She will eventually be the subject of a
longer article. In the meantime, here are two quotations from her that describe
the two worlds that some people live in. It was
these quotations that made me decide to investigate L. M. Montgomery, her life and her
works:
“I grew up out of that strange, dreamy
childhood of mine and went into the world of reality. I met with experiences
that bruised my spirit - but they never harmed my ideal world. That was always
mine to retreat into at will. I learned that that world and the real world
clashed hopelessly and irreconcilably; and I learned to keep them apart so that
the former might remain for me unspoiled.
I learned to meet other people on their own
ground since there seemed to be no meeting place on mine. I learned to hide the
thoughts and dreams and fancies that had no place in the strife and clash of
the market place.
I found that it was useless to look for
kindred souls in the multitude; one might stumble on such here and there, but
as a rule it seemed to me that the majority of people lived for the things of
time and sense alone and could not understand my other life. So I piped and
danced to other people's piping - and held fast to my own soul as best I
could.”
― From My Dear Mr. M: Letters to G.B.
Macmillan from L.M. Montgomery
So she too was faced with an unaccommodating,
often incomprehensible and sometimes unbearable real world, and she too was
able to escape to the inner world of the imagination.
This is the familiar ‘stranger in a strange
land’ scenario. L. M. Montgomery’s thoughts and experiences are typical of those
of many creative people, people who feel that they do not fully belong in this
world. She could be speaking for many of the writers featured on here, Kathleen
Raine and Stella Benson for example. This topic is also covered in the article
about Nicholas Stuart Gray’s witch Barbara.
I know how difficult it is to accept that other
people are not going to speak our language so we must learn to speak theirs,
and that they are not going to make any effort to understand us so the understanding
must all be on our side. Other people are not going to meet us even half way,
so we do indeed have to deal with them on their terms and on their ground.
Kindred spirits and soulmates are in very
short supply in the real world too.
It is not surprising that some people prefer
to retreat to another world, an ideal world of their own construction.
It is not just the inner and outer worlds
that comprise the two worlds that some people live in; there are two regions in the inner world:
“...those
who can soar to the highest heights can also plunge to the deepest depths and
the natures which enjoy most keenly are those which also suffer most
sharply.”
― From Anne of the Island
This sounds like a description of Heaven and
Hell, two worlds that, as I have recently learned, L. M. Montgomery was very familiar with.
