anghraine

In response to this post,

elperian said:

there is that line where jane says ‘nothing could give either bingley or myself more delight. but we considered it, we talked of [lizzy and darcy] as impossible.’ so they do have a textual convo offscreen - but it’s about l/d which is funny in its own way

I replied:

Yeah, that’s what I meant when I said that it’s not that they don’t speak to each other in-story—they must have spoken on numerous occasions, of course, including those ones. It’s that Austen doesn’t bother showing any of those conversations in dialogue (unless I’m misremembering), which I think is fairly suggestive about the novel’s priorities.

rorylgilmore responded [on 5 Jan 2023]:

#same. i don't get it #i like the character of jane #but i'm confused whenever p&p is made to be about the two sisters and their romances as if it was s&s #(yet another reason i'm not on board with grouping all austen novels together) #we don't know enough about jane/bingley to be as invested (from my perspective at least) #still to each their own

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Sail Away, Sweet Sister (Queen)

An anon asked:

Love what you write about Darcy/Elizabeth! Just curious, what do you think of Jane/Bingley? Do you think they would be a good couple?

I replied:

Thank you very much!

For Jane/Bingley, I think it depends on what you mean by “good.” They’ll be … fine, I think? There’s no real reason for them not to be.

But—well, I’m pretty resistant to the versions/interpretations of Jane/Bingley that I see now and then that are like, “well, actually, they’re very compelling as written and it’s suggested they would have a complex, ultra-passionate relationship!” Different people find different things interesting, of course, and have different headcanons, but … we never really see them interact and IIRC they don’t exchange a single line of dialogue. It’s hard for me to latch onto that as anything but plot and characterization device.

( Read more... )

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Old Time Rock & Roll (Bob Seger)

I’m a grown adult in my 30s, so obviously my thoughts periodically just wander off into “what if there was some AU with like, idk, combination transformations like Steven Universe, but kind of crossed with She-Ra, that create these ultra-superpowered combo/alternate selves, but only very few people are compatible enough to make it work … and obviously those people are my OTPs …”

Tagged: #i unironically amuse myself by imagining how i'd make it work for my peak otp #like there's this stealth magical society but nobody knows for sure unless they actually see someone performing magic #a lot of people genuinely don't know about it and a lot of magic folk assume the people they meet aren't magic #but they don't know #i'm thinking that the bingleys are quite genuinely non-magical and oblivious to the whole hidden magical society #some of the bennets are magical and most of them are in on it and they assume the whole netherfield party is oblivious #darcy of course is actually a mage on a par with elizabeth #but ultra-careful about not revealing it right until a major force shows up to fuck with the bennets #and bingley is incidentally injured and darcy is just like... hell with this and starts freezing people to trees #bingley: wait you're...???? #elizabeth: wait i was...wrong? #darcy: 'okay apparently i'm going to just... publicly do this... my family is NOT going to be happy #okay regrets later giant ice spikes now' #and anyway there's all this magical energy going on and elizabeth and darcy bump into each other on accident #and people have even actively tried to magically meld into a magic superbeing but they just can't #cue MAGICAL TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE. lots of sparkles and swirly lights and glowy eyes #and when it settles there's like... this incredibly tall and attractive person who runs at maximum 'FIGHT ME' at all times #like she's ... part of the joy of imagining elizabeth+darcy is just imagining how incredibly arrogant their combo self would be lol #but genuinely brilliant and powerful and charismatic! just ridiculously proud though #bonus scenario: they don't know how to revert back and jane is like ... this is ... um... my cousin. miss ... dar...net. darnet. yes. #jane: it will look strange if you do not attend the ball but you do not need to be afraid! i will talk if you are uncomfortable and- #miss darnet: i fear nothing #i don't even know how to tag this organizationally

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: You Give Love a Bad Name (Bon Jovi)

An anon asked:

You’re an INTJ and you accept the common typing of Darcy as an INTJ, right? Well, I’ve just found a few people arguing that Darcy is actually a Sensor, arguing that a real Ni-dom would have better predicted that Wickham would target Lydia or some other young girl, and citing the fact that he misjudges Jane’s feelings for Bingley based on appearances. Would you argue that he’s still an INTJ despite the above, and if so, how?

I replied:

Yes, I’m an INTJ, and yes, I accept (and relish!) the usual INTJ-typing for him.

I’ll say upfront that I like the MBTI, but also have issues with it as a system and haven’t dug into the details for a long time. My friend

tree could probably answer this question better than I can.

But personally, I think one of the issues with discussion of it is that people tend to flatten everything about someone into the type and ignore other, individualizing motivations they have. IMO that’s part of what’s happening here.

So, to begin with, it’s less that Darcy did or didn’t intuit that Wickham was dangerous than that, due to upbringing (rather than temperament), Darcy initially didn’t register anything as important unless it touched on his own “family” circle—a circle that is inclusive of his friends and dependents, but not of strangers or simple acquaintances. Once Wickham wasn’t on his radar, eh.

With regard to Jane, we’re told that Darcy wanted Bingley to marry Georgiana, and that this factored into Darcy's involvement in the whole situation, even though he tried to keep it from affecting his judgment of Jane. I think the pretty clear implication is that he failed.

But the thing I find interesting about Darcy is that, despite his pride, and despite his biases, his judgments about people’s underlying characters are right a lot more often than you’d expect. He’s not wrong about Mrs Bennet and the younger girls. He rightly has reservations about Mr Bennet. He, also rightly, considers Mr Collins lucky to have married Charlotte, even though he barely knows either of them. He’s right that Elizabeth and Jane are concerned with propriety and excludes Jane as well as Elizabeth from his condemnation of the family in general.

And I don’t think these judgments are really following from considered observations that have eventually led him to a conclusion (sometimes he thinks so, but IMO he’s already reached his conclusions). They’re fast, influenced by both his general beliefs and by quick, subconscious observations coming together. What gives him the appearance of a more deliberate, straightforward thought process, I think, is his need to account for the new information he keeps accumulating after reaching a judgment. He will adjust his early conclusions to make all the data work, even though changing his mind troubles him.

Basically, he’s someone who has good intuitive judgment of character, but gets so caught up in his own ideas and thoughts that he sometimes misses what’s right in front of his face, though his need to keep integrating all information he receives usually keeps him from going too far astray. As I said, I’m no MBTI expert, but that just doesn’t sound like an ISTJ at all to me. I think Ni+Te makes a lot more sense.

(That said, I do think that a lot of readings of Darcy sound pretty ISTJ-ish, very much including academic ones. I just don’t think the character himself is.)

Tagged: #i saw a gifset the other day with him as istj and i was just like ... lol no #maybe in the movie i guess but canon darcy? no

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: How Can I Go On (Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé)

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of metallic snowflake and ornaments. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

Hey everyone! It's nearly 11 PM on January 31st and I'm sick, but I threw words on the page until I had something to show for it for challenge #11 specifically:

In your own space, create a fanwork. Now, a fanwork is anything that you, a fan, creates. Fic, icons, and filling sparkly requests from your fellow snowflakes’ wishlists absolutely fit the bill. But really, your creation can be anything! Draw something, paint something, compose an ode to your current favorite movie. Whittle something to represent your fandom from a bit of driftwood or model it in clay and matchsticks or legos! Whip up a song about your favorite trope or concoct an interpretive dance number for your OTP. Bake some cupcakes and decorate them in homage to your favorite TV show or author. The possibilities are endless. Whatever means of self-expression tickles your fancy right now, embrace it! But most of all - have fun!

I thought of doing something simpler or easier but ... no, instead I word vomited the entire prologue to the Commander Elizabeth Bennet P&P/Mass Effect AU into a GoogleDoc. It's largely unedited but here it is!

Prologue

Elizabeth Bennet knew what people called her behind her back, whether they were Alliance or not.

The butcher of Torfan.

They didn’t understand. Nobody did, really, not even Captain Gardiner, who’d defended her to the tribunal, or Major Massey, who’d ordered her to take Torfan at any cost and been honorably discharged later.

Elizabeth was resigned to that. When she could do something about a problem, she acted; when she couldn’t, she let it go. And she couldn’t do anything about the past.

Least of all when she didn’t regret it.

Mira Gardiner was a failure.

A failure with a case full of medals, to be sure. She’d served the Alliance—served humanity—for decades, and the Alliance had rewarded her with a stream of commendations and promotions. Nobody talked about her lost chance to do more for their species. Not in her hearing, anyway. Even she hadn’t really thought about it in years. No point in wasting time recollecting the details when there was work to be done.

The more amorphous sense of failure, though: that lingered. Especially on the Normandy.

( Read more... )

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Here I Go Again (Whitesnake)

So I started half-a-dozen scraps of things!

Here's some early canon-compliant Darcy:

The first time Darcy saw Elizabeth Bennet, he noticed almost nothing about her. He was in an ill humour that evening, and would rather have attended one of his uncle’s dreadful theatricals than a village assembly full of strangers. He disliked both forming new acquaintance and dancing at the best of times—and this was far from that. He heard the barely-whispered gossip about the Bingleys and himself, he felt the gazes of the sparse crowd fixing on him, and he saw few signs of sense, fashion, or beauty anywhere.

Bingley, predictably enough, gravitated towards the only handsome woman in the room, a young lady who looked like a painting and to go by her placid, unwavering smile, seemed about as interesting a conversationalist as one.

Here's a bit about my headcanon for Elros's wife, early on:

Ithíriel lived long for one born in Middle-earth, who had only come to Númenor as a young woman. In the new land, her years passed slowly and peacefully as she gathered what records she could find, and took down more.

She was one among six other archivists entrusted with recovery and oversight of the records of the Edain. It was a great task, and would have been impossible without the patronage of their half-Elf king. But Tar-Minyatur had a great value for lore, and withheld nothing from the archives.

Even on Númenor, though, time passed. By the point that Tar-Minyatur could pause his labors long enough to see the archives for himself, a decade after Ithíriel’s arrival in Númenor, she had more lines about her eyes than he did. She always would.

Here's some Mass Effect!Shepard!Elizabeth:

Just about everyone in the Alliance, and plenty of those outside it, knew what Elizabeth Bennet had done at Torfan. But they didn’t understand. Nobody did, really, not even Admiral Gardiner, who’d defended her to the tribunal.

Elizabeth knew what people called her behind her back. The butcher of Torfan.

She’d long ago resigned herself to that. When Elizabeth could do something about a problem, she acted; when she couldn’t, she let it go. And she couldn’t do anything about the past.

Least of all when she didn’t regret it.

( Read more... )

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Peace of Mind (Boston)

I was reading an interesting Twitter thread about dealing with the painful historical realities in historical romance and reading the interesting discussion in the replies and then yet again

*screams into a pillow*

#a;djklfad how do you read the pemberley scenes and go 'we just don't know where his money is coming from. let's assume slavery' #i guess w/ bingley there is the very minimal defense that the characters don't literally see the source of his income #but no 'only lives in london' does not automatically mean 'involved in the slave trade' #(also bingley /doesn't/ have a london residence iirc so...) #godddd read another book #even another one by austen. just. something else(#but seriously mp and emma are much more fruitful than p&p if that's what you want to look at)

tree replied:

someone “did a study”? of what? “possible sources of income for fictional characters based on a few wikipedia articles i read and some things my friends said”?

I said:

Right? It’s like—you can speculate based on context (or the text, God forbid), but how on earth would you perform a study?

I do think it’s representative of the way that a lot of fans and critics blur the line between “characteristic of people in similar socioeconomic circumstances” and “characteristic of specific fictional characters” and make it out to be some irrefutable conclusion. People go on about how “the real Mr Darcy” would have done this or been that, and it’s like … there is no real Darcy and Austen was not beholden to the typical.

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Ancient Rhymes (John Denver)

Controversial so I’ll put it under a cut:

[This was originally in images, but I didn't feel like uploading them]

( Read more... )

Current Location: Washington

I posted the next chapter of Love, Pride & Delicacy at AO3 here. I wanted to cover the [redacted] and [redacted], but that nearly wraps up the main Hertfordshire section, so we should get to Kent and the Catherines next chapter.

/fingers crossed

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Don't Bring Me Down (Electric Light Orchestra)

Sometimes she [Elizabeth] could fancy that he [Bingley] talked less than on former occasions, and once or twice pleased herself with the notion that as he looked at her, he was trying to trace a resemblance [to Jane].

Meanwhile, back at Rosings:

after examining the mother [Lady Catherine], in whose countenance and deportment she [Elizabeth] soon found some resemblance of Mr Darcy …

*whistles*

( tags )

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Pompeii (Bastille)

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.)

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Battle of the Heroes (John Williams)

An anon asked, in response to some collective wishful thinking:

Who would you cast in the new pride and prejudice adaptation???

I replied:

Oh, I’m terrible with fancasting, sorry! It makes me feel old, lol, but I don’t really know most actors except the really big names (who I wouldn’t want for P&P).

I do think it’s important that, apart from parental figures, the cast basically runs from 15 to 30. P&P is fundamentally about young people, and I think that should be reflected in the casting. Elizabeth, Bingley, and Jane are in their early twenties. Mr Collins, Charlotte, Darcy, and Wickham are closer to 25 than 35. The teenage girls should be teenage girls.

I would really prefer casting where Jane, Darcy, and Wickham are very conventionally attractive while Elizabeth is more ordinary-looking. I’d also like to escape the tendency to use blondness/thinness as coding for personality.

Otherwise … I imagine there are a lot of options, really.

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: Washington
Current Music: A Path With Heart (David Lanz)

Bingley expressed great pleasure in the certainty of seeing Elizabeth again, having still a great deal to say to her, and many inquiries to make after all their Hertfordshire friends. Elizabeth, construing all this into a wish of hearing her speak about her sister, was pleased; and on this account, as well as some others, found herself, when their visitors left them, capable of considering the last half-hour with some satisfaction.

lol

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Symphony No. 40 in G Minor: Molto Allegro (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)

title: tolerably well acquainted (4/?)
verse: Comforts and Consequences
characters: Elizabeth Bennet, Fitzwilliam Darcy; Mr Gardiner, Mrs Gardiner, Georgiana Darcy, Charles Bingley; Darcy/Elizabeth
stuff that happens: Elizabeth manages to meet with Darcy, Georgiana, and (unexpectedly!) Bingley without disaster.
previous sections: one, two, three

“Once,” said Elizabeth impulsively, “when I was at Rosings, your aunt ordered him to lecture you about practising on the pianoforte. He told her, without a moment’s pause, that you did not need it.”

Miss Darcy coloured, but looked almost happy.

“I have only just met him,” remarked Mrs Gardiner, “but that is exactly what I should expect. I am not sure I would always know what to expect from him, however. I have the impression that his is a complex character—do you not think so, Lizzy?”

How could she not?

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Symphony No. 5: Allegro con brio (Ludwig van Beethoven)

Something I’ve always found really interesting is the way in which we see the uncertainty of the Bingleys’ social status.

( Read more... )

Current Music: Legacy of the Lost (Audiomachine)

minuiall at Tumblr asked:

Well if you’re ever in the mood what are /your/ feelings on Bingley? Because I quite like him–I haven’t yet found a movie portrayal that really fits the book character, imo, but I do like him. (H8 1995 Bingley though. H8 forever. For purely shallow reasons. He annoys me.)

( Read more... )

Pride and Prejudice, Ch. 44:

Sometimes she [Elizabeth] could fancy that he [Bingley] talked less than on former occasions, and once or twice pleased herself with the notion that as he looked at her, he was trying to trace a resemblance.

Meanwhile, back in Ch. 29:

after examining the mother [Lady Catherine], in whose countenance and deportment she [Elizabeth] soon found some resemblance of Mr Darcy …

<3

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: Don't Stop Me Now (Queen)

I didn't sign up for

month_of_meta , but I did want to do something, preferably several somethings, as they occurred to me. A lot of this is probably familiar to my f-list (I originally did it on Tumblr), but I think it's worth repeating a few dozen times :)

disclaimer: it doesn’t mean your fic is terrible badwrong if you don’t do these things or that nobody likes it or that your fic is even not good or that I am a perfect Georgian-period Austen fanwriter who has followed this to the letter from seventeen onwards, it’s just stuff that makes me (and most of my friends, but don’t worry, I’m not a BNF), more likely to read. Also, I tried to list things that are helpful for fic based on any of the novels, but the examples are from P&P since that’s like 95% of the fandom.

( Read more... )

Current Location: St Helens, OR
Current Music: The Gambler
Crossposts: http://elizabeth-hoot.livejournal.com/151436.html

I'm fairly terrified about uni (I get my grades tomorrow and I literally have no idea what I'm going to get - "no idea" in the sense of "probably not failing...I hope..." even while it's equally possible that I could get good grades), so I'm distracting myself with fic.

( rambling )

( actual fic )

Current Mood: nervous
Current Location: St Helens, OR
Current Music: Numb

I noticed that I hadn't got around to posting anything I'd done in... eh, awhile, so here are the fics I've written recently(ish) and not posted:

( Read more... )

Current Location: St Helens, OR
Current Music: Another One Bites the Dust
Crossposts: http://elizabeth-hoot.livejournal.com/113152.html

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Anghraine

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Entries tagged with ch: charles bingley

Tumblr crosspost (7 February 2021)

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Tumblr crosspost (19 September 2020)

Snowflake Challenge #11

I really want to finish something

Tumblr crosspost (29 August 2020)

Tumblr crosspost (29 June 2020)

New chapter!

Tumblr crosspost (12 June 2020)

Tumblr crosspost (8 June 2020)

Tumblr crosspost (30 June 2019)

a very profound crosspost

Pemberley fic, Ch 4

crosspost: on the Bingleys' status [Oct 2015]

crosspost: Bingley [Nov 2013]

crosspost: important discovery from Jan 2013

tips for period Austenfic

fic fragments

fic catch-up