingley that has history, which in turns gives her depth. She allows us to see that there is more to this character than we could ever have guessed from the pages of Pride and Prejudice. Yet, she doesn’t do anything that would take away from the original presentation of the character; she only puts it in a different light and gives us background to understand Caroline a bit better.

Indeed, this is a worthy addition to the growing body of works that continue the stories begun in Pride and Prejudice.

Publishing Info: The Other Mr. Darcy. Did you know, Mr. Darcy had an American Cousin? by Monica Fairview. ISBN: 978-1402225130. Published by Sourcebooks Landmark, October 1st, 2009.

Monica Fairview, author of The Other Mr. Darcy. Did you know Mr. Darcy had an American cousin?, will be setting out on a blog tour to talk about her book and her writing.

A Curious Statistical Anomaly will be part of that tour. The review of The Other Mr. Darcy will be posted on September 23rd and an interview with Monica Fairview on October 11th. But you don’t have to wait for October 11th. Below is her blog tour schedule which starts September 28th. Be sure to check in with these websites to learn more about The Other Mr Darcy and Monica Fairview prior to the books publication date of October 1st.

Note that there will be a give-away of one copy of The Other Mr. Darcy after the October 11th interview. Check back then for details.

September 28: Fallen Angel Reviews Guest Blog
September 29: The Review from Here/ScribVibe
September 30: Everything Victorian
October 1: The Good, the Bad, the Unread Guest Blog
October 2: A Bibliophile’s Bookshelf
October 5: Grace’s Book Blog
October 6: The Burton Review
October 7: Bloody Bad Books
October 8: The Long and the Short Reviews
October 9: Love Romance Passion
October 11: Curious Statistical Anomaly
October 12: Good and Bad Books
October 13: Lib’s Library
October 16: Fresh Fiction

Adventures of Riley: Riddle of the Reef by Amanda Lumry and Laura Hurwitz, Scholastic Press, ISBN: 978-0-545-06847-5, $16.99 US, $21.99 Canada (Hardcover, there is also a paperback version).

Riley flies out to Australia to help Aunt Martha, Uncle Max, Alice, and Wyland find out what’s killing off the coral of the Great Barrier Reef. The set up of having Riley join them allows the authors to provide informational and scientific data within the context of the story as Riley asks the questions that most nine-year-old boys would ask about what is happening and what he’s seeing. Alice appears in the illustrations and seems to be the same age as Riley; but has no part in this story other than being there. Aunt Martha has only a few lines. It’s Uncle Max and Wyland who provide information, instructions, and work with Riley. I would have felt more comfortable with the females of the expedition also being more active in the imparting of knowledge rather than simply adding gender balance.

In the context of a story there’s not much here. But as a source of information about the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Bleaching, packaging the information in an adventure in which the young protagonist, Riley, gets to take part allows the authors to provide exposition in a more natural way than they otherwise could with standard fictional story. Here Riley is taking an active part but, because he’s young, inquisitive, and not trained — he becomes the sounding board for the adults.

While this lesson in environmental change and the destruction of the coral that makes up the Great Barrier Reef is easy to understand, given in small doses throughout, it does require that the reader or if read to, the hearer, to be moderately interested in the subject matter. The authors don’t tone down the information though they do use easily understood language and they also provide a Glossary at the end of the book.

The book is heavily illustrated with photos and art. The art is realistic and colorful and the photographs are matched to the text to help to make the material clear and to focus on what’s being imparted about the reef and coral. While having art on top of photographs is a bit jarring, it works in this context to keep some distance from the material, while having the immediacy of photography.

Using Wyland as a character in the book is a great way to appeal to children, many of whom will be familiar with his murals of sea life. We lived in Providence, Rhode Island for a while and one of his murals is visible from the interstate as you drive through. His realistic murals of undersea life and whale creates an instant connection for children who are familiar with his work.

The scientific information is given in two ways: as conversation/instruction or as insert/sidebars. The inserts/sidebars have a quote about coral, sea life, or some related topic and are fully attributed. I found this first one to be striking and memorable:

* A coral reef produces its own sunscreen, using the same chemical in the sunscreen that humans use.
* Corals are like tiny anemones or jellyfish. Over 3 million little algae live in their skin and produce energy for them to feed on.
* The Great Barrier Reef is so large, it can be seen from outer space!
— Tim McClanahan, Ph.D., Senior Conservation Zoologist, Wildlife Conservation Society.

In the end, our adventurers discover some of the issues that are destroying the reef and causing coral bleaching. The book ends with a few suggestions for what people can do to help slow the destruction.

This series has a website where you can get further information on this and other books about Riley’s adventures: www.adventuresofriley.com.

On the whole, I heartily recommend the book for a young person who wishes to know more about the environment, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, coral, or the world’s oceans. The science is sound, though on a basic level, and matched to a young person’s understanding. Books on scientific topics are difficult to write for young people and these authors have done a wonderful job of balancing science information with a story narrative. If the reader has an interest in the core science area of the adventure, then they’ll enjoy the book.