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Post by gothicbutterfly95 on Feb 4, 2017 5:36:26 GMT
I am planning on buying some of Maria's books (because I have never got around to it)
Any recommendations? Favourites? Suggested reading order if I were to buy more than one?
Thanks in advance. I love you all
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Post by indigoblue on Feb 4, 2017 23:49:11 GMT
I was sure we had a post a long time ago on good TSOM books but I can't find it now - will keep looking!
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Post by bloomandgrow on Mar 28, 2018 5:28:43 GMT
Wickedbluestrawberry I know you read the books in the end. I am jumping in on this thread because I have always been fascinated by the differences and similarities between the real von Trapp story and the film. I've read some wonderful stories which take elements of the real story and incorporate them in awesome ways into their fics.
Some of the difference that I see in the two narratives are:
Firstly, the use of the whistle and the Navy games. Some of the real von Trapp children (third daughter, also called Maria, and youngest son Johannes) have said in interviews they all loved the whistle; that navy uniforms were normal attire for photos at least in those days; and they loved the Navy ideas their father brought into the home. They mentioned they felt hurt at the way he was portrayed in the film but eventually came to terms with it.
Kind of related is that the characters of Georg and Maria were so vastly different - it was almost role reversal. RL Georg was gentle, kind and a wonderful father according to his children, while RL Maria was strong, quick-tempered, and a strict disciplinarian, (according to herself).
I could never judge RL Georg because he went through so many blows in his life that would have broken any man, (and of course life in fiction is so much easier and fairy-talish), but he was much more passive than TSOM Georg. Almost to the extent that in the German film 'The von Trapps in America,' he seemed almost emasculated. Fr Wasner had pretty much taken over all the decision making in the family and was also in charge of the family finances after Georg went bankrupt. I felt quite sorry for him.
Another difference is the time frame. For me anyway, the end of the film came like a speeding freight train: marriage, return, escape. I would have preferred a less dramatic timeline, though maybe not quite the 14 years of marriage before the Anschluss from the real story.
I 'd love to know others' thoughts on the differences and similarities in the two universes.
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Post by gothicbutterfly95 on Mar 28, 2018 7:33:15 GMT
I did eventually read the books (well, two of them - The Story of the Trapp Family Singers and Maria - My Story) as well as Agathe's book Memories Before and After the Sound of Music. And as I've told at bloomandgrow and I think mentioned a couple of times on here, my final university project was an essay on all the differences between the adaptations and reality. So I've seen most of them too. (Except Die Trapp Familie in Amerika - can't find it with subtitles). I'm not going to really talk in depth about TSOM, as I'm going to try and attach my essay (or leave a link to where you can go read it) and I don't have much to say that isn't in there. I didn't really talk about Agathe's book, or its movie adaptation The von Trapp Family: A Life of Music, in there, so I'll say a little about it here. The time compression is great: Judging by when Agathe (daughter) sees her mother's gravestone we can see Agathe (mother) died in 1922. Which is the truth. And Georg has an outburst as his daughter at says she's 24 and she can leave if she wants to. It is established a couple of scenes earlier that this is 1937. So she would've been born 1913. Again the truth. However she's 16 when Maria arrives, which would mean that happens in 1929 in this movie. But otherwise no time compression: we see those ten years play out, for the most part. And the visual style is great. Georg looks perfect - just like the real Captain. And while Maria's not quite as similar, her wedding dress is spot-on. But the rest of it is weird. While it may be closer to the truth than other versions, the events are completely different from what is in the third of Agathe's book that they've supposedly adapted. And since she's the protagonist, it's the story in the background that's the truth. That's not what's weird though. A lot of the things they change are changed much more than in any other version, TSOM included. The chauffeur is the Nazi as opposed to the butler, its revealed a lot earlier and doesn't seem to be nearly as big a deal. When they lose their fortune, nothing more is done, so no boarding house and no Father Wasner. And they call him George. I cringed. I have no problem with changing Agathe's story, because she's the main character (and honestly her recount of those ten years is the dullest part of her memoir), but the things above affect her too, and changing them the way they did is weird. I think. Okay rant on that adaptation over. (Since I didn't get to cover it in my essay - because it really is a different story it was hard to compare - that's been building for quite a while.) So the essay is attached with my thoughts on the reality and every other version. It's rather long (15k) but I hope you enjoy regardless. Second Draft.docx (83.29 KB) |
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Post by bloomandgrow on Mar 30, 2018 1:44:49 GMT
I read eldest daughter Agathe's book too, and found it confusing and a bit rambling as well. But then she did it publish it at the age of 90 so I guess that is not so surprising.
What a treat that you have written an analysis of the books and the film. I look forward to reading it over Easter break.
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Post by gothicbutterfly95 on Mar 30, 2018 4:08:34 GMT
Enjoy.
Yeah, Agathe's book is a bit rambling, but I think that's kind of how memoirs go: one event followed after another after another. The second of Maria's memoirs that I mentioned is much more like that than The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, which actually has much more of a plot structure to it. Hence the many, many adaptations.
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Post by indigoblue on Apr 4, 2018 23:34:21 GMT
Sorry...bit of an image malfunction here..was hoping to bring you the original book covers but they are too shy to appear! Attachments:trappfam.webp (12.27 KB)
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Post by gothicbutterfly95 on Apr 6, 2018 4:34:39 GMT
Thank you.
The one that did appear (Die Trapp Familie) was very nice though.
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Post by bloomandgrow on Apr 13, 2018 3:50:06 GMT
Wow, WickedblueStrawberry, I finally had time to sit down and read your essay. It's amazing! What a great resource for the fandom!
You have managed to weave together all the disparate versions: Maria's books, the German films, the stage musical, TSOM, and a Japanese TV series, and still to find commonalities and links.
That would have been an impossible task for me - I have always struggled to piece all the different adaptations / characterisations together and they never fitted. It must have taken you a lot of time and a lot of difficult analysis to put it together.
You had facts in there that I did not know (surprising for me, given what a big fan I am). I loved that you started off with your first memories of watching the film. (That would be a great thread in itself - when each of us first fell in love with TSOM. But I digress...)
There's so much detail in there that I will need to pick over. But one thing stood out - your assertion that despite all the different versions out there, the one thing that comes through is the love story of Georg and Maria, and each incarnation is as beautiful as the other, in its own unique way.
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Post by gothicbutterfly95 on Apr 13, 2018 4:05:29 GMT
Thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
And yeah it took me a while. I had to put my story on hiatus to focus on this, but it was so much fun to do. A lot of it was actually thoughts I'd had before (there are/were times when I would notice links between the musical and TSOM, or TSOM and the reality) so adding the German film and the anime to that wasn't as hard as it sounds (for me anyway). But it definitely wasn't super easy all the time either.
And yes, the romance is always always there. It goes different ways in each version but by the escape they are always very much in love with each other. And it's always my favourite thing about the story. The wedding episode in the anime made me cry because I had been waiting for it for so long.
Farewell.
(I'll see myself out)
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Post by augiesannie on Jan 2, 2019 13:08:54 GMT
I am so excited to be able to read the essay (later today!). I do recall liking "Maria," because of the way she talked about her innocence on her wedding night (contradicting rumors about Rosemarie's birth date BTW) but now that I've finished writing my latest story I must pry my mind out of the gutter.
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