#i should say that I’m not an Austen scholar

[aureliagone]

Where are the Lucy Steele enjoyers! That bitch knew exactly what she wanted/needed and GOT IT, TWICE. Plus her levels of petty are just peak fr. Mean girls are very appealing characters for a reason. She’s so fun and makes me anggy 😤 but like she is doing her and nobody can stop her.

My use of the word villainess may not be the right word to describe these ladies. Some of them are not evil per se, but they act as a foil to the heroines. Which of these are your favorite foils, I guess?

[mizkit]

new blog post: ICFA: the last two days

new blog post on https://mizkit.com/icfa-the-last-two-days/

ICFA: the last two days

Let’s see. Friday I had a 10:30am thing, which I know because I couldn’t have breakfast with the family. Oh, yes, it turned out to be what Geoffrey Landis said might have been the most fun he’d ever had at an ICFA panel! laughs

It was a panel with myself and Kate JohnsTon, moderated by Novella, and Kate read an incredibly funny piece from the point of view of a genetically engineered modern T-Rex who was very, very horny, followed by two more very funny pieces, after which I read from my Pride & Prejudice pastiche, Magic & Manners, which was not nearly as funny and yet led, ultimately, to what arguably became the theme for the panel, which was…ejaculation. o.o

(See, in Austen, people don’t ‘burst out’ with words when they speak enthusiastically. Sometimes they exclaim, but very often they ejaculate, and given the whole horny T-Rex part of the panel… yes, well, it was very funny and poor Novella was just sort of sitting there with a hand over her face while Kate and I howled with laughter. It was AMAZING.)

Seriously, though, it was a great panel; the audience had good questions, the whole thing was obviously incredibly silly, and we had a truly wonderful time. Kate and I felt like kindred spirits immediately, and just, my god, yeah, it was really fun. I’m sure I could come up with more details (actually, the Magic & Manners stuff led into a pretty good, if brief, conversation about decolonization of fantasy), and I know we made Kate read more of her T-Rex book (which is actually a post-apocalyptic story based in a lot of science, and I’m really looking forward to it), but yeah, overall, it was great.

I think we went straight to lunch after that, where Mame and his wife, Woppa Diallo, who was the other guest scholar but was unable to attend in person, gave plenary speeches that ended with me having an entire LIST of non-fiction books to read; Mame (suffering, as he was, from imposter syndrome) kept saying he hadn’t even realized he WAS a scholar, but my god, the man is incredibly well-read, well-spoken, and insightful. We should all ‘not be scholars’ like he is. He and Woppa both spoke about ‘whimsy’ in African cultures, which was so interesting I may break it out into a short blog post of its own, and just…yeah, it was great.

Friday afternoon all the GoHs had a student caucus thingy that we went to in order to be available to answer questions specifically from students. Mostly there weren’t students in attendence, but the moderator (Andrew, from yesterday’s post) was great, and we ended up having a really good discussion, some great audience questions, and hopefully some insightful stuff was said. (Mary did end up asking me if I’d considered the possibility that I’d been a shaman in a previous incarnation, so, you know, things went a lot of places in that conversation!)

Ellen (Kushner, yes yes I’m definitely name dropping) invited me out to dinner on Friday with herself and Delia, and a couple of other people, including Kate of the T-Rex story, MaryAnne Mohanraj, who ofc I knew OF (we own one of her cookbooks, in fact!) but whom I’d never actually met, and a charming man named Will whose last name I’ve forgotten but whose reading I’d enjoyed earlier in the conference. Ellen apparently has a thing about finding good places to eat that aren’t right on the conference site, and we ended up going out for an Uzbek/Turkish meal that was almost impossibly delicious. We were partway through ordering when it became clear we were going to order half the menu, and the guy taking our order said, more or less “ok but you’ve got to order the to’y osh, it’s the house special,” and upon being reassured that we intended to, we just hadn’t gotten there yet, was satisfied. :D It was a wonderful, funny, delightful evening with absurd amounts of truly delicious food, and I’m extremely grateful for it. wibbly smile

Saaaaaaturday…oh, I hung out with MaryAnne Mohanraj in the morning for a bit, and…at some point? I had another panel? I think? With the other GoHs? And it was–well, for one thing, we were asked to read, which literally none of us expected, but Mame had his award-winning short story on his phone and Mary had a copy of one of her books of poetry with her AND she had a copy of URBAN SHAMAN!!! that she plopped in front of me to sign and, as it turned out, read from. :D And after that it was a Q&A that ranged from use of time in our various pieces (AGAIN, some really INTERESTING STUFF about African perceptions of time in storytelling that could probably use a post of their own) to copaganda, which as I’ve become aware, my stuff is rife with.

I went for a little walk after that and came back into the hotel to sit down and play Pokemon in the lobby, and after a few minutes Mame came by from a walk of his own and sat and we chatted, and then MaryAnne dropped by just as he had to leave, and then just as she was leaving, someone else she knew stopped by, so I was introduced, and as SHE was leaving, someone SHE knew stopped by–it was great, I felt like I was holding court. :D

I met–ah, man, I met so many cool people. I was sitting with the head of the conference’s fairy tale division at dinner one night, and at the banquet reception on Saturday she introduced me to her fairy tale ladies, who included a real genuine fan of mine (the woman who had asked about the copaganda, which was such a good question, honestly), so we had a lovely conversation and then they invited me to be in their annual picture. Obviously I said yes, and my fan, who is short but happened to be standing right next to me, when I said, “Should the shorter people go in front?” said, “I am short but I am not going anywhere. I am never moving from this spot ever in my whole life,” which was pretty cute. laughs She kept saying she was trying REALLY HARD not to completely fall apart, and she didn’t, and she was adorable and sweet and I loved her. :)

The dinner and awards ceremony were lovely–I, as were the other GoHs, was given an honorary award from the BIPOC committee, which made me extremely emotional–and post-dinner we all went out to the pool for an after-party, where I went with the express goal of “I’ll say good night and goodbye and that’s it,” and which took longer than the 90 minutes I’d expected it to (quite a lot longer, actually), but was a wonderful way to end the conference.

I could honestly write more and more and more about it all, but post-con writeups are taking up my “ok I have no brain to write fiction with” time, and I think by tomorrow I’ll be back to Able To Write, so I probably can’t spend the rest of my life waxing lyrical about the conference. :)

Me, Mary & Mame (picture by Mame): We had a great time. :)

[annetteblog]

This is sort if in response to the fanfic anon. In my humble opinion one should not look to fiction (especially the fantasy driven faire that is most ff) to morally, socially or historically educate people. Fiction can have sociopolitical themes and bring contemporary issues to life, but it is also usually framed and governed by a specific narrative.

Take Jane Austen's works for example. (I, like many people around here, enjoy reading them so that is why I am using them as an example). So, reading Austen, you get swept up in the romance and tension of the narrative. You also get a bit of the reality of social stratification and wealth distribution of the regency era- keeping in mind that servants rarely have much more than one line speaking roles and most heroines (basically, the pov) are landed gentry living in comfortable circumstances and afforded a lot of leisure time in which to fall in love and read poetry. Reading her books, one can easily forget about contemporanious events like the Napoleonic Wars and the persistent horrors of the slave trade. In 'Mansfeild Park', the slave trade is directly mentioned for the first and only time in her canon. The context? The heroine's failed attempt to engage her uncle in conversation (said Uncle owns a plantation in Antigua). Fanny's Uncle, Aunt and cousins- one of whom she will marry by the end of the novel- owe their wealth to slavery. This is acknowledged, and a lot if scholars say that Austen was condemning the existence of slavery in her own subtle way, but then... you just kind of move on. The books continues. The food that is being eaten, the dresses worn, the houses and fripperies, everything material, is there because of the plantation overseas. And yet we are supposed- and most people do- continue on with the story and invest emotionally in the romance of the two romantic leads.

During Austen's lifetime, British ships were involved in transporting enslaved people from the eastern seaboard of Africa to the West Indies and the American South. The horror was profitable to the nation. Of the 74, 000 slaves being transported at the peak, 38, 000 would have travelled on British ships. Though Britain's involvement in the slave trade was abolished in 1807, it was not until 1833 that slavery was made illegal in Britain (32 years before the United States).

The reason I say all this is because even though Austen's works are beloved and considered classics, even though they are said by many to be steeped in a kind of proto feminism, and considered valuable and timeless, they do not portray EVERYTHING- namely the horrifying and the unspeakable- that was going on in their era- even that which affects the main characters. So is this a moral failure? Is this an artistic failure? Many people think not. Some think so. Applying current day social standards to historical works can be a minefield.

Maybe fanfics are a lower rent version of this. In a time when many LGBTQ+ people are being persecuted in parts of the world (and there is no legal protection of the human rights of sexual minorities in Jikook's own country), people still use the narrative of a same sex relationship as escapist fantasy. I can understand where some members of the lgbtq+ community might be unhappy with this. (I am lgbt and ok with it, but that's just a personal, subjective thing). Hopefully, people whose imaginations are captured by Jikook (or anyone else), can parlay that interest and support into educating themselves about the real life plight of lgbtq+people around the world. Having a parasocial or personal investment in the happiness of someone you think might* be a member of a marginalized minority hopefully leads people to read, learn and do more.

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei once said that, 'if anything, art is... about morals, about our beleif in humanity. Without that, there simply is no art.'

Not all creative imput has to explicitly address injustice or politics. Not every lgbtq character has to be politicized. Figuring out what one personally considers to be 'harmless fun' and what may be misguided or hurtful can be very complicated. Listening to people, reading and learning certainly helps.

*Also, fiction is weird. It can be totally morally rotton and come from baaaaaaad people and still have certain objective artistic merits (???). You can read a novel from the pov of a twisted, evil person and find yourself weirdly empathizing. You can go on a journey through the eyes of an anti hero. You can commit crimes. You can explore eroticism that you wouldn't want to explore irl. You can read propaganda and be like 'hmm but it's fun tho'. Fiction is fascinating like that.

I love this. Anon, thank you 💜

___

“Applying current day social standards to historical works can be a minefield.”

A very big yes.

“Hopefully, people whose imaginations are captured by Jikook (or anyone else), can parlay that interest and support into educating themselves about the real life plight of lgbtq+people around the world”

I suppose this is exactly what happens sometimes. I obviously can’t speak on behalf of Koreans and how they perceive it, as well as I don’t fully understand how an average Western person (namely from an English-speaking country) sees them. But observing some Russian-speaking KM spaces I’ve seen people saying that they weren’t really engaged with the problems of LGBTQ+ before or even were low-key homophobic (which feels like a norm for an average person here), but after becoming familiar with KM and immersing themselves into the narrative, they started to see the bigger picture and changed their attitudes. The same works with other fandoms. Yuri on Ice dragged some people not only to the figure skating 😉 Art is really powerful. 

Speaking on the escapism fantasy. I gotta be honest, sometimes I read these very cheesy fluffy unrealistic fics exactly because they are nothing like the reality I see every day. So what? I’m gay and I need some serotonin 😀

P.S. Having the POV of a twisted morally questionable character is amazing, and it works not only in books. Love this. And it’s not like after watching Joker I started killing people (or approving it).

[misscrawfords]

☕️ Why does classic literature matter?

Well, I guess there are two other questions to consider here.

Firstly, what is classic literature? And secondly, does it matter?

Is “classic” literature just literature that everyone has heard of and lots of people have read, in which case Harry Potter would probably come under that umbrella, but it’s probably not what you meant. Or does it just mean “long, difficult books written a long time ago”? Or is there some criteria by which literature becomes classic?

I suppose a broad definition would be books that have been around for long enough to have become considered worthy of being read even after the immediate time of their publication has been passed. What this worth is made up of could depend. A lot of books that are now classics were extremely popular in their day and are now considered those long, difficult, inaccessible books today. Take Walter Scott’s Waverley novels as an example. Or they have remained well-known because scholars and critics and the people able to make the decisions about what survives in public consciousness and what doesn’t have chosen them to survive. But the people making these decisions are often elite, white men (at least in this country) so what becomes a classic and what is largely forgotten becomes very political.

So, do these texts matter? Well, that’s a matter of perspective. Possibly not. Everyone has a right to read what they like and there’s no reason why a person should read Bronte or Shakespeare when they would rather read exclusively contemporary romance novels or young adult fantasy.

However, I think they do matter and should matter to anyone interested in history, literature and the development of culture in their country. Classic literature is a window into the past and the way our ancestors thought about themselves and the world they lived in. That is interesting and eye-opening and gives a reader a depth of understanding and ability to empathise with people from a different background to them who may well have very different values. These are transferable skills useful when dealing, as we all have to deal, with such people in real life. And the best literature (and sometimes classic literature is classic because it is objectively good - well-written, well-characterised, engaging, thought-provoking etc.) helps the reader to see themselves and learn about human nature and gives them insight about the world.

Most of what I read for relaxation is not “classic” or literary - it’s whizzy detective stories. They may be well-written and occasionally they may deliver some insight about human nature, but I’m not reading them for that. I do definitely find that if I read Dickens or Austen or Hardy or Eliot, I do gain so much more in terms of deep engagement with character and human nature. That can be immensely comforting and challenging in a different way to the detective stories that I can pick up, read, and then forget so easily. Both have value but the value of these works of classic literature is more impressive and longer lasting than the value of a detective story that is not overly different to another detective story.

Finally, and this is the teacher in me coming out, but reading long books using complex language, elevated vocabulary to express complicated ideas improves literacy! Someone who reads these books is going to be able to learn by osmosis the tools to express themselves well in their own writing with an expansive vocabulary to draw on. They are going to learn critical reading skills and the ability to evaluate and engage closely with a difficult text. We live currently in a world where comprehension skills and basic writing skills are actually really bad! I see it among my students. The ones in Year 7 who are reading things like Diary of a Whimpy Kid exclusively are much worse writers and have a much worse ability to engage critically with other literacy-related tasks than those who are reading Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Twist etc.

There’s a lot of snobbery on both sides of the debate and this is unhelpful. There are people who say that only classic literature is valuable - if it’s modern or popular it is rubbish and the people who read such books must be stupid. This is obviously an unhelpful position to take. But there is snobbery in the opposing view as well - that these dry, long, old books are boring and irrelevant and you can’t learn anything from them. That is also an unhelpful and narrow-minded attitude.

People should read whatever they want, but there is certainly a value in classic literature.

[marryat92]

Hi! Where should I start with learning about Marryat/reading his books? Your blog has made me really interested haha

Thanks for the ask, I love getting messages like this! As far as reading his books, we’re in a golden age of accessibility thanks to all the 19th century literature available for free download on Google Books: that’s how I’ve read almost all of my Marryat books so far. If you’re willing to pay for electronic versions of his books, there are many offerings on Kindle and through Apple Books. Print versions are harder to find, but nautically-focused McBooks Press has many recent Marryat reissues. (edit to add: I recommend free scanned 19th century editions of Marryat's books on sites like Google Books and Archive.org, in preference to ebooks and print on demand. No bad OCR, and the original typesetting benefits the period writing style of huge paragraphs with double- or triple-spaced sentences).

When I first started reading Marryat, in the form of Google e-books on my phone, I would always have one or two browser tabs open just to look up the Age of Sail terminology, and sometimes period references. I can now recommend a few more free e-books for that purpose: The Sailor’s Word-Book, by Admiral William Henry Smyth, and The Young Sea Officer’s Sheet Anchor by Darcy Lever. Sometimes just plugging sailing terms into a search engine can give you misleading results that are more relevant for modern yachts, not a sea-going vessel from the days of Nelson’s Navy.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: in many ways reading Frederick Marryat is comparable to reading Jane Austen. Same time period, same culture, and you’ll find a similar vocabulary to refer to social conventions, food, clothing, the political climate, and so on. This is useful to know because while there is unfortunately not a big Marryat fandom out there, there is a massive Jane Austen fandom who have produced numerous guidebooks and blogs about fashion, food, you-name-it from early 19th century Britain, and these can be very helpful!

What Marryat books should you read first? This is subjective, but I recommend his early and mid-career novels for adults —as opposed to the books for children that he wrote at the end of his life, which are unsurprisingly less spicy and more didactic— and avoiding his historical fiction e.g. The Phantom Ship, which is heavy on the purple prose since people from The Past have to be melodramatic. (Also he didn’t have access to Google, and he put carronades in a historical novel 100 years before they were invented amongst other bloopers). One of Marryat’s greatest charms is the veracity of his Napoleonic-era novels, which draw from his lived experiences. Scholars look to Marryat as a primary source on everything from club-hauling a ship to sailors’ tattoos.

My current Intro to Marryat rec is his novella The Three Cutters (but not, as I note in the linked post, his novella The Pirate, which usually comes bundled with The Three Cutters as they were originally published together). Mr. Midshipman Easy comes up a lot, and it’s certainly one of his more well-known works in the present day. I’m a little more equivocal about recommending it as a first venture into Marryat (I prefer a few books ahead of it), but in a way it’s a good crash course into his novels, for good and bad. It can be very funny, there is some trenchant commentary, and in other parts it totally runs off the rails. There is also a characteristic level of simultaneously condemning racism (the prejudice the character Mesty encounters) and indulging in racist tropes that make modern readers uncomfortable (the way Mesty’s dialog is written; the fact that he is a Scary Black Man devoted to the white hero character).

Not to digress too much about Marryat’s Problematic ways, because he was a pretty complex and flawed person from two centuries ago and I hate to flatten that complexity, but it bears mentioning that he tends to write, in general, in broad national and ethnic stereotypes. It’s rare for his Black characters to not speak in an othering dialect which I could very charitably say is influenced by a West Indian accent that he would have encountered in real life. He has barbaric Irish characters in The King’s Own who attack and kill the survivors of a shipwreck, but a more positive albeit still stereotypical representation in Terence O’Brien from Peter Simple. (O’Brien and Mesty are, weirdly enough, very similar characters who both exist to support the [Anglo] white hero— and “Ashantee” Mesty even speaks with an Irish accent, since he learned English from Irish emigrants). Marryat’s white European (non-British) characters can have literally the same diction as his Black characters, as in this passage from Jacob Faithful with a French person speaking: “Madame Tagliabue did noting but cry all last night when she heard the very bad news about de debt, and all dat [...] suppose a gentleman no lose his honour, what matter de money?”

The fact that Marryat’s novels take place all over the British Empire, and depict the multicultural world of that Empire even within Britain, because the Royal Navy took a pragmatic approach to a diverse workforce, means that there are many opportunities for him to use cringey dialect and indulge in offensive stereotypes that were regarded as acceptable humour or familiar tropes at the time. Contrast and compare with his friend and contemporary Charles Dickens, who is beloved even today, but I would argue that he was about a hundred times more racist than Marryat, going by the screeds that he published in magazines (many of them quoted in Patrick Brantlinger’s book Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1914, which also examines themes of imperialism and colonialism in Marryat’s works).

I wouldn’t be reading so much of Frederick Marryat if I didn’t enjoy the way he spins a yarn, and I find his novels genuinely entertaining on their own merit, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit that a big part of my enjoyment is the way Marryat illuminates his time period and his world. I am deeply interested in the 19th century Royal Navy, the British Empire, and life in early 19th century England; and Marryat is almost like having a personal guide, making his era “real to us and ordinary,” as Virginia Woolf wrote. There are thrilling aspects to his world and horrifying ones. Marryat writes from his own perspective, that of a privileged, upper-class, Protestant white man, but he is not without empathy and nuance (and sometimes I think he is unfairly painted as some kind of imperialist cheerleader when he was often critical of the empire and its machinations).

To learn more about Captain Marryat himself, you can’t go wrong with one of the chief sources for all of his biographies: his daughter Florence Marryat’s collection of correspondence and biographical sketches, The Life and Letters of Captain Frederick Marryat. This is available as a free e-book: volume 1, volume 2. David Hannay’s Life of Frederick Marryat is very Victorian and mediocre, but also free in e-book form. (Can’t beat free books!)

For a modern(ish) biography of Marryat, my personal favourite might be Oliver Warner’s Captain Marryat: A Rediscovery, but it was published in 1953. Much easier to find, and most recently published, the naval historian Tom Pocock wrote Captain Marryat: Seaman, Writer and Adventurer in 2000. Pocock’s book is probably the best recommendation for someone looking for a good Marryat biography that includes illustrations and isn’t impossible to find. It’s fun to read, and Pocock has an obvious love for Marryat and his books (and he gets bonus points from me for being a Frank Mildmay fan).

[salty-stories]

Hello Salty!! As an aro person obsessed with everything Regency, I have to ask: Is Hugh aromantic? I’m looking forward to playing the other romances, but I’m also definitely creating an MC to go the marriage of convenience path with Hugh and have a lasting friendship with him! I’m sorry if this comes off as insensitive, I don’t mean it to come off that way, I just don’t see aro characters in Regency media and I’m a bit excited aha 😅 Feel free to ignore this for any reason! And have a good day!!

Hi!! Dw, this isn’t insensitive at all!! And I totally feel you on the lack of aro rep in regency media! It was really important for me to try to include characters and ros of different sexualities, instead of going the cliche, everyone is bisexual(which is still totally valid and chill!) or player!sexual. This one is gonna be long! So under the cut! Also cw: lots of sexuality talk and some mentions of colonialism!

I was going to wait until the prologue was out to explain some of the things I changed about the regency setting to make the game more poc and queer-friendly, while preserving the social and economic conventions that make the period so interesting. But I think this is a good time to explain my thought process!( also sorry for the ramble-ness of this and for anything I say that’s wonky) I’m hand-waving most of the British imperialism which is how the aristocracy paid for all that silk, muslin, gold filigree, and high-flung landed life-style. The hand wave is mostly so I can write characters from different parts of the world, especially the places Britain would/had colonized, without resorting to the usual ways they are depicted in regency stories(which are sometimes valid and sometimes not!)....but that should probably get its own post! The other reason is personal. As an Indian woman, it can be difficult for me to write about British imperialism and colonialism so close to my own personal family history(but again! that’s for another post!) I’m also changing some of the attitude of the period towards queer relationships. Of course, LGBTQIA+ people existed and had meaningful lives within the framework of regency society and I’ve reached out to some of my Austen scholar friends for insight on how those identities manifested or didn’t in both literature and the period(so I might tweak this a bit and again, I’m sorry for the ramble!) This will be in the game and hopefully less clumsy, but queer relationships aren’t illegal or even really frowned upon. One is free to pursue or not pursue relationships--romantic, platonic, sexual--as they wish. But the pretense is very important. An unmarried person’s movements and relationship are heavily scrutinized and judged. After marriage, it’s assumed, and sometimes even encouraged to do as you wish, as long as all parties are in agreement. Hence the popularity of marriages of convenience. And while the society operates with these assumptions, you are expected to uphold the pretense of hetero-normativity. TLDR: Marriage is an economic/land/family name convention, but you gotta keep up appearances and the landed Gentry isn’t entirely English. 

And for full disclosure, I don’t identify as aromantic, though I used to and my knowledge isn’t perfect. So, I’m open to talking about this further and changing things! And that goes for any of the characters in LaF! 

Now with all that set-up, to your actual question! Hugh is definitely on the aro spectrum. Romantic relationships have never been a priority for him, which can make the social aspect of regency a bit irritating as you can imagine. His friendships, his family relationships have always come first. That said, he is in a relationship with another gentleman. You’ll get to meet Hugh’s partner in the latter half of chapter 1 and get to have a nice conversation with both Hugh and his partner about their relationship if you aren’t a dick lmao. Hugh has known his partner since childhood and their relationship isn’t all too romantic. It’s more a best friends with benefits, although I’m not sure how I feel about calling it that. 

I tried to do some research into queer identities and specifically aro and ace identities in the regency but I couldn’t find anything conclusive on how people in the period would refer to themselves if they were aro/ace. But in modern terms, Hugh would say the label demiromantic fits him best. But like even then, he is not a fan of romance. His partner is a special case. Now if we’re talking sexual preference, Hugh is gay.  

So, Hugh is very down to have a marriage of convenience with a MC who is chill. If we’re being completely honest, Hugh would down for that kind of deal, even if MC doesn’t want to be friends. The marriage would be an end to all the pestering he gets from the tiger moms in society. 

I’m so glad you are excited for his route! I was very scared people wouldn’t respond well to my son because of the platonic nature of his route but like you said, there just aren’t many kinds of relationships like this in regency media. And it’s a damn shame considering how well it fits the aesthetic and conventions of the time. 

Thank you for the question!! And I hope my answer made sense, even with the rambling!! <3 <3 <3 <3

[gwydionmisha]

Persuasion

NOTE: I was never an English major and am certainly not an Austen scholar, nir have I studied any of these in a school setting since P&P in HS in the '80's.  I just like the books.

Some of you may know that Persuasion is my favorite Austen book.  I fell in love with it the first time I read it, and I just love it more each time I reread it.  This may seem odd, given how much I dislike Mansfield Park.  After all, Persuasion has some of Austen's sharpest social criticism along similar lines as Pride and Prejudice, but has a gentle, understated heroine, more like Fanny from Mansfield.  It would surprise no one that I adore Eliza Bennent, but I also love Catherine from Northanger and Elinor Dashwood from Sense an Sensibility (The writing is a bit sluggish in S&S, which means I don't reread it often, but the bones are good).  My point is, that these are three different character types who I am perfectly capable of enjoying.  I would argue that my beloved Anne is another atempt at some of the things she was trying to convey with Elinor and to a certain extent with Fanny, only written at the height of her skill at the end of her life.

I have always had trouble explaining why exactly I adore Persuasion the way I do.  I mean, sure, it's overtly feminist in spots.  (I'd argue all her writing is feminist, it's just a lot of it is less overt, than say, the exchange in which Anne points out at that all the books being cited are by men and thus biased). Anne is far from the first heroine trapped in and constantly punished by gendered expectation and manners in her society, but Persuasion really brings that to the fore.  This isn't exactly it though.

Tonight I finally put my finger on it: It's a queer culture thing.  Bear with me.  I'm not claiming this is what Austen was intending.  People have made arguments for queer subtext around certain of the men in Persuasion, but I'm not talking about that.  I'm talking about Anne and Wentworth.  Yes, it's very clearly a straight relationship.  I'm talking about a deeper resonance, and it's a struggle to put it into words.

Modern dating apps and social media and queer liberation and all the rest have made LGBTQIA+ dating easier, but it's a recent change and in some places it's still like it was.  For a lot of the last millennium or so in European culture, courtship, seduction, etc., had to be underground.  Subtle things conveyed in silences, in looks exchanged over innocuous sounding conversations with double meanings, in body language, in coded clothes and secret passwords.  Outside of sex work, the way a lot of people connected was a careful, often slow business, involving feeling each other out and the suppression of more overt displays of interest while people tried to work out if the other person felt the ame.  It's been pointed out that this is why the image of hands hesitantly touching and than grasping each other more firmly when the other person reciprocates is such a prominent image in queer cinema and now TV.

Touch is still so often dangerous.  It can attract homophobic harassment and violence.  Particularly for transfolk, though for queer folk in general there is always a chance that the person one reaches towards might beat or murder one.

Touch is dangerous, but it is so powerful.  It is liberation, it is love.

So back to Anne, loving and desiring Wentworth so intently without any hope, being treated as sexless and a useful convenience by people who should value her.  Back to Anne who is only really SEEN by the select few with the discernment to look.  Most people only see the surfaces, and she is fundamentally at the mercy of those judgements from the undecerning for most of the novel.  she has a fine appreciation of music, books, and poetry, that most people in her circle don't share.

Once Wentworth realizes he is interested in her, the courtship is done under everybody else's radar.  They are at the mercy of other people's whims, of social constraints, of societal expectation.  They snatch moments to exchange a few inadequate sentences and telling looks.  They are in constant peril of never understanding each other becaue of gossip, because those snatched moments and cryptic messages are inadequate to convey what they feel.  They are both deathly afraid of being rejected and irreparably hurt if they declare to the other one something of what the want too boldly first.  What if they read the hints wrong?  What if Wentworth believes all the gossip?  What if Anne is reading him wrong in Bath?  For how many centuries have queer couples danced this dance in one form or another.  They are very straight, but this feels like a queer courtship.  the dilemna is resolved because he overhears her in conversation with another character and reads the signals right.  Finally.  He declares his feelings clearly with his pen.  Finally.  When she's handed off to him casually in the street to take home and they finally, finally connect...  Damn.  It's earned, it's so earned, and it feels like magic.

I am nothing like Anne.  My oldest continuous friend has referred to me in my heyday as Sexzilla, for fuck's sake.  I did now and then play with subtlety because I could, but for the most part, I decided who I wanted and ethics and orientation permitting, I went hunting and generally caught who I aimed for.  In my youth I didn't need much patience or finesse.  I came from a place and culture and time where flirtation needed to do the heavy lifting of trading disease status and sexual interests, and I have likened it to contract bridge, though it also happened to be very sexy.  there is no choice in waisting time with someone who wasn't serious about condoms and who didn't have enough overlap in taste to be worth the effort.  Better to move on and find someone else.  Now in the long twilight celibacy of my disability I have had to learn to bank my flames, but I was a bold thing once upon a time.

Anne still speaks to be on some fundamental level, some ancestral queer cultural resonance perhaps, or maybe it's a generational thing: the way plague shaped half of of us into people cautious of making that first move because the stakes were so high and the other half into risk takers trying to grab what joy we could before it all got snuffed out by bombs or virus.  I was never an Anne, but we all have known some.  Those pre-stonewall men I hung out with for a while still had a lot of those habits of carefulness, of slowly feeling things out, of flirtation that could be brushed off as no such thing if not reciprocated.  They'd lived through more than one revolution, but you could see echoes of the terrible world before the year of my birth in their eyes, in their manners, in their references, in the way they flirted with me and each others.  there was something similar in the late in life trans women I used to hang out with.  It was so alien to the younger transfolk that the other Xer and I used to have to translate back and forth between the Boomers on one hand and Millenials on the other.  Their cultures and frames of reference were so far apart it was like the divide between middle and modern English.

I have said often, I'm terribly glad we've moved on.  I have always wanted something better for those coming behind us, but I come from a culture and a time and a place, and Anne has spoken to my heart from the first day i met her in the pages of Persuasion. I suspect she always will.

[go-events]

GO Rom Com Spotlight: @stellasapiente

The most excellent @stellasapiente (Rachiel on AO3) has claimed Pride and Prejudice to adapt for Good Omens in the Good Omens Rom Com Event.

For reference, here’s a little background about the source material!

About Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen's novel about five sisters - Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia Bennet  - in Georgian England. Their lives are turned upside down when wealthy young Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods) and his best friend, Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen), arrive in their neighborhood.

We spent some time chatting about how the adaptation is coming so far, as well as future plans for it! Now, get to know @stellasapiente a little better!

* * *

goromcom: You chose to adapt Pride and Prejudice as your rom com. Has this book/these movie adaptations been favorites of yours, or is there some other reason you chose it?

stellasapiente: I do adore Jane Austen and while I do like Sense and Sensibility a tiny bit more than Pride and Prejudice, I felt that P&P was better suited to the event. But I do very much look forward to all of the Jane Austen adaptations in the event even if my favourite story is missing.

goromcom: What's your favorite moment of Pride and Prejudice, and are you looking forward to presenting it in your adaptation? Any loose plans for that scene that you can share?

stellasapiente: I mean, the first proposal is epic, but I always really loved the visit to Pemberly--how Lizzy is confronted with her view of Darcy and how the housekeeper just gushed about him… and of course the house itself.

I often wondered how Darcy would have reacted in his heart of hearts if she had said yes when he asked her the first time… He seemed to be prepared to marry someone who might only want him for his money, thinking that his affection would be enough to make it work. That was part of why I struggled at first with who should be Darcy since both Aziraphale and Crowley would fit the bill each in his own way.

As for the house visit itself, I haven’t written anything for that yet, but since we are talking GO and something to impress Crowley all I need to say is one word: Conservatory. HUGE conservatory. I’m thinking something looking like the Crystal Palace… just smaller. And gardens. Acres and acres of gardens.

goromcom: Do you plan to stick very closely to the story beats of the original story, or make bigger changes?

stellasapiente: It will be a rather boring retelling I’m afraid, and not at all historically accurate since I knew from the start that I do not want any of the phobias anywhere near it. So the cast will be queer and nobody will care. Or as I like to put it: Who needs historical homophobia when we have classicism.

goromcom: What's an interesting decision you've made in your planning so far--a notable casting decision, a changing of venue, or some other plan you have to paint Good Omens all over your rom com?

stellasapiente: The biggest changes would be Hastur and Ligur--I made both female. Ligur (a.k.a Liane) is Kitty Bennet. It fits well, since Lydia’s role is Beelzebub and Hastur (a.k.a. Hyla) is a trans woman will take the part of Charlotte. And now I bet you all wonder who takes the part Mr. Collins. (Not telling you!) Also, there is no Mr Bennet, but two ladies who have a happy marriage. Personally, I never read it that Mr Bennet disliked his wife. Yes, he teased her a lot, but I always felt it was affectionate. I’m aware scholars disagree with me but the beauty in writing is that you can make your own world--so I did.

goromcom: I am blatantly stealing this last question from The Good Place: The Podcast, but here goes: Tell me something "good". It can be something big or small. It can be a charity you think is doing good work, or you can talk about how great your pet is.

stellasapiente: ZBS. Not enough people know them. They have produced audio dramas since forever and they are amazing! The soundscapes alone… listening to Moon over Morocco it’s like standing on the street corner in Algiers. They have great humour and are deep (ZBS stands for Zero Bullshit Spirituality) and sometimes ridiculous and just amazing.

goromcom: I’ve never heard of them, but now I will check them out.

And speaking of checking things out, everyone will be able to do just that with the GO adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, coming soon.

[dresupi]

Don’t Have Your Biscuits - Darcy/John Watson

Ship: Darcy Lewis/John Watson For: @thestanceyg Tags:  Wrong Number, Texting, Meet-Cute, Flirting, Pre-Relationship Rating: T Word Count: 1446

Summary:

Darcy's bored, or she probably wouldn't have even responded to the Cute Rando who wrong-number texted her.

But as luck would have it, she's not just bored, she's super bored.

Darcy's phone dinged in her pocket, a single sound to break up the monotony of Jane's slipshod typing skills. Well… that was actually not true. Jane had glorious typing skills, but she would lapse into hunting and pecking the more exhausted she became. Darcy was probably going to have to start herding her towards the door soon.

But that wouldn't be for at least an hour yet, and in the meantime, Darcy had this out-of-the-blue text to deal with. She was fairly certain it was a wrong number, given that the small number of people who actually texted her were in the same room with her.

All except for Clint, that is.

So it maybe was Clint, asking her what kind of coffee she wanted.

She was surprised when the screen lit up with a number she didn't recognize. Of course, she didn't recognize many numbers over here across the pond. They were formatted differently and since she mostly communicated via email, she didn't encounter many actual phone numbers.

Her own phone, which was SHIELD issue, had one of those numbers. Long, strange to her, and necessary to copy/paste when she had to give it to people. She hated phone calls anyway. She was really more of a social media person.

Darcy wasn't even sure why she had the phone other than for Agent Coulson to keep tabs on her, and he could technically do that via Twitter if he really wanted to.

So when she saw the unknown number on the screen, her mind started racing.  Who was it? Another agent? Coulson using a burner cell?

It was only after about fifty or so of these useless thoughts that it dawned on her to read the actual message. Doi. It might have a clue.

Geez, she wished it was Clint. She really needed that coffee.

"Don't have your biscuits."

Frowning, she reread the message again, trying to figure out if it was some kind of code that she would recognize if she was any more caffeinated.

Even if she had a double espresso iced mocha frap in her hand, she still didn't think she'd know what the hell this text meant.  Which of course, pointed to about a ninety percent chance of it being a wrong number.

"I'm sorry?" She typed back, waiting for an answer that would either clarify the text or confirm her suspicion.

The next four messages came in rapid succession.

"They're out of them."

"At the store."

"They're ordering more, but they're out now."

"Oh Jesus, this isn't Sherlock, is it?"

The sudden realization that played out in her text inbox was nothing short of funny, and she snickered as she swiped a quick response. "ROFL nope. Not Jesus either, but no need to worry. I don't think the biscuit thing was your fault."

She waited for the unknown sender to reply, but they never did. Must have been too embarrassed or something.

It was a pity. She was bored, and the mysterious sender seemed interesting.

She saved the number in her contacts. The fifth in a very short list on her new-to-her phone. "Cute Rando."

She wasn't sure what Cute Rando's real name was, but this seemed gender nonspecific and adorable enough that no one should care.

Her phone didn't chime again until she was safely in her flat, watching Netflix in bed. Her takeout containers were stacked on the bedside table for safe disposal whenever she decided to get up.

The sound surprised her, but not as much as the name on the screen did. Cute Rando had texted her back.

"I wanted to apologise and explain about my former message… your number is four digits away from my roommate's, and I was trying to recall it from memory instead of using my contacts."

The sincerity made her smile as she tapped out a quick response.

"It's all good. Don't worry about it. I was really invested in the whole 'biscuits' dilemma. Did you ever find them?"

But no sooner had she pressed send than did another message come through from Cute Rando.

"I'm John, by the way."

He must have sent it before she'd finished typing her response because another came through seconds later.

"No. Never did."

Cute Rando's name was John. Interesting.

"That's cool."

Oh shit, she'd done it too. Double texted before getting a reply to the first message.

"Your name, not the not-finding-biscuits thing."

"I'm Darcy."

She didn't get a response after she told him her name. Which was enough to worry anyone whose entire relationship with another individual stemmed from a wrong number text.

He heard her name and what? Noped out?

She could text him again. A double text after a long time. But how lame was that? It was bad enough that she'd done it while he was responding. But now? After this long?  And technically, she'd sent the last three messages. So this would end up being a quadruple text.

Besides, she knew practically nothing about him. And there was a very real chance that it was just something to screw around between shifts at work or something.

And like hell Darcy Lewis would ever quadruple text someone who ghosted her.

When her phone buzzed two days later, she nearly threw it across the lab and upset one of Erik's machines.

"Darcy's pretty, is that a family name?"

Her jaw dropped down nearly to her chest. It had been two days. Forty-eight hours. She'd all but written off John the Cute Rando.

"Wow, you wait two days to text me back and that's what you start with?" She swiped the words quickly, anxious to hear his bullshit excuse for not replying before now.

"My apologies. Work things."

Darcy started to scoff, but then she stopped and took one look around the lab. Jane was snoring into a cup of cold coffee and Erik was muttering to himself over a monitor. She had no idea what the weather was like outside, and she'd slept on that lumpy sofa in the break room more times than she could count.

"I know all about work things, believe me.  And no, it's not a family name. My mother was just an Austen scholar."

His response was fairly quick.

"That sounds fascinating. I'm entirely out of work things at the moment, perhaps you'd fancy a longer conversation? Perhaps one on purpose? Definitely in public."

Her eyebrows raised significantly. Was John the Cute Rando asking her out? Or was she reading too much into it?

"Wow, kind of forward, aren't you?"  Darcy added an emoji at the end to play up the whimsy and sarcasm, hoping this guy read sarcasm correctly.

It took him a few minutes to respond, but when he did, it was predictable.

"No, actually… I'm never like this."

Haha! Yeah, right, Slick.

It was so predictable that the only thing Darcy didn't expect was her desire to still go meet this guy.

"Yeah right. Pull the other one, John."

His next few responses came through in rapid succession and had Darcy second-guessing her primary judgment.

"Coffee? Lunch? Name the place and I'll be there to pull it."

"That came out terribly wrong…"

"Never mind, I'll see myself out."

She had to laugh.  What an awkward little bunny. Never mind that he'd triple-texted. Again.

Darcy sent one of her favorite emojis to keep him from worrying too much. The crying-laughing face described her feelings exactly, and it would buy her a little time to figure out what she wanted to say.

A nicer person would assure him that it was fine, that she hadn't taken it that way.

Except Darcy wasn't really a nicer person and she'd totally taken it that way.

"Smooth, dude. Mega smooth."

Ribbing him a little more couldn't hurt. And anyway, if he took it badly, she'd know what kind of a person he was, anyway.

"Yeah right. I feel like I owe you an apology for that…"

"Oh, good response, John the Cute Rando…" She chuckled under her breath.

Jane's head popped up to try and focus on her. "What?" she croaked.

"Jane. Go home and get some sleep," Darcy commanded. "I have a coffee date."

She heard Jane's head plop down on the countertop, which meant Darcy would have to pour her into a cab before she left. But that was fine. She needed a little time to freshen up anyway.

"And you'd be right. How about over coffee?"

It took him longer than before to respond, so long that Darcy was almost worried she'd lost him to 'work things' again.

"What, really?"

She was really going to like this goober, she could tell.

[drst]

Why the quest for purity in media is wrong

So in my life before I became a librarian, I was a university professor. I was that dreaded object of the MRAs - a cultural studies scholar OOGA BOOGA! - and let me tell you those dudes have no fucking idea what “cultural marxism” actually means, because I studied that shit for years.

But I want to talk about the evolution of how we study art, especially stories. I’m going to oversimplify a bit here, so don’t @ me with teeny corrections please.

For decades, centuries even, literature studies looked at works of writing as standalone objects. There might be comparisons between the use of language between some different authors but nothing was looked at in context. Shakespeare’s plays were analyzed to death for language but not as a reflection of life in Elizabethan England. Dickens was a wordy wordsmith but not a signifier of the style and interests of the popular press in Victorian England. The works were not looked at as products of a particular time and place. The history, politics, economics and social world surrounding literature was not what scholars studied. That was irrelevant, only the text mattered.

And of course, only white men were studied. A very open minded professor might include Austen or Woolf in one class just to be contrary. But like history was the Deeds of the Great White Man, literature was the study of Great White Male Writers.

In the early 20th century, as more and more non-white-dude students began to attend universities, they started to push back.  “What about all the black writers?” “Where are the women?” and “How can you talk about Dickens without talking about the economy of Victorian England?” 

Cultural studies theory was born out of this impulse in the mid 20th century. There’s a longer theoretical background to it but one of the simplest explanations is that CS argues we must look at all media - which at the time was expanding dramatically with the recent additions of radio, film and television, entirely new forms that did not work under the model of literature studies since they were created by corporate entities for mass production, not written by a solitary guy in a blazer with elbow patches from the pure spring of his imagination - in the context in which it was created.

(It is the corporate control of media production that brought Marxist thought into media studies, fyi. Instead of stories being written by one person, a company was making them, and Marx’s theories on corporations became relevant to studying media and stories because of that.)

Sure you can write a dissertation on Tolkien’s use of language, but you can also write one about how the author’s experience in WWI influenced the book. nobody blinks at this now, but this was not common practice in English literature departments, and some of those departments rejected the approach so strongly that scholars wanting to take this approach had to go to other departments to do their work. Cultural studies and media studies often ended up being those places.

And of course with the post WWII surge in college enrollments in the US especially, you had more women and POC on campuses asking “where are we in the canon?” “Why aren’t you talking about how racism and sexism impacted these writers?”

There was a literal fight in the scholarly world to crack the Great White Male canon apart and start considering works in context of their creation. There are still spaces in academia that reject cultural studies as valid theoretically. There is a stigma still attached to CS by more traditional (i.e. male and white) voices.

This is why the purity policing infuriates me so much. We literally fought to get more stuff included and to get people to look at works, especially media, in context of their times and places. And y’all are throwing out context and saying “if this text isn’t pure by my standards of right now it should be discarded.” You’re throwing out your own history and past victories in some weird quest to be The Most Woke fan, instead of understanding that EVERYTHING is problematic and always has been. You’re the white male literature professor looking for the perfect text while ignoring everything around the words.

In addition to forgetting that fight for inclusion and broader scope, this is embarrassingly ignorant. The progressive media of today is going to look dated and biased as hell at some point in the future. The assumption that evolved human thought has hit its peak with this generation of fans definitely seems to me to be the arrogance of the young. What are you all going to do when the thing you hold up right now as Pure turns out not to be? What if it’s a thing you really love, or that really impacted you? What will you do when other people demand you discard that influential book or movie or show because it’s not perfect? Will you disown yourself? Just keep discarding everything insufficiently perfect and leaving you alone and miserable with nothing to watch?

The text is only one piece of a larger picture. If that’s all you want to see, well, good luck with your boring life, but don’t demand that I do the same thing. There’s too much history behind looking at texts in context for me to abandon that approach, especially for no reason other than vying to look more progressive than some rando on the internet. If you want to understand the history of how we got here, you need to do more than declare stories pure or unpure. You have to look at the whole picture.

[readingontheedge]

What Heals the Heart 

Cowbird Creek Book 1

by Karen A. Wyle 

Genre: Western Historical Romance 

Print Length: 266 pages

Publisher: Oblique Angles Press

Publication Date: October 15, 2019

 Joshua Gibbs survived the Civil War, building on his wartime experiences to become a small town doctor. And if he wakes from nightmares more often than he would like, only his dog Major is there to know it.

Then two newcomers arrive in Cowbird Creek: Clara Brook, a plain-speaking and yet enigmatic farmer’s daughter, and Freida Blum, an elderly Jewish widow from New York. Freida knows just what Joshua needs: a bride. But it shouldn’t be Clara Brook!

Joshua tries everything he can think of to discourage Freida’s efforts, including a wager: if he can find Freida a husband, she’ll stop trying to find him a wife. Will either matchmaker succeed? Or is it Clara, despite her own scars, who can heal the doctor’s troubled heart? 

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

“What Heals The Heart is a time-machine in a compact tome.… If you love period pieces, Karen A. Wyle’s book will satisfy even the most discerning reader. This elegant novel is an exquisite example of romance at its finest!” – Indies Today

“Ms. Wyle’s understanding of the time period described in the book is impressive… . The love story that develops is endearing and timeless… . My world felt right while reading this book, as if I’d found an old friend and sat for a while to drink coffee and chat about life or love. I give What Heals the Heart five out of five stars. It is one of the best modern historical romances I have read in recent years. Fans of historical romances will enjoy this book. Ms. Wyle, if you’re out there reading this, just know I’m a huge fan now.” – Kathryn Blade, author and reviewer

“Brilliantly connects the reader to the characters reliving collective trauma … . She was able to bring a perfect amount of lightness (small town matchmaking and quirky friendships) to balance a tough subject. The friendships in this novel were phenomenal and I loved every single one of them. Wyle is able to create characters who I wanted to befriend… . Characters I fought for, cheered for, loved, and in all honesty, cried for and with.” – Honestly Austen

“This one is a must read for historical fiction buffs. Ms. Wyle has done her homework and it shows as the dust gets in your eyes, and the smells of horse and prairie fill your nostrils. A wonderful atmosphere that feels like stepping back in time as the manners, the speech and the neighborly attitudes come alive. Truly a hidden gem … that shares a slice of one man’s life, loneliness and caring ways.” – Dianne Bylo of Tome Tender

“"The resolution scene is worthy of Jane Austen… . Wyle’s writing is equally excellent throughout… . Word by word, sentence by sentence, page by page, Wyle does not let the reader down.” – Danusha Goska, author and scholar

“Wyle’s historical romance is a fantastic tale of life on the prairie for a country doctor still dealing with his war experience… . [H]umorous, touching … a wonderful read that kept me interested from the first page.” – Teresa Grabs (author of Wish Upon a Leaf) 

Excerpt from Chapter 2 of

What Heals the Heart

“Boot blacking, coffee, cornmeal, flour, soap. Put it on your tab?”

“Thank you kindly.” The suggestion would, in fact, save him some embarrassment. His patients had lately been paying in roast chickens, bacon, cream, potatoes, even horseshoes — all welcome and useful items, but it left him short of coin.

“And you’ve got a letter.”

This would take some juggling. Joshua picked up the envelope first, opening it and extracting the letter, tucking the envelope into his vest and laying the letter on the counter. Next, he grabbed the sack full of supplies in his left hand and picked up the letter in his right. That left him without a way to tip his hat, so he nodded his goodbye and walked out, glancing at the letter as he went. Major, idling in the street, jumped up to follow.

Joshua knew he had not been a satisfactory correspondent. The last letter to his mother in which he had mentioned anything of actual importance had been the letter he sent on his way west, trying to explain why he had felt compelled to leave his family and his home so far behind. Even as he sent that letter on its way, he had known it would fail in its mission. What he had been unable to say to her face, he had been equally unable to put into words on paper. Either would have required that he call to mind, and then stain her memory forever by recounting, the life he had lived as a soldier and a medic. Without that understanding, how could she understand how unreal and hollow the civilized life of Philadelphia had become for him?

His mother still wrote every two weeks, however, and he’d been awaiting her latest for several days. Now he saw what had kept her busy. His middle sister’s baby had come — except it was twins! A boy and a girl. He could imagine his younger and oldest sisters knitting madly to deal with the surprise.

As for his father — what? He was writing a book?

Joshua had been paying just enough attention to where he was going that he didn’t trip on the planks in the street or walk in front of any horses. But not enough, it turned out, to avoid walking smack into someone. He started backward, dropping his sack, and stammered apologies, while Major added to the confusion by circling the scene and barking loudly.

His victim, Joshua realized, was the tall green-eyed woman he had seen in the street the day he first met Mrs. Blum. She had managed to stay on her feet and now stooped to help him retrieve his groceries, whisking them away from Major’s investigative sniffing. Her hands looked strong, with long fingers; it took her almost no time to fill his sack again. She stood up, neither smiling nor frowning, and handed him the sack. “I hope that isn’t bad news in your hand.”

He tried to pull himself together enough to answer her. “Uh, no, not bad news. Just news. Babies. Two of them. That is, my sister just had twins.”

The woman’s eyes widened. “Congratulations to your sister! I’m sure she’ll cope splendidly.”

An interesting way to put it. Was she speaking from experience, and if so, her own or someone else’s?

Manners! What would his mother — or for that matter, Freida Blum — say? “I beg your pardon. I’m Joshua Gibbs.”

The woman tilted her head slightly and nodded in what might, unlikely as it seemed, be approval. “The doctor. I’ve heard of you. People speak well of you.”

Did they? He supposed they might. The comment left him feeling absurdly pleased. With some difficulty, he suppressed a foolish grin.

He was becoming curious about the woman’s identity, but accidental assault was hardly the basis for him to ask about it. She took pity on him and volunteered the information. “My name is Clara Brook. We’re recent arrivals. Our farm is a little over four miles to the southwest.” He was not that good at accents, but thought she might have grown up in or near Kentucky.

Joshua had about an hour before he needed to be back for his afternoon office hours. How much money did he have on him? He’d grabbed a few coins in case he needed them at the general store. It should be enough, at least if he held himself to a single scoop without toppings. “May I buy you an ice cream? As an apology for my inexcusable carelessness?”

Miss Brook looked at him gravely. “Hardly inexcusable. I’ve seen —” She cut off the comment and said instead, “Thank you. That would be very nice.” Not a fan of hyperbole, it seemed, in others or in her own speech. Joshua led the way, in case Miss Brook had not yet learned the ice cream parlor’s location. Major had apparently decided to adopt her, trotting by her side rather than his master’s. When they reached their destination, Miss Brook paused and gestured toward the dog. “Does he accompany us or no?”

Joshua shook his head, having decided previously that ice cream was unlikely to be a good addition to Major’s diet. Miss Brook then startled Joshua by snapping her fingers toward Major and pointing to a position near the window. Major immediately sat.

The clerk at the ice cream parlor looked at Joshua with some surprise as they entered. Joshua asked Miss Brook’s preference, ordered her single scoop of strawberry along with his own vanilla, paid — narrowly escaping the embarrassment of coming up short — and carried both plates to the little table next to the window.

Now what? Well, she knew he had sisters, one of them with new additions to her family. Surely he could ask after similar details, at least indirectly. “How have you and your … your family been finding Cowbird Creek? Is it what you hoped, when you decided to settle here?”

Somehow it failed to surprise him when she avoided a conventional response. “I wouldn’t say we know enough, yet, to answer that question. Or perhaps I should say we didn’t have very specific expectations. My parents wanted to buy land, to leave my brother someday, and there was land for purchase here. It’s a deal of work for the four of us, but we’re used to work.”

A brother, but no sisters — at least none still at home. It was unlikely she’d lost sisters in the War of Rebellion, but she might have had more brothers before that long and bloody nightmare. All through his childhood, he had wished he had brothers instead of, or in addition to, three sisters. That wish, too, had died in the war.

It was Joshua’s turn to say something, but nothing came to mind. Miss Brook did not seem to be one of those women who could set a man to talking. Or maybe she chose not to do so. He could think of only one inane question. “What are you growing, or raising?”

Her left eyebrow twitched upward. “The usual, I suppose. Corn, oats. I have some interest in planting winter wheat, but my father has not yet agreed. I have a vegetable garden, though I’m still getting accustomed to the weather and how it affects what I can grow. We raise hogs — and chickens, of course, but mainly for our own eggs and our own pot.”

He might be carrying home some of those eggs, some day. They would be good eggs, he’d wager — he guessed she took good care of the hens.

Before he could come up with some other conversational gambit, she asked him, “What’s the most surprising thing about Cowbird Creek? Something we wouldn’t have had a chance to learn yet?”

There was a question he hadn’t heard before. “Hmm. Let me think.” Madam Mamie’s establishment was tonier than some, but even if that counted as surprising, he could hardly mention it. And the presence of a Jewish widow was unusual, but he doubted Mrs. Blum would appreciate being held up as a local oddity. “Our Chinese laundryman struck it rich — well, maybe not rich, but close — in the California gold fields.”

Miss Brook smiled, the first smile he’d seen from her, but quickly went grave again. “I don’t think I’ll mention it to my brother. He used to hanker after the gold fields himself, and I’d be sorry to remind him.”

She had finished her ice cream, and he needed to be back for any patients needing him. He took a final spoonful of his own and stood up. “Miss Brook, it’s been a pleasure, despite my regrettable way of introducing myself. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again.”

That eyebrow twitched again. “I agree. Though I hope it won’t be in your professional capacity.”

Cursing his clumsy tongue, he bowed and escaped back to territory where he was less likely to put a foot wrong. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but eventually settled in Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University. She now considers herself a Hoosier. Wyle’s childhood ambition was to be the youngest ever published novelist. While writing her first novel at age 10, she was mortified to learn that some British upstart had beaten her to the goal at age 9.

Wyle is an appellate attorney, photographer, political junkie, and mother of two daughters. Her voice is the product of almost five decades of reading both literary and genre fiction. It is no doubt also influenced, although she hopes not fatally tainted, by her years of law practice. Her personal history has led her to focus on often-intertwined themes of family, communication, the impossibility of controlling events, and the persistence of unfinished business 

Author Links  

Website * Blog * Facebook * Twitter * Amazon * Goodreads * Smashwords * Newsletter   

Joshua had learned over the years to assume a calm and reassuring manner, whatever the condition in which a patient presented himself. Such a demeanor calmed the patient in turn, giving confidence that the doctor could cope with whatever mishap, or even calamity, had occurred; and a calm and confident patient would be easier to deal with.

But it took a positive effort of will to avoid any sign of alarm when Hawkins, of all people, banged at the door of Joshua’s office, pushed it open, and entered with Clara Brook leaning on his arm, shivering and pale.

Even as Joshua stared, Clara straightened up and looked about her in evident dismay. She muttered something under her breath; Joshua could not catch the words, but it had the rhythm of a curse.

Hawkins led her to a chair and pressed her into it before addressing Joshua. “I was passing by the town square when I noticed Miss Brook sitting on a bench nearby. I tipped my hat and said good morning, but she didn’t say nothing back to me. Well, that wasn’t like her, seeing as we’re acquainted, so I looked closer, and I saw she looked poorly, as you’ll have noticed when we come in. Well, I may know a thing or two —” Hawkins paused and thrust his chin up and his shoulders back, then slumped down again. “But I don’t rightly know what to do when a young lady gets the vapors. So I thought, may as well bring her over here and see what you could do for her. But looks as if she’s going to be just fine, without no special treatment.”

Indeed, as much color as Clara usually possessed, if not more, had returned to her face. A moment more, and she stood up, her posture almost aggressively straight. She took the barber’s hand. “Thank you for assisting me. I am only sorry to have caused you concern.”

“Weren’t no trouble, miss. And I’m right glad to see you looking better. I’ll be on my way.” He smiled at her before releasing her hand, nodding stiffly at Joshua, and taking his leave.

Clara shook her head as if dislodging unpleasant images. “I hope you will believe that I am not often afflicted with what Mr. Hawkins calls ‘the vapors.’” She paused and went on more quietly. “Or at least, not for such causes as are traditionally attributed to delicate females.”

Joshua would have very much liked to inquire as to other likely causes for her symptoms, now or in the past, but her manner made all too clear that any such question would be unwelcome. He could not force his diagnostic efforts on her. “Are you feeling quite well again?”

Clara lifted her chin in a gesture echoing Hawkins’ defiant posture. “Perfectly. You’ll have no need to rummage for smelling salts or other such remedies.” She forced a smile, an expression that sat poorly on her face and troubled him more than a frown would have done. Then some thought evidently crossed her mind and gave rise to a look of more genuine amusement, or even mischief. “And I defy you to hold so firmly to your low opinion of Mr. Hawkins, after he has demonstrated such gallantry.”

As more than once before, she left him stammering for a reply. She awaited none, but turned and fairly marched out the door. 

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[austenmarriage]

New Post has been published on Austen Marriage

New Post has been published on http://austenmarriage.com/jane-austens-birthday-season-giving-chawton-house-library/

Jane Austen's Birthday, Season of Giving, and Chawton House Library

We’re coming to the end of a year commemorating the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death, but I prefer to celebrate the great author’s birth. December 16, 2017, marks her 242nd birthday. This day of celebration falls in the middle of the Christmas season, a time of joy and giving.

For this reason, I’d like ask readers to consider a small holiday gift that celebrates not only Austen but also a dozen other early women writers. I’m speaking of donating to the Chawton House Library (photo by headline), which requires a major infusion of cash if it is to survive and prosper.

The Great House, as it was known when Jane Austen’s brother owned it and it served as a gathering place for the Austen clan. The library was founded by American entrepreneur and philanthropist Sandy Lerner in 1993 to restore the neglected literary heritage of women writers. She saved the property from conversion to a golf course, oversaw the rehabilitation of a house in serious disrepair, and stocked the library with her own extraordinary collection of works by early women writers. She made the collection available to scholars and the general public.

After more than two decades of personal support, in which she provided roughly 65 percent of the library’s operating costs, it was time for Lerner to step back and for the Austen community and lovers of literature in general to step in. The result is that Chawton House Library is in the middle of a major fundraising campaign, both to protect and improve the house and grounds and to expand the collections and resources.

People are already rallying to the cause. The Garfield Weston Foundation, one of the largest charitable organizations in the world, has contributed £100,000. Emma Thompson, who wrote the screenplay and portrayed Elinor in the 1995 movie “Sense and Sensibility”—launching today’s Austen renaissance—and her husband, Greg Wise, who played Willoughby, have announced their support.

But as with most projects of this nature, the rare major donations need to be supported by numerous small donations. Janeites, in particular, should rally to the cause. The library has several specific ways to give, including #BrickbyBrick, in which you buy a brick, or you can adopt a book. Among the books available to be adopted are the letters and works of Lady Montagu, “Evelina” by Fanny Burney, and “Pride by Prejudice,” by “A Lady.”

Suggested donations begin at £25 pounds ($40), but they’ll accept less.

Citizens of the United Kingdom can donate to the library directly. North Americans can contribute through the North American Friends of Chawton House Library, a nonprofit that will enable you to take a tax deduction.

North Americans, who have donated generously to other restoration projects involving Austen and her era (including English churches), can help again—there are more of us! The Eastern Pennsylvania region of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA

The stables of the Great House have been converted into units that are available to rent for visitors.

), led by Dan Macey and regional coordinator Paul Savidge, have already raised $4,500 at a recent holiday dinner. Fundraising activities would be a natural for every JASNA region.

  For those not familiar with the Great House, it was the home of the Knight family, wealthy childless relatives of the Austens. The Knights adopted Jane’s older brother, Edward, as a young man and made him their heir. The main Knight estate was at Godmersham in Kent, eight miles south of Canterbury, and that’s where Edward moved as a youth and lived for many years.

In turns out, however, as Linda Slothouber documents in “Jane Austen, Edward Knight, and Chawton,” that the Knight family’s holdings in Hampshire, around Steventon (where Jane grew up) and Chawton (16 miles southeast, where she lived the last eight years of her life) were at least as large as their holdings in Kent. These included farms, timberlands, and houses—including many of the homes in Chawton village.

In 1809, after his mother and his sisters Cassandra and Jane and their sister-in-law Martha Lloyd had traipsed about southeast England for four years in search of cheap quarters, Edward made the old bailiff’s cottage at the bottom of the village of Chawton available to the Austen women. That house is now the separate Jane Austen’s House Museum.

It was in the peace and tranquility of Chawton Cottage that Austen wrote or heavily revised the six major works that brought her posthumous fame.

In addition, Edward began to spend more and more time in Hampshire on estate business. Once his patroness, the elder Mrs. Knight

The Austen women would walk a short distance down the lane from Chawton Cottage to St. Nicholas church. Edward’s Great House was just up the hill behind the church. Edward had the church rebuilt beginning in 1838, so it looks different than when Jane attended.

, died in 1812, his time in Hampshire increased still more. This shift created a hub for the Austen family in Chawton. Whenever Edward and his family were in residence, the other Austen siblings would visit regularly, while the Austen sisters would walk to the Great House almost daily. (Frank and his family lived there for a while when he was without a sea command.) The Austen women could walk south down the lane from their cottage in less than ten minutes, either to the church or the Great House, just up the hill behind the church.

  Jane’s letters after 1809 recount the enjoyment the Great House provided the family, saying that she went up to the house and “dawdled away an hour very comfortably” or that “we four sweet Brothers and Sisters dine at the Great House today. Is that not natural?” or that “Edward is very well and enjoys himself as much as any Hampshire born Austen can desire.—He talks of making a new Garden.”

These holdings remained in the Knight family and generally prospered until social change and increased taxation led to the decline or demise of many great houses in the twentieth century (see “Downton Abbey”). During World War II, Chawton House, along with other country estates, became home to children

In Austen’s day, the house would have been covered in a white stucco-like plaster, but later Victorians felt that older houses needed to look more rustic and so removed the plaster to expose the rock.

evacuated from large cities to avoid German bombing.

  Caroline and Paul Knight were the last of the line to grow up in the Great House, which experience Caroline Knight documents in “Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage,” published this year (2017). The last Knight to inherit the home, which had fallen into disrepair, was Richard Knight, who sold it in 1992 to the developers, from whom Sandy Lerner retrieved the lease.

Today the responsibility for protecting Chawton House Library falls on all of those who care about Austen’s life and work.

Consider a Christmas donation in honor of Jane’s Christmas-time birthday. We can all help to save one of the finest women’s libraries in England and simultaneously honor Jane Austen.

[apuenglish-blog]

Conversations with an English Writer - Sara Flores

Sara Flores, APU alum and current grad student at Claremont Graduate University, returned to APU October 18th. She collaborated with the Alpha Chi Scholars association on a presentation about grad school, geared toward prospective applicants. She joined a panel of speakers to discuss her process for applying to and choosing the right grad school program. She currently studies English Literature at Claremont, but took time out of her schedule to answer some more questions.

How did APU undergrad prepare you for grad school? How do you feel you stack up compared to your peers?

Sara: The professors in APU's English Department prepared me for grad school by teaching me to critically think, read, and write. Instead of letting me settle for surface-level interpretations, they pushed me to dive deeper into literature and its broader implications for humanity than I ever had before. Because they took my scholarship seriously, I took my scholarship seriously, and that has given me the confidence to tackle grad school. 

         My peers at Claremont Graduate University are brilliant. Each of my classes is made up of Ph.D. and M.A. students, so for the first couple of weeks, I felt really intimidated just based on the fact that some of the other students have been studying literature for much longer than I have. That being said, with the preparation I received from APU, I do feel like I stack up pretty well with my peers. Learning alongside such brilliant minds has challenged me to step up my literary-analysis game, and I'm thankful for the way my professors at APU encouraged me to embrace challenges.

What would you say to people who are nervous or unsure about grad school? What parts about it are particularly rewarding?

Sara: For those who are nervous or unsure about grad school, you are not alone. Grad school is difficult, but that is a good thing. If you want to go to grad school and you have solid reasons for doing so, then do not let fear stop you. One of the things the faculty at Claremont... has assured me of is that I would not have been admitted if they did not believe I would do well in the program. Talk to your professors or a career counselor if you have concerns; they can help you figure out if grad school is the route you should take. What has been particularly rewarding about grad school is getting to focus specifically on what I want to study with people who also love literature. I get the feeling that most people in grad school really love the work they are doing, which makes for an inspiring learning environment. 

Are you still in touch with people from APU, and if so, in what way?

Sara: Yes, I am still in touch with my former roommates, several good friends, and some professors from APU. Since I commute to Claremont and APU is on the way, I have been able to stop by APU a few times to attend events or meet up with people. Texting, phone calls, and social media have also been useful for staying connected with APU friends.

What do you ultimately hope to do after grad school?

Sara: My current writing projects are mostly class assignments (like the essay about the role of reading in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey that I'm in the middle of), but I do meet with a friend weekly to write creatively. I would love to write a novel at some point. After grad school, I hope to work in higher education and as an editor for a publishing company or academic journal. I am also seriously considering going for a Ph.D., but I will have to wait and see how I feel after finishing the master's.

Sara Flores was joined in her presentation by APU faculty members, Thomas Eng, Assistant Director of Career Consulting, and Carly Smyly, Program Representative for APU’s Graduate and Professional Admissions. Dr. Joseph Bentz, English professor and director of Alpha Chi Scholars, also participated during the seminar. 

Thanks to everyone who came, and thank you to the wonderful speakers who gave their time!

[joanweberteacher-blog]

Some Thoughts on Oxford - Published As Was 1 year later

Editor's Note: I found this post in my drafts from August 2016. I don't know why I didn't publish so I have now. :)

As if I could sum up my experiences over the past five weeks… 

When I was a young teenager, I learned about Oxford and Cambridge, these bastions of learning that had been on the planet for 1,000 years or something. People went to class in gowns and took learning seriously. I was stuck in a backward county where reading for pleasure was mocked and academic achievement was derided. I escaped into the woods and into books, dreaming of England, mostly, because those are the books my English teacher mother gave me. I’d say, “I’m bored,” and she’d give me Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens, later, Thomas Hardy. I always felt that these people would have understood me and I wanted to join their world. 

That was decades ago, but my dream of being an Oxbridge scholar never really went away. I just thought it was a pipe dream. Four years ago, when I decided that I really wanted to go to graduate school this time (I had started several programs and then dropped out), my friend Courtney told me about Bread Loaf School of English. Summers only with a campus in Oxford. Done. Seriously. The Oxford part had me hooked. 

In February, when I actually registered, I didn’t think it would really happen. When I booked the cottage in Wallingford and sent over wads of cash, I still wasn’t sure. When Ruby and I got our plane tickets, I thought that maybe it would be real. And, I counted the days. 

I chose to study Chaucer because I never had. I mean, there was that one week in Brit Lit I when we read The Wife of Bath’s Tale. I couldn’t cope with the footnotes and didn’t get the humor. I wanted to be in Oxford and study the oldest thing I could. I discovered that Chaucer was a genius poet and a genius diplomat. He cleverly skewered everyone in his society through other people’s voices. He made every dick joke imaginable and could triple entendre and add a twist. I learned I knew nothing and sought to remedy that. Chaucer requires a lifetime of dedication, as my brilliant tutor Helen Barr has done. But, I know now how much I don’t know and that’s a start. 

For the first week, I tried out all the libraries and settled very comfortably on the second floor of the Radcliffe Camera. I must admit to the pride I felt every time i asked a tourist to excuse me so that I could get to the door and slide my beloved Bodleian Library card that opened the doors like magic. 

i read and researched, wrote and dreamed from my desk #S79 whenever I could get it. I overanalyzed, I overthought, I overshot and I missed with my paper. My lack of prior knowledge hurt me. If I could start my paper now, I’d write a much better analysis. My 4.0 has dropped to a 3.9 and that might be ok. An A- in a subject I’ve never studied should make me proud, but it made me cry. I’ll get over it. 

Maybe I need more time to reflect on Oxford. If I keep writing, this will veer into nostalgia and lost opportunities. It was far far from that. I was opportunities taken and time with my daughter. It was a dream come true, a dream realized. it was more than an A-.