Expectations
The St. Paul Pioneer Press has an article about the Minnesota chapter of JASNA, which is, like many JASNA chapters, expecting an increase in their ranks from the new film. Whether or not they hang around, of course, is another matter!
I first encountered the group six years ago, when a late-1990s explosion of Austen films led to a faddish surge in membership — of rather the wrong kind of women.
(”There were some who didn’t care to read the books” is how one of the members put it at the time, speaking with the politely frosty reserve typical of the Georgian tearoom.)
It is our experience that there is always a percentage of new Janeites created with each new adaptation, some of which become Janeites for life. Welcome to them!
November 15th, 2005 at 11:11 am
Definitely no harm in accepting those that truly learn to apperciate JA, even if they started off as fad converts.
Unless they demand/engineer more untrue movie adaptations, of course
November 15th, 2005 at 11:29 am
What will happen to them if they don’t truly learn to appreciate JA and if they demand/engineer etc…..
November 15th, 2005 at 12:17 pm
We lock you in a room, feed you bread and water and make you read Ann Radcliffe and Fordyce’s Sermons.
November 15th, 2005 at 4:11 pm
… and charlotte bronte! ;o)
November 15th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
I started reading Jane because of the A&E adaptation and now I can’t get enough:-)))
November 16th, 2005 at 1:48 am
Bronte…Heaven forbid!
November 16th, 2005 at 6:12 am
I LIKE Charlotte Bronte.
Well, I like Jane Eyre — I thought Villette was unreadable.
November 16th, 2005 at 6:31 am
Locked in a room with a Bronte! Now talk about a punishment! LOL.
November 16th, 2005 at 9:46 am
I had a very unfortunate encounter with Wuthering Heights, and have been unable to pickup any other Bronte books since (though I admit, I should give Jane Eyre a try).
November 16th, 2005 at 10:53 am
I like Jane Eyre and both of Anne Bronte’s books–haven’t read any others of Charlotte’s, I’ve wanted to for a while.
I can’t read Wuthering Heights without Henry Tilney snarking it in my ear, though. *blush*
November 16th, 2005 at 5:35 pm
Mags, try Shirley by Charlotte Bronte, which is interesting, if only because it is set in the period 1811-1812 and gives a different perspective of the period than that of Jane Austen.
November 16th, 2005 at 11:28 pm
I tried to get through Wuthering Heights, and about halfway through I tossed the book aside in disgust, as I didn’t care if all those fools died out on that moor.
I came to Jane because of an adaptation — Paltrow’s Emma. I saw it on a Friday night, had the book in hand by Sunday afternoon, and never looked back.
November 17th, 2005 at 9:35 am
I came to Jane thanks to my parents who both read her books and adored them. I’ve said I was 10 when my mother gave me P&P and that’s exactly what happened. I read Emma shortly afterwards, and waited until college for MP. I think reading such a difficult book as MP at the age of 18 put me off reading S&S and P for a while. I wasn’t ready for MP at 18. I probably wouldn’t have been ready for P at age 18 either, and ended up not reading or S&S until I was in my late 30s. I cannot believe what I missed!
November 28th, 2005 at 8:00 pm
what’s wrong with Ann Radcliffe? (must be the Catherine Morland in me!)