Coffee at Luke's: An Unauthorized Gilmore Girls Gabfest (Smart Pop Series) (21 page)

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Authors: Jennifer Crusie,Leah Wilson

Tags: #Humor & Entertainment, #Television, #History & Criticism

BOOK: Coffee at Luke's: An Unauthorized Gilmore Girls Gabfest (Smart Pop Series)
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RORY: My grandmother served us pudding the other night and then she went shopping with my mom and they didn’t fight. I don’t know, I mean, they never get along, and now suddenly they’re getting along, and I know that if I told Mom about the invites she’d wig out and call Grandma and that would be the end of the pudding.
 
LANE: You know you can buy pudding.
 
 
Of course you can buy pudding, but you cannot buy what the pudding symbolizes—selfless concern for another. Later in that episode, a petulant Emily refused to attend Rory’s birthday party in Stars Hollow, prompting Lorelai to state, “So I guess the whole pudding thing was just a fluke, huh?” (“Rory’s Birthday Parties,” 1-6). Maybe, but when Emily later showed up at the party after all, she showed that there was hope for her yet.
 
To paraphrase Lane, anyone can buy pudding or pizza or a Danish pastry. But on
Gilmore Girls
, for all its celebration of cuisine, high and low, it’s not really about the food. It’s about what that food represents—the celebration of life and the joy of living in a community of people who, deep down, genuinely care for one another.
 
Gregory Stevenson
is professor of religion and Greek at Rochester College. After writing on archaeology and the Book of Revelation, he decided to spend valuable research time listening to music and watching television. Since then he has written on U2, Christianity and Hollywood, and
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
. His book
Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
was nominated for the Mr. Pointy award by
Slayage
.
 
 
Maryelizabeth Hart
Reading, Rory, and Relationships
 
RORY: So you did read this before.
 
JESS: Yeah, about forty times.
 
RORY: I thought you said you didn’t read much.
 
JESS: What is much? (“Nick & Nora/Sid & Nancy,” 2-5)
 
 
 
Sullen, shaggy-haired Jess might have looked like the last thing he’d read was “pull tab to open,” but the above bit of dialogue told viewers that he was going to fit in just fine with the Gilmore Girls. As Maryelizabeth Hart points out in her essay, this is a show where books and writing are shorthand for character and emotional development, and the one who reads and learns the most is Rory.
 
“If you see a teen walking around with a halo and a book, that’s my daughter, Rory.”
—LORELAI GILMORE (“Eight O’Clock at the Oasis,” 3-5)
 
 
 
T
HE WORLD OF
GILMORE GIRLS
is filled with bright, shiny, articulate characters who are thoroughly invested not only in popular culture via television, movies, and music, but also are tremendously well aware and informed of the written word, delivered in a variety of media. From the pilot’s first scene at Luke’s diner, with Lorelai’s Kerouac reference passing right over the head of the clueless youth trying to pick up first her, then Rory, to the “Dorothy Parker Drank Here” production company logo at the end of every episode, the creative team has infused the Girls’ world with literary significance.
 
In Stars Hollow, Hartford, New Haven, and elsewhere, we see readers reading—books, textbooks, magazines, and newspapers—on a regular basis. Characters visit the Black, White, and Read Bookstore (although mostly for movies), shop at the Stars Hollow Bookstore and library sales, and order books online. While books are clearly important to many of
Gilmore Girls
’s main characters, it is Rory Gilmore, a.k.a. “The Thing That Reads A Lot” (1-4), who is at the heart of all of the show’s literary references. Her relationship with words significantly helps shape and define her relationship with the rest of the world.
 
Volume I
 
As the show begins, Rory is deeply invested in her world of books—indeed, at this point in her relatively sheltered, small-town life, she lives in something of an ivory tower constructed of various tomes. Rory is not worldly; her small but intimate circle of friends is basically Lorelai and Lane. Rory’s immersion shields her from real life. She doesn’t even notice Dean’s interest in her at first, because she is so lost in her reading. Early in their relationship, they exchange reading recommendations: Jane Austen for Hunter Thompson (“Love and War and Snow,” 1-8). Rory’s innocent assumption that Dean’s love for her will extend to a love for the books she loves manifests itself in misplaced gifts (Lane points out that Kafka’s
Metamorphosis
might not be everyone’s dream romantic gift [“Forgiveness and Stuff,”1-10]) and pushing him to continue with Tolstoy when he suggests it might not be his cup of tea (“Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers,” 1-16). Like most youngsters in the blush of first love, Rory has faith in the generations of “true love conquers all” stories, but lacks the pragmatic interpersonal skills that might have helped her and Dean avoid some of their difficulties.
 
Rory recognizes that the best writers are also readers and has pragmatic reasons for indulging her passion. To fulfill her ambition to be the next Christiane Amanpour and work in international journalism, she needs a diverse background in more than punk bands and fifties movies—she needs a solid foundation of literary works to give her the best understanding of the historical and cultural context of her experiences. However, she is still shielding herself from fully experiencing the world, as evidenced by her reading in the school cafeteria and packing a book in her purse to attend a Chilton party (“The Breakup, Part 2,” 1-17). At Chilton she encounters Paris Geller, who doesn’t just have an ivory tower of books, she has an entire fortress; Paris is Rory without Lorelai’s influence to draw her out of her books and into the wider world.
 
Books provide a handy shorthand when Rory’s mostly MIA father, Christopher, is first introduced to viewers. Christopher’s offer to buy Rory the
Compact Oxford English Dictionary
she covets is sincere; his lack of ability to follow through on his good intentions is Christopher in a nutshell.
 
Words also draw Rory and her grandfather together—when the Gilmores first start their regular Friday night dinners, Rory and Richard bond over disappearing into a newspaper and their love of rare first editions. This shared interest sees them through golf games and family crises, including Richard’s unexpected hospitalization—Rory sits by his hospital bed, reading him the financial papers (“Forgiveness and Stuff,” 1-10).
 
Lorelai’s relationship with Rory’s Chilton English teacher, Max, is driven in part by books as well—Max’s, specifically. When she and Max are caught between their mutual attraction and their concerns about their relationship, Max is inspired to action by the great works of literature he has spent a lifetime teaching (“Emily In Wonderland,” 1-19). When he asks Lorelai to marry him, she says yes, but her inability to read Max’s beloved copy of
Swann’s Way
by Proust—a move Rory describes as “ambitious” (“Paris is Burning,” 1-11)—is an early indication that their relationship won’t make it to the altar.
 
Volume II
 
Richard’s gift to Rory of H. L. Menken’s works collected in
Crestomathy
at the beginning of season two isn’t just intended to please his granddaughter or inspire her—it’s meant as a statement of Richard and Emily’s intentions that Rory fulfill her journalistic potential, and they don’t plan to let Dean or anyone else get in her way (“P. S. I Lo . . . ,” 1-20). Maybe if Emily and Richard were privy to Dean’s patience while watching Rory browse real and virtual bookstores for hours on end, despite his lack of interest in such activities, they would be more appreciative of his support.
 
On Rory and Lorelai’s spontaneous Harvard trip (after Lorelai decides not to marry Max), Rory is actually stopped in her tracks by the weight of the school’s multiple libraries and the centuries of accumulated books they contain. However, being Rory, she has already made a significant dent in the 13 million volume catalog, as Lorelai points out (“Richard in Stars Hollow,” 2-12). Inspiring libraries, uninspired boyfriend—the stage is set for Jess to enter her life. . . .
 
Jess arrives in Stars Hollow with just the essentials: clothes, books, and cigarettes. He “borrows” Rory’s copy of
Howl
and begins his unorthodox courtship by adding his own notes to the famous beat poem (“Nick & Nora/Sid & Nancy,” 2-5). Their next several encounters are a combination of comparing literary notes (e.g., the merits of Ayn Rand and Ernest Hemingway [“A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” 2-13]), and Jess not-so-subtly denigrating Dean for not being a reader.
 
Jess’s pursuit of Rory isn’t lost on Dean. After he finds Rory and Jess having dinner together with Paris, Paris saves Rory from Dean’s wrath by claiming she is interested in Jess—and points out to Rory that Jess’s literary taste and ability to debate the merits of Beat writing, Jane Austen, and poetry do make him attractive (“There’s the Rub,” 2-16).
 
Paris and Rory’s on-again, off-again friendship starts out the school year off-again, with Paris welcoming Rory to the world of journalistic jealousy by sabotaging her at every opportunity when Rory joins the Chilton newspaper,
The Franklin
. It’s a challenge Rory rises to with admirable diplomacy thanks to her journalistic ambitions, however, and the two end up reluctant friends again mid-way through the season. This is despite Rory’s tendency to be an inadvertent thorn in Paris’s side, as when she is forcibly socialized by the concerned Chilton headmaster rather than being allowed to pursue her preferred lunch-time activity of solitary reading, and finds herself briefly courted by the school’s elite social group, the Puffs, to which Paris desperately wants to belong (“Like Mother, Like Daughter,” 2-7).
 
The headmaster isn’t the only person interested in Rory’s reading habits; the stash of books in her room is a repeated point of curiosity. Jess uses the excuse of searching for a copy of Salinger’s
Franny & Zoë
among Rory’s books to explain his presence in Rory’s room to Lorelai, Richard admires her system on his visit to Stars Hollow, and Christopher’s new girlfriend, Sherry, demands to see all the books based on Christopher’s description of Rory.
 
Christopher, despite Sherry, begins to look more and more like a romantic option: he demonstrates his newfound maturity and reliability not only by honoring his commitment to escort Rory to her debutante function, but also by delivering on his promise and gifting her with her own
Oxford English Dictionary
, complete with an entry for “jiggy” (“Presenting Lorelai Gilmore,” 2-6). He also finds time to support Lorelai’s graduation with a gift basket that includes a (joke) copy of the famous job guide,
What Color Is Your Parachute?
Unfortunately for Lorelai, it’s the incredibly perky and unexpectedly pregnant Sherry who’s the beneficiary of the new and improved Christopher at the season’s end.
 
Volume III
 
Rory, whose world is so tied to words, has spent the summer between seasons two and three unable to bring herself to communicate with Jess via letter or telephone. While talking to Paris about whether or not date Jamie could be potential boyfriend material, Rory describes the perfect boyfriend as one who “likes what you like, reads the same books,” which is a better description of Jess than Dean, a fact she is not yet ready to admit to herself or anyone else, especially Jess (“Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days,” 3-1). Her antagonistic attitude towards Jess doesn’t keep her from sniping at bimbette Shane, whose vocabulary includes the word “bloaty,” in a parallel to Jess’s criticisms of Dean (“One Has Class and the Other One Dyes,” 3-4). After several more verbal confrontations worthy of Kate and Petruccio, Jess and Rory end their relationships with Shane and Dean to be together.
 
When Dean returns books and CDs to Rory after their break-up, he admits that her persistence and the “crazy books she pushed on [him]” have spurred him to apply to a four-year college after all (“That’ll Do, Pig,” 3-10). Once Rory and Jess start dating officially, Rory has some adjusting to do; although she knows Dean and Jess are very different people, her vision of dating Jess was based on her first experience. However, Jess isn’t Dean with book lore—he’s still as rebellious and anti-social as ever, pleasant to practically no one other than Rory. Rory entices him into agreeing to dine at the Gilmore’s by being a “book tease,” bribing him with a copy of
The Holy Barbarians
. After their abjectly wretched dinner with Emily, it’s not clear if she actually gives him the book as promised or not (“Swan Song,” 3-14). It’s a bad sign for the future of their relationship, which ends particularly anticlimactically when Jess, at the end of the year, leaves town without telling Rory.
 
School, at least, is going well for Rory; she returns to Chilton as school vice president for her senior year. School president Paris’s first objective is to oust the ancient librarian and remake the library according to her standards—a priority that doesn’t sit well with class president Francie and the other Puffs (“Haunted Leg,” 3-2). When Francie successfully drives a wedge between the president and VP, Rory’s return to reading alone in the cafeteria seems to bring her less satisfaction than it used to (“I Solemnly Swear,” 3-11). It’s a first step away from her literary seclusion.

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