Friday, July 18th, 2008...1:20 am
#69: Enough With The Jane Austen Worship
I like Jane Austen as much as the next novel-writing-and-reading middle-aged woman, which is to say, a lot. Which is really to say, way, way too much.
Do we actually need a whole genre of books about modern Jane Austen lovers, entire clothing lines devoted to Jane Austen wear, multiple tour companies eager to guide you through Jane Austen locales? How about lessons in how to take tea, dance, cook, garden, and of course write a la Jane Austen? There are Jane Austen Festivals and Jane Austen book groups, Jane Austen dolls and Jane Austen tee shirts, Jane Austen movies and Jane Austen bloggers.
Even our babies are not exempt from Jane’s omni-influence: The names Emma, Darcy, and yes, Austen are rising in popularity.
A couple of the most entertainingly over-the-top examples of Jane Austen worship: The Jane Austen action figure. (That’s her in all her plastic glory on the right.) And this tour of Jane Austen’s Google Earth.
It’s not that Jane hasn’t written some great books, but there’s something a little too order-seeking, rich man-loving, and sanitized (i.e. fussily middle-aged) about the J.A. Mania. Why not devote equal attention to the Brontes, who pulled back the curtain on a wilder brand of early womanhood? Or to modern masters like Alice Munro or Louise Erdrich, who are far less widely known and sell many fewer books than Jane Austen. Listen, I love Pride & Prejudice, but my favorite book last year was Lionel (female) Shriver’s The Post-Birthday World.
I was so pleased at your mention of Louise Erdrich’s work; I have re-read all of her works, some many times. Her “Last Report of Miracles at Little No Horse” remains my favorite book, by anyone. That she remains relatively unknown mystifies me.
Of course I agree. I can’t wait to get her new book of linked stories, A Plague of Doves. The excerpt in The New Yorker was stunning in every sense of that word.
“A Plague of Doves” is my planned beach read (Duck, NC, 2nd week of August) along with a re-read of Lance Armstrong’s first book. Now THAT’S a combination platter…
Hey there Granny,
It’s time to broaden your horizons: come over to the Google Earth Community (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php/Cat/0) and take a look at the many and varied and over-the-top layers that put the life and works of many creative people into their geographic context. We’re not engaging in worship; we’re helping to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, as Google likes to put it.
In addition of my Jane Austen Layer (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/411188/an/0/page/0), you’ll find ones on Jack Kerouac (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Number/240611), Salvador Dali (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/938627/an/0/page/12), James Ensor (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Number/1051575), PG Wodehouse (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=571160), all of the places in Shakespeare’s plays (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/155428/an/0/page/0) and the travels of Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=546450). (I’m also rather fond of my layer on the lives of the Six Wives of Henry VIII: http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?Number=365164). And of course, you’ll find numerous layers on topics of substance in many other fields.
So, download Google Earth and give it a spin. After all, the ability to merge one’s traditional interests with cutting edge technology, especially if like me, you were born before personal computers even existed, is one sure-fire way to not act old.
In the meanwhile, thanks for the extra hits to my file. 😉
cheers,
Lucia
What’s this? Nobody ever told me there were Jane Austen clothing lines. I’m eager to learn more, even as it occurs to me that I really don’t look good in an Empire-waist dress. And who can look dignified in a ruffled cap?
I’m with you on the Brontes. I always liked their books better than Jane’s, although I enjoyed hers too.
I also loved George Eliot. I remember being assigned to read “Middlemarch” over spring break for my English Novel course in college (back in my day we didn’t go to Cancun). I read the whole 900-something pages in that one week and loved it!
Right on, I loved The Post Birthday World too. (I’m 30, I think I’m old before my time – I need this blog!)
Thanks! And my favorite book so far this year is Tana French’s In The Woods.
Why not devote equal attention to the Brontes, who pulled back the curtain on a wilder brand of early womanhood?
Because after reading Jane Austen, the Brontes make me giggle behind my hand. I like their stuff, mind, I just can’t take it very seriously.
Because I don’t care for the Bronte sister’s work.
Because Austen knows how to brilliantly turn a phrase.
Granted, I’m not into anything except Austen’s *books*, but I have no intention of replacing my love for them.
“Why not devote equal attention to the Brontes, who pulled back the curtain on a wilder brand of early womanhood?”
http://www.neatorama.com/2010/05/07/bronte-sisters-action-figures/
I’m not sure if 25-26 qualifies as being young anymore after reading this post, but quite a lot of my friends, and myself, are reading Jane Austen.
Granted, we’re Belgian and it seems “fancy” to read original Jane Austen books.
But there’s a trend to embrace the really old (a.k.a. Victorian style) and modernize it. You already mentioned steampunk as an example, but Jane Austen fits right in there. You take elements from that time (from the BBC-series if you’re looking for proper examples) and then you think: how will I be able to wear it today without looking like a time-traveller?
And if you can come up with such an outfit, you’re young again. And you’re not just young again, but you’re also following a “new trend”.
Things that are quite “trendy” (wow, what an old word; only my mom uses that anymore) are “camee”s (http://www.google.be/search?hl=nl&q=camee&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=909)
These used to be sculpted from ivory originally, but since it’s frowned upon to wear anything animals had to be slaughtered for (and that makes you seem OLD as well, embracing “the real thing” when the “fake thing” isn’t just cheaper, but usually prettier and makes more sense), it’s made out of different materials nowadays.
I myself have about ten different ones to wear and a lot of my friends do as well. Pearls are a good thing as well, but remember to add a little “new” to it (for example, a bright red rose, or a black flashy bow), as if you’re saying to the world: yes, I wear pearls, but I’m wearing it with a modern twist, as if I’m laughing at those who are wearing them seriously. Oh, and of course don’t use REAL pearls; no one can tell the difference from looking at them (so why waste money on them and take them from oysters?), and the fake ones keep white longer.
Another “victorian stolen thing” (can be worn steampunky as well) are little pocket watches. The ones your grandfather or great-grandfather used to wear with a chain on them … ? The older looking, the better. Don’t put them in your pocket, of course, but wear them on a long chain around your neck.
I myself wear the pocketwatch of my great-grandfather. Reconnecting with family you never knew only SEEMS old. But it’s all about doing it with an attitude of “you mean YOU never looked between the jewels of your great-grandmother for hidden treasures?!”.
Wearing these jewels on their own can look young: just a normal top (brightly coloured red, blue, green; or even a colour that seems washed off for a real “Austen-look”) and jeans with the jewelry will do.
Just avoid anything with roses and flowers as a print. Wearing them as a jewel is fine, as if to say “I’m so young I can wear old” or “I know I’m getting a little older, and I’m just having a laugh with myself”.
So the key to liking an author is to like an author writing about a time of which nobody wonders whether or not you were actually there … I can use a pin my grandfather wore in WWII without looking old, since nobody is doubting that I was NOT there. I can wear something from the 70’s and get a smile, because nobody is doubting that I couldn’t possibly have been born back then.
So if you were born in the 50’s, don’t wear anything from that time, but go a decade or two younger (actually “older”), from the 20’s and 30’s maybe. Read a decade or two before the decade you were born in, and you’re getting the hang of those “this is so old it’s new again”-thing.
So keep reading Austen, nobody is doubting you weren’t born back then, so you’ll only get the “oh no, I have NEVER read her work and now I have to look as if I do”-glances that make people uncomfortable.