Little Women Podcast, The First Season: Little Women Podcast Series 1-3, #1

By Niina Niskanen and Emily Lau

Discover the captivating story behind the beloved book series with the Little Women Podcast. Immerse yourself in the first season as you delve into Louisa May Alcott's life and the inspiration behind her timeless tale. Uncover the secrets and insights that shaped this literary masterpiece. Start your literary journey today with the Little Women Podcast.

First season includes transcripts from such classic episodes such as "150 Year Laurie Problem", "Love and Sex In Little Women", "Real-Life Friedrich Bhaer" and "What Makes Jo March Tick". Dive deep into the world of Little Women. Find how these beloved characters were created and the real-life people who inspired them.

Here´s what listeners have said about the Little Women podcast:

Melodie

I love this podcast! The host knows more, digs deeper, and makes better connections than any other LMA/Little Women researcher I've seen. I would consider myself a big LMA/Little Women fan, and I'd say I know more about the two than the average person (or average fan even), but I always learn something new listening to this podcast. I'm the admin for "The Little Women Book Club" on Facebook, and our members all really love this podcast. If you're an LMA/Little Women fan you will love it, too!

rotten Tiger

What a beautiful podcast! It's so insightful and entertaining. It understands the characters perfectly (especially Laurie), I love it

Jen

As a long-time, die-hard Little Women fan, I LOVE this podcast! I stumbled upon it while doing research for a book series I was working on, and I am addicted! Niina is super knowledgeable in all things LW, from the book(s) to the movies and author Louisa May Alcott's real life. I love that the discussions are based on the book and highlight the differences (sometimes controversial) between the original and newer adaptations. Highly recommended for anybody who loves getting lost in the world of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March.

 

@senseandpeace, writes

"At the end of part two, Jo states that she'll open up a school specifically for boys. I've seen people express their dislike about this, which I can understand, but at the same time, that is Jo's choice. It's not like Louisa May Alcott was forced by anyone to have a Jo teach boys only. This is also another case of how those people see themselves in Jo. There's nothing wrong with relating to her and using her as a self-insert, yet failing to understand her because you can see how Jo relates more to boys and has an easier time communicating with them. I don't think Jo has any female friends outside of her family.

plus Jo says this herself who believe is Nat, in one chapter of Little Men when they talk. The two things she loves are books and boys. Does that make Jo a misogynist for not including girls? No. She just happens to have an easier connection with boys same as she feels a connection to books".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fairychamber
• Release date: Nov 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223729655

Book preview

Little Women Podcast

The First Season

Content

Forewords By Emily Lau

Chapter 1. 150 Year Laurie Problem

Chapter 2. Louisa May Alcott's Love For Germany

Chapter 3. What Makes Jo March Tick

Chapter 4. Love And Sex In Little Women

Chapter 5. Real-Life Friedrich Bhaer

Chapter 6. Why Friedrich Is Poor

Chapter 7. Little Women Q And A

Author Bios

Message From Niina

Podcast Information

Forewords by Emily Lau

Little Women has been such a mainstay of the stories of my childhood, that I can barely remember a time that I didn’t know the story. When I was younger, my mother showed me the 1949 and 1994 film adaptations, prompting me to read the novel when I was seven. I remember particularly enjoying the first half, especially Louisa May Alcott’s lush descriptions of clothing and food. I could taste the ice cream the Lawrences send to the March girls, and I could picture Meg’s blue dress and her silk boots at the Moffats’ party in my mind’s eye. Of course, it would take more than a decade for the second half, of Good Wives, to make any sense to me. What seven-year-old, or even seventeen-year-old, can understand the labour it takes for a marriage to work or the absolute labour of finding a worthwhile man to marry in the first place?

It is only as an adult that I realize how universal Louisa’s novel is, and how endlessly it invites discussion of its themes. It is no wonder that fans can never agree on their favourite film adaptation, because every reader interprets the story in their unique way. This book speaks so strongly to the stages of growing up, as well as finding one’s true calling in life. As a girl born into Chinese American family, and in a Westernized immigrant environment struggling to shake off its patriarchal roots, I could identify strongly not only with Jo’s aspiring writer but also with her deep-seated (and wrongful) belief that women can only acquire respect by doing traditionally masculine work. Her journey of coming to peace with her femininity is also very much mine. Nowadays, I also find myself resonating with her search for her authentic artistic voice. Which one of us online creators has never been tempted to follow trends, rather than creating the art that is true to our hearts?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Little Women is also a deeply American novel. For how universal her story is, Louisaembedded it with those distinctly recognizable values of hard work and how it gives honour and meaning to a human being’s life. This specific cultural difference between Britain and the United States was very much on her mind when John Brook defended Meg’s status as a working woman to a pair of scandalized British girls. Later on, Laurie is only truly able to win Amy’s heart when he applies himself to a profession and finally hardens his soft and white hands.

In Louisa’s mind, only a useful man was deserving of any woman’s time. As much as I yearn for my free time now as a PhD researcher, I also understand how my hours of work make the leisure time I do have sweeter, as Marmee would say. Finding another kindred spirit like Niina has been such a gift. The beauty of the Internet age is that your next collaborator from another country can be hiding in your YouTube video comments.

I truly have not yet met another person so knowledgeable and thoughtful with whom I could talk for hours about this story, and I look forward to many more beyond the ones in this first volume! We hope these conversations are food for thought, and make you see Louisa’s work and the world at large in a whole new way!

Chapter 1

150 Year Laurie Problem

Introduction

Emily and I combined our powers and had an in-depth chat about Laurie Lawrence, his character arc and the lack of it in every-single-little-women adaptation. In the novel, Laurie starts out as a very idle and sometimes pretty misogynistic figure and it is thanks to Amy he becomes a better person, but these elements of him are not in the adaptations.

Episode Transcript

Emily: Hello I am Emily. I am also known as Emiloid. I run a booktube channel by the same name and I am also a big fan of Little Women the novel and also a great fan of discussing the adaptations as well.

Niina: I am Niina. Hello everyone I am a blogger on YouTube and I am the host of the Little Women podcast. I do gender studies on Little Women and have been lately focusing mostly

on the male characters.

Emily: Great

Emily: Also I am relatively well-known for my channel for a review I did on the newest Little Women adaptation.

Niina: Which was a really good review.

Emily: To say the least. Openly critical of the film and Niina reach out to me because we have a lot of the same perspectives on the book and the films. I am very honoured. I am flattered that you asked me because I found your blog when I was preparing for my video.

Niina: So nice because it was a really big surprise for me how many people reached out after I published it. You always learn new things when people reach out to you like that. They share their views and it´s been a pleasure.

Emily: Yeah. I had lots of people reaching out to me wow I am so grateful that you have reflected my views on this film and it feels like they finally got presented. Before I even knew you I remember thinking about your blog post like, wow this person agrees with me because you really love professor Bhaer and this film did not have professor Bhaer in it, pretty much. You know, they didn´t have our professor Bhaer in it.

Niina: Yeah, where is our professor Bhaer?

(laughter)

Emily: Yeah, where is this beautiful relationship?

Emily: Today you wanted to discuss Laurie.

Niina: Among other things, yes.

Emily: Yes, among other things.

Emily: So we are going to do one video on this channel. On Niina´s channel and then one video on my channel, where we will be discussing Jo and professor Bhaer but you will probably find that our discussions will go in different directions.

Niina: Very likely.

Emily: We have lots of feelings about these adaptations and this book. Alright, how about we start out talking about the Laurie model. By the way, I just watched the 2017 series last

night.

Niina: oh you did?

Emily: I think I agree with a lot of what you said about it. I like what they expanded but the ending is very rushed.

Niina: It is. I felt like the writer should have had four episodes to do it properly.

Emily: Yeah. Somehow they managed to expand on some things but somehow the ending was just really rushed. I was so surprised at the end.

Niina: Yeah and it did not build enough for the two couples. That bothered me.

Emily: They didn´t really think through the whole process for Jo and professor Bhaer and

suddenly the school is established and they don´t build up on that. It was a bit weird. You sent me a bunch of articles and blog posts about this subject and you had done a very deep dive into his character.

Niina: I think my biggest problem with all of Laurie´s presentations in the films is that it never follows the book´s narrative. This is something that reflects the way people read Little Women. I find it very problematic, to say the least.

Emily: I know I remember you said that basically, Laurie has to go through a whole growth process in the book, I guess we should preface it by saying that a lot of the adaptations idealize him. What you said in your blog post. He is kind of this young, pretty guy who is in love with Jo. We are supposed to feel bad for him but what the adaptations leave out is how immature he really is and actually how horrible he is sometimes.

Niina: One of my blog readers, she wrote a very eye-opening review about Little Women how Jo and Laurie, the ideas that they feed to each other, they end up harming each other on a long run and that is something that people constantly ignore.

Emily: Yes! I think a big example is, remember when Laurie was like Ah I don´t want to go to university and Jo is like just run away you don´t have to go to the uni and Meg is like No, don´t tell Laurie, not to go to uni. No, you need to do it". At that point, I was like wow these two are not a good influence on each other at all.

Niina: Laurie was the kind of character that he always did what he was told to do. He always wants to do what he is told not to do and he has this constant inner conflict because of it.

Emily: That is true. He kinda reminds me a bit of me, I don´t think he appreciated a lot of the privilege he had at the start because he is like I don´t like uni because he is sort of expected to fit into a certain mould in the society what he doesn´t properly appreciate. He was just sort of a party boy in college and messes around and everything. He doesn´t know how to be a productive member of society. He doesn´t understand what that means.

Niina: When Jo gets older, it starts to bother her. That he doesn´t take responsibility for

himself. She is like a little mother to him. She is always taking care of him and it is quite sad the way Jo feels bad that he has all these privileges that she doesn´t have.

Emily: He kinda represents a lot of the things that she can´t have but he takes them for granted. I think you might have pointed this out in your blog post but Jo is very much taking care of him because he is looking for a mother. He really kind of falls in love with her, or he thinks because he is looking for this character who is going to nanny him.

Niina: People forget that Laurie is an orphan. He doesn´t have a stable parental figure until Jo arrives.

Emily: Yeah and he is always envying that idyllic view of the March family. All the sisters

and their relationship with Marmee and Marmee essentially become his secondary mother in a way. I think you also pointed out, despite craving this maternal figure in his life, he and Jo like to make fun of very feminine girls. They have mutually negative reinforcing views on femininity and masculinity as well. I was surprised when I re-read the book and I was like wow! Laurie was actually ...am I allowed to swear on your channel?

(laughter)

Niina: Go ahead.

Emily: He is a fuckboy.

Niina: Indeed.

Emily: Yeah he is a fuckboy but then he turns around and talked bad about these girls to Jo

and I am like Wow, this is exactly the kind of guy I would have tried to avoid back in uni. He is quite misogynistic. I wonder what you think because you pointed out that Jo is dissappointed with Laurie but I think Amy is as well. I think Amy even if she doesn´t have the same kind of relationship with Laurie also really steps in and is the one to say Hey, you are not being a productive person and you are idle and she taps his hand. She is like, your hands, they have never done days work and I´m wondering if you could talk about your view on Jo and why Jo is kind of his mother but isn´t able to build that kind of relationship with him that Amy is somehow able to come out. Give him the same kind of talk but then isn´t his mother and can get through to him.

Niina: There is a theory that Amy already had a crush on Laurie when she was 12. When I read the book like that it makes sense because there is the scene where Laurie goes to cheer her up when she is staying at aunt March and all that.

Emily: Yes.

Niina: I always liked that chapter but when I read Little Women last time what I noticed is that Laurie always behaves a lot better with Amy than he does with Meg or with Jo. With Meg or with Jo, he always seems to have this idea that he is somehow above them but that doesn´t happen with Amy. It´s really interesting.

Emily: Do you think it is because they are both younger siblings of Jo and Meg and they kind of are able to reach some sort of equal footing that way?

Niina: They are all just very different people. There is that chapter where Laurie forges letters in John´s name and then he is catfishing Meg and then Jo wants Meg and Laurie to get together. To keep Laurie in the family. She doesn´t see how harmful that is to Meg´s reputation and Laurie doesn´t see any kind of harmful elements in his actions.

Emily: He is just kind of making fun but it is a mean joke to play at somebody. Especially

when one of them involves his teacher, who he does not appreciate enough.

Niina: He takes Mr Brooke for granted.

Emily: I think I read this on your blog and this resonated with me. He is also quite toxic

towards Jo especially when he wants to be in a relationship with her. He is saying I am going to kill myself you know over you.

Niina: There is lots of mental blackmailing and it´s quite hard to read sometimes.

Emily: Yeah it is. I think you quoted somebody who said, Laurie is a nice guy, so-called. He is one of those nice guys who expect to get what he wants because he is so nice to that person.

Niina: He doesn´t see Jo as an actual person at that point. He wants to marry her because he is expected to marry someone. When there is that period when he is in Vienna and he is trying to compose. It is like he doesn´t care who he is going to marry or who is this romantic woman that he is composing these operas. It doesn´t matter at that point because he has this idea that this is what a man is supposed to be like.

Emily: I think he writes about how he has this phantom of a woman in his mind and it is not vague. He is not thinking about Jo´s characteristics or anything like that. He just has this

sort of Goethean idea of a woman. What we know doesn´t resemble Jo at all.

Niina: It is this phantom princess who is waiting for a prince to arrive, from an opera or a ballet. It´s not Jo March and it is not Amy either but when he