lily_handmaiden

I've finished Going Postal, which means my next entry will be quotes from Going Postal. But right now, I would like to break an important discovery I made while reading Gone With the Wind. I don't know if anybody has noticed this before... I feel sure that somebody must have at some point, but I've never heard it mentioned. Anyway, I was reading Gone With the Wind, and some of the dialogue between Scarlett and Rhett started to sound a bit familiar.

RHETT: I'll bet you they will be here within the month. I'll bet you a box of bonbons against-- Against a kiss.
SCARLETT: I don't care for such personal conversation. Besides, I'd just as soon kiss a pig.
RHETT: There's no accounting for tastes and I've always heard the Irish were partial to pigs-- kept them under their beds, in fact. But, Scarlett, you need kissing badly. That's what's wrong with you. All your beaux have respected you too much, though God knows why, or they have been too afraid of you to really do right by you. The result is thatyou are unendurably uppity. You should be kissed and by someone who knows how.
SCARLETT: And I suppose you think you are the proper person?
RHETT: Oh, yes, if I cared to take the trouble. They say I kiss very well.

Now compare this to some of the classic witty banter between Han and Leia from The Empire Strikes Back. I've supplememented this with some stuff from the novel, because in the movie it's over "You could use a good kiss!"

HAN: I think you were afraid I was going to leave without a goodbye kiss.
LEIA: I'd just as soon kiss a Wookiee.
HAN: I can arrange that. You could use a good kiss. You've been so busy giving orders you've forgotten how to be a woman. If you'd have let go for a moment, I could have helped you. But it's too late now, sweetheart. Your big opportunity is flying out of here.
LEIA: I think I can survive.
HAN: Good luck!
LEIA: You don't even care if the--
HAN: Spare me, please! Don't tell me about the Rebellion again. It's all you think about You're as cold as this planet.
LEIA: And you think you're the one to apply some heat?
HAN: Sure, if I were interested. But I don't think it'd be much fun.

Okay, so maybe you're thinking this one thing could be a coincidence. But it's not an isolated occurrence. Check this out:

(Rhett takes Scarlett's hand.)
RHETT: Don't pull away! I won't hurt you!
SCARLETT: Hurt me? I'm not afraid of you, Rhett Butler, or of any man in shoe leather!
RHETT: An admirable sentiment, but do lower your voice. Mrs. Wilkes might hear you. And pray compose yourself. Scarlett, you do like me, don't you?
SCARLETT: Well, sometimes. When you aren't acting like a varmint.
RHETT: I think you like me because I'm a varmint. You've known so few dyed-in-the-wool varmints in your sheltered life that my very difference holds a quaint charm for you.
SCARLETT: That's not true! I like nice men-- men you can depend on to always be gentlemanly.

HAN: Come on, admit it, sometimes you think I'm all right.
LEIA: Occasionally, maybe. When you aren't acting like a scoundrel.
HAN: Scoundrel? Scoundrel! I like the sound of that.
(Han takes Leia's hand)
LEIA: Stop that.
HAN: Stop what?
LEIA: Stop that! My hands are dirty.
HAN: My hands are dirty, too. What're you afraid of?
LEIA: Afraid?
HAN: You're trembling.
LEIA: I'm not trembling.
HAN: You like me because I'm a scoundrel. There aren't enough scoundrels in your life.
LEIA: I happen to like nice men.

Yeah! I was amazed, too! I almost wonder how they got away with it. But it's funny because Han Solo is quite a bit like Rhett Butler in some ways. And some of the passages describing what Scarlett went through at the end of the war and how she could never be afraid again reminded me a bit of Leia. And it's the Galactic Civil War as opposed to the American Civil War. I wonder whether Leigh Brackett or Lawrence Kasdan came up with this. Maybe it was Leigh Brackett, and then she died and Lawrence Kasdan just didn't notice.

Well, anyway, I'm taking this opportunity to plug National Novel Writing Month. I'd give the link, but everybody who reads this journal already knows about it. It's going to be fun! Or at least interesting!