Been awhile

[quietprofanity]

Hey guys! My wonderful vacation getting visited by cyberweasel, going to a haunted house, going to D.C., seeing one of my cousins from Kentucky, cleaning my room and atoning for my sins and MY BIRTHDAY OF NOT EATING is almost over. I would talk about that, but ... ah, maybe later. I'd rather spew some hate speech about books I don't understand.


I temporarily had a hate-on for Jane Austen not too long ago. Partly because I can't remember what happened when I read Pride & Prejudice (I think Austen's ironic humor went over my head ...), partly because some Janeites I met got mad at me for that, but mostly because Pride & Prejudice has approximately 10,000 sequels that are so ubiquitous that I've acquired one ... kinda. Now that I've read Sense & Sensibility, loved it and got my boyfriend to love the movie, I've toned back the bile quite a lot and am even ready to love Jane Austen.

But then again, there is stuff like this ...

Impulse & Initiative

What if ...
Instead of disappearing from Elizabeth Bennet's life after she refused his offer of marriage, Mr. Darcy had stayed and tried to change her mind?

What if ...
Lizzy, as she gets to know Darcy, finds him undeniably attractive and her impulses win out over her sense of propriety?

What if ...
Madly in love and mutually on fire, their passion anticipates their wedding? In Impulse & Initiative, instead of avoiding Elizabeth after his ill-fated marriage proposal, Mr. Darcy follows her back to her home in Hertfordshire, planning to prove to her he is a changed man and worthy of her love. And little by little, Elizabeth begins to find the man she despised becoming irresistible...

Exploring the roads not taken in Pride and Prejudice, Abigail Reynolds picks up from a pivotal point in Pride and Prejudice - Mr. Darcy's botched marriage proposal - and imagines lively plot twists and ecstatically happy endings.

HOW DO YOU MAKE A HAPPY ENDING HAPPIER? SERIOUSLY? I mean, I get the ones with sex in them but ... what the hell?

Yeah, I guess you can play with the characters, and as someone who has a Heathcliff/Cathy I fanfic out there on the Internets (IT WAS FOR SCHOOL!) I shouldn't judge. I just ... am not so cool with how much Austen sequels have turned into a publishing phenomenon. Especially because these days I'm wondering if people even can talk about women's classics without turning them into buzzwords. "Austen is Regency Chick Lit! Agnes Grey is The Nanny Diaries of the 19th Century!" It just feels kind of pathetic and cynical.

Also in the realm of "books that incite my ignorant hate speech" is Nights in Rothdane. (Spoilers ahead) I remember reading on Shakesville head blogger Liss being pissed off because that sort of movie glorifies the patriarchy or ... something. Honestly, I was like, "Sexism, wut? I just hate his stuff because it's Love Story-esque death!porn." You know, when one half of a couple dies too young/heroically and the other must MOVE ON while the soundtrack is sad and the sick person makes pathetic coughing noises while not looking sick at all. I mean, really, A Walk to Remember? The Notebook? Total death!porn. It makes me icky, and I'm someone who willingly read The Old Curiosity Shop.

And then I find out Richard Gere dies. I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed.

I don't know. I heard the early death of his sister inspired his death!porn, but I don't feel a lot of sincerity coming from the guy, I guess. I just don't want to dip into his stuff.

Ugh. I wish I could be more eloquent, I'm kind of tired. :(

Comments

Death!porn?

[djrose.livejournal.com]

I've heard it referred to as menoporn. I like that way. :-D

Re: Death!porn?

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

As in "menopausal"? Well, for The Notebook and Rothdane that's not bad, but A Walk to Remember was geared toward the teens. (A college friend of mine's (male) roommate LOVED that movie. I think it was a Mandy Moore thing.)