Live-Blogging PBS' "Jane Austen Season": Part 2, Northanger Abbey

Hi again readers fair. I am here again on my couch with my austen-loving boyfriend, and a special guest, his sister who is a fellow Austen-obsessive on the level of yours truly.

We've heard down the blogopipes that this version of Northanger Abbey is not exactly hip to Jane Austen's biting wit but that it's sort of sweet... so here goes.

For those who don't know, NA (which I just re-read) is Jane's "Gothic Parody" but more than just a send-up of the Radcliffe ouvre, it's also a very straightforward skewering of ideals of female friendship, fidelity, and social mores. The heroine of the novel, who is not suited to be a heroine, is the innocent, wide-eyed Catherine Morland, and the hero, Henry Tilney, has a charmingly ironic sense of humor.


9:01: Gillian Anderson talks about gothic novels and Jane Austen: "Shocking; is it possible to read too many novels?" answer: NO!

9:03 Andrew Davies' name just pops right up there on the screen, suggesting great heights and also sordid depths.

9:04; Catherine is so cute; her face oozes naivete.

9:06: Off to Bath--and our first extended Gothic fantasy sequence... robbers, duels, sexy bandits. Oops; turns out it was all in her head, and the only thing acting wild is Mr. Allan's gout.

9:08: When in bath... let's go shopping! It's like Sex in the Regency city.

9:11 At "The Rooms," Mr. Allan ditches the ladies for cards. The intimidating atmosphere of bath is surely too much to be borne.

9:12: Mr. Tilney is joking about various types of muslin. He has a nice dry wit. He also has such an understanding of Muslin. This is my favorite thing about him.

9:13: A dance? with me? Little old Catherine Morland?

9:14 Tilney's smirk: an expertly sarcastic smirk.

9:15 "Perhaps I don't keep a journal at all!" Cut to scene of her writing in a journal. Visual irony, folks.

9:17: Bitchy Isabella Thorpe tantalizes our innocent Catherine with stories of Lord Bryon's peccadilloes.

9:19: Dudes on the prowl stare at Isabella for the second time in five minutes; Isabella, it might be prudent to add, is clad in a very stylish [ahem! low cut] dress: "God, Bath!" say my companions.

9:20: Thorpes vs. Tilneys: there will be blood.

9:24: Putting down my computer to enjoy this for a bit... Catherine is sooo naive. She reminds me of Burney's Evelina even more on screen.

9:27: The "spot of rain" and sheep traffic jam are both so unromantic--however it doesn't seem to have turned Catherine off the novels. Now she's abandoned The Mysteries of Udolpho for "The Monk"--which, if you know anything about gothic novels, is the opposite of Anne Radcliffe: the horror to her terror, the masculine gothic to her feminine gothic, the body behind the curtain rather than the curtain behind the curtain.

9:33: I repeat: Henry Tilney is adorable! "That's a dope outfit" says my boyfriend.

9:36; The Morland siblings are a pair of naive twits, but loveable none the less.

9:39: Isabella's heart may be "40 miles away"... but her boobs are right there! And Captain Tilney is well aware of them.

9:45 The General is so intimidating that even his inviting smirk has a hint of death and mystery to it.

9:50 The shots of the abbey's exterior and exterior lead us to debate the relative merits and disadvantages of living in a regency mansion...good: four poster beds. Bad: chamber pots.

9:56: The secret of the stashed-away laundry bills... I do wish they had given us a close-up of the laundry bills themselves...

10:01: The Tilneys are the sweetest siblings eva... too bad their dad and brother are such douchebags.

10:04: Tilney is explaining his monetary situation to Catherine. This, and all the other hints and money stuff, are a bit of a deviation from the book, but it helps clue the audience in to why the general is such a dick.

10:07: Tilney isn't supposed to be this mad at her. He's breaking character. I know it's all about the narrative tension, but DAVIES!"

10:10: Oh, christ. Are we actually implying that Isabella got seduced? DAVIES!!

10:14; "He may not have killed his wife, but General Tilney is definitely an asshole."-my bf. True.

10:16: The public stagecoach--the Greyhound bus of its time.

10:19: A comforting Austen mother... so rare.

10:24:Happily ever after. Okay, so maybe his speech about ma and pa is a little emo for its time. But still.

I have to admit though that despite the mini-blasphemies, this movie totally charmed me and for the most part, I was at a loss for nasty, snarky comments to make. I thought the leads were pitch-perfect and it did a good job of following Austen's brilliant tightrope between mocking Catherine and taking her concerns seriously.

I am so happy that there's a new awesome Austen adaptation to add to the canon.
It wipes the bad taste of last week's Persuasion right outta my mouth.

Live-Blogging PBS' "Jane Austen Season": Part 1, Persuasion

9:12. I arrive late due to a rainstorm and miss Gillian "Lily Bart" Anderson's intro, alas. But just to kick off the post, I'd like to say that Persuasion is pretty much in constant contention with Pride and Prejudice for my fave Austen book, and the 1995 film with Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root is my favorite 2 hour feature film of all time. So this production, which has gotten "eh" reviews from the Austen blogosphere, has a high bar to reach. But I am still looking forward to it.

Anyway, on with the heaving bosoms, social maneuvering, marital prospects, chance encounters at social watering places, dashing admirals and lonely spinsters.

9:12 I see Anne Eliot and Lady Russell sitting side by side, sniffing and sniffing with high emotion because Anne once yielded to LR's persuasion, and Anne talking about h0w "rich" Captain Wentworth has become. This does not bode well.

9:13 The leave-taking scene between Elizabeth and Anne feels like a shot-for shot budget remake of the 1995 production, as does Anne's reunion with Mary.

9:15 I'm not sure I buy this Mary as a hypochondriac. Her face is too modern. She belongs in a pair of stilettos or on an episode of Weeds or something.

9:17 but I love Louisa and Henrietta. They are so appropriately tittery. A giggly greek chorus.

9:18 Hmm, but on the other hand, why aren't the Musgroves more jolly? They're supposed to be nice, but kinda crazy-happy-country-folk.

9:20 ahh. This is all going too fast. I need some lingering shots. Where is the stuff where all the Musgroves confide in Ann? That's one of my fave passages in the book.

9:21 Aight, here comes perfect lingering shot, with a window, and flowers and streaming light and stuff.

9:22 So much for the lingering shot. Enter Mr. Right. Hmmm, Wentworth's cute, but not weatherbeaten enough.

"Mr Wentworth, this is my eldest sister Anne." Umm, yeah. I think he knows that already.
I miss the shot from the 1995 Persuasion where she grips the chair subtlety.

I need to stop comparing, right? Right?

Resolved; I will stop comparing.

9:22 This Anne's getting prettier and I like her a lot. But what's with the goddamn diary? Since when do Austen adaptations borrow from Bridget Jones?

9:25 OMG TREASON TREASON WHY IS FREDERICK SAYING THIS LINE AT THE DINNER TABLE? "I am ready to settle down and make a foolish match etc etc." This is not his line! This is supposed to be the Croft's territory.
Also, this is also way too much personal info for the recency era, innit. "I want someone with firmness of charcter, not open to persuasion." Ohhh. I see now. I'm looking at you, Anne.

UPDATE: Okay so as commenter Julie reminded me, it is Frederick's line. But he's not supposed to say it at dinner. He's supposed to say it during a quiet heart to heart with Sophy. Hmmph.

9:26 Anne is playing a funereal dirge on the piano. Such subtlety.

9:28 Charles and Mary argue about which sister Wentworth will marry while Anne walks just ahead of them and emotes. Awk-ward!

9:29 Mary's got no love for the, erm, Hayters.

9:30 Anne falls and Wentworth's marvelously sculpted face floats above her. He lifts her up, scowls.

9:32 Trying to figure out when Anne rejected Charles, Captain Wentworth calculates the intervening years in his head... "I'm not so good at Math you see, but I do look damn fine in a pair of breeches."

9:34 Wentworth roughly pushes Anne forward, lifts her up, and shoves her onto the carriage. How forceful. All women want a man who can put them in their place, right?

9:35 They're already going to Lyme. Damn this movie moves zipplily through hundreds of pages of Georgian prose. It's like Austen on speed. Hello. The camera is supposed to be a substitute for free-indirect-discourse. Everybody knows that.

9:40 A panoramic Lyme shot--what ominous walls leading down to the sea.I wonder who will fall down them and provide a major plot point.

9:42--What happens when you put two ex-fiancees on a winding staircase? Aw-kward x2!

9:43--My boyfriend, a big Persuasion fan says: "Down goes Louisa--this sure went quickly. Are you sure this goes til 11?" ...And he adds "I agree, Mary doesn't look Regency at all, and Wentworth is some pretty boy, he isn't a hardened sailor."

9:45 Me: "Where have we seen Wenthworth before?" My boyfriend, "In an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog?" Snark. UPDATE: True Answer: He played St. John Rivers, and Jane Eyre dumped him for Rochester/Ciaran Hinds in the '97 Jane Eyre. Which is weird because he's now lost out to Ciaran in two (count'em, TWO) separate categories.

9;46. Aww, by asking Anne whether she approves of his plan to tell the Musgroves about Louisa's fall while she remains with Henrietta, Wentworth is implicitly showing her that he trusts her. And she's so happy! Aww. They are such a good team. Aww.

9:48: My gosh, Henrietta has a Williamsburg-hipster haircut. Killer bangs.

9:48: Don't bring up Lady Russell in front of the ex-fiancee whose engagement she helped break off, Anne! That's mad not smart. It might even make Wentworth jump on his pacing steed and ride off into the night. Haven't you read "The Rules?"

9:50 Well the Camden-place snobs are pretty snobby. I'll give you that.

9:51 OMG Mr. Eliot is totally Brutus from Rome! Anne, beware the Ides of March!

9:52--Oooh, a scene between Wentworth and Harville that was only hinted at in the book. How daring, how irreverent. How pointless.

9:53--That Brutus Mr. Eliot. He's so smooth, so charming, but he'll stab you in the toga back when you're not paying attention. Also, does anyone else find it ironic that his character betrays and stabs Ciaran Hind's character on Rome? Just like this movie is betraying and stabbing my favorite movie of all time which starred Ciaran Hinds? Just like he's going to betray Anne?

9:56--That is a looong hand-kiss on the part of Mr. Eliot towards Anne. Elizabeth, needless to say, is not too happy.

9:58--This version is certainly milking the "poor Anne" sentiment" even more than the book, and the 1995 version, dared to. So let's all say it together: "Poor Anne!" However, I'll admit that this Sally Hawkins person is a very good actress. She's doing a good job with the part. They're doing a lot of close-ups of her face and she's handling them in the true Anne Eliot spirit.

9:59--Come on, Anne. Are you going to stand for this treatment of the part of your papa? Say your famous "not the only widow in Bath with little to live on and no surname of dignity" line! Say it.
...
She said it. Yay.

10:02: Here's a long long scene where the Crofts show up, Anne thinks they’re talking about Wentworth and Louisa and gets all breathless, but oops! they’re talking about Benwick and Louisa. Whew.

Now she knows her ex-fiancee is free once more, and she’s all heaving bosom and tears.

10:04—Bath. Rainy day. Tea-shop. Ex-fiancees are stuck together, mere inches apart. Speechlessness ensues. Then speech. Good speech. Soulmate speech. Austen-penned speech, for once.

10:05—Well, this is a sweet moment. I acknowledge it. Way to show your chops, British actors.

10:06--Mr. Eliot shows up. The men stare each other down. Is this like a reverse catfight for the benefit of the ladies?

10:08--Oh pant, pant, pant, run, run, run right out of the concert Anne. But be warned. You want a proposal from one man, but you're gonnna get one from another.

10:12 Ok, this ticking clock thing is just ridiculous.

10:13 Why do they keep talking about "Haters?" Snark.

10:14--They are adding the deleted scene where Wentworth comes to be an emissary from the Admiral under the mistaken belief that Anne is engaged to Mr. Eliot. Not a happy job on his part. It's almost like that time when Jane Eyre said "screw you and your missionary work. I'm goingback to that blind cripple, Rochester Ciaran Hinds."

10:15--Some nice Firth-esque micro-facial movements on the part of the good Captain when he realizes his ex-fiancee is free. No panting and heaving for him. Still, he loves his Anne so much.

10:17: Why is the invalid Mrs. Smith running through Bath? Shouldn't she be hacking up a lung in a sanitorium somewhere?

10:17--Wha? Huh? "Mr. Eliot has promised to set Mrs. Clay up as his mistress when he marries Anne." Said out loud, on the street, to an unmarried woman. What happened to whispers and gossip and Mrs. Rooke?

10:18--She's running again. Is this Forrest Gump or Persuasion?

10:19--She's running again again.

10:19--She reads the first two lines of his note: "You pierce my soul. I am half-agony, half-hope." At least they keep this Austen-original gem in.

10:20--Still running. Damn girl. In a corset no less.

10:20--Haha Charles keeps talking about a gun but Wentworth and Anne are all half agony half hope and shit and he... has no... idea!

10:22--She's determined. Get it? She won't be persuaded anymore. She's come full circle. What a character arc.

Let's omit the fact that Anne felt she was right to refuse him those eight years back, even though on some level she regretted it, and that had his pride allowed him to re-propose two years after that, she would have totally said yes.

10:22 Kissssssssy kiss kiss.

Hey, remember the scene in the 1995 version where he takes her hand and the sexual tension jumps off the screen and it's the most important hand-taking of all time ever? Yeah, me too. I liked that scene.

10:22 "Dear Diary. Today I ran a marathon and got re-proposed-to-by my ex-Fiancee."

10:22--She's got a blindfold on. Kinky.

10:23--"I'd like you to to see your wedding present. I got you Wuthering Heights! Not the book, the, umm, house." Camera pans to huge gothic mansion. Austen-ending as real estate commercial. Not entirely inappropriate, actually. Austen was a big fan of real estate.

But what happened to the SEA, Austen's great romantic reconciliation/post-aristocratic utopia?

10:24--Apparently, there's a merry-go-round in front of the new digs, cause they keep spinning.

10:26--Credits roll, previews for next week. Northanger Abbey looks good.

Final verdict: eh. Even badly-adapted Jane Austen is good, and the two leads did a really excellent job of acting. But I'm not sure I get the point of this sped-up, relatively unoriginal production. I bet the un-deleted, sophisticated British version was better. But anyway, with the exception of proving some really good thespian talent, particularly Sally Hawkins, it didn't do enough that was new to wow me. I respect it, but don't adore it, and oh how I long for Amanda Root and yes, Ciaran Hinds.


See you next week, same time/place, for much more unbiased, earnest coverage of Northanger Abbey.

Middlemarch and Electioneering

I love nothing better than drawing parallels between my myriad obsessions, as you know!.
In this case, my sig other and I have been enjoying my parents' awesome Hannukah present (The George Eliot DVD collection--yep it exists, and don't they know their daughter well?) by watching the "Middlemarch" miniseries courtesy of the BBc and--who else?--Andrew Davies. I think Davies missed a few key points of Eliot's masterwork, particularly the final scenes between Will and Dorothea and Will and Rosamand, which is surprising--who would have thought that prince A.D. himself would omit a really sexy scene from a novel whilst adapting it? I mean Eliot has handed it to him on a platter here, with the lightning and the thunder and hands clasping and kisses and embraces and lots of "spasmodic movements" and sobbing. Sam Mendes, are you listening?

But... enough about love! George Eliot's novels were about a lot more love, and given that this is high primary season I found all the politicking and electioneering in the adaptation refreshingly well-done and relevant. There was a particular scene between Will and Lydgate, these two young, slightly arrogant but well-meaning idealists who share the goal of genuinely reforming their corrupt society, testing each other by talking about their respective "obligations" to less-than perfect men who are giving them the one thing without which real change is impossible: money. It's such a transcendent moment--in a simple exchange, Eliot and Davies have given us this universal truth about change, corruption, idealism, compromise. As the presidential candidates jostled about who was the real change agent and criticized each other's past votes this week, Eliot's relevance and insight hit home once more.

Which brought me to the question I always come back to: of all my favorite novels, the battle for the one that's numero uno always comes down to Middlemarch vs. Pride and Prejudice, with Jane Eyre and Persuasion being the equally beloved but less perfect silver medalists (And yes, I still say that I've read Gatsby and Ulysses and Sound/Fury and all that stuff).

Pride and Prejudice is by far the most flawlessly crafted novel ever written IMO, without a word, a note out of place, with this symmetry of character, events, and understanding that's breathtaking. It also has a far better sense of humor, economy of words, and lack of didacticism than the much more traditionally 19th century Eliot.

But the perfection of Middlemarch is different--it's the scope of it, the way she crafts this world of co-dependence between people of different classes and creeds and describes the way the same problems affect poor and rich alike, and this damningly accurate understanding of the way gossip and perception filters and thwarts good intentions. It's just so complete a portrait, so complete a novel... and that last line:

for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

I can barely read it without choking up. It's so full of both the tragedy that Dorothea's sex kept her from being all she could, but also the triumph that she achieved so much by lifting up those around her. It's a question we still deal with today, no? Whether to strive for great change or just to be kind to the humans we come into contact with. Neither are easy, both are nearly impossible--look at the personal failings of our "great men."

Anyway, I still think in my heart of hearts I prefer P&P, but I'm again awed by Middlemarch. I can't wait for the feature film.

British humor at its best

Via Austenblog, I present to you this brilliant parody of the period romance genre, from Austen to Thackeray and back again, featuring Alan Rickman, Imelda Staunton , and more.

Two Quick Notes on Subjects Near and Dear to EBC Hearts

1-The BBC's Andrew-Davies=penned three-parter adaptation of Austen's Sense and Sensibility premiered overseas today... the folks at Austenblog are giving it their snarky best analysis.

Personally, and I know I've blogged this opinion a thousand times, but I'm a huuuge fan of the Emma Thomspon/Ang Lee Sense and Sensibility (S&S 05) as a standalone film, because while it has obvious flaws and departures as an adaptation there are too many amazing performances and moments--I've seen it upwards of ten times and it still makes me laugh, cry, shout "Mairanne, you idiot!' etc etc.

So far, this adaptation sounds like an unfunny Soap-Opera-ish 'do, but without any major transgressions. Andrew Davies, why hast thou jumped the shark?

2- Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon, my favorite liberal/feminist blogger, nails Maureen Dowd for her column treating the Democrats as "uppity" gatecrashers with gabby wives. Maureen really is a piece of work who should be fired, pronto. But that's a rant for another day.

Also, Shakespeare's Sister tells MoDo to "shut up." True, she should.

Stay warm, bookworms!

Happy 08 Readership

Greetings, reader-land. Hope you've recovered nicely from your hangovers and irritating headaches caused by too many people shouting "08, mannn! wooo!" from assorted rooftops, balconies, couches and dance floors.

Personally, like the Dashwood sisters before me, I've been spending my break moving with my hetero life-partner from my isolated palace up in north Manhattan to a tiny but cozy cottage/apartment ("I am excessively fond of a cottage") in North but less-north Manhattan, a wee bit closer to the bookshops and cafes of Universityvilleland and of course, closer to ma, pa, and work.

My new years resolutions are basically to unpack all my boxes and keep writing and blogging, and ignore the fifteen or twenty comments I got at social events over break about how--it is implied--my unorthodox career choice (freelance writer for the indy press-cum-tutorer of wealthy teens) must be a disappointment and I should really hook up with so and so over at such and such a corporate publication. To which I am always tempted to reply: I will sell out when I f-ing want to sell out, and not a second before, you nitwits!

In this first post of deuce-double-ought-eight, also want to add a heartfelt shoutout to my candidate, John Edwards, on the eve of his caucusing in Iowa. Not that he needs me after liberal heavyweights Michael Moore and Ralph Nader big-upped him this week, but one more positive vibe can't hurt. I support him because I love the anti-corporate, pro-union message he espouses, because I identify with his anger at the status quo, and because I think we're in a serious emergency here in the US of A, and conciliatoriness is not the way out. I want a Fortinbras, not a Hamlet, yo. Also, I don't care if he gets expensive haircuts, cause he be looking fine, and Elizabeth deserves herself a handsome man, if any woman ever did.

Anyway, that's all from the new digs. Best wishes for a peaceful and serene '08 with a heart-poundingly exciting Democratic victory at its end.

Combining Two of My Favorite Things

Jane Austen and media incompetence (if only I could fit feminism in here somehow):

Check out this correction in the Washington Post:

A Dec. 16 Book World review included an incorrect name for a character in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." His name is Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Judd Apatow; The Sexist Emperor Has No Clothes

Fellow-ette and her fellow, via gmail chat,respond to this horrendous "conversation" between Judd Apatow and his doormat wife Leslie Mann.

It would be hard to argue for JA not being a misogynisty doofus at this point, no? If you need more convincing, see my former posts on the subject. (And Katherine Heigl agrees, natch).
Anyway, this is a conversation that reveals how men and women can converse in non hierarchical-stereotypical-social-roles-prescribed-ways. Who'd a thunk it?


Fellow-ette: that apatow/mann article was sick

ugh

Her Fellow: right?

horrible

F-ette "look at us playing our gender roles!"

Fellow portrait of an abusive marriage

F-ette sad

yep

Fellow yeah but i really felt bad for her

she wasn't even being that shrewish

F-ette: i know me too

he came across like a huge arsehole

Fellow you could tell he tried to force her into that role

1:36 PM

"it'll be great - you nag me, and i'll say funny things!"

F-ette: like he thinks it's all so funny

Fellow yeah

such a prick

F-ette: yeah

but she doesnt

Fellow nope

F-ette she wants to KILL him secretly

Fellow: clearly

F-ette: hahaha

Fellow also she is right about all of those things

those are sheisty presents!

F-ette: YES!

YES!

Fellow they all involve him controlling her

F-ette: its so obnoxious to get her a trip to italy

yeah

Fellow "GO TO ITALY AT THIS TIME"

1:37 PM F-ette: they should be deciding together!

Fellow without even talking to her about when/where she wants to travel!?

yeah!

F-ette we agree!

Fellow he clearly sees her as property

haha true

F-ette yeah

we are the same

Fellow F*CK THE PATRIARCHY.

finis.

It's that time of year again

The Golden Compass vs. Harry Potter. Smackdown!!

I picked up this YA fantasy novel hopefully, in anticipation of the film. Well I never saw the film because the reviews were just so totally dismal, but the book was fantastic. The most affecting part, as everyone says, is the relationship between the humans and their Daemons--or animal manifestations of their souls. So believable and well-drawn! I also loved Iorek, the ice-bear, and the warm gyptians and the cold but kind witches.
With all that happy praise out of the way, Phillip Pullman, you are no JK Rowling. As much as I adored this book, I neither rushed out to buy a sequel nor would have been more than a little miffed if I'd been interrupted. If it were a Harry Potter book my eyes would not have left the page. The difference is that JK Rowling taps into something in our core humanity that very few writers in any genre are able to.
Still, I'm going to pick up the Subtle Knife one of these days, and devour it greedily.

Awesome.

Jennifer Weiner, author of much loved she-centric (not chick-lit) fiction, has a blog, and it's funny, interesting and super egalitarian. She bashes privilege like a pro! Rock on.

Daniel Deronda--reviewed and re-Jewed.

I love me a sexy Hebrew.

Greetings readership. It's been a long time, as they say, and there's much to catch up on that will never truly be caught up upon, because time is ephemeral and stuff. (Again, what I've been doing.)

To prove my mettle, I return to you with a full-on discussion of Daniel Deronda, a very wonderful and complex work by George Eliot that helped me get through the December blahs. And of course being an egalitarian bookworm chick, I followed up my dense reading with a dense viewing of the obligatory Andrew-Davies penned BBC miniseries, which wickedly sexed up the villain to such an extent that he may qualify as the worst. husband. ever., even for a BBC miniseries. Which as we all know is saying a lot.

As all the critics like to remind us, Deronda is a novel with two parts, the connecting thread of which is our eponymous hero, Daniel. Said critics also agree pretty unanimously that the "Jewish" half, wherein the gentleman/prince Daniel, like Moses, discovers his true identity and redeems his people, is not nearly as well-written or brilliant as the half which narrates the bitter redemption of beautiful, selfish, Gwendolyn Harleth and her journey among the aristocracy. Write what you know, as they say. While Eliot is able to perfectly illuminate the miserable lot of women by using real characters (Gwendolyn might be the most psychologically astute portrait of shallowness in literary history), when she gets to the Jooz, she's so busy trying to portray them as exotic and wise and sinless and mystical that she forgets to make them people.

I was almost more enamored of her stereotypical depiction of the somewhat "common" Cohen family and their silver shop than by the exalted Mordecai and Mirah. This conundrum, not coincidentally, really reminded me of Uncle Tom's Cabin (Harriet Stowe and Eliot were correspondents), with its pure, sinless oppressed blacks, and its solution of sending them to Liberia, just as the sainted Deronda and Mirah go off to Palestine. All this is complicated stuff-- there's more than a lot of unintended racism in both novels, which use the innocent "other" to throw into relief the corruption and decay of their societies. However, Stowe and Eliot are also responding to the bigotry of their peers and may have felt they didnt have room for nuance.

It's tempting to say that the moral of Eliot's literary failing is that art shouldn't be sacrificed for politics. However, we can't deny that public reaction to these novels was much stronger than it would have been to op-ed pieces because people were moved by them.

Anyway I'm glad I tackled this book. George Eliot may be the most formidably intelligent of the 19th century novelists, and the novel has enough redemptive literary qualities that one can enjoy it both as a work of art and a relic of its time-- (AND a retort to the Trollopes and Dickens' of the world who put nasty Jewish characters in their book.)

But on to the BBC version... it was just so gorgeously well-done. Nice work, Andrew Davies. Hugh Dancy is a very pretty man, and he captured sensitive Daniel Deronda perfectly while Romola Garai was also an excellently spoiled Gwen. I really enjoyed seeing six degrees of Austen adaptations. Amanda Root (aka Anne Elliot--Persuasion) was a simpering Mrs. Davilow. And of course the actor who played Henleigh Grandcourt (Mr Rushworth---Mansfield Park) was perfectly sinister. And lastly, slimy Lush was played by David Bamber (Mr. Collins--Pride and Prejudice) to creepy, obsequious perfection. Another fun factoid-- Jodhi May, who played Mirah, was bitchy, plain Cousin Grace Stepney in The House of Mirth.

Murphy's Law

states that whenever I wear rainboots, it dries up, and whenever I wear suede cowboy boots, it friggin pours.

Readers fair, tomorrow is the final day of my internship/project. I shall be back to blogging in full force shortly. Aren't you excited? I am.

Tell Your Friend Veronica...

Happy [C]hanuk[k]a[h] readership fair. Hope your dreidels land on gimmel every time!

I know it's been like forever and a million gazillion days, but what can I tell you? In two weeks I'll be back to my layabout freelancer ways, with a major project under my belt and other battle scars galore to show, and I'll have more time to devote to EBC. Plus, I'm reading the Golden Compass and if I have any free moments at the moment, I'd rather be chillin' with Lyra and Pantalamion than blogger and sitemeter, to be honest.

In the meantime, as I said before, check out my sidebar buddies.

And if you must must read fellow-ette-penned claptrap, this is what I've been doing (as of the last week in September) and has been keeping me so busy. And please do comment on this Huffpo piece that I put up tonight about gender roles in Disney's Enchanted.

Oh, also, I passed a milestone of sorts on sitemeter sometime recently, while I wasn't paying attention. 20,000 unique hits or something like that. As I always say, for a personal, irregularly updated, barely-focused and poorly promoted blog, it's not bad. SO THANK YOU FOR VISITING. I love you, I really do, and don't lose faith!

So drink your gin and tonica
and smoke your marijuanica
&c &c &c

the faithful
fellowette