Showing posts with label Sanditon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sanditon. Show all posts

Monday, August 19, 2013

Summer Reading Favorites

I am a list reader. I like to keep arbitrary lists of my favorite and least favorite things (When I traveled to Greece for a class, my friends and I ranked our favorite types of artifacts. Tripods beat out nude sculptures. Go figure.), and I like to read lists, especially people’s “Top 50 Novels of the 20th Century” or “Top 100 Novels of ALL TIME.” Reading top book lists is almost meaningless for me because my idea of a good showing is having read 33%, which means that I can’t fully disagree with people who love cite Lolita as the Best Book Ever, or Moby Dick as the Novel to Read Before You Die. But I love reading the lists anyway, and I do make a conscious effort to pick up some books from lists so when I read the next trendy list I can be more judgmental about the curator’s sanity.

All of this is a long way of saying that because my library’s summer reading program finished, I have a nice concise collection of 25 books that I can distill to more useful lists for you. I don’t know how many opinions you can have about the Favorite designations I’m giving out, but I know that for once I have read 100% of the master list. Hurrah!*

*No pressure for you to read them all too. In fact, you may remember reviews of some books urging quite the opposite action.

Favorite Audiobook

This is a difficult category to judge because my reaction to audiobooks is often I LOVE IT or MAKE IT STOP. It’s more difficult this summer because I genuinely enjoyed the recordings of all these contenders, but one audiobook reader did such an incredible job that the award must go to Rob Inglis’ recording of The Return of the King. Inglis not only does sensitive portrayals of all the epic’s characters—he SINGS shire melodies and elf tunes.

Favorite Nonfiction Book

I’m giving this one to Why Nations Fail, although The Oath is a close second. Why Nations Fail chooses a variety of international and historical examples to support the thesis that exploitative political and economic institutions stagnate and imperil national growth, and steps towards inclusivity in either politics or economics can create positive feedback and eventually economic growth. The thesis is almost not a thesis because it appears so self-evident by the end of the book, but that just shows what a good job the authors have done in arguing their point. I suspect there are quite a few counterarguments the book isn't presenting; it seems a little too neat by the end. Don’t let the political and economic talk keep you from the book—Acemoglu and Robinson’s examples are fascinating, and even if the theory doesn't always fit the world, it's a good one to consider.

Favorite Young Adult Novel

I loved The Dream Thieves. Second books of series can be extremely difficult to nail, and Stiefvater manages to add new twists while keeping the overall series plot moving in Raven Cycle #2. There are so many things I enjoyed about the plot, the characters and the style that I have trouble explaining my enthusiasm in a coherent way. The book is coming out in September, which means that you have one month to read The Raven Boys and brush up on Welsh history and ley line theories. Expect a review when I finally pull my !!!! and ? and :-D into words.

Best Non-Young Adult Fiction

THE SONG OF ACHILLES!!! (Did you even think there was a question in this category?) Granted, much of this list is quality, and I can imagine getting more out of the Lord of the Rings as I reread and appreciate the ending more. I've also been overwhelming friends and family with my analysis of Austen's unfinished novels, so if my category were "Most Likely for Me to Bring Up in Conversation" this would be a strong contender. But this award is for my favorite read of this summer, and for now, it’s Miller’s reworking of Homeric material.

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Friday, July 19, 2013

Fandom Friday: Welcome to Sanditon

Alyssa and I were laughing the other week about how we get a lot of hits from people looking for fan-fiction, and how disappointed those people must be when they find out that we write reviews and recipes and lists. Until Alyssa privately sent me a Selection spoof of a crown prince getting a harem of wives rather than doing a Bachelor-style elimination to get a queen, I'm not sure either of us had ever tried our hand at the art of fanfic writing.

Of course this doesn't mean we don't have a great respect for the creative outpourings of fan communities. We think we've done some fandom worthy things before (i.e. recipes), but today we're ushering in Fandom Friday, a not entirely regular feature for us to post recipes/playlists/Forever 21 shopping carts/etc. inspired by books we love, as well as any random fanfic we ever feel compelled to write. Putting all these posts now on Fridays is not only alliterative but a fun way for us to kick off our weekends. Hopefully it will be fun for you too— Happy Friday!

I'm not sure we ever seriously planned for the fanfic part of Fandom Friday to come to pass, but I was working on a post about the final half of Sanditon (see summary of the first half here), and in the middle of puzzling out some of the choices the creators of Welcome to Sanditon have made, I found myself wishing they had found ways to stay truer to the Austen source.

The first quibble I had was that GiGi Darcy is not adding enough bias or snark to the Sanditon updates she sends her brother. (Gigi has been raised too well to be critical, it seems.) This means that the characters' ridiculous traits have to come through our seeing them, rather than through a filter, and that is not as much fun as reading Austen's thoughts on the same characters.

So I started to write a few sentences of a GiGi update to see if she could be more indiscrete in the way she described her Beta Test project. And then I decided I missed Tom Parker's "invalid" sisters, especially Diana, who makes things happen for Sanditon while Tom dreams. So I added Diana into the paragraph. Next I wanted Lady Denham to be more than a banker, and for Edward Denham to work for her (which is much more inline with the inheritance subplot of the novel fragment). And before I knew it, I had a full-length alternate video message script for an episode.

Laugh, either at me for taking a break from what was turning into an essay (with citations!) to write a fanfic, or because you can picture this with the webseries cast.

Hi William, I’m checking in, and I wanted to let you know that things are weird here in Sanditon. The Mayor was really excited to use the Domino Beta to help usher in the New Sanditon modern health town he’s been helping develop, but I haven’t gotten a hold on him recently. All I got yesterday was his wife Mary, who said she was picking up his briefcase on the way to pick him up at the hospital in the next town. Apparently his sister Diana gets a lot of headaches and has a lot of tests scheduled? But seriously, what sort of mayor LEAVES BEHIND HIS CELL PHONE in the middle of a work day?

The next time I tried calling him (today), it went straight to voicemail. According to his FourSquare, Twitter and Facebook pages, he was at the new Denham Sports Complex and then having a dinner meeting with Ms. Harry Denham to discuss converting Denham Industrial Park into facilities for sports medicine. But he was home by six anyway. SIX! (I know, I know, I should stop stalking people like this. Pot calling the kettle black, dontcha think, Mr. I-Knew-My-Girlfriend-Liked-Me-Because-She-Basically-Said-It-On-Youtube?)

He’s ignored my last four messages, each sent on a different platform. I can’t figure out why—I was offering to set up a Domino extension to promote the Grand Opening of the Denham Sports Complex. I just hope the message I CC’d to Ms. Denham makes it happen. I know you’re not sure Domino is ready for this big a trial, but I spoke to the developers and we think there’s much less to lose than there is potential to gain. We’re not gambling with the success of Domino, so don’t worry.

Incoming Call from Ed Denham

GG: Denham! This could be it. Domino, answer call!

ED: Ms. Darcy? Ed Denham, calling. I’m the director of the PR division of Denham Industries. I’m looking at your email from earlier this evening, and I think it sounds like a great idea to integrate the Domino app with a syndicated and multiplatform approach to broaden the reach of our ad campaign for the Sports Complex.

GG: Wow. Thanks for calling back so soon. I’ve been trying to get a hold of Tom Parker for the last two days to ask him about this, but I haven’t had any luck.

ED: Well, I am always ready to jump on these opportunities. I’d like to have a breakfast meeting tomorrow so we can hit the ground running on our plans. I’ll send you a link to the reservation? How is 9 for you?

GG: Oh, yes, that should work . . .

ED: Perfect. I am so excited to talk to you about this project, and to bounce some ideas for utilizing Domino in our digital strategy development, and maybe for partnering into a hyper-local communications network for the health arms of Denham Industries.

GG: I’m not entirely sure I know what you mean, but yeah! I’d love to talk more about how we can get Domino to work in businesses in the community.

ED: This is going to be my best morning of work ever. A beautiful breakfast companion, and fresh ideas for Denham. Can I just ask you one favor?

GG: Sure?

ED: If Clara Breton calls from Denham Industries, can you tell her I’m the point person for Pemberley Digital?

GG: Umm, shouldn’t you be able to tell your coworker that yourself?

ED: Clara is from a slightly different branch of the company, so we don’t run into each other much. And she’s never been sure that my digital strategies are inline with trends that she’s reading, and she tries to undermine them in meetings.

GG: Maybe I should invite her along for breakfast if she calls? Just so she can see that using Domino really does make sense.

ED, brightening: Oh! Well, okay, I guess that could work too. Thanks Ms. Darcy.

GG: Just call me GiGi.

ED: Call me anytime. Haha, sorry. Lame, I know. See you tomorrow morning, GiGi.

GG: See you then! Domino, end call.

So as you can see, William, the trial is going even better than we expected, and we may get a permanent client out of it. If Denham Industries owns half of Sanditon like it sounds, this may be a big account.

I’m just not sure about Ed. How many buzzwords can the guy fit into one sentence? I think I should invite Clara Breton to our meeting even if she doesn’t call in the next few minutes; I get the feeling that she could have more sense than Ed, and I don’t want the Domino information getting misunderstood at a meeting with Ed’s boss. (P.S., how weirdly flirty was he in the middle of a business call?) I’ll let you know how it goes!

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Sunday, May 26, 2013

Read and Watch: Sanditon

Title: Sanditon
Author: Jane Austen
Publication Year: 1925, but written in 1817
Read: May 2013 Genre: Classic, as in old (not classic, as in everyone should have read it in high school)

I was a major Pride and Prejudice fan throughout high school. I started with the 1995 miniseries, went to the book, and then lived on the DWG fanfic site. The elderly Harvard alumni were very confused about what fanficiton was when I was interviewing with them, and at the time I was foolish enough to explain to them that I wasn’t spending every minute of my free time analyzing Jane Austen’s prose. (Later, at home, I was able to put together a list of reasons why my real interest was as noble as the one they hoped I had. Check it out at the end of this post, especially if you foresee the need to justify a fanfiction hobby.)

Even though my enthusiasm for Pride and Prejudice has reasonably abated since high school, I was still eagerly checking the Lizzie Bennet Diaries twice a week this past year, and I’m following the team’s new Welcome to Sanditon.

Sanditon

Sanditon is the novel Jane Austen started to write a few months before she died, and what we can read of it today is only the first 12 chapters. In the world of Austen academia, there seems to be an impressive amount of debate over this little fragment of a novel. Questions the scholars have been asking include:

  • Who is the heroine? Who is the hero?
  • Does the plot contained within the fragment suggest Austen’s intended length for it?
  • Is there any indication of what was likely to happen in the plot?
  • What was Austen’s emotional state while writing the book?
  • Was the book an original story, or was it a reworking of Austen’s previous writings or ideas?
  • What is Austen’s attitude towards the speculative seaside resort culture?

I personally love scholarly debate like this. Making educated guesses about fragmented literary works is delicious, so I will butt in with my less-than-PhD-worthy opinions about some of them.

The heroine of the book was meant to be Charlotte Heywood. Unlike the editor (Margaret Drabble) of the Penguin Classics edition I was reading, I like Charlotte as a main character. Of the twelve characters I can think of off the top of my head, fully seven of them talk nonsense, but Charlotte is the most clear-headed heroine I’ve seen in all of Austen. Charlotte listens politely to people as they babble, yet she’s fully aware that they’re ridiculous. Here is Charlotte after a young man drones on and on about Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns, using words like “hyper-criticism” and “pseudo-philosophy.” Another Austen heroine might be cowed by this talk, (cough Catherine Morland and Anne Eliot), but here’s Charlotte’s response:

She began to think him downright silly. – His choosing to walk with her, she had learnt to understand. It was done to pique Miss Brereton. She had read it, in an anxious glance or two on his side – but why he should talk so much nonsense, unless he could do no better was un-intelligible. – He seemed very sentimental, very full of some feelings or other, and very much addicted to all the newest-fashioned hard words – had not a very clear brain she presumed, and talked a good deal by rote. – The future might explain him further – but when there was a proposition for going into the library she felt that she had had quite enough of Sir Edward for one morning, and very gladly accepted Lady Denham’s invitation of remaining on the Terrace with her.

So clear-headed is Charlotte that Austen doesn’t expend any effort on an omniscient and biting narration to describe most of her characters. Charlotte does all the work the narration usually does. Everyone wants to be Elizabeth Bennet for her wit and ability to tease, but there is certainly a lot to admire in a heroine who sees the ridiculous and finds an extremely polite way of handling the circumstances.

The hero of the book is slightly more difficult to place because the best guess is that it’s the character who literally has arrived one page before Austen stopped working on the manuscript. Based on the three paragraphs about Mr. Sidney Parker, it seems like he would be a perfect match for Charlotte. He is the only sensible person out of five adult siblings, which says enough of his charms for me. (He’s also so handsome that his siblings are convinced his very presence will attract young ladies to Sanditon like moths to flames.)

As for how long the book was going to be, all I can say is that based on this chart I assembled, there is no way to tell. In fact, the only reason I am showing you the chart is that I love to see the word-count pairs, and figure someone else might like to see them too.

I’ve started to sketch a plot summary of the book fragment for everyone who’s curious about it, but not curious enough to actually read it. This one covers almost half of the chapters, while omitting almost everything about Sanditon. (I like characters more than setting.) As I post the remainder of the existing story, I'll speculate on the direction of the plot (as long as you bear in mind that there is no evidence that my theory is more or less accurate than another). Sanditon Pt. 1

Welcome to Sanditon

Armed with my plot summary sketch, you have enough information to join me in wondering where the Welcome to Sanditon writers are going with their adaptation (which has four episodes currently, and is a summer venture for the creative team). Apparently, they are in the Margaret Drabble camp that hates on Charlotte Heywood, because the main character of Sanditon is not even a character in Welcome to Sanditon.

It seems that Georgiana Darcy is taking Charlotte Heywood’s place as an observer on the zany characters of the town, but that is a bit of an awkward substitution. Gigi Darcy is an impulsive character in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries universe, whereas Charlotte Heywood is a sedate but smart one. My best guess for this change is that the actress who played Charlotte Lu in the LBD was unavailable for WtS, because how much more natural would it have been for the writers to substitute one calm and clever Charlotte with another?

The Georgiana Darcy factor should also change Mrs. Denham’s plans for Edward Denham. In the book Lady Denham, while considering leaving thousands of pounds to Sir Edward, is hopeful that Sir Edward can find a rich heiress to marry, and thus make his own fortune (in the uniquely gentrified way of making a fortune). Thus, she initially is worried that Sir Edward may throw away his chances by marrying Charlotte, who, as one of fourteen children, is not wealthy enough to do him any good. But Gigi Darcy in WtS is a promising prospect for any aunt with ambitions for her nephew. Rather than seek to throw him into the path of the Caribbean heiress, this Mrs. Denham should be hoping that Gigi really will pull strings to get Edward a job at Pemberley Digital (already suggested in Episode 3).

The logical theory I can propose about this series is that most of the creative team is uninterested in being faithful to the limited text available. They found an Austen they could use without alienating a large fandom, and they’re using a few names and the general premise of a growing health community as a way of encouraging fan-participation in vlogging.

And the interactive vlogging and tweeting thing is a cool premise, so I can’t be particularly upset. But part of me still regrets that with almost any direction possible from the text (I’ll mull about Clara Brereton another time), this adaptation seems to be throwing away most of the interesting foundation.

Episodes of Welcome to Sanditon are uploaded to Youtube on Mondays and Thursdays.



Legitimate Benefits of a Fanfiction Obsession

  1. Participating in a fanfiction forum is a way of analyzing experiments with writing. After reading enough, you can gauge which parts of Austen make Austen unique. Is it the vocabulary? Nope. Some fanfics have archaic words that clunk. Characters? Possibly. But since 90% of the writers are using Darcy and Elizabeth in some form, that’s not what really makes it. Ironic observations? Yes. I never read a fanfic that matched Austen in this aspect.
  2. By reading works-in-progress, you have the opportunity to critique authors and see if the changes you suggest get made or make a difference.
  3. By spending so much time seeing variations, you learn the difference between the Canonical source material and the fan memes that make their way through stories. (Case in point is Colonel Fitzwilliam’s first name.)
  4. There’s actually a fair amount of literary criticism implicit in fanfiction. Rather than exploring the onset of Darcy’s love through an analytic essay, authors will make variations to the original plot or its timeline, and show how slight changes could have affected the story. Thus you can begin to determine if the Netherfield Ball is the necessary catalyst for Darcy’s feelings, or if he was on the path to proposing as far back as the Assembly when he rejects asking Elizabeth to dance.
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