...and I'm addicted to Jane Austen.
"Hi, Jonathan," murmurs a collected feminine audience.
I always thought I had sense, that my sensibilities were so decidedly masculine that my pride would never succumb to the persuasion of this decidedly feminine author; yet I find my prejudices have been overwhelmed: I am now reading Emma. Really, really, I thought that, as a man, fielding objections such as "chick book", would save me from ever lounging in a park with a paperback novel navigating the intrigues of Regency England regarding contented matrimony. Perhaps, I think this must be the case, it is possible to appreciate Jane Austen as a man, manishly. Women are not as far from men as south from north: we are all hangers on in this grand thing we call humanity. And if that's not the case, lock me up in an Abbey!
In the same way, Austen has a lot to teach us, though the rigid conventions of her time have passed. She is still valuable today, because she understands humanity to its core, and her fiction addresses truly timeless questions. I think that I can read Austen with enjoyment now because, as Libby says, I've grown up a lot since I first tried. Now I perceive these questions, and ask them along with her. My first attempt at Pride and Prejudice, in High School, got me just far enough to know that I didn't like it and it was insufferably boring. When I read it last November, I couldn't put it down! I therefore feel inclined to recommend a Classical Education as valuable to the youth of our age. Thanks, Torrey Honors!
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6 comments:
It doesn't hurt that Jane Austen is brilliant.
I mean... come on... she's interacting with David Hume through literature.
Bill
Hence the stuff about asking good questions. She's really concerned about epistemology, and also literary theory, and I think that she's acutely aware of the two being linked.
I liked the Jane Austen stuff we read for the Torrey Berkeley I went to. Forgot which one it was though. I must have missed the epistimology angle, though.
yeah, when I was young.. like a freshman in highschool or so, I read either Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice (I think it was the latter) and I thought it was great. Actually was really exciting how it all played out. (c: very good real human dialogue/thought portrayal as I recall.
Based on this feedback for this thread it looks like there is a comepelling need to form a society of "Manly Sops for Austen".
I'll join.
What a novel notion. I'll join too.
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