Had enough Mother’s Day sentimentality? Any of Jane Austen’s more astringent comments on motherhood might neutralize it. This line from Sense and Sensibility is perhaps the most biting comment on motherhood to appear in any of her novels www.mollands.net/etexts/senseandsensibility/sns21.html (and comes from the e-texts section of AustenBlog www.austenblog.com)
“Fortunately for those who pay their court through such foibles, a fond mother, though, in pursuit of praise for her children, the most rapacious of human beings, is likewise the most credulous; her demands are exorbitant; but she will swallow any thing; and the excessive affection and endurance of the Miss Steeles towards her offspring were viewed therefore by Lady Middleton without the smallest surprise or distrust.”
© 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.
I guess this link will be more appropriate in eleven months and three weeks when we’re closing fast upon our next Mother’s Day but here’s another less than sentimental take on Mother’s Day. I write a short-short story everyday under a completely different pseudonym but for Mother’s Day I wrote from the p.o.v. of my mom who doesn’t have a sentimental bone in her body: http://fastfictions.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/im-margaret-spenst/ If it’s too late to read I understand. There’s always next year though.
Comment by fastfictions — May 15, 2008 @ 11:50 pm |