“It is not everyone,' said Elinor, 'who has your passion for dead leaves.”
― Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
Wherein, I FINALLY read the works of Jane Austen. Weird, I know, me, the wild English major, the feral word goddess, the keeper and reader of ALL THE BOOKS, but never cracked open a volume of Austen, never even watched a movie depiction. In fact, I once owned (mid2000s) a beautifully bound and numbered set, original printing, with beautiful colored plates, which I found in a box, shoved under a shelf in a secondhand shop, and I spent less than 10 dollars to retrieve it, dust it off, and put it behind glass. In 2011, the year my brother suicided, I opened those cabinet doors, put the books back into a box, took them to a collector who was $uper intere$ted, took his money, and used it to secure a little cottage near Lake Michigan, where I took myself and my dogs to cleave and grieve and walk the chilled and windy beaches for 9 months, though grief gestates for much longer than that ... a lifetime.
Flashforward to this summer, when my second eldest grandg' (a woman of three and twenty) and I happened upon the idea of "let's read Austen, together, start to finish." And so we started … she started first … and I am quickly catching up … and in keeping with the quotey-quote nature of this blog, I think our text stream qualifies:
HER eveningtime the other night:I have now read S&S and P&P. The characters were all pissing me off in S&S.
ME: Elinor just found out Edward is engaged to Lucy. But now I must sleep.
HER: Most shocking indeed. Goodnight.
ME: Quite deserving of a cat fight but the ladies dasn't resort to bloodshed. Night!
HER: Elinor is truly to forgiving
ME: She might be a bit daft. [did change my mind about that later of course]
HER: True true.
ME next day: Willoughby's breakup letter to Marianne, "I'm sorry, did you think we were going out. Here's your gnarly lock of hair back. Boo bye!" And Marianne is all like … [GIF of a woman ugly crying] … also everybody's favorite word is "monstrous" as in "mostrous pretty … mostrous happy … monstrous monstrous!"
HER: That was actually my favorite part. We have to start saying we are monstrous happy.
ME: Me too! Right now I am kinda partly pissed off at Willoughby now that he's confessed the real deal behind his letter to Marianne...but also monstrous smitten because I had a Willoughby once lol. Hard to hate the monstrous weak goofs.
HER: I hated Willoughby so bad. He's also a predator! He got Colonel Brandon's adopive-ish daughter pregnant and then he left her to fend for herself too! I was so pissed when they kinda forgive him. I never liked him I thought he was mean Bro loved making fun of Mrs. Jennings and Colonel Brandon.
NOTE: They say when you have children, you are so proud when they grow and evolve and do even better than you did in life. So what of the feeling when your second-eldest grand reveals how assertive and strong she is, and that no man will ever shit upon her! A voice to be reckoned with!
ME: Beguiling predator, that one, with the late hour "poor me" ... "and oh yeah ... good Marianne didn't die ... now remember don't be mad at me!" I get the "kind of forgave" him. Elinor hadn't slept in days! And her mother was flighty like that. I was probably sleep deprived too during my "Willougby" experience lol. I only have a few pages to go and I am going to watch the movie before bed. I have only 700 steps today. I was only on chapter7 when I restarted today.
HER: True. I could never hate on Elinor. She's my fav. I watched the show. I did enjoy it. [re: steps] Haha but at least you'll finish.
ME: I love this line when mama Eastwood tells elinore that col Brandon would be perfect for Marianne. "Her daughter, feeling by turns both pleased and pained, surprised and not surprised was all silent attention." Elinor was all like ... WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, MOM!?!?
Autocorrect has not read the book lol. DASHWOOD. Doy!
HER: Lol yes. She also kind of backtracks to pretty much be like, "Oh I always knew Willoughby was trouble. I always thought it should be Colonel Brandon! Elinor is strong for dealing with everyone's bullshit.
ME: She fits the elder sister archetype to a t ... so strong and resilient with zero fuss. I would like to see her in one of those rooms where they gave you a sledgehammer, and you get to break things.
HER: RIP, Elinor you would've loved a rage room.
ME: And mom needs to take a seat. Marianne nearly dies and she's all like ... nope ... lived! Now she can marry this guy!
HER: Seriously! I honestly thought he would be better with Elinor. Marianne never seemed to give a F'.
ME: She's a bit high maintenance emotionally with all the crying, loss of appetite, not sleeping ... I liked her for her intellect. But my god girl suck it up!
HER: It also cracked me up how their brother after Willoughby rejected her was all, "She used to be prettier than elinor now shes uglyyy!" And how she acted to elinor all, "Oh happy Elinor you don't know anything of my pain," like, yeah, she didn't know what Elinor knew, but also she could've tried a bit harder to see how sad Elinor was at times just from Edward not having proposed and confusing her.
ME: If this was the Brady Bunch ... Elinor would be going ... it's always Marsha Marsha Marsha! Marianne!
HER: Fr! Elinor would never though she's too nice.
ME: Jesus! They just arrived back at their cottage area and they coddled Marianne for the 2day trip ... and she sees the place, memories resurge, and she's CRYING AGAIN ... Marianne ... the same person who cried the entire time she's away because she wanted to go home!
HER: FR! Like, girl! Get it together for two seconds! She also said she'd try to act more like Elinor so Elinor had room to feel as well.
***
ME next day book/movie done: When your mom and your aunties were growing up, whenever we hit a stressful moment, I'd say, "We must be sophisticated ladies ... and not shit our selves." But I think it must now be replaced with, "I will be calm. I will be mistress of myself." Or we must be calm and be mistress of ourselves ... and also not shit ourselves. I finished a bit after our chat last night, and then watched the 2008 version of S&S, and today I'm watching the BBC version, and apparently there is a new version coming out in October, which I watched the trailer and it looks good, but goodness none of the sisters have their hair up, and it's all flying and flailing about, which that always trips me up in movies of that particular time period especially because their hair would be filthy, you know, since it wasn't like they could warm up water and wash it every single day, which is why it was always powdered and tossed up, and such. I think many times in movies they let the women's hair down to make them more sexualized, but we shall see ... but we shall see ... mark your calendar for October. [yeah, I can be a stickler!] Watching the BBC version today because I have to alter 3 dresses for a wedding.
HER: I noticed that about the trailer as well and I saw that the dresses they have are very dull. They kinda blend into the background. And good plan. I'm finishing my other book I put off to read S&S and P&P. Then I'll start Mansfield Park.
ME: I get really pissy when there is dullness of dress and background, and when there are ratty, tattered books in the libraries in movies because those books would be ratty and tattered 100 years from then, like if we bought them in an antique shop, but back in the day, they'd be bound and beautiful and look care-worn and well-read.
HER: They also had enough before the father died to dress nicer so they had those dresses hey jut couldnt get nice new ones.
ME: The clothing might be dull because only rich people had bleached cotton and nice fabrics, but not so dull that all they had was brown and beige shit to wear, especially the woman in S&S as they had "some money" and once a year when they'd get their stipends or whatever, that's when the women would shop and such in season for their clothing. So we shall see. I wonder how many local theaters will carry the movie. I would go to that one on a big screen. I will throw my popcorn at the screen if they don't get it right.
It would be fun to do. I'd get behind that.
And a p.s. note: I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! how, maybe it wasn't a E.A. Poe book, but grandg' had a book on her shelf, waiting, a "telltale heart"beating, saying, "Hey, you were supposed to read me weeks ago, before starting on Austen," and she doubled back to catch that book up, which means I can get through P&P and we'll enter Mansfield Park at the same hour, likely, as we both finish (me the dress altering, her the workweek).
, 
