Grasp A Nettle - Discussion Thread

I showed my copy of Grasp a Nettle to Dr. van der Stevejinck. He was puzzled why a man of nearly-almost-going on forty would have hair that grey. [Betty Keira] And his hair is totally long. He looks like Captain Kangaroo here. Dr. van der Stevejinck is nearly-almost-going on fifty *** - he has been blessed to have hair that (in the right light) hardly shows the grey at all (in the right light). He does have a point though. The Venerable Neels usually has perfect specimens of vast manliness...does this departure from perfection portend a chink in perfection? Naw. It's perfectly fine for a man to go grey...but in, say, 14 years when Jenny gets to be nearly-almost-going on forty, I wouldn't be surprised to find a secret bottle of Miss Clairol hidden in the back of a cupboard in her lavishly appointed bathroom.

I was surprised at how much I liked the first half of Grasp a Nettle. me too! I remembered hating the book so much the first time that I read it, that I hadn't read it again. Thus the surprise. I thought to myself "Betty Debbie, you were just being silly. This is a great book". And then it bogged down. All I had remember was the arguing...and there is a lot of it in this book. Before Jenny falls in love, her barbs that she throws at Eduard are sharp, but sassy and fun. She has a lot of great one-liners. As she gets closer and closer to her dawning realization, she just plain stops being fun.

Love it!

she said: "You poor soul...it must be like walking about in a plastic bag."
he said: "You are foolish, Miss Wren, for in that case I should be dead."
she said: "That's what I meant." She delivered this telling shot with a sweet smile..."
A real commitment to flippancy would have her calling him 'Bubble Boy' behind his back.

Awesomely awesome. But after a bit Betty seems to run out of steam. Here's a bit of dialog a few pages before Jenny realizes she's in love:

Aargh!
he said: "You really shouldn't allow yourself to become so worked up...nor should you gobble down your drinks in that fashion."
she said: "You are quite detestable...I am not worked up, only when you deliberately annoy me."
he said: "My dear Miss Wren - or may I call you Jenny? I am the mildest of men..."
she said: "Rubbish, and you've been calling me Jenny for goodness knows how long. You are a bad-tempered man, determined to annoy me!"

Jenny Wren. Not an original literary name. As I was reading this book I kept thinking, I've seen that name before...I've seen that name before...Finally I had a light bulb click on over my head. Jenny Wren is a character in Dicken's "Our Mutual Friend". She is the little crippled doll-maker who befriends Lizzie Hexam. Whew. Glad to have figured that one out. Dicken's Jenny Wren has quite an acerbic tongue...I wonder if La Neels was channeling that when she wrote Grasp a Nettle? No, she was channeling Footloose! I love when Kevin Bacon's character introduces himself as Wren and there's like a moment of 80s silence for how utterly cool the name is. [Betty Debbie] Sorry Betty Keira, but Footloose wasn't released until 1984...Maybe the directors of Footloose were channeling Grasp a Nettle that was channeling Our Mutual Friend...

Jenny (Not Dickens) Wren has become trapped at the top of the clock tower because the stairs crumbled. Eduard comes to her aid - and tells her that she's going to have to jump ten feet down to him. She tells him she won't - she's scared stiff. I'm trying to figure out the physics here. 120 lbs launched from a height of 10 feet onto a shaky platform holding a vast male...I think I see another crash in their future. Oh yeah.

he said: "No pluck...Your illustrious ancestors would turn in their graves at your sad lack of courage."
she said: "I don't suppose you've got any illustrious ancestors, but if you had, they must have disowned you years ago..." (Here's a fun clip about illustrious ancestors )

I don't blame her for being nervous about jumping...just look at what happened to Louisa Musgrove in Persuasion. Excellent point. I'm mortified whenever my PBS version shows Louisa's fall. It makes her look like such a weenie.

Tubby Toby - the suitable neighbor. He reminds me of a couple of persistent boys in high school. We Hanna Bettys had a well-nigh foolproof way of getting rid of unwanted attentions...we told the boy in question that if he wanted to date us, he would have to ask our dad. So what? So, our dad taught at the same high school we attended. He not only taught, but it seemed like many of the boys that we wanted to get rid of took his classes (he taught industrial arts: welding, metal shop & drafting). It was a brave lad that took us up on that challenge.We Hanna girls were a fatal fascination for the Tubby Toby's of the world. As well brought-up lasses, our politeness was often confused with burning passion.

Cruise Life. Jenny (Not Dickens) Wren got her schedule wrong. She goes on board with Great Aunt Bess, gets a stewardess to unpack for Great Auntie, chats with the purser, unpacks her clothes, fixes her make-up, chats with Great Auntie, orders tea, settles Great Auntie for a nap and THEN goes exploring. Wrong. Betty Debbie's advice for those going on cruises is to first chuck your junk in your stateroom and then make a bee-line for the ship's library (the early bird gets the best selection). Check out as many books as you can carry...sure, you may not read them all - but it's better to have too many books, than not enough. This will also save room in your luggage - it is not necessary to carry 20 pounds of books with you - that amount can easily be cut down to 4 or 5 pounds in your carry-on. I think I need to conduct a research trip on this subject--purely for verification purposes...I'd be happy to be your native guide.

Proposal by the circular stairs. By a happy coincidence, we Hanna Bettys had a set of circular stairs in our home. Hand-crafted and welded by Dad (remember the welding and metal shop - those skills are pretty handy!). As far as I know, none of us were proposed to at the base of said stairs. My red dress and red tights remind me of the fashion stylings of Dearest Mary Jane (grey dress, grey tights...etc.).