We’re feeling told off
And must now retreat to the drawing-room until the he tells us it’s okay to come out.
It seems we’re badly informed on the works of Jane Austen. Pray, sir, educate us! Impart to us all the wisdom of your 17 years!
ETA: To clarify: our feelings were not hurt by the Young Person’s diatribe. We found it hilarious and thought our Gentle Readers would enjoy an opportunity to take a turn with the Cluebat of Janeite Righteousness. Dorothy’s polishing it up right now…queue up for a turn!
June 12th, 2007 at 8:28 am
Link’s broken. There’s an extra “http://” in there :-).
June 12th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Fixed. Thanks.
June 12th, 2007 at 9:30 am
This is my favorite line from his post:
After this line, he proceeds to remark on what he would expect you to think.
You should feel honored that you were able to draw the attention of a high schooler who read Jane Austen. Not only that, but that he had a strong reaction to what you had written. I wonder what prompted him to look up the site?
June 12th, 2007 at 11:42 am
But he’s an Aries!!! That should “resultantly” give him cred’s over the High Priestess of Back Cover Skimming, right?
I’ll give him points for having read A book. Let’s look him up in another 10 years and see if he’s discovered the subtexts hidden in the humorless prose.
June 12th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Oh dear. Well, this 19 year old points him out as a heap of infamy and hopes that AustenBlog won’t give up on the younger crowd. Some of us can actually form a coherent sentence occasionally.
She causes this blunder resultantly because is badly informed on the works of Austen. It seems like she skimmed through the novel and read the back cover and decided to write a sequel.
That has to be my favorite bit.
June 12th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Seventeen years should be a sufficient time enough to develop some degree of insight, not to say grammar, if it’s not ruined by public school education — speaking from that chronological vantage point myself.
But Mags, don’t be cast down, as there is good news: you are not the only stupid or ignorant woman. Yes, Jane Austen deluded many millions of poor women and men into thinking she is humorous. Bewitching she-devil.
June 12th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
I had a brilliant retort–ahem, response all planned, but then a line from that sadly deficient writer came to mind: “…She did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition.” And I must say that I quite agree.
I must also say that I am not only an ignorant female, but I must be quite stupid, because I could not follow his argument. Was he complaining about Jane’s so called lack of wit or of people enjoying her so called lack of wit or of people writing fan fiction? Or perhaps is was just a complaint about women in general…
June 12th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Now, Mags, are you sure this is not Karim?
June 12th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Now, seriously, I should point of that this boy, though ignorant, ill-bred, and uninformed, is no lily-livered lad. In fact, he has gall—lots of it. Very well, then, he ought not be offended by some criticism of his comments either.
Her novels are of one star quality rated by avid readers of Jane Austen fan made sequels. She causes this blunder resultantly because is badly informed on the works of Austen. It seems like she skimmed through the novel and read the back cover and decided to write a sequel.
Oy. Where did this cretin learn English. And who is he referring to, our editrix or our Jane? I would think that to be entitled to criticize someone, one should at least be able to write or speak the language properly. And many of the words and phrases were obviously purloined from various sources. I should of known.
… manufacturing pretenses of what she does not know herself.
Look who’s talking… This guy should try his hand at comedic writing. Or not. Come back in twenty years, sonny. With luck and enough practice you might be able to fool some of the people, some of the time.
His festinate discourse merely serves to expose his lack of proficiency in these matters. Alas, one cannot be discursive like this and offer substance at the same time.
June 12th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
I think he’s just being plain silly, and demanding attention with his odious comments.
June 12th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Well I think his grammar is ATROCIOUS. I also looked at the rest of his myspace and from the other little paragraphs he’s written, it really sounds like he’s just trying to be smart, or he’s an “I’m so smart and I could talk for hours about literature and fool everyone I know” kind of poseur. Well, kid, no matter how much knowledge you can collect in 17 years, you apparently couldn’t collect that if you insult Jane Austen, you will have QUITE a few Janeites coming at you with pitchforks and witty words.
I think Reeba’s right, though. He might just be making stupid grammar mistakes and insulting the greatest woman writer because he wants attention.
Don’t hate us just because you want to be us, ColdMountain.
Have you ever even READ Cold Mountain?
June 12th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
I’m sad! The kid must have a smidge of a brain because he has made the blog private so now I can’t read it! What was it about exactly???
June 12th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
A-ha ha haaaa! The scary AustenBloggers got to ya, eh, little boy?
Darn, I didn’t copy it. Bits of it are in the comments. Basically he said that my comments in the Jane is Funny thread (the second one) were wrong and I didn’t know anything about Austen because there is no humor in her books.
June 13th, 2007 at 3:26 am
@Laura
I don’t think his grammar mistakes were deliberate, I’m quite certain they were real. That’s the reason he cannot ‘understand’ JA - difficult grammar you see
June 14th, 2007 at 3:56 am
Yeah, and don’t forget the mediaeval language *rolls eyes*…
June 14th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Well, I couldn’t enter his site because he made it private. But I must commend him, a young, male, who reads Jane Austen, and writes (badly it seems.) Still, he writes. There’s hope for the future.
At 17, I thought I knew it all too.