This post isn't going to be about the reading. I'll pull a Scarlett O'Hara and think about that tomorruh! This weekend I found out that Sam Mendes will be producing a film adaptation of Lost in Austen, the TV series which aired last year. If you haven't seen the series and you're an irreverent, "a little Jane Austen is better than no Jane Austen at all" type of person, then I definitely recommend it (you can probably find it on youtube). I'm sure every Janeite out there has wondered what it would be like to live in a Jane Austen novel and interact with her characters. Sam Mendes is going to make it happen and hopefully will encourage his wife, Kate Winslet, to make an appearance (as Charlotte Lucas? as Caroline Bingley? I don't care, just give us KATE!). (Click here for more info!)
Another Austen related thing I'm looking forward to is the release of the novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith. I have to admit that I don't tend to read Jane Austen fan fiction, like the Regency Romances, because I'd really just rather read her novels. But I can't wait until P&P&Z is adapted into a film! I kinda wanna see Lizzy eat Wickham's face off and maybe take a bite outa Lady Catherine. Costume dramas and horror. If you think about it, just add a corset to anything, and things get just a little bit creepier (Sleepy Hollow, creepy mirror lady from The Ring). Perhaps it's because past manners and fashions seem so foreign to us now, just like abbeys and medieval settings seem so distant from the characters in Northanger Abbey. (Check out this article on other fun new Jane stuff, including a novel about Jane Austen as a vampire.)
I don't really consider myself a purist Janeite. I don't really understand why Lost in Austen or P&P&Z would upset fans, especially those who indulge in Regency Romances or other Austen offshoots. Sentimentalizing her work is no different than drenching it in blood. You really couldn't slaughter Jane's memory more than Becoming Jane did. Becoming Jane synopsis: "OOO I'm too proper to read Tom Jones, because I'm just an innocent country girl. Thank you, James McAvoy, for helping me out with my sexual awakening. Oh, by the way, twenty years from now, I'll still regret being an old maid even though I ONLY wrote six of the greatest novels in the English language. My life was sad and unfulfilled without you, James McAvoy, who I only knew for a few weeks in one summer of my 40+ year life. I would die in childbirth for you, James McAvoy!" Oh, the meaningless, childless single life!...Um yeah, so I have a few issues with that movie that I can't seem to let go. Maybe I'm more of a purist than I thought! Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow morning to treat you all with a rant about Sense & Sensibility!
To George - did I do this RSS widget thing right?
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Haha I laughed when I read your characterization of "Becoming Jane" because it was so similar to my own. I would never have classified myself as a purist Janeite either, but I felt my hackles going up as the audience was led to pity the woman who has written several works of groundbreaking fiction simply because she didn't marry the man who she had mad sexual tension with in the forest.
ReplyDeleteOne interesting point from the film that is quite important in S&S though is the idea of money and how women were utterly dependent on men (family, husband, etc) for their livelihood. Money and property were such limiting factors for so many women (as we see in the first chapter of S&S) and I do think the film dealt rather well with the idea of the economic constratints placed on women.
And thanks for the heads-up on various Austen media events. Should be fun.... and fingers crossed for Kate!
Definitely agree with you about the film's portrayal of women's financial dependence on men. Mrs. Austen's speeches were torture, mostly because you realize that in many ways she is right. But if I had a choice, I'd rather watch Emma Thompson's S&S adaptation or Miss Austen Regrets. Haha, I'm glad I'm not the only one that felt that way about Becoming Jane!
ReplyDeleteHi Emily, first of all on the widget front, I think its all fine. Well, I get the blogs delived to my email inbox so thats all I wanted!
ReplyDeleteI just heard about this p&p zombie thing in a tute I took yesterday -apparently the soldiers camped out near their house are there to fight off the zombies! Love it.
You seem really interested in the connection between gothic / horror and Austen's novels -you can make up your own question for paper 1 if you'd like -run it past me if you'd like to write on a topic that isn't there.
Thanks for your post!