A Latter-Day Comedy...!?

So reads the tagline of an independent Mormon film adaptation of P&P, set amongst college students and, judging from the look and feel of the official site, every bit as bubble-gummy as Clueless and not half as funny. (Darn, I can't view the trailer because I don't have Quicktime.) There's also an IMDB site for it.

I saw this film mentioned in the blogosphere once or twice before... It hasn't gotten much press, but it opens Dec. 5. I'm not sure where it will be playing aside from Salt Lake City, but I doubt it will come to DC. Even if it did, it looks far too...pink...for me. But if you are somewhere it is playing and happen to see it, please by all means send me your impressions/explanations/etc.

Austen in Australia

Here's a neighborhood I'd feel quite at home in, and I'm sure Jane would too! Go to this site, type Pemberley in the street name, and leave the rest blank. Look at the lovely names of the streets in the resulting map... [via Civility]

Derbyshire in Autumn

Some beautiful pictures of Derbyshire in Autumn at Status-Q [via Chew's Place]

New Toy

Sign my GuestMap! It's in the sidebar, under "Contact."

Jane in Hollywood News Update

Apparently Jack White (The White Stripes) has split up with Renee Zellweger over her Bridget Jones persona. It's not clear whether the issue is her schedule, her fame, her weight gain, or just the fact that the Bridget Jones character clashes with his own artistic persona. Who cares? Now he can go back do doing whatever with his drummer/sister/ex-wife/whatever Meg White is, and Renee can be Hollywood's most eligible singleton...

Meanwhile, true to their Bridget Jones characters, Hugh Grant is having a great time teasing her about being "huge" and Colin Firth says he prefers her "squishier."

Despite which opinion she prefers, rumor has it that Weight Watchers is offering her $3.2 million ($110,000 per pound) to lose it through their plan.


Visit the IMDB Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason page!

Jane in Bollywood News Update

Havdala wrote in to ask if I knew anything more about Bollywood's Bride and Prejudice. The latest news I could find is that filming has wrapped up in India and is moving to Los Angeles. As of now the film should be released by the end of 2004.

Visit the IMDB Bride and Prejudice page!

Great Links

A recent post on Janeites brought my attention to these great sites with some of Austen's juvenalia, letters, fragments, poetry and prayers... Check them out!

Scraps by Jane Austen
Detached Pieces
The History of England
Evelyn
Poems
Poetic Fragments
Plan of a Novel
Prayers

Here's an amusing poem fragment that caught my eye:

No wonder that Oxford and Cambridge profound
In Learning and Science so greatly abound
Since some carry thither a little each day
And we meet with so few that bring any away.

Real men read Austen...

...even big-shot Wall Street investors!

"I love Jane Austen...I think she was one of the great stylists of the world. She wrote about a world that was a lot simpler in many ways and a lot more orderly than ours and yet I think she had profound insights into what motivates people."
--Michael Metz, as quoted on Forbes.com

The Virtue of Bridget Jones

Sara at Diotima has a thought-provoking post on the differences in the depiction of (and importance of) virtue and values in Bridget Jones' Diary and Pride and Prejudice. Go read it!

Here's an excerpt:

"The only virtue that seems to appear in BJD is, unsurprisingly, the ability to be happy being oneself. Mark Darcy and Bridget love each other "just as they are," but in P&P, Darcy and Elizabeth have to improve themselves before they are fit for each other. While Austen offers a plan of action, BJD is a pure fantasy, where an admittedly and, eventually, happily imperfect woman still gets Colin Firth without having to do anything, just by being herself."

Author Revealed

More on the old news front... Blog or not? pointed out last week that playwright David Auburn (Proof) is one of the authors of the previously mentioned Pride and Promiscuity... go figure!

Bye Bye Blogpoll...

Well, I don't know if the polls automatically reset themselves after a certain number of votes, or after a week, or what. (The Blogpoll site gives no info. If you know please e-mail me!) But I had well over a hundred responses the other day, probably closer to 200, and now it's down to 5. Guess I should have closed it after a week... Unfortunately I don't know the final numbers, but Pride and Prejudice was #1, and Persuasion was #2. The majority of the votes did go to those two novels.

If anyone has an idea for another Austen-related poll, please send it to me. I was overwhelmed by the attention the first poll received! I did see a comment on another site that suggested a Brontes vs. Austen type of poll...maybe I could do a favorite authors of the 19th century poll? I'm willing to bring back Blogpoll (or something similar), but I'd like to know how it works so I don't screw it up again!

What Men Have Said About Austen

Here's a great site with quotes from comtemporaries, admirers, relatives, et. al. (via CS and Freespace)

I especially enjoyed Rudyard Kipling’s poem on Jane’s Marriage in heaven to her “Captain Wentworth.” Too cool!

Listlessness

First of all, in the interests of catching up.... This is old but ongoing news, but the BBC Big Read is taking votes for Britain's best-loved book. So if you're British, go vote! P&P is on the list of course, and I'm sure it will make the top 5 when it's narrowed down on Dec 13. I would not at all be surprised if it won. But then again, I am not British. Nor have I ever (yet) been to Great Britain. But I am interested to know their favorite novel. Here's the Telegraph article on the Big Read. I must say, it's an interesting list, with a lot of my favorites present, and I was pleasantly surprised to see so many American authors on the list. Are Catcher in the Rye, Little Women, and To Kill a Mockingbird really some of Britain's favorite novels as well? I think that's just splendid...

Speaking of lists, Crescat Sententia has created it's own Top 100 Novels list. Go check it out. While I like it better than the Guardian's, I still seem to rank about the same, having read 20-25% of them. *SIGH* Time to win the lottery (hmm, better start playing...), quit my day job and spend the rest of my life amassing an impressive library and reading every volume in it. Hmm and while I'm at it, acquire two cats to be named Darcy (an aloof black cat) and Bingley (a playful tabby)...

Perhaps I'll come up with a shortlist of my own... Books I Could Not Live Without... I'll give it some thought!

Ok, so maybe he was right...

Been meaning to post this for about a week now, but was debating the moral dilemma of using this site to bring attention to "Jane Austen porn," muchless the problem of admitting that my BBF was right... Anyway, Crescat Sententia has goaded me into acknowledging the existence of Pride and Promiscuity. Apparently, one can read excerpts online (via Bookslut.) I must say, regarding this book, I'm about 75% dismayed and 25% curious. And also rather surprised that the same people who made such a fuss over the Jane Austen teas are not similarly upset about what this may be doing to Jane's good name and reputation...

As far as the marketing goes, I must say that the whole "we found these 'lost scenes' in the attic" gimmick is rather lame--I hope no ignorant schoolchildren actually fall for it. As for the content, I won't pass judgment until/unless I read it. ;-)

P.S. Please don't e-mail me to ask where the excerpts are. I'm not sure. I didn't see a link on the Canongate site, or Amazon. And seeing as I'm at work, I'm not inclined to look too hard just now.

GIVING THANKS

Well, after a near-(blog)-death experience yesterday, and watching my entire archives flash before my eyes, I am now more attached than ever to this blog. I just want to take a moment to send a few "shout-outs" (but in a perfectly humble and decorous, Austen-esque tone, of course!) to a few people who have also helped me renew my zeal for blogging of late:

First of all, thank you to Cordelia at Civility for the very sweet complimentary and encouraging e-mail, and the link to my blog.

Secondly, to Will at CS--not only for his early notice and encouragement of this blog--but also for recently sharing his thoughts on first reading P&P, and even inquiring for my humble opinion on which novel to read next! How flattering! (Thanks too for getting Prufrock stuck in my head...)

And last but not least, abundant thanks to Kieran at Crooked Timber for mentioning my poll and thus sending my hit counter through the roof. In fact, my SiteMeter went down yesterday and I had to remove it from the page temporarily, as it was slowing down the loading time appallingly. Not sure if the two are related, but I'm certainly glad for the exposure! Keep reading!

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P.S. Random question: Does anyone know if Shakespeare coined the phrase "last but not least"? Variants appear in Julius Caesar (which I just read for the first time) and King Lear, and it made me wonder...

TAKE MY POLL...PLEASE!

See sidebar... And no stuffing the ballot box!

ON A (RARE) PERSONAL NOTE

Sorry for the lapse in posting...been super busy lately. I'm dreadfully behind on the news feeds, and don't know when/if I'll catch up. So for now, I just wanted to share this anecdote.

My beloved boyfriend, for some still-unfathomable reason, volunteered to watch Bridget Jones' Diary a couple weekends ago. (This is apparently what happens when the DVD player is out of commission and we are forced to raid my VHS collection.) Anyway, he did seem to enjoy the movie, although he was rather concerned about Bridget's attitude. Here's a transcript:

BBF: "Are all women like this?"

JF: "No--only half of us, only half the time."

BBF: "Oh..." *bolts out of the room in terror, never to return*

Ok, so he didn't run away (Yay!). But the rest is true. He laughed appropriately at the funny parts (i.e. blue soup, and the bunny outfit) and especially seemed to enjoy the big brawl between Darcy and Daniel. He also brought in the ever-so-important male perspective, mainly by pointing out that it is in fact a Mini-Cooper her friends are driving, in that one really snowy scene...

I did make the mistake of trying to explain the book/movie connections--how BJD is an adaptation of P&P--the BBC adaptation of which featured Firth as Darcy, and that Grant was in the film of S&S, etc... At this point his eyes began to glaze over, much like mine do when he discusses computers. Fair enough. The real mistake though, was that him being male and being aware of a grand total of 2 of Austen's works, he proceeded to explore possible alterations of their titles for the purposes of a different kind of adaptation--porn, to be exact. Needless to say, I was not amused. (No, I will not share with you the Jane Austen Porn titles. I'm sure you can think up some yourself. They weren't that creative.)

But that got me thinking, about why I was so offended at this perceived sacrilege. I suppose it's simply because many of us read Austen (or any author whose works are set in a time/place not our own) as a sort of escape. While I don't exactly consider it to be the same sort of escape as bored housewives reading trashy romance novels, it is still an escape. In fact, it is an escape from the world of porn and smut... It's an escape from the world of hookups and bars to the world of courtship and balls...

Ok, I'll stop now.

**Disclaimer: JF feels compelled to state for the record that her BBF is a great guy, and not a chauvinist or anything like that. In fact, he's usually quite the gentleman. But he is also male, so allowances must be made. I'm not complaining. Not one bit...**

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Also, I just want to thank everyone who reads this blog and/or has linked to it--I've been getting so many hits lately, especially from Brits and students/professors. It makes me feel great to see I've touched on a topic that people still obsess over. But at the same time, I'm now developing a guilt complex over not posting more often... I feel I'm shirking in my duties to my adoring public. LOL. Seriously though, I will try to post more regularly. So keep coming back for more! And remember, feedback is ALWAYS welcome!