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!

Read and Watch: 1776 by Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards

Happy Fourth or Fifth of July! As we listen to the rumble of fireworks, we thought we'd share our festive celebration from today. (Of course we could have appropriately celebrated on July 2nd, the day the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence, but we figured we'd save the fun for our own holiday.) The good news is that you could easily stretch the Independence Day holiday into almost a month of festivities since the greatest number of delegates signed on 2 August. We'll get back to you with our Second of August celebration plans next month. Maybe we'll do festive food then.

As to what we did to celebrate this holiday, we did a 1776 musical celebration. Susan has a well-loved copy of the book on her shelf, two separate cast recordings, a VHS and a DVD in her house. Alyssa has a DVD currently located in another state, and, failing that, a phone connection to Susan.

In a surprising turn-around, we recommend a watch and read policy for 1776 (rather than read then watch), but do go get a copy of the book! You can read a historical note, the complete Declaration of Independence with its changes noted, AND a select bibliography (woot!) in addition to all of your favorite lines (and excluded song lyrics, like the entire "Time's Running Out" number).

From reading this page, you'll see that the play makes a mistake in the scene where the secretary is reading the first draft to the Congress. The rights would not be "certain inalienable" ones; they would be "inherent and inalienable." From reading the entire historical note, your history geek credentials will be raised immeasurably.

Now, if you haven’t seen a performance (movie counts) of this show yet, get on it. It’s a musical about the writing and revising of the Declaration of Independence, and most of the founding fathers we learn about in school are present, singing and dancing (or walking in dramatic ways). You can watch it for the fun of seeing historical figures in a musical, or you can watch for its remarkably good history. (As a bonus READ THIS, a perfect follow-up is David McCullough's John Adams, which has to have been written for the 1776 fans based on the number of times Abigail Adams' request for pins comes up in the first chapters.) Here are some youtube links to help start your own enjoyment of 1776:

"Sit Down, John!" (opening number)
Final Vote on Independency

Both of us love the darker more political scenes of the delegates debating slavery late in the musical. Arguably the best song sequence is the young delegate, Edward Rutledge, speaking words that Thomas Jefferson wrote about the "peculiar institution" of slavery, and then singing about the hypocrisy of the northern colonies' delegates, who may not have slave plantations but who have made their fortunes from being slavers or investing in the slave ships. It's absolutely mesmerizing.

One of Alyssa’s favorite lighter scenes

is Richard Henry Lee, the delegate from Virginia who is not Thomas Jefferson, explaining to John Adams and Benjamin Franklin why he will be able to convince the Virginian legislature to propose independence (it’s because he’s a LEE, DAMMIT).

It’s a big deal for Virginia to present a resolution on independence because up until this happens, the only colonies that seem to care about independence are those radical ones in New England. But rather than just come out and say to Lee, “Hey, buddy, why don’t you start proposing independence? Massachusetts can’t get a vote, and we know you do care about this issue…” Franklin drops unsubtle hints until Lee is fired up to dance and sing about how great his old rich family is. In case you haven’t heard, he’s a Lee. Another half dozen Lees are notable (even a hundred years before the most famous Lee of all, Robert E. Lee).

That’s just the way things roll in 1776. There’s plenty of sober political debate, but then somebody jumps on a desk/park bench/staircase landing, and the singing brings it all home.

Anyway, here are screen caps for the cut sequence at the end of the Lee number. (It's only included on the laser disc, in case you were wondering where the shots came from.) Even without music Richard Henry Lee rocks.

Adams: Franklin, that Lee may have the most bad-ass family in Fair-gin-i-a, but that dude is bat shit crazy.

Franklin: Do you think so? I think I just played him so he'd go get a resolution on independency without owing him any favors.

Adams: At least he'll be traveling for a week. After the last interminable three minutes of dancing, I never want to see that guy again.

Lee: Hallo again, boys!

Adams: . . . I was saying?

Franklin: Hush, John! He's talking about Virginian bosoms again!

Adams: What do you mean hush!? That lunatic just charged his horse at me! I got pushed into a public fountain, and to make matters worse, he is still here.

Franklin: Oh, John. It's only water. Let me give you a hug and everything will be better.

Lee: How love-LEE! And you know you want to give me a hug too! (I have the coolest hat in the entire film!)

Susan's favorite lighter scene

is the playful debate between Adams, Jefferson and Franklin over the new National Bird of America. It too has a song! (No dancing. Can't have everything.)

Jefferson listens anxiously as the secretary reads the report of the Declaration Committee (the Continental Congress is extremely fond of committees).

In come Franklin and Adams, in high excitement over their trip to watch soldiers go duck hunting. To take Jefferson's mind off the idea of everyone criticizing his writing, the other two decide to sing a peppy song about the birth of the new nation.

Jefferson thinks this could be a good idea.

But then Franklin starts saying the National Bird is going to be the Turkey.

Jefferson and Adams check that they heard right.

No, really, the TURKEY?

Franklin: Oh yeah.

Crisis averted. Franklin wonders what just happened to his turkey proposal. (Probably Thanksgiving. Or the duck-hunting militia.)

And they all go happily into the chamber to hear everyone's praise of the Declaration.

Hahahaha. Yeah. "Praise."

In any case, Happy Day That Is Two Days After Independence Day!

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).

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.