Just read the damned book. And get off our lawn!
We are a trifle cranky today, and articles such as this one from The McGill Tribune do not help.
This episode disturbed me at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Would this girl have passed up The Undomestic Goddess to read Pride and Prejudice if it had not borne Keira on the cover? And why was the thought of Pride and Prejudice as light summer reading so shocking to begin with? It is a romance novel, after all.
We do think it’s lovely that those who enjoyed the film are picking up the book, and encourage them to do so; but let’s not get insulting!
How else would lazy high school English teachers interest their kids in Romeo & Juliet without showing Westside Story - excuse me, I stand corrected, rather Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet?
The use of the adjective “lazy” spared this writer from a smack with the Clue Trout. Our freshman English teacher interested us in Romeo and Juliet by just letting us read it. We fell in love with the poetry and meter, and while in our crusty spinster dotage we think R&J are a couple of spoiled brats in need of a good swift kick, at fourteen we thought it the most romantical thing ever.
Seriously, kids…just read the book.
September 13th, 2006 at 2:24 am
I think it’s understandable that some teenagers are not (at first) interested in reading great literature. Usually they are intimidated by it or find the language “too difficult to understand.” The hardest part is to get them started…but once you get their interest in the story, I think it’s pretty easy to get them hooked. So, West Side Story or Baz’s Romeo and Juliet or Keira Knightly actually serve it’s purpose in helping kids get interested in classics.
September 13th, 2006 at 3:14 pm
I just don’t like to see P&P or any of Miss Jane’s books “romance novels”. I am sorry, though there is a romantic element there, there is also a LOT of humor. Every time I hear “romance”, I think of Fabio…and I don’t think that I would ever want Fabio to play Darcy! Unfortunately, the jaded eyes of critics are blind to the heart of the matter.
September 14th, 2006 at 12:17 am
My first thought was “Gah! Keira Knightly on the cover of the book?” Five minutes later, I sat down to read and picked up my well-worn copy of “The Complete Novels of Jane Austen” with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle on the cover. It reminded me that 10 years ago I was that student who realized I’d better hurry up and read Pride and Prejudice before the miniseries aired, and went “Wow! THIS is Jane Austen?”