For Richer For Poorer

So on Sunday I was doing my computer thing... a little blogging, a little reading, a little typing... and on the side I decided to run a movie. I opened Netflix, looked at recommendations, and under Indie movies found one called Winter's Bone.


It was about a teenage girl, dirt poor. Her father had left them to cook meth. Her mom went fairly nuts.. not wild insane nuts, but crawl inside and get unresponsive nuts... she has a younger brother and a younger sister who desperately need caring for. Right at the beginning she takes her horse to the neighbors' to ask if they can keep it—they don't have money for hay.

She's teaching her siblings to hunt so they can survive

And then the police show up. Her dad has jumped bail. He signed over the house she and her family live in to get out (even though the worthless lout left it years earlier), and if he doesn't show up in court the next week, they lose it. She decides she will find him.  And it is quite a morass of secretive (mostly related, mostly also meth connected) lowlifes...

Now this movie sometimes moved a little slow—it was subtle. Not high action for the most part. But MAN, it tugged at me. The situation was so dire. What this poor girl had to take on was so heavy It was just a really great story of the power of will and the determination to take care of those who depended on her.


And it got me thinking...

See, last week, I got into a conversation about classics we didn't like... and of course there Falkner is my biggie, but that's beside the point... what it reminded me of was not liking The Great Gatsby. It isn't the same 'oh Digression, I can't read this crap' that I feel for Falkner. It was more an 'oh my Digression, how can I give a crap about these spoiled pampered people?'


I think you see where I'm going here.


Now there are exceptions... I have rich people stories I can get along with... say... Bonfire of the Vanities... *cough*

Actually, my favorite book has nobility—War and Peace is royalty... But think about the heart strings pulled in Les Miserables... How a stolen loaf of bread FOR NEED, leads to all that...

As for me, this is more compelling...

Now I know some people read to escape and pretend they ARE the characters... they like stories about beautiful people with lots of money. But I just CAN'T CARE for the most part. I think I need sympathy and I don't have a lot for people who get most of their life handed to them. I also can't get behind stories of rags to riches, really, as I don't see riches ALONE as a worthy goal, though I DO see causing justice and ending up with riches as often enjoyable. Mostly though, I can't value stories that value money, unless it is from the perspective of having none (because that's realistic—you need a certain amount to survive)

(and I definitely recommend the movie, by the way)


So what about you? Do you have a strong preference for one kind of story or another?