A few words about Frances Hodgson Burnett on her birthday

The writer Frances Hodgson Burnett was born on this day, November 24th, in 1849. 

She was briefly mentioned in the article that lists some more Sagittarian writers. I read her three most popular children's books when I was very young and quite liked The Secret Garden and The Little Princess, but I knew almost nothing about her. After learning that she was interested in metaphysical matters, I put an investigation of her life on my to-do list.

I have looked again at the children's books and trawled through some biographical material. I found a lot of fairly interesting information about Frances Hodgson Burnett's life, some of it unexpected and some of it depressing. 

Where this blog is concerned, the results of the investigation to date are rather disappointing. Unlike fellow Sagittarian L. M. Montgomery, whose books, journals and letters are packed with article-inspiring material, Frances Hodgson Burnett provides very little that resonates or that I want to quote and comment on.

There is nothing new about her being different from the people around her as a child or being an avid reader and an inventor of exciting adventure stories from an early age. She was not the only writer to find books and the products of her imagination better than real life either.

Wanting to have something to show for my efforts, I selected enough material for a short article. It consists mainly of some elements that Frances Hodgson Burnett had in common with L. M. Montgomery.

Frances Hodgson Burnett and L. M. Montgomery

As might be expected, both Frances Hodgson Burnett and L. M. Montgomery were voracious and compulsive readers from an early age.

Frances Hodgson Burnett has been described as a writing machine; L. M. Montgomery felt compelled to write and was also very prolific. 

Both writers were profoundly influenced by works of the Brontës. There are some parallels to both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in Frances Hodgson Burnett's Secret Garden for example.

Both writers had their first stories published when they were still teenagers.

Both writers became the main breadwinner in their families; in Frances Hodgson Burnett's case this started at the age of 18, when she began to make money from writing.

Something about Nicholas Stuart Gray's Mainly in Moonlight

I have recently read Nicholas Stuart Gray's Mainly in Moonlight (1965) for the first time. 

Mainly in Moonlight consists of ten short tales of sorcery and the supernatural, the third of which gives its name to the book. One story is an addition to Over the Hills to Fabylon, another to Grimbold's Other World and, as mentioned in the 100th anniversary article, yet another story, one that is told by a demon with a sense of humour, may have given some ideas to Jonathan Stroud.

There is not much quotable material in the book, but some of the stories inspire a small amount of commentary.

Mainly in Moonlight the story
The story titled Mainly in Moonlight has something to say about the inappropriate use of magic and people who get themselves out of a tight corner only to fall into a worse one. 

A young man called Colin decides to seek out a sorcerer to request a magic charm that will get him something he has set his heart on. The sorcerer says that before his wish for a magic spell can be granted, Colin must serve him for one year. 

Colin has to perform tasks such as drawing water, lighting fires, baking bread and tending to an invisible horse. He thinks constantly of escape. 

A creature living at the bottom of the well offers him a way out, but the catch is that he must serve it for one year. Life down below turns out to be worse than it was with the sorcerer.

Again and again Colin is rescued from a disheartening situation only to be expected to serve his new master for one year.

Colin, who had thought that it would be a small and simple matter to get a magic charm, learns his lessons. He says this at the end of the story:

“There is only one simple truth about magic. You get a lot that you didn't ask for and absolutely nothing that you wanted!”

This is certainly true in many cases. However, the sorcerer keeps his word and there is a good outcome for Colin.

The attack-dog syndrome is a dead giveaway

In the first, and main, article about a phenomenon that I think of as the attack-dog syndrome, I described how I was the object of strong criticism when I spoke out against the notorious Jimmy Savile long before his actions became public knowledge. 

I found some old notes about attack dogs recently, including something involving Jimmy Savile that I think came from someone else's post on an old, closed forum:

"I think I've already lost a very good friend through this. She works for a related organisation within the BBC and my very polite and reasonable request to find out how many times Jimmy Savile had appeared on CiN (Children in Need) was met with a tirade of abuse. Completely disproportionate to my question. She lied to me and when the truth was printed in the paper the next week she texted to say that I'd gone crazy and was sounding like a vigilante! It cheered me up because it confirmed my suspicions that everyone at CiN knew the score."

This is a typical example of an aggressive response; it confirms what I have said in the past: such reactions are a dead giveaway that an enquirer or accuser is on the right track. The person who was attacked obviously understood this very well. 

The expressions used to describe the response to the request could be applied to many other cases where the attack dog is triggered: 'tirade of abuse' is a common reaction to an awkward question or an allegation, and 'completely disproportionate' is exactly what such reactions are. 

A milder example from Harry Potter
As described in an article about the future Lord Voldemort, Tom Riddle responds to allegations with counter-accusations of envy, spite and lies. 

This is standard practice. Anyone who makes allegations is routinely accused of being crazy, stupid, malicious, envious, a criminal, an enemy, a liar or a traitor.

As might be expected, the allegations about Tom Riddle and his activities are all true.