More from Cluelessville
(And we don’t mean the thoroughly delightful film!)
Alert Janeites Sumita and Dae each wrote to tell us that Newsweek has published the apparently earth-shattering news that hey! We Middle-Aged Austen Whores have a chance to get married, too! And they even take Jane’s name in vain.
Not everyone wants to marry, of course. And we’re long past those Jane Austen days when being “marriage-minded” was primarily a female trait; today many men openly hope for a wife just as much as women long for a husband.
As Dae said, “Of course. Because Jane Austen never ever hinted that her male characters hoped for a wife. Oh no. How silly.” Very true!
Sumita added, “Not sure whether I fully agree that men never thought of marriage in Austen’s world. In fact I think it was considered a man and woman’s duty to society to marry a suitable mate e.g. thus it seemed that Mr. Knightley’s one deficiency was erased by marriage to Emma.” Well, Mr. John Knightley had secured the succession, so the responsibility was more or less off the elder brother’s shoulders. Remember Emma’s aversion to cutting out little Harry, unless she were the one doing the cutting out! 
You know what we think Jane Austen would say to that article? We think she would say, “What makes you think we middle-aged spinsters all want to get married in the first place?” If Jane Austen had married and had children (as was inevitable in those days, barring fertility problems), she most likely would not have written her books. Do not wish that upon her, or upon us for that matter!
Can one apply the Cluebat of Janeite Righteousness to a magazine?
May 31st, 2006 at 1:01 am
One can apply the Cluebat of Janeite Righteouness to anything.
What on Earth would make a person think that Austen men wanted to get married, though? None of them would be caught dead proposing even once. The thought of any of them proposing twice is absolutely hilarious.
May 31st, 2006 at 2:02 am
So, so very many things wrong with this. If you find that the bat is not effective, I know that we of the League of the Extraordinarily Rochester Obsessed have a pair of tweezers of doom. I’m sure you could get a lend of them.
So very very wrong. *sigh*
May 31st, 2006 at 2:12 am
tweezers of doom
heheheheheheeee
May 31st, 2006 at 4:56 am
“None of them would be caught dead proposing even once. The thought of any of them proposing twice is absolutely hilarious.”
LOLOLOL!!!
May 31st, 2006 at 12:46 pm
They do deserve the bat for completely misunderstanding Austen heroes, but the rest of the article isn’t all bad. I refer, in particular, to the bit about “people who want to get married probably will.” And those who don’t probably won’t. Either way, it’s cool. Some of my best friends are married people.