Sanditon + Gigi Darcy
Apr. 13th, 2013 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI wrote 2000 words on my postcolonial theory paper, which I believe means I'm halfway done - it's supposed to be 15-20 pages, double-spaced, which means at least 16 to make it look like I care. This is great! Until today my basic plan for this paper involved staring at the page until words began to swarm hallucinatorily before my eyes and drip onto the page.
I am celebrating by reading Jane Austen's Sanditon, except I think I've gotten to the part of it that isn't by Austen anymore - I didn't actually notice the break, which I daresay is a good sign. When is the LBD team starting their adaptation of Sanditon, does anyone know? I rather like the idea of Gigi Darcy getting her own happy ending.
I blush to admit I didn't actually watch most of Gigi's Domino videos the first time I saw LBD - she never grabbed me quite the way the other characters did. Maybe because she was introduced so late? She's charming but she doesn't seem quite as individual, in a way.
Ironically, I think watching the Domino videos would have helped with that, because her relationship with her brother William Darcy interesting. It's like he hasn't quite noticed that she's grown-up and it's not his place to protect her from making her own decisions anymore - and she hasn't quite realized that either.
I'm thinking particularly of this exchange, when she wants to help find Wickham:
Darcy: “Gigi, I forbid you to be involved in this. You’re too vulnerable.”
Gigi: “I’ll be fine.”
Darcy: “You weren’t last time. Do you remember what that was like for you? I cannot see you hurt again, this could reopen every wound you’ve healed since.”
Gigi: “I’m stronger now.”
Darcy: “Are you?”
Is this a reasonable amount of protectiveness or really over-the-line overprotective? (I find the "do you remember what that was like for you?" most annoying. Gosh, Darcy, probably she does remember how much the most traumatic event in her life hurt.)
Eventually she does force herself into their plot, more or less - though never with an acknowledgement from Darcy that it's really her decision - and helps stop Wickham from hurting "that family" as she calls them, to preserve anonymity. It's interesting that she focuses on the whole family, not either Lydia, who stands to be hurt most, or Lizzie, who she actually knows and hopes to matchmake with her brother.
I think Gigi's plotting to get Lizzie and Darcy together is at least partly because Gigi is fascinated by Lizzie's family: I could totally see Gigi watching Lizzie's videos and yearning for the kind of closeness and warmth the Bennet sisters have, even including Lizzie's frequent frustration with Lydia in the early videos.
I mean, Lydia and Lizzie's relationship is not great at the beginning, but it's clear that Lydia doesn't fear Lizzie's disapproval like Gigi fears Darcy's.
What do you think? Am I being too harsh on Darcy? Gigi does call him "the best big brother a girl could ask for."
I am celebrating by reading Jane Austen's Sanditon, except I think I've gotten to the part of it that isn't by Austen anymore - I didn't actually notice the break, which I daresay is a good sign. When is the LBD team starting their adaptation of Sanditon, does anyone know? I rather like the idea of Gigi Darcy getting her own happy ending.
I blush to admit I didn't actually watch most of Gigi's Domino videos the first time I saw LBD - she never grabbed me quite the way the other characters did. Maybe because she was introduced so late? She's charming but she doesn't seem quite as individual, in a way.
Ironically, I think watching the Domino videos would have helped with that, because her relationship with her brother William Darcy interesting. It's like he hasn't quite noticed that she's grown-up and it's not his place to protect her from making her own decisions anymore - and she hasn't quite realized that either.
I'm thinking particularly of this exchange, when she wants to help find Wickham:
Darcy: “Gigi, I forbid you to be involved in this. You’re too vulnerable.”
Gigi: “I’ll be fine.”
Darcy: “You weren’t last time. Do you remember what that was like for you? I cannot see you hurt again, this could reopen every wound you’ve healed since.”
Gigi: “I’m stronger now.”
Darcy: “Are you?”
Is this a reasonable amount of protectiveness or really over-the-line overprotective? (I find the "do you remember what that was like for you?" most annoying. Gosh, Darcy, probably she does remember how much the most traumatic event in her life hurt.)
Eventually she does force herself into their plot, more or less - though never with an acknowledgement from Darcy that it's really her decision - and helps stop Wickham from hurting "that family" as she calls them, to preserve anonymity. It's interesting that she focuses on the whole family, not either Lydia, who stands to be hurt most, or Lizzie, who she actually knows and hopes to matchmake with her brother.
I think Gigi's plotting to get Lizzie and Darcy together is at least partly because Gigi is fascinated by Lizzie's family: I could totally see Gigi watching Lizzie's videos and yearning for the kind of closeness and warmth the Bennet sisters have, even including Lizzie's frequent frustration with Lydia in the early videos.
I mean, Lydia and Lizzie's relationship is not great at the beginning, but it's clear that Lydia doesn't fear Lizzie's disapproval like Gigi fears Darcy's.
What do you think? Am I being too harsh on Darcy? Gigi does call him "the best big brother a girl could ask for."
no subject
Date: 2013-04-14 01:24 pm (UTC)Last I heard Welcome to Sanditon was going to start in early May.
I hadn't thought about Gigi's fascination with Lizzie's family, but that makes sense - Gigi has neither parents nor sisters and she obviously found Lizzie's videos hugely appealing.
I did wonder if she wanted Lizzie and Darcy to get together because Lizzie is able to criticise Darcy in a way that she, Gigi, cannot.
Darcy definitely comes across as unreasonably over-protective. However, I decided this was because Darcy had to deal with Gigi being emotional over Wickham on his own (because he and/or Gigi didn't want anyone else knowing about Wickham). And he was so worried about Gigi, and felt powerless because he didn't know if he was saying/doing the right things. So when he says "Do you remember what that was like for you?" he's really saying "I'm scared of seeing you hurt like that and I don't know how I'd cope if it happened again."
I thought that explained why Darcy was being unreasonable and why Gigi was okay with it - because it was about him being caring, rather than patronising. And it tied in nicely with my earlier theory that Gigi suffered from depression post-Wickham.
LDB makes an interesting comparison of Lizzie versus Darcy's support networks, actually. When Lizzie's trying to support Lydia, she - Lizzie - has the support of Charlotte, Jane and her parents (well, her father at least). And she knows they can call on Mary to help support Lydia too.
While Darcy has Bing and Fitz, I suspect Darcy might feel uncomfortable discussing his sister's problems with them - because he thinks he needs to respect her privacy. So he feels he's got to deal with any drama in his sister's life on his own.
Okay, so that was a long answer...
no subject
Date: 2013-04-14 03:04 pm (UTC)I think your point about Darcy & Gigi's lack of a support network is true: they basically have each other and that's it. Well, and Fitz seems to know about Gigi's problems, but I'm not sure Bing does or that he would be the kind of person Darcy and/or Gigi would feel comfortable leaning on for support.
So I could totally see Gigi seeing Lizzie's videos and going, one, "I wish I had a support network like that," and two, "If only William would take her criticisms to heart! Well, maybe not too much to heart. A little bit to heart?"