Austen and Eliot

18 July 2018: "When Jane Austen died, her last words were 'Pray for me, oh pray for me'; when George Eliot died, she is reported to have said 'Tell them the pain is on the left side'. The shift which took place between the two novelists is movingly registered in those two utterances: to have gained all the scientific ability to measure and locate human pain without the redeeming belief in any ultimate remedy for that pain — that is the predicament George Eliot 'gave out in intensified form' in Middlemarch, and it is one of which we too, living in a later century, have an intimate knowledge" (Wilhelm 56-7).

Preparing for my seminar on the nineteenth-century novel, I read the lines above earlier today and found them quite persuasive and moving.

Work Cited

Wilhelm, Cherry. "Conservative Reform in Middlemarch." Theoria, vol. 53, October 1979, pp. 47-47.

Sense and Sensibility

6 February 2018: Another long day and here I am, still getting some work done past 11:00 p.m. For the past couple of hours, that work has involved finishing up re-reading Sense and Sensibility, the subject of my ENGL 311 class this week. To be honest, tonight's re-reading had been rough going. I am tired, a bit anxious about other work that needs to get done, and (as always these days) dismayed by the news. So it's been hard to put all of my focus on the adventures of Elinor and Marianne, which isn't very fair to Jane Austen.

All in all, I still think this is a kind of dark or at least very cynical novel for Austen, one that we ought to be careful not to over-romanticize. Yet even still, I did find myself charmed by this passage towards the end:

"...for though a very few hours spent in the hard labor of incessant talking will dispatch more subjects than can really be in common between any two rational creatures, yet with lovers it is different. Between them no subject is finished, no communication is even made, till it has been made at least twenty times over."

That the couple who lingers over the same conversation points is Elinor and Edward--who have been examples of sense and reason, not schmoopy (I am too tired to think of a better word) emotions--adds to the sweetness. Even these two nerds (I say with all affection) can get swept up in each other.

That's about the best I can do for something approaching profundity today, but now I can cross "blog" off my to-do list.

Jane Austen Tea Party

15 July 2017: “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." --Darcy to Elizabeth, Pride and Prejudice

Today my friend Carrie and I led a discussion of Jane Austen at a library fundraiser. The above passage--on lots of people's "favorites" list--came up during the discussion. To tell the truth, I was a bit nervous going into the event, not knowing what to expect. But I should have expected that the people of this cool little town would show up with their A games, and they sure did.

"Black Like Me? Or, How I Learned to Embrace My Inner Emma"

12 September 2016: Today's good thing is this piece, one of the options for my ENGL 101 students' homework as they work on their literacy narrative. It's such an interesting and smart piece. Well worth a read (or a re-read).

Some more quick and completely random links...

1) More Jane Austen/science-fiction cross-overs.

2) The sometimes depressing, sometimes hilarious, almost always interesting "F*** My Life" blog.

3) "The Dirty Lie": a website all about the myth of clean coal. This topic will be on my mind a lot more in the coming months as we prepare to host Silas House as our Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence next fall. House is a big opponent of mountain-top removal. (I've been meaning to write a long post on my love for House's books for months now...I'll get to it someday. I promise!)

Two great tastes that taste great together...

Jane Austen + Zombies = Added to my Amazon wishlist.

Pride and Prejudice on Facebook

You remember Hamlet on Facebook, right? Well, this one is a lot of fun, too. I wonder if I should assign this kind of exercise in an intro to lit class. Might be cool...