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In response to this post, akaaallttyynn said:

There’s a way in which being Virtuous can be it’s own sort of pride. As with the rich man giving to charity it ultimately feeds back into their own self image more than it impacts anyone else

I replied:

Ehhh, depends on the case. Men leading women on and then noping out is a real problem throughout Austen’s novels. Darcy isn’t wrong to think about the potential effect of his actions, just mistaken in this case (bc of his arrogance, certainly). And, while his moral character is certainly tied up in pride, a major swerve in Elizabeth’s feelings about him comes when she realizes that his virtue does have an incredibly powerful impact on a large number of other people.

“He is the best landlord, and the best master,” said she [Mrs Reynolds], “that ever lived. Not like the wild young men now-a-days, who think of nothing but themselves. There is not one of his tenants or servants but what will give him a good name. Some people call him proud; but I am sure I never saw any thing of it.”

… The commendation bestowed on him by Mrs Reynolds was of no trifling nature. What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant? As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people’s happiness were in his guardianship!—How much of pleasure or pain it was in his power to bestow!—How much of good or evil must be done by him!

Tumblr crosspost (5 June 2020)

An anon said (in reference to this):

I'm just glad your Jyn/Cassian Persuasion AU is a thing that exists even as snippets. Jyn as Wentworth is total narrative/character matching perfection.

I replied:

Oh, thank you! It was fun to try and think through some of the details, I do really like finding cross-gender analogues in general, and that just seemed to work with what I wanted to do with her (esp once Wentworth!Jyn and Partisan!Jyn connected!).

jubaah replied:

Elizabeth is this project a go? Cause then I will start reading persuasion as soon as I’m done w my current book 👀

I replied:

Alas, I’ve only written about 2k of it (I posted over half of that a while… uh, several years ago). Thank you though <3

Tumblr crosspost (5 June 2020)

winterwindows asked:

okay i'm really curious what are your exact issues w/ the AD northanger abbey? i love the book & i thought felicity and JJ were pretty perfect, but something felt off that i couldn't put my finger on. the only specific example i can think of is when they drive to the abbey and it IS gloomy and haunted-looking (where in the book that was just how catherine imagined it might be) anyways i love & trust your takes on austen so if you have time i'd love to hear more!

I replied:

I loved Felicity and JJ to pieces in their roles, but I had monumental reservations about how it engaged with the theme of women and novels, which is the core of the story in many ways. I screamed about it this morning on Dreamwidth here.

[ETA 2/24/2022: The circle is now complete!]

Tumblr crosspost (5 June 2020)

I rambled about this a few years ago (and more briefly, also a few days ago), but another P&P thing that I find ultimately very charming is the quiet development of a connection between Jane and Darcy. This is partially very subjective, but also partially … less so.

Anyway:

Jane and Elizabeth’s appearances:

Elizabeth, equally next to Jane in birth and beauty, succeeded her

Darcy and Georgiana’s appearances:

“She is a handsome girl, about fifteen or sixteen …”

She was less handsome than her brother

Jane’s early response to Darcy:

“Are you quite sure, ma'am? is not there a little mistake?” said Jane. "I certainly saw Mr Darcy speaking to her.”

… “Miss Bingley told me,” said Jane, “that he never speaks much, unless among his intimate acquaintance. With them he is remarkably agreeable.”

Darcy’s early impression of Jane:

Miss Bennet he acknowledged to be pretty, but she smiled too much.

Also Darcy:

- Darcy only smiled

- “And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.”

“And yours,” he replied, with a smile, “is wilfully to misunderstand them.”

- He smiled, and assured her that whatever she wished him to say should be said.

- “What think you of books?” said he, smiling.

- As he spoke there was a sort of smile which Elizabeth fancied she understood

- “I am not afraid of you,” said he smilingly.

- Darcy smiled and said, “You are perfectly right.”

- she beheld a striking resemblance of Mr Darcy, with such a smile over the face as she remembered to have sometimes seen when he looked at her.

- she sat in misery till Mr Darcy appeared again, when, looking at him, she was a little relieved by his smile.

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Tumblr crosspost (5 June 2020)

I reblogged the result of some Photoshop fiddling in Oct 2018:




A post for my dreadnought carrier of a ship, fave of all my faves, OTP to rule them all—

Her liking Darcy and Elizabeth is enough, she might hate all the others if she would.

—Jane Austen, 1813

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Tumblr crosspost (5 June 2020)

I checked to see how many Austen posts I've made since creating my current tag for them and it's like

Tumblr crosspost (6 June 2020)

One of the details about Wickham’s and Darcy’s background that I think is interesting:

Wickham says:

Had the late Mr Darcy liked me less, his son might have borne with me better; but his father’s uncommon attachment to me, irritated him I believe very early in life. He had not a temper to bear the sort of competition in which we stood—the sort of preference which was often given me.

Darcy says:

to have thrown off the companion of my youth, the acknowledged favourite of my father, a young man who had scarcely any other dependence than on our patronage, and who had been brought up to expect its exertion, would be a depravity

‘Favourite’ could have multiple meanings, but in context, I think it entirely probable that Mr Darcy, while loving and over-indulging his son, nevertheless preferred Wickham. If so, both Wickham and Darcy seem to have been entirely conscious of this. What’s intriguing, though, is how wildly different their perspectives are on it: Wickham thinks, or at least says, that Darcy was jealous, while in reality, Darcy merely thinks that it created an obligation to Wickham that would be “a depravity” for him to overlook.

There’s a scholar who has a conspiracy theory that Darcy actually is jealous and resentful and it doesn’t come up for Reasons, but I think it’s more interesting this way.

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Tumblr crosspost (6 June 2020)

An anon said:

So I've been having a P&P glut recently. I've loved your E/D commentary, It's especially nice to see their similarities being discussed rather than romanticising pairings with opposing characteristics (which I often find sits somewhere between being naïve & deeply unhealthy). Also when re-reading about E's visit to Pemberley it struck me that she has: 1) a inner snobby streak for good taste - like a certain somebody else & 2) a serious competence kink she didn't know she had.

I replied:

I feel you on the P&P glut, haha. And thank you!

I took an Austen seminar during my MA where my prof/advisor was super emphatic about Darcy and Elizabeth’s similarities, and while I already thought about them that way, it definitely reinforced my sense of an underlying affinity (that I think is part of the reason they overreact to each other).

That’s part of the reason that it’s so important, I feel, to avoid the natural Darcy=pride, Elizabeth=prejudice, when pride is so persistently present in both of their characters and in their relationship to each other (at all stages! one of my favourite moments is when Elizabeth’s response to discovering the extent of Darcy’s heroism is pride). I wrote a paper on it for that same class, actually—a lot of criticism traditionally aligns Elizabeth with one end of some binary and Darcy with another, and while the assignments often make no sense anyway, the whole underlying concept of a basic binary opposition is super problematic with them. They have many differences, of course, but that doesn’t make them polar opposites.

Anyway, those are good points! I think it’s interesting that they’re so overlooked in the preoccupation with whether Elizabeth marries Darcy for his money or not, a question which makes zero sense in the context of what actually impresses her at Pemberley. Those are a) his taste and b) his effective use of power.

She cares very much more about how elegant and tasteful Pemberley is than how much money it brings in (with the revelation of her and Darcy’s shared aesthetic tastes suggesting a deeper rapport). And if people are going to see Elizabeth’s interest in Darcy as self-interested rather than romantic, then it would make more sense to see Elizabeth as attracted to his power and use of it rather than, again, simple wealth. Of course, that leaves out the impact of how scrupulous his use of power is, and that she explicitly says she loves him.

Tumblr crosspost (7 June 2020)

While I’m at it, there’s another disparity between Wickham’s and Darcy’s accounts, though a small one.

Wickham:

- “Yes,” replied Wickham; “his estate there [in Derbyshire] is a noble one. A clear ten thousand per annum.”

- “My father began life in the profession which your uncle, Mr Philips, appears to do so much credit to—but he gave up everything to be of use to the late Mr Darcy, and devoted all his time to the care of the Pemberley property.”

Darcy:

Mr Wickham is the son of a very respectable man, who had for many years the management of all the Pemberley estates, and whose good conduct in the discharge of his trust naturally inclined my father to be of service to him

I think it’s intriguing but reasonable that each sees the dynamic from his own family’s perspective; Wickham sees it as the result of his father making a personal sacrifice for the benefit of the Darcys, and Darcy sees it as a personal favour made to a trustworthy and competent employee. But those aspects of those story are perfectly compatible, just differing in emphasis.

Their accounts do seem different, though, in their representation of the actual property at hand. Wickham pretty strongly suggests that Pemberley proper, as a single “noble” estate, is the total of Darcy’s property and what his own father was responsible for, while Darcy says outright that Mr Wickham had management of multiple Darcy estates.

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Tumblr crosspost (8 June 2020)

In the former were many good paintings; but Elizabeth knew nothing of the art; and from such as had been already visible below, she had willingly turned to look at some drawings of Miss Darcy’s, in crayons, whose subjects were usually more interesting, and also more intelligible.

To this day, I’m not sure if I’m more delighted that a) Darcy collects pretentious incomprehensible art, b) he also collects Georgiana’s art and has it shown off at Pemberley when she isn’t even there, or c) Elizabeth genuinely likes Georgiana’s drawings and will undoubtedly be super supportive after her marriage.

 

 [ETA 2/24/2022: I'm doubly amused that this very deep post somehow accumulated some 500 notes]

Tumblr crosspost (8 June 2020)

“I do, I do like him,” she replied, with tears in her eyes; “I love him. Indeed he has no improper pride. He is perfectly amiable. You do not know what he really is; then pray do not pain me by speaking of him in such terms.”

“Lizzy,” said her father, “I have given him my consent. He is the kind of man, indeed, to whom I should never dare refuse anything which he condescended to ask. I now give it to you, if you are resolved on having him. But let me advise you to think better of it. I know your disposition, Lizzy. I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable unless you truly esteemed your husband—unless you looked up to him as a superior. Your lively talents would place you in the greatest danger in an unequal marriage.”

There’s a lot going on in many P&P (and Austen) passages, but this one is always just … wait, wait, what? Like:

1. Elizabeth explicitly says she loves Darcy and gets upset at hearing him wrongly criticized (<3)
2. Mr Bennet is, apparently, too intimidated by Darcy to personally refuse his consent, but
3. He wants Elizabeth to retract her acceptance, because
4. He thinks Elizabeth needs to look up to her husband as her superior (!!!!) to be happy and “respectable” (suggesting she might make very questionable choices in marriage otherwise), and
5. He follows this up with his fear for her in an unequal marriage, implying that Elizabeth’s marriage will be unequal if she isn’t married to a man superior to her (I’d like “what is equality” for 100, Alex)

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Tumblr crosspost (8 June 2020)

With regard to this post, perminas said:

why isn’t he concerned about this with jane? bingley comes off as a little silly frequently, although very charming, and jane is supposed to be nearly as smart as lizzie, right? or does he just expect sweet jane to not engage in risky behavior the same way lizzie would?

I replied:

I don’t think we’re ever told about how intelligent Jane is or isn’t, beyond what’s obvious; I would say that it’s very much up to interpretation, because her desire to think well of the world so profoundly shapes her perceptions and thought processes. Bingley is sometimes treated as sillier than I think he is, but I also think defenses of him can go overboard; the most Austen says about his intelligence is that it’s not deficient, just inferior to Darcy’s.

IMO Mr Bennet’s concern is driven both by his sense of Elizabeth’s intelligence and his sense of her general character; he talks of her “lively talents” placing her in danger, which combines both. I don’t think he’d consider it much of a concern for Jane temperamentally.

(I also suspect that he’d be inclined to underestimate Jane’s intelligence because it’s not like his. His characterization of Jane and Bingley’s forthcoming marriage seems to place them on a par.)

I made a thing!

I'm putting together a full recording of the main Lucyverse fics, and since tree gave me a corner of her website to play with and putting them all in one place would require a ton of scrolling, I'm making a Wordpress page for each of the fics. That absolutely required new images for the 2nd and 3rd fics of the main series, of course, so I fiddled some with my ancient copy of Photoshop today, and got something I'm unusually happy with for the 2nd fic:



Ta-da, The Imperial Menace! Now both of the images have McQuarrie art as the backdrops and I just need to finish recording Adventures (two chapters left!) and get started on Imperial. Still deciding what I'll do for TJATSL, though...

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A deep SW thought: I think we're so used to Star Wars being called Star Wars that we overlook what a silly name it is. STAR WARS!!! All the other movies (except TROS IMO) have titles that make sense in terms of their subject matter (well, I guess AOTC is also slightly dubious in terms of what it's actually about) and are pretty solid titles. But Star Wars is kind of lovably ridiculous.