Chicago continues to celebrate Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice. Julia Keller has a funny article in the Chicago Tribune; we especially loved the subtitle.

Plainly, Jane Austen’s a triple threat: It’s a play! It’s a movie! It’s on Mayor Daley’s bedside table!

Hee! And the lede is equally good:

Chicago salutes you, Mr. Harris Bigg-Wither. — The estimable but hapless Mr. Bigg-Wither, of whom you very well may not have heard–wait, did he play outfield for the ‘77 Cubs? No? OK, never mind–proposed to Miss Jane Austen in the Year of Our Lord 1802. — How this relates to Chicago in The Year of Our Lord 2005 is a matter to which we will shortly turn. — Bigg-Wither, described by a contemporary as “big and awkward,” ultimately was unsuccessful in his pursuit; Austen said yes, then rescinded her hand the very next day.

Had she married him, however, she might never have written “Pride and Prejudice,” the 1816 novel that has taken Chicago by storm 189 years later.

Well, she had already written First Impressions, which became P&P, but it might never have been published. And we can’t have that.

The words “wallow” and “Jane Austen” do not often show up in the same sentence

Obviously Ms. Keller doesn’t hang out at AustenBlog much. Just saying. We are true proficients at wallowing in Austen.

The article mentions the play being staged by the Northlight Theatre. Carey Cannon, who plays Elizabeth, said,

“When I was auditioning for this part, I re-read it, and was stunned and delighted. I was so glad to re-discover this novel. Spending a few hours in Elizabeth’s company is such a pleasure.”

Indeed!

Not to be outdone, the Chicago Sun-Times has an interview with Mr. Darcy! The one from the play, that is.

I’m really kind of the heroine [laughing] in this piece, and Elizabeth (Carey Cannon) is the hero because she’s onstage going through all this incredibly emotional turmoil, and I just get to show up looking dashing in these gorgeous costumes.

He says that like it’s a bad thing!

Roz Kaveney reviews The Democratic Genre: Fan Fiction In A Literary Context by Sheenagh Pugh, and points out that in some cases, writing fan fiction helps the writer to better understand the original:

During my critical work on Buffy, I investigated the show’s fan-fiction culture - of which I have a higher opinion than does Pugh - and got involved to the extent of committing a fair amount of it myself. It became a way of understanding the show’s snappy dialogue, by writing my own, of bulldozing through a long-standing writer’s block, and of getting to know some interesting and accomplished work.

We have found that to be true in our own adventures in writing fan fiction. When other Janeites wonder at our ability to pull Jane Austen quotes out of the air or know instantly in what chapter of one of the novels a certain event happens, we smile and know that it is because we studied the details of the novel obsessively while writing fan fiction!

The Democratic Genre is a lively book which lovingly details fan writers’ private language. One of these terms, “fanon”, refers to the shared assumptions by fans that supplement the canon of a show or of an author’s work. It’s precisely what is needed to describe, for example, the way that Darcy’s swim, as performed by Colin Firth, has become part of Pride and Prejudice in our heads.

Hee. (Though the Editrix attempted to put a pond scene in one of her stories and it was just too weird. Slave to the text and all that.)

There’s also a link to buy the book with free “postage and packing” (what we call shipping and handling on this side of the pond) in the U.K. A representative of the publisher told us that the book should be available in the U.S. at the end of October or the beginning of November. We’ll keep you updated.