Debates I'd like to happen, and other things

[selenak]

Right. It’s summer, it’s too hot, the politicians are drearier (or more infuriating) than ever everywhere in the world, and TV tends to be a bore. Here are two of the debates I’d really love to see and listen to.

Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte: despite the Victorian hagiography which made them into long-suffering saints, both ladies, if one reads their letters, give the impression of not suffering fools gladly. Against the clichés, Charlotte could be witty, and Jane could be passionate. Making it through life as a female writer and a single female should provide conversational topics, plus Charlotte couldn’t stand Jane’s novels, which adds spice.

Aphra Behn and Dr. Samuel Johnson: Aphra is widely acknowledged to have been the first woman to earn her living with her pen. A novelist, playwright and poet, with a fondness for witty erotic verse (scandalous for a woman, which caused her postumous reputation to decline till Virginia Woolf rediscovered her), and an exciting life which included a short (and not too successful) career as a spy, trips overseas and a time in prison for her debts. Dr. Johnson being famous today more for his conversation than his own writings, and with firm (sexist) opinions on the role of women in life, but able to be charmed nonetheless, the debate should be lively indeed. They could find common ground on the theme “needing patronage early in your career is a bitch”, though.

Any other ideas? One dream meeting might actually happen. We just have to convince rozk that it is her mission in life to bring Joss Whedon and Neil Gaiman in the same room together.

Speaking of Neil Gaiman, there is a great new interview with him here.


Also, a delightful Sandman fanfic in which Desire meets Hermes, here.

In matters of debate: honorh has just written a great treatise on the cardinal sin one can commit when writing fanfic.

And lastly, by now all `Scapers probably already know this, courtesy of kernezelda, but there finally is a John/Scorpius vid out there! And a fantastic one it is. After you downloaded it here, hop over to hmpf slj and pay homage to the creative consultant of this beauty.

Comments

I'd watch those debates.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

And I'd watch that vid, but I can't. *pout* The MPEG file won't work with stupid WMP.

Dammit. Aarrrr. If I had vidding equipment, I'd vid Scorpy/John myself.

How about the Avi file for DivX?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

After all, it exists in two versions.

Not that I would want to stop anyone from creating their own Scorpy/John vid. *g*

Re: How about the Avi file for DivX?

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

I can't get any picture with Avi, and I don't have the admin privileges to installe DivX to view it.

The vid will be published at Farscape Fantasy, too,

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

and I think Dallascaper will convert it to several formats. Maybe one of those will work.

I'm sorry I can't help with whatever the problem is... I no next to nothing about the technical side of vidding, that is AnduraNova's domain. I just help to choose and arrange the clips.

Uhm... 'no' should read 'know', of course. ;-)

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

I'm not really awake yet. ;-)

[kernezelda]

Bronte vs Austen? I don't know anything about them biographically, but if they were as clever in speech as in the written word, that would have been a memorable event.

I didn't notice Hmpf attached to vid -went right over and commented.

They were.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Charlotte was a bit shy with strangers at first, but if someone infuriated her, she could rise to glorious heights of clever verbal onslaught. Case in point: Thackeray, who was her idol until she actually met him and he mortally embarrassed her at a party by introducing her as Jane Eyre. What came next served him right.

Re: They were.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

What came next?

Bronte vs Thackeray

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Bear in mind that my English-language Bronte biography by Juliet Barker is lent to someone else at the moment, and I have to (re-)translate from a German one, by Elsemarie Maletzke. So Charlotte's original phrasing probably was better than my translation of a translation.
CB: Sir, if you had come to Yorkshire and I had presented you as Mr. Warrington to my father in front of strangers, how would you have felt?
WMT: You mean Arthur Pendennis-
CB: No, I don't mean Arthur Pendennis, I mean Mr. Warrington, and Mr. Warrington would never have behaved as you did, Sir!

Explanatory footnote: Arthur Pendennis was a snob whom Thackeray had indeed somewhat modelled on himself, Warrington was his noble friend.

[scarlettfish.livejournal.com]

I'd pay to see a discussion between Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen. Now that would be interesting stuff! Just throw Emily into that mix, and we'd be right. Of course, she wasn't the most chatty girl...

Emily's taciturn ways...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

...were why I didn't put her in the debate. I was afraid she'd just go for outstaring both Charlotte and Jane...

Re: Emily's taciturn ways...

[scarlettfish.livejournal.com]

LOL...That's pretty much what I see her as doing, as well. And yet, she's my favourite of the three. Go figure ;)

Re: Emily's taciturn ways...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love her best as well. I'm just aware of her lack of debating potential.*g*

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

The Libertine
Aphra Behn. 1640-1689

A THOUSAND martyrs I have made,
All sacrificed to my desire,
A thousand beauties have betray'd
That languish in resistless fire:
The untamed heart to hand I brought,
And fix'd the wild and wand'ring thought.

I never vow'd nor sigh'd in vain,
But both, tho' false, were well received;
The fair are pleased to give us pain,
And what they wish is soon believed:
And tho' I talk'd of wounds and smart,
Love's pleasures only touch'd my heart.

Good choice! When the Choose your own League Quiz was making the rounds a while ago, one of my friends chose Aphra... I thought she's do well there too!

In praise of Aphra

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Absolutely, she'd fit in any League. Just as she'd hold her own with Dr. Johnson. Thank you for posting the poem. This inspired me to get my Penguin edition of A.B. out and look up a favourite as well. Here's an epilogue she wrote, reportedly spoken by Nelly Gwin:

I here, and there, o'erheard a coxcom cry
Ah, rot it - 'tis a woman's comedy,
One, who because she lately chanced to lease us,
With her damned stuff will never cease to tease us,
What has poor woman done that she must be,
Debarred from sense and sacred poetry?
Whiy in this age has Heaven allowed you more,
And women less of wit than heretofore?
We once were famed in story, and could write
Equal to men; could goven, nay could fight.
We still have passive valour, and can show
Would custom give us leave the active too (...)
Because we do not laugh at you when lewd,
And scorn and cudgel ye when you are rude;
That we have nobler souls than you, we prove,
By how much more we're sensible of love;
Quickest in finding all the subtlest ways
To make your joys: why not to make your plays?
WE best can find your foibles, know our own,
And jilts and cuckolds now best please the town;
Your way of writing's out of fashion grown.
Method, and rule - you only understand,
Pursue that way of fooling, and be dammed.(...)
To all the men of wit we will subscribe:
But for you half wits, you unthinking tribe,
We'll let you see, what e'er besides we do,
How artfully we copy some of you:
And if you're drawn to th' life, pray tell me then
Why women should not write as well as men.

Re: In praise of Aphra

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to cross post this back to my journal... Thanks!

Dare to dream!

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

One dream meeting might actually happen. We just have to convince rozk that it is her mission in life to bring Joss Whedon and Neil Gaiman in the same room together.

A meeting that must occur! If only to hear them discuss Neverwhere's influence on BtVs season 5.

It really has to, hasn't it?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

As I said, I think it should be rozks heroic quest to achieve it. She knows N.G. and published the best collection of essays on the Jossverse there is, so...