Why We're Here

THIS is why this blog exists.  I was reading David Copperfield (I am approaching the final 100 pages, so the end is in sight, I promise) and I came across two things that I desperately wanted to share with someone.  So here I shall share them.

To put this in context for anyone familiar with the book but without (I hope) giving too much away, let me say that I am at the point in the book where seemingly everyone has decided to ship out to Australia.  It seems like an odd turn of events, but if they do all go (and I assume they will), that fictional Australia of the past was lucky to receive such a motley but worthy cast of characters.  Anyway, I wanted to first share a passage that unexpectedly brought tears to my eyes:

And Mrs. Gummidge took his hand, and kissed it with a homely pathos and affection, in a homely rapture of devotion and gratitude, that he well deserved.

We brought the locker out, extinguished the candle, fastened the door on the outside, and left the old boat close shut up, a dark speck in the cloudy night.  Next day, when we were returning to London outside the coach, Mrs. Gummidge and her basket were on the seat behind, and Mrs. Gummidge was happy.

I think if you haven't read the book, you'll read that and wonder how it could possibly make anyone cry.  I don't know how well I can explain it, either, except to say that this brought home to me what a masterful job Dickens had done up to this point of building these characters and making them familiar, not to mention creating such a distinct sense of place (and leaving me with a deep affection for it).  As such, these two brief paragraphs hit a perfectly bittersweet note.

The second thing is this: Wilkins Micawber IS Billy Riggins from Friday Night Lights (watch it, if you haven't).  Or vice versa.  (For what it's worth, Mindy Riggins shares quite a lot with Emma Micawber as well.)  It hit me like a freight train in the chapter that followed the above passage.  The always-delightful Betsey Trotwood said it best: "Bless and save the man!  He'd write letters by the ream, if it was a capital offence!"  The verbose, ridiculous speeches, the way he puffs himself up, his utter inability to make good decisions, and his unending devotion to his family are absolutely indistinguishable from Billy, and they are both undeniably lovable because of those shared traits.  If ever DC is adapted into a television show (and I know I said it could be a YA novel, but I'm starting to think the enormous cast of characters and indelible sense of place would lend themselves to Jason Katims' style), Derek Phillips would be an impeccable Wilkins Micawber.