Presenting the third runner up in this year’s Miss Teen USA.
From my blog, 12.22.06: ... Miss Teen USA brings tears to my eyes. If you’ve never seen Miss Teen USA, I beg of you to tune in for the question and answer round. They might be talking, but they’re not saying a damn thing -- yet the audience goes wild as if the secret for Israeli-Palestinian peace had just been revealed.
Told you.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Becoming Jaded
A disclaimer: I have not seen Becoming Jane, nor do I plan to. I know this puts my critique on very shaky ground, but I’ll stand on it. I’ve read many of the letters the following movie is based on, and they put the premise on far shakier ground than this.
From what we know about Jane Austen, she was not especially attractive nor was she lucky in love. She was, merely, a brilliant woman with a cunning wit and keen insight into the human psyche. Becoming Jane seeks to overcome this handicap.
The movie casts the beautiful Anne Hathaway as Jane and gives her a handsome leading man to introduce her to the world of books and her own introspection. Blech. In so doing, the movie credits her success to The Man Who Showed Her The Way; a man who, in reality, knew Jane all of a month. His character is the pseudo-bad boy who seemingly eschews societal norms while putting Jane in her proper role as the wide-eyed female under the instruction of a wise man. (Ohh, the romance of submissiveness! Swoon!) We are so uncomfortable with a woman choosing a life not built around a man! Why do we have to take Jane Austen, a woman who chose not to marry, and find a way to center her life on romance and to credit her inspiration to a guy? Miramax would portray her actual life as a tragedy, as Jane grips her Ben and Jerry’s in one hand while stroking her cats with the other, tears dripping down onto all that she’s got left in life: manuscripts that will become among the most beloved novels for centuries to come. ‘Tis pity.
I adore Jane Austen as a hilariously brilliant and cynical writer with a keen ability to write characters. I adore that she was much more a smart ass than a romantic fool, using romance mostly as fodder for cynicism. What I do not adore is Miramax having Austen come into her own under the instruction of a man. I also do not adore that people find women more accessible when their lives are defined by relationships (romance is sweet; independent success, just sad and somewhat unnerving). The woman saw with her brain – we can’t owe that ability to a dreamy man in town for a month. Here are some quotes from Austen’s personal letters that show the snarky Austen I love, as represented by herself and not by Miramax.
“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal."
[On the birth of a son to one of their sisters-in-law:]
"I give you joy of our new nephew, and hope if he ever comes to be hanged it will not be till we are too old to care about it."
[On another of their nephews, then about three years old:]
"I shall think with tenderness and delight on his beautiful and smiling countenance and interesting manner, until a few years have turned him into an ungovernable, ungracious fellow."
"I could no more write a [historical] romance than an epic poem. I could not sit seriously down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life; and if it were indispensable for me to keep it up and never relax into laughing at myself or other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first chapter."
From what we know about Jane Austen, she was not especially attractive nor was she lucky in love. She was, merely, a brilliant woman with a cunning wit and keen insight into the human psyche. Becoming Jane seeks to overcome this handicap.
I adore Jane Austen as a hilariously brilliant and cynical writer with a keen ability to write characters. I adore that she was much more a smart ass than a romantic fool, using romance mostly as fodder for cynicism. What I do not adore is Miramax having Austen come into her own under the instruction of a man. I also do not adore that people find women more accessible when their lives are defined by relationships (romance is sweet; independent success, just sad and somewhat unnerving). The woman saw with her brain – we can’t owe that ability to a dreamy man in town for a month. Here are some quotes from Austen’s personal letters that show the snarky Austen I love, as represented by herself and not by Miramax.
“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal."
[On the birth of a son to one of their sisters-in-law:]
"I give you joy of our new nephew, and hope if he ever comes to be hanged it will not be till we are too old to care about it."
[On another of their nephews, then about three years old:]
"I shall think with tenderness and delight on his beautiful and smiling countenance and interesting manner, until a few years have turned him into an ungovernable, ungracious fellow."
"I could no more write a [historical] romance than an epic poem. I could not sit seriously down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life; and if it were indispensable for me to keep it up and never relax into laughing at myself or other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first chapter."
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