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[selenak]

Yuletide nominations are open. I went for Star Trek: Discovery, The Americans (with the canon finished now, a whole new area of fictional possibilities arises), and Susan Howatch's Starbridge series, about which more here. In that case, I deliberately nominated the female characters because much as I like those books, they're relentlessly male centric, even the one female pov entry, and I want someone fleshing out the women for me.

Also, four or so years belatedly, I've fallen for The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, i.e. the adaption of Pride and Prejudice consisting of video blogs made mainly, but not exclusively, by our heroine. It's as witty and clever an update as everyone back in the day swore it was. I think Austen really benefits from updated adaptions because the satire in her novels often feels lost in cinematic costume dramas, especially when a big part of the audience is lacking the contemporary context. Which is why Clueless works so much better for me than any of the straightforward Emma film and tv versions. Of course, for a good update to work, you can't simply transfer events 1:1, and that has the great benefit of restoring the emotional stakes. So Lizzie in LBD does not decline Mr. Collins' marriage proposal, she says no to a lucrative job offer (which Charlotte later accepts). While Regency Collins is odious, Regency Elizabeth rejecting him might be understandable but to her contemporaries looked very risky in the face of her impending poverty after her father's death. Today, no one believes she could have made another choice for a hot second. Otoh, making this a job offer while keeping his annoying personality brings home her rejection can look risky or foolish for a part of the present day audience. Meanwhile, LBD George Wickham doesn't run off with Lydia to have unmarried sex, because that would not be a problem today; instead, he's threatening to put a sex video with her on the internet, and suddenly the social ruin Lydia is potentially facing is back. Speaking of Lydia, fleshing out her character and adding her pov was one of the smartest choices the adaption made. And all actors involved are well cast. I'm looking forward to watching the rest.

Comments

[monanotlisa]

Thanks for the Discovery nomination! I will participate again this year, even though I do not expect to crank out three (3) stories again...

[selenak]

I doubt I'll manage three stories again, either. Or even two. But we'll see. BTW, I deliberately nominated minor supporting characters, because I expect someone other than me will nominate Michael, Philippa, Stamets & Culbert anyway, and I definitely count on Lizbee to nominate Katrina Cornwell.

[the_rck]

I think that part of the problem I have with Elizabeth Bennet comes from talking to people who don't understand that there was any sort of reason to say yes to Mr Collins or that the risk involved in saying no affected her mother and sisters, too. I have a lot more sympathy for Mrs Bennet than most people I've talked to seem to have.

[selenak]

With Mrs. Bennet, it really takes the contemporary context to understand she's not exaggarating when she says that she and her daughters won't have a roof over their heads once Mr. Bennet dies if they don't get married; that Elizabeth and her sisters are facing a life of genteel poverty at someone's governess or companion at best. I mean, she's per authorial fiat a comic character, but she does have a real plight. Btw, I don't know whether you've watched Lost in Austen, but Alex Kingston's Mrs. Bennet was the first one I've seen where you could feel the desperation beneath the chatter.

[watervole]

Oh, I loved that version. Mrs Bennet has a genuine problem. People now don't realise how impossible it was for women to support themselves. It's only about 60 years since a woman would automatically lose her job if she got married, and there was long period before that where women simply could not get any work other than servant.

[the_rck]

I haven't watched Lost in Austen.

I think that part of the problem I have is that Elizabeth is making a decision that affects her mother and sisters, too. When reading the book, I never quite get the impression that Elizabeth understands the stakes or has any concerns about her future, and that always strikes me as weird.

If that makes sense?

[selenak]

It’s been decades since I’ve read the novel, mind, but as far as I recall Elizabeth is presented as aware of her economic situation. (See also her warming up considerably to Darcy at the sight of Pemberly, and earlier, the way her relationship with Wickham went. It did have undertones of flirtation, and while not in love with him she clearly liked him a lot, but she never considered him as a suitor - he was penniless.) And she’s aware the actions of one sister impact on the others, that’s why she remains angry with Lydia post Darcy’s reputaiton saving intervention, as this never registers with Lydia at all. Otoh Elizabeth has enough self confidence not to regard Mr. Collins as her only possible marriage prospect, so I don’t think she sees it as “Mr. Collins or financial destitution for the entire family” when rejecting his proposal. It’s a risk on her part, to be sure, but hardly a suicidal gamble; she’s attractive, hasn’t done anything to jeopardize her basic respectability which is quintessential for a “good” marriage for a woman of her class, and it’s quite likely there will be other proposals.

Another factor: I might misremember - again, it’s been years - but my vague memory tells me that at some point of the novel Elizabeth thinks about the marriage of her parents as one where one partner has no respect for the other, and that this is not something she wants. Which would be the case with Mr. Collins, whom she can’t respect. Who is indeed odious.) Incidentally, Mr. Bennet is a character whom I dislike now when I didn’t during my first encounter with the tale. It’s all very well to retreat in your library and perfect the sarcastic put down of your wife, but a) it doesn’t help anyone, and b) it does indeed illustrate a marriage of unequals.

[kore]

Discovery, YAY!

I think Austen really benefits from updated adaptions because the satire in her novels often feels lost in cinematic costume dramas, especially when a big part of the audience is lacking the contemporary context.

I think the loss of the narrative voice, pretty inevitable in film, really weakens and sentimentalizes most of the adaptations, even the good ones. Some of them try to put Austen's words in Elizabeth's mouth, although then she just sounds above it all and snooty. People also think Austen is way more romantic than she is -- yes, the heroines are rewarded with their true loves, but Elizabeth doesn't reject Collins because she's waiting for her true love. Which makes why she does it even more risky.

(Also EMILY <33)

[selenak]

Very true. I've always loved W.H. Auden's verses about Jane Austen in his "Letter to Lord Byron":

There is one other author in my pack:
For some time I debated which to write to.
Which would be least likely to send my letter back?
But I decided I'd give a fright to
Jane Austen if I wrote when I had no right to,
and share in her contempt the dreadful fates
Of Crawford, Musgrave, and Mr. Yates. (...)

You could not shock her more than she shocks me;
Besides her Joyce seems innocent as grass.
It makes me uncomfortable to see
An English spinster of the middle class
Describe the amorous effects of `brass',
Reveal so frankly and with such sobriety
The economic basis of society.

The Emily icon was made by lotesse, all credit to her!