Tag Archives: Jane Austen

One Day – Two Failures

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My bread plaiting days . . .

Having resolved to blog daily, I had visitors, snacked, watched TV, dozed and, finally, realised that the day had gone. So here I am, hacking away at a keyboard in the early hours.

Daily blog – missed. Good sleep habits – missed.

I’m now moving the goalposts to 365 posts in the year. I am sure I can hit that, even if it isn’t exactly daily. Experience shows that if I can get the habit back, it will take over and I will, once again, begin to feel uncomfortable if I miss a day.

I’m going to alter good sleep habits to better sleep habits. Better sleep habits are a slightly easier target as I can claim to be better whilst still being bad at things. “Better”, after all, just means “less bad”.

We watched quite a lot of Pride and Prejudice this afternoon, the 1995 TV version with Colin Firth as Darcy. I also quite like the 1980 version the BBC did, which was what converted me to romantic comedy. I say this because something did and Pride and Prejudice, whilst not being exactly “comedy”, comes nearest to fitting the description. I’ve never really settled to the books and apart from Sense and Sensibility I’ve never really enjoyed other film versions. I’m at an age now where I either have to knuckle down and tackle them seriously or confess my shortcomings as a reader and use the time for something I enjoy.

Badger-faced Welsh cross-breed

The 1980 version only comes in at Number 9 on the list of the 10 best, and the 1990 strikes me as being very accurate in costume and detail. Yes, the 2005 Kiera Knightley version has its charms, but it’s just not quite as good. As for the rest, I have only seen Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and I wasn’t impressed. It could have been great, but it was a bit flat and I really don’t know how the list compiler can put it in at Number 3. Anyway, that’s just my opinion, maybe a true Austen devotee can tell me why this version is so good. Then you can tell me why the Bollywood version and the multiple American versions are so good.

I’m off to bed now and will check this in the morning before posting. While I’m asleep I will try to dream a  screenplay for Pride and Prejudice – Old Age and Treachery, where Darcy and Bingley get into all sorts of unsuitable scrapes as the Bennet girls try to make them grow up and attempt to prevent an unfortunate happening for Mr Collins in the rivalry over gardens.  I can see a garden shed, a still and a home-built steam engine cropping up, not to mention a sequence involving dandy horses and a long hill . . .

Edit: I tightened things up a bit and added to my outline for Pride and Prejudice – Old Age and Treachery by adding dandy horses. This, in turn, means it would be advantageous to locate it around Pemberley and would leave Mr Collins, having inherited Longbourn, out of the picture. For a look at the real life Longbourn  follow this link.  It also contains a link to a better list of recent versions of Austen’s work.

A Bear impersonating a 19th Century farmworker.

Photos are a selection from January 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

What is your spirit animal?

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Yes, that was today’s irritating prompt, What is your spirit animal? Clearly this is a trap for the unwary, as claiming a spirit animal could be seen as cultural appropriation. I’ve been lucky with that so far, as I don’t want dreadlocks or facial tattoos. In fact, I don’t want any high maintenance hair style or painful body embellishments. OK, it’s an easy choice because I’m bald and cowardly, but I’ve never really felt the need to do too much in the way of making myself look different.

Fortunately, I am not claiming a bear, moose, eagle or mouse, which seem to be the native American ones. I am, according to one of those (extremely scientific and reliable quizzes you find on the internet) a seahorse. Seahorse? I am as lost as you are. For a man with a land-based lifestyle a seahorse would be a ridiculous choice. Land or air would do fine, or even trees. Yes,  until I got that result, I was thinking “sloth”. Julia suggested teddy bear. I’m not sure she is aware of my full range of animal magnetism, and suspect she may not be taking this seriously.

However, on the subject of cultural appropriation I may have to reconsider my tartan nightshirt (that’s plaid to Americans I believe) and my consumption of shortbread biscuits. Fortunately I’m 1/32 Scottish, so though I can’t play rugby for them, I can probably eat shortbread without being accused of being a plastic Jock.

Last night, I watched a version of Persuasion on Netflix. That got me thinking even more of cultural appropriation. I could, I feel, make a case for my cultural heritage and joint intellectual property being hijacked. However, I’m not going to, because I don’t find that bit of the cultural appropriation argument to be particularly convincing. What I would say is that it was another of those Regency dramas that would try to tell us that the streets of Bath, and the family trees of the English gentry were filled with black people.

There was a lack of Asian representation (if you want to make it culturally diverse), and a lack of context if you wanted to depict slavery/imperialism/racism in a Regency setting.

It’s the very beginning of a change in the way we do things with casting, but I can’t help thinking that this one was more about jumping on a bandwagon and rewriting history than it was about diversity and opportunity.

Bear with pansies

Cake as a Cure

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Just a quick post today as I have had a lazy day eating cake and anti-inflammatories.

One of them seems to have worked as the pain and swelling in my foot has gone down. If I am attacked by joint pain in future I will try cake as my first choice of treatment.

I’m currently watching Sense and Sensibility on TV. For me, Jane Austen is better on TV, and Sense and Sensibility is also better in the Emma Thompson version. I confess I’ve always found Austen difficult to read. While I’m at it I may as well admit I feel the same about the Brontes.

I am not a great reader of classical literature, as my attempts at self-improvement have shown over the last few years, as I tried to plough through several variations of the 100 greatest novels.

Although the plots may end up tweaked for film and TV it doesn’t really matter as I’m watching for entertainment rather than as an academic pursuit.

Owl Sculpture – Harlow Carr
Owl Sculpture – Harlow Carr

Today’s photos are of the owl sculpture at Harlow Carr garden – it works better when you are standing there next to it, rather than in a photograph.