Saturday, December 24, 2011

Jane Austen Readers

Recently I finished reading A Truth Universally Acknowledged; 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen, edited by Susannah Carson. I found it to be more thoughtful to read at leisure rather than trying to read straight through cover to cover, like a novel. Ideas and responses were varied. Since I have read the JA novels multiple times since I found her, I enjoyed seeing the impressions they made on famous writers.

A.S.Byatt discusses the different family structures of the Bertram, Price and Norris families in Mansfield Park. C.S. Lewis states that Mansfield Park and Persuasion are JA’s only two novels where the heroine does not deceive herself.

It is also interesting to read which writers preferred which of her novels. W. Somerset Maugham loved P & P; Emma offended him. Martin Amis remarked of “this tizzy of zealous suspense actually survives repeated readings” referring to P & P. Louis Auchincloss tells us that his favorites changed as he moved through different chapters of his own life. In his youth, Emma and P & P were the best; in middle age they were S & S and Mansfield Park; still later it was Persuasion. David Lodge implies that re-reading Emma is far superior to reading it the first time.

At sixty, Virginia Woolf discussed JA. This book is almost like having an intelligent discussion on a favorite subject. It may be one-sided but it sometimes brings new sight into familiar words. And, if you have only seen the movies made of her novels, do yourself a great favor and read them. You’ll not regret it.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Holiday Season

It’s been too long since I’ve written a word for the Blog or anything else. My mind has been on everything other than putting words together on a string to make sense and stir ideas in others. But that cannot last. My fingers crave the keyboard as much as my mouth craves the taste of good, dark chocolate after a stretch of doing without it.

I have read and returned a few emails with comments, quite unexpected from the senders, I’m sure. REALLY, why be offended when someone says Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. Doesn’t our separation of church and state allow us plenty of room to include all the religions nestled in our country? Have we Christens become such elitists that we cannot be generous and include all others who celebrate their religious holidays on or near the same time as Christens do? Have we become so paranoid that we cannot share a happy comment with someone who worships differently than we do?

All the world religions have the word love in their fundamental teaching. It’s time we follow it and cease negative comments from those who have not studied religions other than the one they follow. It isn't them against us.......it is 'all of us'.

It’s time, now more than ever for all of us to be generous and loving to all peoples. Happy Holidays, whichever one your are celebrating.