Austen posts, May (Tumblr)
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anghraineThese posts were mostly kicked off by a (very kind!) ask from an anon, in partial response to a fic writing meme.
On May 23rd, they said:
Hi Elizabeth :) I'm sooo very impressed with your Pride and Prejudice fics, and canon you publish here. Especially I appreciate the way you portray Darcy and capture his introversion and reserved (heaven forbid - not shy or brooding) nature. I can only regret that you rarely write stories from his perspective ;) Some questions wrt the novel and your fics:1) have you ever imagine how Darcy dealed with rejected proposal? What were his thoughts after leaving Elizabeth alone at Hunsford? 1/2
2/2) are you planning to go back writing next parts of “tolerably well acquainted”? 3) and asks game: 1, 5, 11, 13, 14, for “Pride and Prejudice” pleaaase :)
I replied:
Hi, anon!
Thank you very much, of course! And thanks especially about Darcy, my favourite character. I do tend to write my faves from outside perspectives, it’s true—I’m trying to think back, and the only fics with his perspective that come to mind are decidedly AU or issueficcy.
In terms of Darcy’s response to the proposal … hm. I wrote a fic (from another perspective :P) where a relation’s similar behaviour makes it click, though I don’t actually imagine that happening in canon. That is, it’s important to me that he gets from anger to reflection on his own—he’s able to extract the valid criticisms from the messy whole because he listened (however reluctantly) to what Elizabeth had to say, not because he gets a lecture from Fitzwilliam or whatever.
I do think it would be easy to dismiss everything she says because part of it was so wrong—imo it’s how most people handle flawed criticism—and I imagine there’s some temptation to go with that. But what is right just keeps coming back to him and he ultimately can’t dismiss it, and once he allows one part merit, it brings his whole concept of himself crashing down.
And yes, I am planning to go back to tolerably well acquainted! I have about half of another chapter written and my copy of P&P right by my desk, lol, though I haven’t worked on it in quite awhile. I’m a PhD student, so life can get a bit hectic. :)
For the meme:
1) A single line or phrase in something that you wrote that you are really proud of?
It’s a simple one, but I’m really fond of:
Georgiana made her début in London without a word exchanged between them; though Lady Catherine heard no ill of it, she was sure it would have proceeded more successfully and efficiently with the benefit of her advice.
It’s from all the genuine frankness of her character, my post-P&P Lady Catherine fic. The POV was both really fun and really challenging, and I ended up pretty happy with how it turned out.
5) Something old you wrote that you would like to revisit/revise now?
Oh, lol. I have so many old WIPs that it’s like … well, there are definitely some that I’d revise if it didn’t involve so much effort. If I could wave a magic wand and have something finished, it would probably be Matter of Chance, my general post-P&P fic, which I started a lot of times and which kept wandering down various detours that I didn’t want. Maybe tolerably well acquainted will meet up with it someday.
11) A piece of yours you wish had received a little more love?
The Letters of Elizabeth Darcy (1796-1798) is probably my favourite of all my Austen fics, and while it’s not my most obscure by any means (at least on AO3, hah), I’d have liked a better reception, yeah. I can understand why it didn’t, though—it stops rather than ends.
13) Something you wrote reluctantly?
Hmm. I don’t generally write reluctantly, unless it’s for an exchange or something; I just wander off to other projects. I did sometimes feel obliged to write on Subsequent Connections, which for awhile was my most popular fic—I couldn’t write anything without getting asked about it, which I was a bit grumpy about. Once I started revising it from my original conception to something that fit my ideas of the characters better, though, I enjoyed writing it again.
14) What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to writing?
Apart from kneejerk things like notps (Elizabeth/Fitzwilliam, Darcy/Bingley etc), it’s probably references to adaptation-only scenes in supposedly bookverse fic, with a special mention going to the pond scene. When it comes to my own writing, it’s a propensity for melodrama that I always have to rein in.
Later on the 23rd, I said:
jafdjkdfa now I’m thinking about P&P again and listening to the musical.
I really wish I had the brainpower rn for … more than that. Ah, well.
♪ I who thought I knew my mind
I could not have been more bli-i-ind
Had I been in love ♪
On May 28th:
One of my favourite little P&P things:
Elizabeth always thinks of herself as “Elizabeth” and the narrator consistently calls her that. It’s not just a generic formality thing—the narration alternates between “Kitty” and “Catherine” for Kitty, for instance. But for Elizabeth, “Lizzy” and “Eliza” are names that other people call her, not how she thinks of herself.
And, after her engagement:
“Shall you ever have courage to announce to Lady Catherine, what is to befall her?”
“I am more likely to want time than courage, Elizabeth. But it ought to be done; and if you will give me a sheet of paper, it shall be done directly.”
:)
I mean: a) as an Elizabeth who is Elizabeth, it's like ... #relatable, but b) I love!!!! that Darcy uses the name she uses for herself. <3
On May 30th, an anon asked (I'm pretty sure in relation to this post):
I don't know where else to turn for this, but I'm desperate to know: Do you know where the idea that Jane Fairfax will die young comes from? I searched the Memoir and a collection of Austen's letters, but either it just isn't in there or I'm not using the right keywords because nothing turned up.
It’s cited in quite a few places in criticism, but I think the original is in Jane Austen: A Family Record.
On May 30th, I went on a Darcy/Elizabeth squeefest:
While I’m at it, probably the single moment in P&P that I am the least amount over:
If your abhorrence of me should make my assertions valueless, you cannot be prevented by the same cause from confiding in my cousin; and that there may be the possibility of consulting him, I shall endeavour to find some opportunity of putting this letter in your hands in the course of the morning. I will only add, God bless you.
—Fitzwilliam Darcy
Tags: #yes his signature is one of the things i am Not Over #he could have signed with his initials or not at all for some element of plausible deniability #but no! he puts down his name right there on paper #trusts her with it like he trusts her with georgiana's history and with... like? everything??? #just like she does later on?? #what a good and perfect ship #AND #'if your abhorrence of (italicized) me' hahaha leave me to die #but most of all #actually saying 'god' is a pretty big deal in /any/ context #especially for someone religious #so using it /for her/ is such... a Thing #and then wishing for god to bless her in a life that (as far as he knows) will have nothing to do with him #is just—such a significant move #'charity itself' as e says
But there’s also:
Her thoughts were all fixed on that one spot of Pemberley House, whichever it might be, where Mr Darcy then was. She longed to know what at that moment was passing in his mind; in what manner he thought of her, and whether, in defiance of every thing, she was still dear to him.
Tags: #the whole 'he didn't really care for her back then' thing is so... completely separate from how elizabeth thinks of him? #she explicitly says that he loved her at hunsford later on and ofc darcy says his affections are unchanged #but there's something about 'still dear to him' that's just... good #and how the gardiners are pointing out all the sights and elizabeth is just giving these automatic replies #and it takes her awhile to actually act like she's fine everything is fine situation normal here #because she can't stop thinking about what darcy thinks and feels :)
Not to mention:
Elizabeth, who was by this time tolerably well acquainted with her own feelings, was perfectly aware that, had she known nothing of Darcy, she could have borne the dread of Lydia’s infamy somewhat better. It would have spared her, she thought, one sleepless night out of two.
Tags: #ad;jadfjkdf of course she realizes her feelings offscreen #and sleepless again! it's a problem #:P
But the most perfectly thematic:
For herself she was humbled; but she was proud of him.
Tags: #i die #i contemplated this one for my otp tag for awhile #just because it's so perfect #like - pride is such a weight through the whole book and then there's this beautiful swerve #also there is probably nothing he would want more than elizabeth being proud on his behalf t b h
Okay, last one:
“I do, I do like him,” she replied, with tears in her eyes, “I love him.”
Tags: #and then when she's like... he has no improper pride and just flat out tells mr bennet it upsets her to hear darcy talked about like that #:)))))) #(i had to leave out the coffee scene for the sake of y'all's dashes but it is Very Important also)
Also on the 30th:
Meanwhile, the other Austen ship:
Fanny went to her [Mary] every two or three days; it seemed a kind of fascination; she could not be easy without going, and yet it was without loving her
I like to hear her talk. She entertains me; and she is so extremely pretty, that I have great pleasure in looking at her.
I just…
On the 31st, I responded to mosylu on Tumblr, who said:
see my fave was always the one where he pretends to admire her needlework or whatever and uses it as cover to whisper that her father wants to talk to her. I always wished we could see it in an adaptation; it’s so understated and intimate
I said:
Oh, that’s a great one!
I’m also really fond of:
a) Elizabeth thinking there’s no one she could trust more with the secret of Lydia’s elopement, but also no one she would want to know about it less,
b) Elizabeth looking gloatingly at Darcy (while in love!) when Bingley sits by Jane at the end of the novel, and Darcy bearing it “with noble indifference”—lol, they’re so married already,
and, of course,
c) Darcy had walked away to another part of the room. She followed him with her eyes, envied every one to whom he spoke, had scarcely patience enough to help anybody to coffee; and then was enraged against herself for being so silly!
On May 23rd, they said:
Hi Elizabeth :) I'm sooo very impressed with your Pride and Prejudice fics, and canon you publish here. Especially I appreciate the way you portray Darcy and capture his introversion and reserved (heaven forbid - not shy or brooding) nature. I can only regret that you rarely write stories from his perspective ;) Some questions wrt the novel and your fics:1) have you ever imagine how Darcy dealed with rejected proposal? What were his thoughts after leaving Elizabeth alone at Hunsford? 1/2
2/2) are you planning to go back writing next parts of “tolerably well acquainted”? 3) and asks game: 1, 5, 11, 13, 14, for “Pride and Prejudice” pleaaase :)
I replied:
Hi, anon!
Thank you very much, of course! And thanks especially about Darcy, my favourite character. I do tend to write my faves from outside perspectives, it’s true—I’m trying to think back, and the only fics with his perspective that come to mind are decidedly AU or issueficcy.
In terms of Darcy’s response to the proposal … hm. I wrote a fic (from another perspective :P) where a relation’s similar behaviour makes it click, though I don’t actually imagine that happening in canon. That is, it’s important to me that he gets from anger to reflection on his own—he’s able to extract the valid criticisms from the messy whole because he listened (however reluctantly) to what Elizabeth had to say, not because he gets a lecture from Fitzwilliam or whatever.
I do think it would be easy to dismiss everything she says because part of it was so wrong—imo it’s how most people handle flawed criticism—and I imagine there’s some temptation to go with that. But what is right just keeps coming back to him and he ultimately can’t dismiss it, and once he allows one part merit, it brings his whole concept of himself crashing down.
And yes, I am planning to go back to tolerably well acquainted! I have about half of another chapter written and my copy of P&P right by my desk, lol, though I haven’t worked on it in quite awhile. I’m a PhD student, so life can get a bit hectic. :)
For the meme:
1) A single line or phrase in something that you wrote that you are really proud of?
It’s a simple one, but I’m really fond of:
Georgiana made her début in London without a word exchanged between them; though Lady Catherine heard no ill of it, she was sure it would have proceeded more successfully and efficiently with the benefit of her advice.
It’s from all the genuine frankness of her character, my post-P&P Lady Catherine fic. The POV was both really fun and really challenging, and I ended up pretty happy with how it turned out.
5) Something old you wrote that you would like to revisit/revise now?
Oh, lol. I have so many old WIPs that it’s like … well, there are definitely some that I’d revise if it didn’t involve so much effort. If I could wave a magic wand and have something finished, it would probably be Matter of Chance, my general post-P&P fic, which I started a lot of times and which kept wandering down various detours that I didn’t want. Maybe tolerably well acquainted will meet up with it someday.
11) A piece of yours you wish had received a little more love?
The Letters of Elizabeth Darcy (1796-1798) is probably my favourite of all my Austen fics, and while it’s not my most obscure by any means (at least on AO3, hah), I’d have liked a better reception, yeah. I can understand why it didn’t, though—it stops rather than ends.
13) Something you wrote reluctantly?
Hmm. I don’t generally write reluctantly, unless it’s for an exchange or something; I just wander off to other projects. I did sometimes feel obliged to write on Subsequent Connections, which for awhile was my most popular fic—I couldn’t write anything without getting asked about it, which I was a bit grumpy about. Once I started revising it from my original conception to something that fit my ideas of the characters better, though, I enjoyed writing it again.
14) What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to writing?
Apart from kneejerk things like notps (Elizabeth/Fitzwilliam, Darcy/Bingley etc), it’s probably references to adaptation-only scenes in supposedly bookverse fic, with a special mention going to the pond scene. When it comes to my own writing, it’s a propensity for melodrama that I always have to rein in.
Later on the 23rd, I said:
jafdjkdfa now I’m thinking about P&P again and listening to the musical.
I really wish I had the brainpower rn for … more than that. Ah, well.
♪ I who thought I knew my mind
I could not have been more bli-i-ind
Had I been in love ♪
On May 28th:
One of my favourite little P&P things:
Elizabeth always thinks of herself as “Elizabeth” and the narrator consistently calls her that. It’s not just a generic formality thing—the narration alternates between “Kitty” and “Catherine” for Kitty, for instance. But for Elizabeth, “Lizzy” and “Eliza” are names that other people call her, not how she thinks of herself.
And, after her engagement:
“Shall you ever have courage to announce to Lady Catherine, what is to befall her?”
“I am more likely to want time than courage, Elizabeth. But it ought to be done; and if you will give me a sheet of paper, it shall be done directly.”
:)
I mean: a) as an Elizabeth who is Elizabeth, it's like ... #relatable, but b) I love!!!! that Darcy uses the name she uses for herself. <3
On May 30th, an anon asked (I'm pretty sure in relation to this post):
I don't know where else to turn for this, but I'm desperate to know: Do you know where the idea that Jane Fairfax will die young comes from? I searched the Memoir and a collection of Austen's letters, but either it just isn't in there or I'm not using the right keywords because nothing turned up.
It’s cited in quite a few places in criticism, but I think the original is in Jane Austen: A Family Record.
On May 30th, I went on a Darcy/Elizabeth squeefest:
While I’m at it, probably the single moment in P&P that I am the least amount over:
If your abhorrence of me should make my assertions valueless, you cannot be prevented by the same cause from confiding in my cousin; and that there may be the possibility of consulting him, I shall endeavour to find some opportunity of putting this letter in your hands in the course of the morning. I will only add, God bless you.
—Fitzwilliam Darcy
Tags: #yes his signature is one of the things i am Not Over #he could have signed with his initials or not at all for some element of plausible deniability #but no! he puts down his name right there on paper #trusts her with it like he trusts her with georgiana's history and with... like? everything??? #just like she does later on?? #what a good and perfect ship #AND #'if your abhorrence of (italicized) me' hahaha leave me to die #but most of all #actually saying 'god' is a pretty big deal in /any/ context #especially for someone religious #so using it /for her/ is such... a Thing #and then wishing for god to bless her in a life that (as far as he knows) will have nothing to do with him #is just—such a significant move #'charity itself' as e says
But there’s also:
Her thoughts were all fixed on that one spot of Pemberley House, whichever it might be, where Mr Darcy then was. She longed to know what at that moment was passing in his mind; in what manner he thought of her, and whether, in defiance of every thing, she was still dear to him.
Tags: #the whole 'he didn't really care for her back then' thing is so... completely separate from how elizabeth thinks of him? #she explicitly says that he loved her at hunsford later on and ofc darcy says his affections are unchanged #but there's something about 'still dear to him' that's just... good #and how the gardiners are pointing out all the sights and elizabeth is just giving these automatic replies #and it takes her awhile to actually act like she's fine everything is fine situation normal here #because she can't stop thinking about what darcy thinks and feels :)
Not to mention:
Elizabeth, who was by this time tolerably well acquainted with her own feelings, was perfectly aware that, had she known nothing of Darcy, she could have borne the dread of Lydia’s infamy somewhat better. It would have spared her, she thought, one sleepless night out of two.
Tags: #ad;jadfjkdf of course she realizes her feelings offscreen #and sleepless again! it's a problem #:P
But the most perfectly thematic:
For herself she was humbled; but she was proud of him.
Tags: #i die #i contemplated this one for my otp tag for awhile #just because it's so perfect #like - pride is such a weight through the whole book and then there's this beautiful swerve #also there is probably nothing he would want more than elizabeth being proud on his behalf t b h
Okay, last one:
“I do, I do like him,” she replied, with tears in her eyes, “I love him.”
Tags: #and then when she's like... he has no improper pride and just flat out tells mr bennet it upsets her to hear darcy talked about like that #:)))))) #(i had to leave out the coffee scene for the sake of y'all's dashes but it is Very Important also)
Also on the 30th:
Meanwhile, the other Austen ship:
Fanny went to her [Mary] every two or three days; it seemed a kind of fascination; she could not be easy without going, and yet it was without loving her
I like to hear her talk. She entertains me; and she is so extremely pretty, that I have great pleasure in looking at her.
I just…
On the 31st, I responded to mosylu on Tumblr, who said:
see my fave was always the one where he pretends to admire her needlework or whatever and uses it as cover to whisper that her father wants to talk to her. I always wished we could see it in an adaptation; it’s so understated and intimate
I said:
Oh, that’s a great one!
I’m also really fond of:
a) Elizabeth thinking there’s no one she could trust more with the secret of Lydia’s elopement, but also no one she would want to know about it less,
b) Elizabeth looking gloatingly at Darcy (while in love!) when Bingley sits by Jane at the end of the novel, and Darcy bearing it “with noble indifference”—lol, they’re so married already,
and, of course,
c) Darcy had walked away to another part of the room. She followed him with her eyes, envied every one to whom he spoke, had scarcely patience enough to help anybody to coffee; and then was enraged against herself for being so silly!
