Embarking On A Course of Study

An Unsatisfactory Reply

Was hoping my inquiry would be passed along to their membership but guess not. Looks like I'll have to contact individual scholars directly via their academic affiliations. Still, some writers were mentioned so will add those to my list.

Christine,
 
Thanks for the attached message which came to the general email address for the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA).
 
I can help you a little with books Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility might have read.  I would recommend starting with the novel itself. At least three authors are specifically mentioned - William Cowper, Sir Walter Scott, and James Thomson.  There is no mention of Lord Byron in Sense and Sensibility  though he is a likely author for Marianne to have enjoyed.
 
As to Colonel Brandon's library, it is called "modern" in the novel.  I would imagine that any contemporary author such as Lord Byron would be in his collection.
 
Good luck with your project.
 
Carol Moss
JASNA Web Site Manager

Slacking Off and Signing Up for Charm School

Here is my confession: instead of reading P&P today, I'm reading "The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen" by Syrie James. Yes - fan fic. What can I say. The cover is really pretty with its flowers and a fake pink silk ribbon. I love P&P, I do. But today my brain doesn't want to navigate those aforementioned complex and beautiful layers of language. I want to sit in my yard with the burgeoning moonflowers, impatiens and hydrangea with an iced soy chai latte (with just a little ice) and read fan fic while my dog snoozes nearby in the sun and my wind chimes made of keys from the American Visionary Arts Museum play something summery above my head.

I did, however, write to the two Jane Austen societies I mentioned previously to inquire about reading suggestions and any other advice they might have. I was so nervous about it. I hope they don't think I'm a whack job. Marianne did call it a 'serious course of study' and I do mean to do just that. Despite the fan fic today. I wrote to the Vice-President of US Regional Chapters at JASNA, and also to the Chawton House Library and to the UK Jane Austen Society. Hopefully my emails will find their way to just the right person, who will be enthusiastic about all this.

Due to these multiple explanations of what I'm doing, I'm beginning to wonder what I hope to gain/be by the end of this project (whenever that is). Initially, it was all about knowledge and structure and immersing myself in the world of one of my favorite writers, but I also am curious to see how I will have changed, personally, from the field work and the interactions with the people I meet as I move through this process. What will I have learned? It's an interesting prospect.

In the meantime, I am corresonding with a local milliner and looking at Jane-inspired sewing projects on an Austen website in England. Can't think of anything better for fall and winter evenings than decorating hats and sewing and dancing! I also sent an inquiry to a charm school in Bowie, Maryland (if you lived here you'd know how weird that is to have a charm school there, no offense to Bowie), where "Ladies and Gentlemen may explore the art of": social etiquette, personal presentation, poise and appearance, managing multiple priorities (which I read as multiple personalities), etc.

I leave you with a link to a Rudyard Kipling story called 'The Janeites' about a WWI vet reminiscing about the secret Austen society of his battalion. Members would give certain passwords related to the novels and receive Turkish cigarettes in return and would chalk character names on their artillery guns.

The Janeites   

Despotism and Decorum

Wrapping up the reading of the intro (which I can only do in small doses of 1-2 pages before running back to the actual P&P text) and found another interesting point amid the melange:

"All women in the novel are caught by the despotism of convention and whether they transgress the limits of decorum or they repress the flow of feeling they are likely to be the victims of oppression or misunderstanding."

Well, the limits of decorum have changed, but not the oppression or misunderstanding of a woman's 'flow of feeling.' By herself as well as others. I'm not going to debate the societal perspective, just the personal one. As a writer, I've learned from personal experience that having a container - a form, with limits - creates a more refined and accurate piece of writing. Direct. I think the limitations - the codes - of Austen's time did the same for the expression of these feelings.

Yes, the circumstances that created the limitations were unfair and inhibiting and stifling, but the resulting layered depths of language! Astonishing in their complexity and beauty. How we speak today can't possibly compare. Nor, I bet, our understanding of our feelings. I'm thinking of how much more responsibility Austen's characters and the women of her time took for their feelings. And how we, today, often don't. How we let them hang out whenever, wherever. I think we've all been guilty of that at various points in our lives. I want to stress here that I don't mean controlling one's feelings (in the unhealthy holding back sense), though that plays a part as well. I meant the word I chose: responsibility.

There don't seem to be any limits anymore, which is wonderful, to some degree, and terrifying and unsafe in others. At least in a container you know you'll hit the wall at some point and things can't get out of hand. Sometimes that's a good thing.

Not sure if I'm explaining my thoughts clearly here, but there they are.

Isobel Armstrong (the intro writer) also speaks of how the novel "is enthralled with the way news and information - and gossip - circulate in a local neighborhood" and asks "what is a neighborhood, a community?" She says the novel addresses the question of what you can legitmately say and know.

In a way there is no such thing as a local neighborhood anymore. With all the ways we can communicate, it's now a global one. What don't we know and say? And not just in the morning through the paper or evening through the news on TV. We know and speak to each other instantly - in audio, video, real time/real life.

We are constantly witnesses, spectators, and spies when it comes to each other's lives and the world around us. How would Austen navigate today's unprecedented intimacy? Something tells me she'd rise to the challenge.

Masks also play a part in the novel - the persona one creates for society. Do we really bare all on MySpace and Facebook and Twitter or are we just creating a persona that goes so deep we can't see it - operating under the illusion that we are sharing the real us? Can a life so on display for others to witness still be real?

Fragmentation and centralization - even as we gather in these virtual centers, we fragment ourselves to do so. We are fragments participating in various centers. So when are we the whole and when are we the part?

I'm always fascinated by the question of identity so this is a bit of a stream of consciousness, associative ramble.

So the introduction has been good for something after all!

I realize I haven't written about the ideas of the picturesque and how women represent this, but I'll get to it.

Dating Advice From Caroline Bingley

1) Try to show off your wit and good breeding by being all astonishment at the expense of those less fortunately mothered.

2) Compliment the object of your desire, ad nauseum, on:

  -his library

  -how fast he writes

  -how talented his sister is

3) Offer to mend his pen

4) Walk about the room trying to show your figure off to its best advantage

5) Mock his penchant for 'fine eyes'

6) Propose many suggestions about his domestic felicity as you tease him about marrying your rival

Good grief she is so freakin' annoying and obvious, why does no one lock her in a closet so they can have some peace?

Not that Lizzy is doing a better job. She seems to focus on two things:

1) Darcy is an arrogant prick (um, my terms)

2) He hates her (that's why he stares at her so much)

It appears that one should cultivate 'archness' as this seems to be the thing Darcy likes so much about her. Archness has some great synonyms: pertness, sauciness, impertinence. It' boils down to 'inappropriate playfulness.'

I'm all about being inappropriate. Let's do it ladies. Throw a little archness into the mix and see what happens.

I've gotten off track with my reading because so busy, but will catch up this weekend and post upcoming reading material in the side bar this weekend.

And I have to write my Austen scholars! I'll approach two organizations:

The Jane Austen Society of North America:

www.jasna.org

The American Society of Jane Austen Scholars:

which I can't find a proper link for as the one I found no longer works. It is, however, housed at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and I have a friend on the faculty there, so perhaps....

Here is a fun 'All Things Jane' website that lists lots of cool links:

http://www.jasa.net.au/jalinks.htm

Looks like I'll need to subscribe to some of the Jane journals!

Marianne Didn't Have a Job

Okay, well, underestimated - just a teeny bit - how hard it would be to work this 'course of study' stuff into my already jam-packed daily life. My job alone, these days, is sucking my soul dry, and that makes it hard to have the energy to read let alone be thoughtful about it. I'd really rather just revel in P&P like a normal reader - enjoying Austen's wit and intelligence and the unfolding of the romance between Lizzy and Darcy. But no, I had to go and read the damn intro first so now there are themes and metaphors banging rudely through my head like these (and I quote):

"The marriage contract between Elizabeth and Darcy is effectively a political agreement between the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, embodying a mutual adjustment in which power on the one hand and critique on the other are softened and aesthetized into a harmonious relationship."

Oh yeah, I can guarantee you that we writers are DEFINITELY thinking in those terms when we're plotting our plots, "That's it! It'll be a mutual adjustment....blah blah power....blah blah critique...and then they'll be aesthetized and all live happily ever after!"

Nothing says good reading like 'aesthetized.' Nothing says love like 'mutual adjustment.' Put that in your wedding vows, ladies.

Jesus, can theorists and scholars kill a good story or can they kill a good story? I mean, yes, it's a class thing, and a power thing, and a male/female thing. It's about the society's complex hierarchical structure and social codes. Duh. Let's not make a huge deal out of it.

Two of the multitude of things addressed were interesting:

1) "The eye is the focus of erotic energy. It is the only public expression of libido and available both to the perceiver and the perceived in a social order where sexual feeling is displaced...."

"The anxiety of the eye in the novel comes from a sense that the eye's discourse betrays - both by signifying too much and too little, and by exposing too much or concealing too much. The eye is the source of misprisions, making necessary the exhaustive process of interpretation."

She's really pushing it with "eye's discourse" and "misprision" but it gets behind the codes and the play on observe that is used alot (to make an observation and to see something) in the book. The eyes are the only thing each person is free to really make use of, to convey their real self and feelings. And they do, to varying degrees, adding to the wonderful subtext. So I'm overlooking the mode of transmission when it comes to her ideas. Ha.

And no, I'm not going to tell you what misprision means. I'm assuming you're reading this because you're an English major so you should know it already. And if you don't, then you should suffer the same humiliation and self-recrimination I did in having to look it up. 

I'll save the number two thing I liked (it's that picturesque stuff I mentioned in another post) for tomorrow.

Things Begin in Earnest

Well, like a good little student, I am slogging through the introduction to P&P, at the same time as I read the text. I can only take the intro in small doses. Like so many intros, the writer/scholar/theorist/whatever tries to take on too many themes, the aesthetics of the entire 18th and 19th centuries, the ideas of as many writers and intellectuals of the period as possible, and even down to dissecting the words 'pride' and 'prejudice' with entries from Mr. Johnson's dictionary. Oh my head.

It's not that there aren't good ideas, but I did use the word slog on purpose. It's not organized well and she really should have picked one thing and stuck with it. I'll transcribe here the ones I found interesting. But later. After some Advil.

I will say that the most fascinating of the subjects she tackles is the aesthetic of the picturesque. I will share quotes on that as well. It really appeals to the poet in me.

My Facebook community has been very supportive of this endeavor (thanks, ladies!) and have passed on contacts for classes, books, even the name and email of a milliner from whom I might receive some instruction in the art. I am happy to report I found an archery class near Annapolis in October. It's age 14 through adult so it may be me and some kids brushing up their skills after summer camp, but I'm going. I was pretty good at archery in junior high, if I recall correctly. Who knows. I've been myopic my entire life - literally, but probably figuratively as well.

After all, the point of this is not just study and discipline and absorbing ideas and dating Jane Austen, but also to stretch my boundaries, learn new skills, step out of my comfort zone, make a fool of myself, too, if that happens. That's life.

I had the good fortune to be able to have lunch with my mentor and ex-thesis advisor at the University of Maryland who loved the idea of my project and suggested the following to read:

-Francis Bacon

-Oliver Goldsmith

-Byron (of course)

-Alexander Pope

-John Ruskin

-Sir Thomas Brown

-James Thomson

-Keats

-Wordsworth

Many of whom I read in college, some not enough. So it will be wonderful to revisit them with a purpose.

I'm going to create a typelist with the books I'm noting I should read with titles and publishers and year of publication so you can follow along.

And I'm trying to figure out this domain mapping thing (it's really changed from just a few years ago) so you can find me more easily at www.embarkingonacourseofstudy.com.

If you are reading along, comment on what you're reading. I'd love to hear it.

I have also decided that I should definitely have a seance. This is one of those digressions I mentioned....It's too tempting not to try.

Pleasant but topical digression

Sense and Sensibility (part I) was rebroadcast on Masterpiece Theatre last night, which I see as an approval of this venture. Much as I adore Emma Thompson's version, this newer one is quite good, so there I was, reading the introduction to P&P while also watching S&S. Bliss.

I remembered that my alma mater, Goucher College, here in Baltimore, has a Jane Austen scholar-in-residence every year. The scholar comes in February, so I will definitely make plans to speak with her then, but I will also be emailing her to ask about reading materials and her take on my project.

Her name is Juliette Wells, she is an associate professor of English at Manhattanville College. Here's the link to the Goucher press release:

http://www.goucher.edu/x32993.xml

On Wednesday, February 17, Wells will give a lecture titled "For the Love of Jane Austen," during which she will discuss why present-day Austen fans so often choose to feature the author in their fiction and nonfiction writing. The lecture will be held at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public. I'll be there, hope you locals will as well!

I will be posting the reading list in the sidebar - books suggested to me by others and from other books as I read. As you can imagine, the introduction to my edition of P&P has several and look so interesting I wish I could split into 3 people so I could make sure to get to everything!

I started looking for millinery classes (hat making) and, though not having luck so far in my area, did find this charming online course in England:  http://www.millinerycourses.com/

I'll leave you with a treat: this is a British coffee that has created video readings of classic and contemporary books, given by 3 dishy actors, two of whom have starred in Sense and Sensibility: Greg Wise (Willoughby from ET's version), and Dan Stevens (Edward Ferrars from the new version). Dominic West (The Wire) is the third reader and does a marvelous job with P&P. Here's the link:

 http://www.cartenoire.co.uk/

I'll post some interesting bits from the introduction as soon as I finish it tonight and before I move on to the text itself.

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

I woke up this morning feeling both excited and sick about this project. I'm a program director with my state arts council and VERY busy on that front. I also teach.  I am, occasionally, social, and like to see family and friends as people do. Sleeping is also high on my list. As is reading for pleasure. I hope to keep reading to that level, but one never knows. I remember in grad school how much reading there was and how long it took me after I graduated to pick up a book by choice (two years) that required any real brainpower. I read fluffy stuff to give myself a break.

And you should see the stacks of unread books I have already....

But I do believe life is a continuing education program and it's up to each of us to design our own course of study - over and over and over again. To some degree, this project will give me the intensity and depth I wanted from my MFA program, but couldn't have because there was so much writing, reading broadly through various periods, and theory (blech) to do. Most of it was a repeat of what I did as an undergrad, so that was particularly irksome. And I would never do a PhD program. I sat in classes with those candidates when I was doing the MFA and the amount of mental masturbation going on between them was enough to make you gag.

Also, as mentioned, my brain doesn't work that way. My thoughts go through my feelings first. I am more an intuitive thinker than anything else and it's worked thus far so I'll be going with that!

So a warning to those who comment: if you try to hijack this blog with alot of academic-speak: facts and figures and theory etc. without your own personal framing and feelings about All Things Austen, I will delete you. That's not what this is about.

Think of it as us dating Austen. We're getting to know her and what interested her. Developing skills to be a better partner (i.e. reader) for her. She will woo us and vice versa.

Okay, let's get on with it! What book did I pick first? Hello? Have you been listening? Pride and Prejudice of course, though it fairly leapt off my bookshelf when I walked into my home office. Technically, my fave JA book is Persuasion, which will come next. And the book I look forward to reading the least would be first Emma and then Northanger Abbey. I can't get Gwyneth Paltrow out of my mind's eye when it comes to Emma, and she lacked the mature core of the other heroines. As does Catherine in NA.

Ditto for Keira Knightley in P&P. Ack. She has the neck of a sea monster. Seriously. Put her flat face on the Loch Ness Monster and you'll see what I mean. Sorry to KK lovers. Did I mention I might get snarky? I did love the spirit of Jennifer Ehle's portrayal, but the amount of mascara (rivalled Tammy Faye) and lip gloss was staggering. She was also too old and looked it.

The young woman who played Lizzy in Lost in Austen (an absolutely dreadful mini-series put out last year, I think), clicked more for me, but we didn't see her enough in action, being that she was locked in the modern world while Amanda was in Lizzy's, screwing everything up royally and being rude and coarse and irritating.

I did mention digression.

I plan on compiling a short list of Jane Austen scholars out there and writing to them to ask what five books on what subjects they would suggest I read. I'm hoping they'll get a charge out of the idea of this blog and write back. I will, of course, post the list of these scholars, and their responses.

But before Darcy, the dishes.

The Journey Begins With the First Step: Reread the Novels

Last year, in the spring, Masterpiece Theatre aired the BBC adaptations of all of the Jane Austen novels. It was a brilliant idea and my friends and I were uber excited about it. I arranged gatherings for enthusiastic women of my acquaintance at my home and the homes of some of the women participating. We laughed, we sighed, we ate, we talked--about, among other things (yes, like the Colin Firth lake scene in Pride and Prejudice) how much we'd love to "embark on a serious course of study" as Marianne resolves to do at the end of Sense and Sensibility.

That was over a year ago and the idea has been on my mind a great deal of late. I'm a writer of fiction and poetry, and just completed a novel earlier this year. Usually after a big project, I want to read and read--sort of take in to replace all the pouring out I've been doing.

But I wanted that taking in to have more structure and purpose. And it's always bothered me that, while I know the basics about various literary periods, I don't know any one in particular in any depth. I don't consider myself an intellectual, and I'm definitely not a scholar. What I am is the proverbial voracious, eclectic reader, who also happens to write.

Plus, like so many, I just freakin' love Austen!

So I sat down with my friend Holly and we made a list of subjects into which I should venture--reading the writers on these that Jane and Cassandra might read (as might Marianne in S&S), but also writing that would teach me about the world in which they lived; its science, architecture, fashion, gardens, music, etc. with plenty of room for the sensational (like Mrs. Richardson's novels!), diversions, and digressions as fascinating new information pops up.

There will also be fieldwork wherever possible--embroidery class, millinery, country dancing. Learning whatever arts and skills I can that women of that period surely would have called second nature (i.e. domestic training). I may even go so far as to learn how to read Latin or Greek.

There will be much frustration, humiliation, and revelation involved, I'm certain! I'm looking forward to some boundary-breaking and some magic.

If you have ideas on books, films, museums, a place where I can buy a corset (I'm game to wear one for as long as I can stand it, at least one day)--I'm open to anything and everything within reason (well, maybe not reason, let's just say depending on my mood and bank balance)--please comment or email me at therealwriter@gmail.com. No idea too weird or too small.

I also hope to have some guest bloggers/experts, depending on the subject.

My first tasks, then, are to reread the novels. And, at the same time, a good JA biography. Start researching my list of subjects and choose a direction.

Just a reminder about the no intellectual/scholar thing. I'm just your average reader/writer who wants to be on more intimate terms with Austen and her world. The posts will range from superficial to mostly intelligent to perhaps even insightful. I make no promises!

I have no idea how successful this will be. Follow along at home if you dare!