Friday Bookblogging: Everyone’s a Critic Edition
(We know today is a sad day in some parts of Janeiteville, but we prefer to let other pens dwell on misery.)
Welcome to another edition of Friday Bookblogging, in which we discuss Jane Austen’s novels and related topics.
Scathing Book Reviews collects some, er, scathing book reviews of Pride and Prejudice from Amazon. Most of them seem to be from people who were forced! forced! to read it in school, clearly cruel and unusual punishment.
This story was written in the early Victorian era, and hence it is quite old. We need to move on from the old ‘classics’. They mean nothing to readers (are there many left?) of the modern society.
Early Victorian era. Elvis wept. But, in future, they might find the bluffer’s guide useful when it becomes clear that they should have paid more attention in English class.
I once confessed to not knowing what Pride And Prejudice was about (now I’ve seen the film so I know) and the person I was chatting to reacted as though I’d punched her.
Grace Wynne-Jones on a craze that could make a copy of Sense and Sensibility mellow out in California and then have it fly off to Florence, having been found in a phone booth in Prague. Wonder what Jane Austen would make of that?
She probably would have thought it the ultimate circulating-library!
That’s it for another edition of Friday Bookblogging, Gentle Readers. Until next time, always remember: Books Are Nice!
Um…why is today a sad day? Musta missed some news?
Think 1817.
I’m sure those same geniuses who think we should move on from the “old ‘classics’” and stop reading Austen wonder why anybody still bothers with that fool Shakespeare.
In the spirit of Amazon, how did ANYONE find those reviews useful? I shudder to think about the people they “helped”.
On the Bookcrossing article, there’s a comment near the end about how reading is a solitary activity that is being turned into a sociable thing through the internet networking. I found that comment fascinating for two reasons: 1) reading has always been sociable, a la reading out loud, which Jane must have experienced much of as a listener and a reader. Catherine and Isabel talk about books all the time in NA. Children love having books read to them. Book groups. Etc.
2) When I was a child and even on into high school, I had more friends in books than real live ones, yet I am very much an extrovert. I think I lived so vicariously through other characters that it became my social life. Reading became more of an academic activity for me in college, but I still dearly love my bookfriends.
I would caution anyone to call reading a solitary experience. Who ever reads a book and then doesn’t have the urge to talk about what they are reading? Why are there so many book groups/clubs being formed? Why are so many millions of people in Oprah’s Book Club? We long to form these connections to other people and books are a wonderful facilitator.
Thanks for that first quoted comment. I needed to laugh.
Its a typical male response, however. Jane is not for everyone. I can perfectly understand their responses, I used to feel the same way myself.
Forcing people to read something they’re not interested in is indeed a cruel punishment and likely to turn them off for life, remember the scene in Blackadder Goes Forth where Edmund punches Shakespeare out for all the future generations of schoolkids who’re forced to read him? I’m sure there were more than few people cheering at that point.
People never cease to amaze me.
I once had mentioned Jane Austen in one of my stories written for a creative writing class. A student wanted to know who she was. I mentioned that she was the writer of Pride & Prejudice. The gentlemen became very confused & said, “Oh…When did they make a book of the movie?” Another student turned to him & said, “That’s been out….For….Awhile….”
I thought that the recent headline in NYT “Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?”, could have been aimed at all Austen blogs and almost all Janites. In the article Motoko Rich writes ‘Few who believe in the potential of the Web deny the value of books. But they argue that it is unrealistic to expect all children to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” or “Pride and Prejudice” for fun.’ So why are high school teachers pushing Jane Austen? To inculcate an aversion to Austen? To label Austen as chick literature?
A forum that identifies itself as a ‘Literature Network Forums’, specifically on Jane Austen, is dominated by topics such as ‘What 2 Jane Austen book characters do you most relate to ?’ or ‘Darcy or Tilney?’ A thoughtful comment would be “hum, grrr.. i don’t like Jane Austen… yep, she’s a good writer and all that.. but all her irony and subtlety are wasted on boring plots…i mean aren’t all her books essentially about the same thing?” and the majority of posts seem to fall into the category “Hi… i would appreciate if any of u guys can answer these questions.. cause i need to graduate to.. i need a 66 in this fourth quarter.. and believe i dont think i can get it with this book.”.
If the ‘Literature Network Forums’ reflects the 8th grade mentality in Austen, it has the socially redeeming value to post : The character Lady Susan – “I read the book Lady Susan on the train back home after visiting my family during the holidays, and I liked the book, but at the same time I was annoyed by the character Lady Susan. How would you describe her character and the way she acts? How do you feel about her as a character?” The witter is from Stockholm Sweden and perhaps hardly reflective of the American teen.
How many post on Austen’s Juvenelia can you find in AustenBlog? Or for that matter any analysis of Austen’s style as opposed to the theme of romance or general gossip? Surely the contrast in theme and style between Lady Susan and Sense and Sensibility deserves some comment? And if the landscape was not barren enough there are posts such as, “I think Livia, Colin and Smiley Dress are all looking a bit smug and self-satisfied in that photo….love the little handbag, though. Speaking of dresses, you can have fun dressing Lizzie and Darcy here:” Is it a surprise that Austen has the reputation as ‘chick lit’?
If the comments above are representative of general appreciation of Austen, then I found the following an unalloyed pleasure. Andrew Hodges in The Inner life of Numbers begins chapter 1, The Unloved One, by” ‘It is a truth universally acknowledge that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’ So runs a famous first sentence, full of statements about One. It claims a universal truth, but there is an ironic touch in the grandeur of Jane Austen’s opening, bound as it so obviously is by human pride and prejudice, and specific to the English bourgeoisie of the early nineteen century. Even so, a modern reader finds it a good story-starter. It is well wired into human brains, tastefully pressing the buttons labeled ’sex’ and ‘money’ in unison.”
Aeneas…I’m sure there are posts that mention the Juvenilia, but deep-level literary discussion is not the mission of this blog, though it happens sometimes spontaneously. The mission of the blog is to present news about Jane Austen in popular culture, such as books and movies and newspaper articles and blog posts. The mission has since been amended slightly to add “with commentary, sometimes snarky,” because the Editrix is a bigmouth smartypants.
I guess I presume that the readers are already familiar with her work, or they wouldn’t be interested in such news, and I guess I further presume that anyone interested in reading a blog about Jane Austen in popular culture understands that the Jane Austen = Chick Lit meme that the media likes to toss around is deeply flawed and the result of some journalists not being as familiar with her work as they want people to think.
There are fora and mailing lists around where you will find such discussion–but I didn’t set up this blog to duplicate them, but to complement them. I suspect the forum you mention in your post is mainly populated by young’uns trying to get someone to do their homework for them, including the poster from Sweden (because that is totally an essay homework question disguised as a “discussion starter.”) It would be silly to take them, or any one website really, as the definitive pulse of Janeites online. You have to look at ALL the outlets cumulatively, because people tend to congregate at one or two sites that best match their interests.
Also, I don’t think having fun with Jane’s novels (such as the “dress Lizzy and Darcy” interactive thing) and taking them seriously are mutually exclusive.
Incidentally, since you posted this comment on a two-week-old post, there’s a good chance that nobody but me will see it (since I get an e-mail whenever anyone posts) unless readers are following comments on RSS or something. Not your fault, that’s just how blogs work. In that context, the medium and the mission complement each other nicely, I think. (And actually they won’t be able to comment on it for much longer, as comments close automatically after 14 days to reduce spam.)
P.S. To answer a question raised elsewhere: Tilney rules and Darcy drools!!!