Tag: Jane Austen is my comfort food

shrewreadings:

cleoselene:

whitmerule:

letzplaymurder:

jane austen was so lit because she wrote about men the way men typically write about women i.e. her stories just centered around women and men were only there for the sake of women, and her books could have been all bitter and sad about the state of women in that century, but instead they’re sweet honest observational stories of friendship, family and love *sighs* what a lady i am sorry i ever doubted you cos I was bored in high school

no seriously her books do not pass the REVERSE bechdel test and it’s perfect

Jane Austen never wrote a single scene without a woman present.

I…. Just realized this.

Awesomeness. 

multsicorn:

stultiloquentia:

This is probably going to get me some odd looks, but this makes me think about Jane Austen!

It’s so funny, but so deeply dependent on this specific moment in time, in 2016, when Adele is all over the damned radio, and nobody (in this really specific cultural sphere) needs context for the joke, and part of the joke is that nobody needs context for the joke. 

There’s a bit in Pride and Prejudice where Elizabeth and Caroline are walking on the grounds at Netherfield, and they bump into Darcy and Mrs. Hurst.  Caroline, who’s trying really hard to get Darcy to put a ring on it, immediately attaches herself to his free arm, leaving Lizzie kinda awkwardly stranded, since the path in the garden is only wide enough for three.  Darcy’s embarrassed by this blatant rudeness, and tries to say, “Hey, let’s go walk someplace else, where we can all fit,” but Lizzie, who thinks they’re all a bunch of boring losers and wants an excuse to ditch them, retorts, “You are charmingly group’d, and appear to uncommon advantage. The picturesque would be spoilt by admitting a fourth.”

The year Austen wrote P&P, everybody was obsessed with this guy named William Gilpin and his ideas about art and nature appreciation.  “Picturesque” was the word used to describe ideal landscapes, and by ideal Gilpin et al literally meant things like “that hill is adorned with the correct number of cows.” Three is a pleasing number for cows on hillsides (and otters on otterslides!); four is gauche.

And that example was so well known that that is certainly what Lizzie was alluding to, and all four characters, and most of Austen’s educated readership, would have known it. Lizzie just called them a bunch of cows and ran off.

This is why Jane Austen is my favourite.

Tumblr, you are my other favourite.

This has been a post.

And in a maybe-nicely-circular moment, @stultiloquentia, I didn’t even parse what the picture was saying until I read you saying ‘Adele’…

penfairy:

Consider this: Gwendoline Christie playing the romantic lead in a Jane Austen adaptation, or indeed any period piece. Nothing else changes. Nobody draws attention to the fact she’s a woman. It’s just two solid hours of Gwendoline Christie on a horse and wearing a suit and sweeping maidens off their feet

anghraine:

Quite possibly my favourite thing about Pride and Prejudice as Austen’s loose adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing à la Clueless

people: you know that Benedick and Beatrice aren’t the main characters

Austen: sure, whatever

people: you know that their relationship is actually the B plot

Austen: okay

people: the real plot is Hero/Claudio, and her being misjudged and him being manipulated into believing it and they have to be brought back together again and

Austen: since I’m expanding this into a full length novel, I’ve been thinking about how much dialogue Hero and Claudio’s totally fascinating and narratively central relationship should get

Austen: lol jk

Austen: none