The things I do to avoid grading.

[osprey_archer]

As the Lizzie Bennet Diaries draw near the end, my friend Micky and I have been discussing what else could be adapted (aside from Jane Austen’s unfinished Sanditon, which is apparently the basis for their next project and will star Gigi, Kickstarter here. I have not read Sanditon. Probably I should correct this...)

Anyway! Micky and I are both shamefully fond of nineteenth century novels, and have thus been amusing ourselves mightily when we ought to be grading.

“Middlemarch!” Micky suggested.

“But it is the most depressing book ever and also so very, very, very long-winded!” I objected.

Although on consideration, I think a vlog adaptation would probably improve Middlemarch precipitously. Think of all the chaff that could be cut out! And Dorothea wouldn’t have to marry Mr. Casaubon: she could be Professor Casaubon’s tormented grad student, slowly realizing that grad school is not the glorious life of the mind that she dreamed.

But a) I cannot really imagine Dorothea having a vlog - it seems somehow insufficiently serious - and b) let’s face it, Middlemarch is a book about indecision and ennui, and who wants to watch episode after episode of grad student!Dorothea fretting about whether or not she should run away with Will Ladislaw to be happy. OF COURSE YOU SHOULD RUN AWAY WITH WILL LADISLAW, DOROTHEA. Be happy already!

The book would be so improved if she ran away with him one hundred pages in, and they spent the next thousand or so pages freeing Poland or something. The book could end tragically with them being sent by train to Siberia, dreams crushed, but content in that they’re together. Or! Or! Firing squad. Also an exciting end!

But even more unsuitable for a vlog. So...

Micky also suggested Emma, which I think would be way more suitable. Emma could have a vlog! Harriet could start a short-lived vlog, out of her admiration for Emma, allowing us to have her opinions on crucial scenes! Jane Fairfax...would probably not even have a Facebook page. (“She has not the open temper I would want in a wife.”)

I’m not sure how one would translate Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill’s secret engagement to the modern day, though. Clueless made the Frank-analog gay, but that requires getting rid of Jane Fairfax, and I really like Jane Fairfax, so...I don’t know. Any thoughts?

Comments

[silverusagi]

Hmm, I think a vlog version of Emma could easily have the secret of Jane and Frank's engagement, if we're mostly getting our info from Emma and she's oblivious. Though WHY an engagement would need to be secret nowadays is more the question.

What about a vlog Sense and Sensibility? Since it was probably originally written as epistolary, it would be perfect. With Marianne and Elinor keeping in touch with their mom through vlogs!

I read Sandition once a long time ago, but don't remember much. I'll probably check out the webseries, but I'm not really excited about it? Webseries aren't my thing in general, and only because this one was P&P did I even check it out. Like, I'll care about Elizabeth Bennet in any form.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think the main question would be "Why is the engagement secret?" Because unless they have a pretty good reason to keep it secret, then the way Frank Churchill flirts with Emma makes him look like a jerk.

Actually, it already makes him look kind of jerktastic, but you know, more so in a modern adaptation.

MAYBE! Frank is a girl, and she is keeping her liaison with Jane Fairfax a secret because her aunt (Frank's, not Jane Fairfax's, because they clearly adore Jane to pieces) is homophobic and would never approve.

And Emma is bisexual (I think this is a totally valid reading of Emma anyway...) and...but it's not like a homophobic aunt would approve of Frank flirting with Emma rather than Jane Fairfax, presumably? Hmmm.

Given that reserve is such a cornerstone of Elinor's character, I'm not sure she would have her own vlog. But Marianne would LOVE a vlog, and maybe Elinor would guest star a lot?

[silverusagi]

Maybe Elinor's could be in the form of private videos to her mother? That we just happen to get to see? What about Margaret? Everyone forgets about Margaret. She could be informing us of the happenings of her family.

Maybe you could genderbend Jane Fairfax? And then Frank is flirting with Emma because of his homophobic aunt, but is secretly with John Fairfax. And Emma resents John because everyone always threw them together growing up, like they were going to get married or something, instead of the book where everyone wanted them to be friends.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think if the story has too many different video streams going at the same time, it will just get confusing. Or are you suggested Margaret keeping a vlog instead of Elinor & Marianne?

Maybe you could genderbend Jane Fairfax?

That makes so much more sense! I knew there was a way to make this work, but I just couldn't get the gender configuration right...

[silverusagi]

Maybe it could be Margaret's vlog, with other family members appearing on it, and then Marianne would get more involved (because she would love the idea of a vlog) and maybe they could share it? Or maybe Margaret starts the vlog, and then when Marianne and Elinor go to London, Margaret and Marianne end up doing something similar to the vlogbrothers, where they talk to each other through vlogs?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think it would be easier just to have it be Marianne's vlog from the start. Having Marianne and Elinor chat with each other through their vlogs has definite potential, though! Marianne could be all "You should share more of your FEEEEEEEELINGS" and Elinor could be like, "Or I could not."

And when Marianne and Willoughby have their final break-up, Marianne would stop vlogging entirely (because so depressed), which would both totally jive with her character and save us from a tearfest like Lydia & Lizzie's weepy reconciliation scene.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

*The book would be so improved if she ran away with him one hundred pages in, and they spent the next thousand or so pages freeing Poland or something*

This is SO TRUE. Gah, endless, endless bloody Middlemarch.

Emma would work, I would have thought. I can see Jane Fairfax keeping an LJ under a strict pseudonym, referring to everyone only by initial or something, although I'm not sure how that would fit the format!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I KNOW RIGHT. It's like, Dorothea, I'm glad you're trying to be all moral and everything but REALLY just go be happy already. Even Hamlet only waffled around being indecisive for a couple of acts before he acted against Claudius.

[ladyherenya]

Ooh, thoughts about future vlog adaptations! I have those!

I haven't read Middlemarch, so I cannot comment there.

But I am definitely in favour of an Emma vlog. Emma would love telling the internet about her theories and her matchmaking attempts. She'd happily make her vlogs from a more public space than her bedroom. And Knightley would be in the background, saying, "No, Emma, you can't say that on the internet..."
But I hadn't thought at all about how Jane Fairfax and Frank's storyline gets translated. That's... yeah. Perhaps instead of secretly engaged, they're secretly married? And it's a secret getting married really young often isn't approved of? Or because Frank thinks he'd lose his job if the marriage was known? I guess you could then merge that with the genderbending idea already mentioned and so Frank fears losing his/her job if his/her sexual orientation was discovered... I don't know. I'm just throwing around ideas here.

I also think S&S could work, depending on which Dashwood sister was vlogging and what their circumstances were. (Are they studying? Looking for work due to their financial difficulties?) I could imagine Elinor and Marianne having to share a bedroom in their new, smaller house - because their mother needs the fourth bedroom as a study so she can work from home? - and so Elinor is always around when Marianne is vlogging.

But the adaptation I am hoping for next is Anne of Green Gables / Anne of the Island together could work, despite the huge amount of time covered in those books. Uni student Anne starts a vlog solely to dramatically re-enact things which happened to her while she was growing up, and it gets interrupted by what is going on in her life during the present. Anne seems like the sort of person who would happily tell her stories to the internet - and she'd be able to laugh at herself, too.

After Bernie Su mentioned Montgomery's novels as a possibly (simply because they're in the public domain and have a similar audience to P&P), I saw comments from people who thought The Blue Castle would be a great vlog adaptation. I'm not convinced. And I'd prefer a normal adaptation of that, without any modernising, first...

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

And Knightley would be in the background, saying, "No, Emma, you can't say that on the internet..."

Yes! I was wondering how to get Knightley in there, because his constant presence in Emma's life is such an important part of the story that costume theater didn't seem like quite enough.

And I think Marianne vlogging would totally work for S&S. Maybe the family has been forced into an apartment, so all three girls share a room, leaving room for Margaret hijinks? Either studying or looking for work would be good. Maybe Marianne is studying something fanciful, and Elinor has a job...

I still like the idea of an Emma vlog better, though, because it just fits so well with her character. Also, there would not be long sections of misery and woe in the middle.

Oh, Anne of Green Gables intertwining childhood flashbacks with realtime vlogging would work! I heard they were thinking about Anne, and I couldn't envision how they'd make that work, given that she's eleven.

I must admit that the idea of any kind of adaptation of The Blue Castle makes me hop up and down with glee, because YAY VALANCY...but it is a little obscure, at least until they've built up a fanbase that will follow them anywhere, and also a normal adaptation really ought to come first.