osprey_archer: (downton abbey)
I have given Emma Approved four episodes. I will continue to give it more episodes, because it definitely succeeds at being entertaining (and Harriet is adorkable)...but I’m not so sure about its successfulness as an adaptation.

Adorkable as Harriet is, the way they’ve introduced her character also shows how much the adaptation has already - in four episodes! - deviated from the original book. The characters’ relationships to each other have been set up so differently. In the book, Mr. Knightley thought Emma and Harriet’s friendship was a bad thing, because it tended to puff up Emma’s already healthy estimation of herself, whereas in Emma Approved, he actually lined Harriet up as Emma’s assistant himself.

And given that he picked Harriet out of a whole pile of applications, it’s hard not to think that “Which of these possible assistants will minister most sincerely and gratifyingly to Emma’s vanity?” was the criteria uppermost in his mind as he combed through the applications.

I feel in particular that they’ve gone really over-the-top with Emma’s conceit and meddlesomeness. Sure, in the book she’s a little full of herself and plumes herself on her ability as a matchmaker...but she never tries to make one of her friends go through with a wedding that the friend wants to call off, for the purely selfish reasons that calling it off would damage Emma’s pride (This match was Emma approved! It must pan out!) and her match-making business.

And she doesn’t try to talk Anne out of calling off the wedding by, for instance, trying to remind Anne why she and her fiance fell in love. No, Emma gets out a binder full of invoices to remind Anne how dazzlingly expensive the wedding plans are, and how complicated it would be to call them off.

And when Anne is not convinced - when she signs the paperwork to cancel the orders - once Anne’s gone, Emma tears the paperwork up. Because she’s going to fix this, dammit! She’s going to find a way to make Anne go through with a wedding Anne no longer wants!

This is neither the action of a friend nor of a good businesswoman.

I also think that making matchmaking Emma’s profession - not just something she does in her spare time, but a thing that she’s trying to build a company on - is kind of unfortunate, given that the premise of the story is that Emma is a terrible matchmaker.

ETA: I thought I should add this, as it came up chatting with [livejournal.com profile] asakiyume in comments.

The reason Emma's incompetence at her chosen career is such a problem is that it undermines what makes her character interesting rather than exasperating. In the book, Emma's a little full of herself, but it's a slightly exaggerated reflection of her actual abilities: not only is she rich, clever, and beautiful, but she's of central importance to her social circle and has clearly been running her father's social life for years, in such a way that he enjoys himself and his companions also have a good time, despite his gentle selfishness. Of course she believes she knows best. She's far more perceptive than her father or Miss Bates or Harriet, and given her limited experience, it makes sense that she would believe her perception even stronger than it really is.

EA's Emma, on the other hand, is apparently not even competent enough to realize that she doesn't really need the assistant Knightley is foisting upon her. (And if Knightley finds Emma so irritating that he needs to offload her caprices onto a hapless assistant - and there seems to be no real business reason for Emma to need an assistant - it's going to be hard to buy Emma and Knightley's romance.)

Without the background competence that underlies Emma's self-assurance, her egotism almost embarrassing, because it's so out of line with her actual abilities.
osprey_archer: (downton abbey)
One of the glorious things about Yuletide is that it shows me entertaining things I have not seen before, such as this: The Lizzie Borden Diaries!



I guess that should really be Diary, singular, because it’s just one video. It’s kind of hilarious, in a dark and slightly gory sort of way.

In other video diary news, I've been watching Emma Approved - am still contemplating how I feel about it as a show - but I found this irritating article while drifting around the internet Emma Approved is a Feminist Triumph.

We've seen two episodes (only one when this was posted), it's far too soon to declare it a triumph of any kind - it might implode midway through, who knows! And two, since when has Harriet's character in Emma been an antifeminist flaw? Yes, she's flighty and silly and not very bright and tends to follow Emma's lead in everything. What, have we gone and declared the mere existence of unintelligent women antifeminist?

Or are we just not supposed to portray unintelligent women because...because...maybe people might somehow get the idea that all women are like that? Despite the fact that Emma and Jane Fairfax and Mrs. Weston and, God help us, even Mrs. Elton all provide counterexamples?

One can argue about feminism or lack thereof in Jane Austen's books forever and a day, but one thing I have always appreciated about them is that they all have a wide range of female characters, some of whom are excellent and some far from admirable and a few downright evil. To get rid of that, especially to make the characters fit some predecided standard of what women "ought" to be - even if that standard is "strong" - would damage the books' feminism, not augment it.
osprey_archer: (cheers)
Via [livejournal.com profile] ladyherenya: Emma Approved has started blogging! Eeeee, I am so excited for this Emma adaptation, I cannot wait for the vlogs to begin. IS IT OCTOBER YET?
osprey_archer: (braid)
Oh LJ, I have so much to tell you!! For I have returned from my Canadian sojourn! In which sojourn I ate walleye and bass and a lake trout, the second lake trout that my dad caught in his life, for normally they hide in the watery depths. It was delicious.

Speaking of fish stories! The night before last I caught a bass, and while I was reeling it in, a gigantic northern pike latched onto the bass and attempted to yank it from my hook to devour it. I pulled left, I pulled right, I reeled, I yanked my pole toward the boat - and at last the northern pike let go! We took the bass off the hook - still surprisingly intact after the onslaught - and tossed it as far away as we could, so it would have a fighting chance. Yes! I am the Bass Rescuer! How many fishermen do you know you can say that?

Other things that occurred: raspberry picking, blueberry picking, blueberry pancakes, PICTOGRAPHS, and many many photos. There may be an entire photo post of Interesting Mushrooms of the North. You have been warned!

***

I also read the entirety of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I am pretty sure that it is a book that Edward Cullen spent far too much of his unlife pondering.

***

And finally! Via [livejournal.com profile] goldenusagi: Emma to Get the Lizzie Bennet Diaries Treatment with Web Series Emma Approved. SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS, YOU GUYS.
osprey_archer: (friends)
I haven’t given up on Welcome to Sanditon, exactly, but I think the show is designed to demand multimedia interaction in a way that the Lizzie Bennet Diaries didn’t, which has sapped a lot of my interest. I still watch the videos when I remember to, but I’m not waiting for them like I did for LBD.

But in a way this is a good thing! Because otherwise I might never have remembered to check out The Autobiography of Jane Eyre, a vlog adaptation of Jane Eyre that was, as Jane confesses in an early episode, inspired by the Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

This means that it almost demands comparison to LBD, which is in a way unfortunate. The Autobiography of Jane Eyre seems comparatively amateur: Jane isn’t as rehearsed and funny as Lizzie, and the camera work is often odd and shaky, because Jane is holding the camera herself and thus can’t see if she’s in frame.

But therein lies some of the charm: Jane’s down-at-the-heels operation really captures her social marginality and loneliness. In both P&P and LBD, while the Bennet family is in financially precarious position, they’re nonetheless enmeshed in local society: Lizzie has her sisters and her friends to help her with her videos. She has enough social support that when her not-quite-a-thing with Wickham falls through early in the series, she can more or less shrug it off.

Jane Eyre, on the other hand, is a nobody, an orphan cast off by her next of kin, and no friends except poor dead Helen Burns. The amateurishness reflects her isolation, and I think it amplifies the sense of her loneliness: she’s reaching out, imperfectly as she can, to try to connect with the world.

That said, I suspect The Autobiography of Jane Eyre will appeal most to people who like the book and are curious to see a modern adaptation. It doesn’t have the same effortless appeal that LBD did, and I’m still not as invested in it as I was in, say, Lydia and Mary’s friendship. (But it is still only early days, after all.)

A lot depends on the depiction of Jane’s relationship with Mr. Rochester, because that will carry a lot of the emotional weight of the show. Because of Jane’s isolation, The Autobiography of Jane Eyre doesn’t have the cushion in this department that LBD did: if Rochester’s jackass tendencies are not properly balanced by his growing respect for Jane and their verbal duels/dances, there’s no Charlotte or Lydia or anyone to distract us.

Rochester showed up in the last episode - or at least his feet did - so I guess we’ll soon find out how it’s going to go...

At least we know he has interesting taste in socks.
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
You guys you guys! Welcome to Sanditon, the not-exactly-a-sequel series for the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, started today. Apparently it's not meant to finish Jane Austen's story but to explore the world of Sanditon, which could either be really fun or ultimately very frustrating, if all that exploration never acquires any kind of plot.

Although personally I think it will probably lead to Gigi having an epiphany about what she wants to do with her future. Possibly something that doesn't involve grad school? She doesn't sound very enthusiastic about her application, and when she talked about it with Lizzie in LBD she said it was "practically a requirement," not that it was something she really wanted.



I'm not sure I'll have enough to say about Sanditon for it to warrant its own tag, but it looks like it might be fun. Tom Parker's Sanditon booster schtick is hilarious - it looks like these videos will have actual grown-up adults rather than all twenty-somethings, which will be a departure - and I can't wait to meet Mrs. Denham, who is an imperious lady in the Lady Catherine de Bourgh vein in Austen's book fragment.
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
My [livejournal.com profile] rarewomen fics! As aforementioned, I didn’t manage to finish my assignment: I just wasn’t feeling the prompt and I figured someone else would give her a better story. But! I wrote three treats to expiate my guilt.

First, Requiem, a Les Mis story about Eponine and Cosette for [livejournal.com profile] anomilygrace: a canon AU where Marius dies instead of Eponine, and Eponine, pushed by a strange tortuous sense of guilt, goes to tell Cosette, because she knows no one else will think to.

Old blood from Eponine’s clothes smudged Cosette’s blue and white dress. Red and blue and white: the tricolor. A bitter, sobbing laugh burst out of Eponine, so raucous and sad that Cosette raised her head. Perfect Cosette, face blotchy and red. A thread of snot hung from her nose.

“I should go,” said Eponine.


I always feel kind of bad picking favorites...but this is my favorite of the treats I wrote. I'm kind of sad more people won't see it, it being buried pages deep in the Les Mis section.

Maybe I could add more chapters. More people would see it then. It could become an Eponine & Cosette epic! Yes/yes? (Seriously, do you think it would be worthwhile?)

Second: Vendetta, a story for The Borgias. It is about Lucrezia and Sancia and deals with spoilers for season two )

And for something completely different: Movie Night, an LBD fic about Lydia and Mary hanging out and trying to pick a movie to watch. Unlike the other fics, with their focus on Misery and Death, this is all sparkles and rainbows and unicorns! Like, literally unicorns. Or at least, discussion of My Little Pony.

Although an LBD fic with literal unicorns would be awesome. Lydia would laugh herself sick when it went right up to Mary and put its head in her lap. Possibly there would be something thematic about slut-shaming and purity of heart etc? Possibly that would be a bit too obvious.
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
I 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."
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
The one thing I was sorry didn't happen in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries was that Mary never showed up again. I wanted her to come back and be there for her BFF Lydia! So...here you go.

Fic: Beaches
Fandom: Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Characters: Lydia & Mary
Rating: G
Prompt: trope_bingo, day at the beach.
Summary: “I don’t need you to cheer me up,” Lydia said. “I just...need you to be here. And you are. So...thanks.”

After the Wickham debacle, Mary tries to cheer Lydia up with a day at the beach. In February. Okay, cheering people up is not really Mary's forte.

Also at AO3, Beaches.

Beaches )
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
It's so lovely here, I'm sitting at the foot of my bed (it has a footboard as well as a headboard, very useful) so I can sit right by the open window and enjoy the gentle breeze. Of course, it is chilly enough that I need a blanket, but hey, we all make sacrifices.

I'm trying to write a Lizzie Bennet Diaries story about Mary supporting Lydia during the Wickham incident, because that's the one thing I wish the show had done. Mary attempts to play the part of old-time Lydia, being bright and perky and dragging Lydia to the beach (in February, no less) to distract her from things.

It is a bit like pulling teeth - I mean the writing, although I daresay Mary feels the same about cheering Lydia up. Possibly she'll realize that it's not the time for cheering up yet, and what she needs to do is to let Lydia feel (and possibly provide fro yo)?
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
We have robins! And daffodils! The recent snowpocalypse decapitated many of the daffodils, sad sad, but fortunately many of them had not bloomed yet and those are beginning to come along.

It is SPRING!

And also the end of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I am sad it's over, but all good things must come to an end. And anyway...

Lizzie Bennet Diaries spoilers )
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
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?
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Lizzie!

And Darcy!

And Lizzie!

OMG.

The episode we have all been waiting for! Except not really, because this means the Lizzie Bennet Diaries are nearly over.

(What do you want to bet they'll make it an even one hundred episodes?)

I am hoping that Lizzie and Darcy get to talk things out like Jane & Bing did, if not perhaps quite as thoroughly. (I have the impression that verbal communication is not Darcy's forte. Nor, for all that she's very good at talking, Lizzie's.)

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
Episode 96! All the costume theater all the time! I am so down with that!

HAHA, I love how Lizzie's costume for Gigi is her Darcy hat with Jane's flower on it. Gigi and Jane do have a lot in common: they both exude this really warm presence, although Gigi is more bubbly with it. I bet they will take over Lizzie and Darcy's wedding and make it an adorable extravaganza.

Also, Lizzie's Charlotte impression is really good! (And I love how she's holding a book that says "Charlotte Costume." Oh, Lizzie!) I also love how she's basically using this Charlotte roleplay to interrogate herself into being honest about her feelings, because that reflects the tenor of a lot of their interactions. To a certain extent, Lizzie relies on other people - especially Charlotte, because Jane is too nice to do it quite the way Charlotte does - to box her into a position where she has to acknowledge feelings she doesn't want to acknowledge.

And finally, Lizzie's comment that "Talking to the internet...not the same as talking to people." I like how she realizes this and, in fact, gives Darcy a call. But her phone message is far less direct than the video - and Lizzie goes ahead and posts this video anyway, I think at least partially because she's hoping that Darcy will see it and it will cut down some of the awkwardness of their next conversation because they'll be on the same page, more or less.

Also, my thought is that Darcy didn't tell her because there is no non-awkward way to say "So I just saved your little sister/your whole family from public humiliation and disgrace! HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?"

Because really, if you do someone such a huge favor, telling them about it - even to say "I don't expect anything in return" - well, the fact that you're telling them means you do expect something: gratitude, at least.

And given that Darcy was all "I overcame all these obstacles to like you! You should be flattered and grateful for my regard!" the first time around, I can see why he would want to be extra-careful about not putting Lizzie under a debt of gratitude to him. It would be too much of a burden for their blossoming relationship to stand.
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
Via [livejournal.com profile] ladyherenya, an interesting article about How the Vlog & Transmedia Set-Up Make Plot Harder for LBD, which I think is excellent. There’s definitely a tension in LBD between “Lizzie growing as a person and not being judgmental all over the internet,” and “Lizzie doing super entertaining costume theater.”

Also, I’ve been thinking about other books that would make fun modern vlog adaptations. You need a main character who would be willing to share her life with the internet (so Fanny Price and Elinor Dashwood are definitely out), and a story that doesn’t depend on information that you wouldn’t really want to put on the internet. LBD has already been stretching the “would someone really put this on the internet?” limits, and making a vlog of something like Jane Eyre would shatter them like glass.

Plus, Jane Eyre is probably too circumspect to have a vlog.

Northanger Abbey, however, would be pretty much the perfect book for a vlog adaptation. Think about it! Catherine starts her vlog because she’s leaving home for the first time, so she starts a vlog to keep her family updated on her doings. She’s pretty stunned to get as many viewers as she does. I think in this version, she’s probably going away to college rather than on a vacation. Possibly she’s going a long way from home, so she won’t be able to visit much?

Catherine and Isabella Thorpe meet at the bookstore, where they are scoping out the same new urban fantasy book in this series they both love. Isabella Thorpe would obviously leap at the chance to be in a vlog: think of the way that she dramatizes her life in the book.

I’m not sure how we get from “love of urban fantasy” to “Catherine thinks maybe General Tilney killed his wife!” but maybe the connection will not be as overt as it is in NA. (I think “Catherine thinks maybe General Tilney is a vampire!” is possibly too silly even for Catherine. Although it might be hilarious! What do you think?)

Catherine and Henry Tilney meet...in class, maybe? Perhaps they are assigned to work on a project together? Or! They could meet at ball-dancing club. In Catherine’s next vlog, Isabella teases her about her crush on Henry Tilney, which makes Catherine blush, although she is totally delighted to talk about him. (Later, Isabella will tease Catherine about things she doesn't necessarily want the whole internet to know.) However, Isabella gets bored when Catherine chats about Henry too long and jumps in to talk about her own conquests.

(I really like the way that LBD fleshed out Lydia, and it would be cool if an NA adaptation did something similar with Isabella. But conversely, Catherine and Isabella’s friendship not working out would work really well in this adaptation. The people you’re friends with your first semester of college are not necessarily going to be your best friends all through, and it would be nice to see Catherine fumbling to find her real friends.)

Etc. etc. more stuff happens. Catherine gets invited to the Tilney’s house for Thanksgiving (she can’t afford a plane ticket home for the holiday). She confides in the internet that she thinks maybe General Tilney killed his wife. Henry Tilney walks into the filming of one of her videos while she’s talking about this possibility and is all “WTF Catherine,” because not only is she entertaining the possibility that his father killed his mother, but she’s been telling the internet about it.

Catherine is horrified and chastened and makes an “I am SO SORRY” video.

Then the General sends her away, and Catherine is convinced that Henry convinced him to do it, and she is all sad panda and possibly swears off vlogs.

But she does one last vlog - “I just had to let you know how the story ends!” Because Henry came to tell her that he didn’t ask his father to send her away at all! (I’m not sure why the General does send Catherine away in this version. Maybe he thought she was pre-med and is just horrified to learn she’s studying, like, art history.)

And then Catherine and Henry start dating, happy end!
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
It is spring break! I think I've mentioned this already. I'm pretty excited about all the lying around watching movies and maybe writing my robot book that I plan to do. (The robot story is becoming a children's book. I HAVE A PLOT AND EVERYTHING. IT IS SO EXCITING.)

HOWEVER. Spring break is a time for relaxation, but nonetheless, I have things that must be done. I have deadlines!

1. My three-page art history paper. It is three pages! It will be easy! Get on it, self!

2. My eight-page identity paper about Uncle Tom's Cabin. (I also mean to write a post or two about Uncle Tom's Cabin. I have feeeeeeelings about Uncle Tom's Cabin, starting with how the epithet "Uncle Tom" is only a little less unfair than using "Lolita" to mean a sexually precocious girl. Like, have the people who use lolita that way read Nabokov's Lolita? It's about a child molester! Lolita is not sexually precocious, she's a little girl being abused by a creep!)

3. I have one last fic to write for trope_bingo, for the square "day at the beach."

Maybe I could write another Psych fic. There's a beach in Psych! Shawn & Gus's office is right by it! (How much are they paying for that? Oceanfront property is usually pretty steep. Does Shawn have a shady deal with someone so they pay less rent than it's worth?)

A treasure hunter on the beach in Santa Barbara is bludgeoned to death with his own metal detector! Shawn and Gus are on the case. It turns out there is a sunken Spanish galleon out in the bay! (We will gracefully ignore the fact that no one has ever noticed it before. Minor details!) They borrow Shawn's dad's boat to go check it out and end up being taken hostage by a crew dressed up as Spanish pirates (because why not?) and -

...but then it's not a "day at the beach" fic, but a buccaneering ocean fic. Drat.

Maybe I could write a fic about "the Bennet sisters (+ Mary) go to the beach." They live in California, right? So even if they're not right on the coast, they're probably within day-trip distance of a beach. They are trying to cheer Lydia up after the Wickham debacle, through the medium of sun, sand, and Frisbee games!

They lose the Frisbee to the tide, like you do, and Lydia stares after it tragically - not in a metaphorical, "THE FRISBEE IS GONE FOREVER, LIKE MY HEART" manner, because that doesn't really sound like a Lydia way of thinking, but more in a "I am a little fragile right now and small setbacks make me tear up" kind of way. And then there are group hugs and ice cream!

I might time this to coincide with Charlotte's visit, because YAY CHARLOTTE. But on the other hand, five characters is a lot to keep track of.

ETA: And also, it might be a little cold for a beach trip. But OH WELL, I like the beach idea, maybe Lydia insists they go to the beach even though it is winter and everyone is like "Well, let's humor her, she's had a rough month."
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
Jane and Bing!

Bing and Jane!

All the feels!

Today's episode )
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Episode 91:

First: the return of costume theater, hooray! I hadn't realized how much I'd missed it until Lizzie put on her big puffy Mom hat and a southern accent. I hope we have much costume theater to look forward to.

I also hope Lydia comes back soon, because the longer she stays away, the harder it will be to return. Time to get back on the horse, Lydia!

Jane & Lizzie both think they need to give Lydia space, but...while it's pop culture approved, I'm not sure if that's actually the best idea in this case. After all, giving Lydia too much space is one of the reasons she turned to George in the first place: she felt alone and unloved. While probably they're right that they shouldn't pressure Lydia specifically about being on web-videos, I do hope they're dropping by her room with mugs of tea, offers to watch movies, and gentle but insistent reminders that they love her and want her to come out of her room so they can distract her from her moping.

One of the things I like about Lydia's story in the book is that she emerges indomitable from an experience that, by the laws of eighteenth-century fiction, should have wrecked her reputation and probably resulted in her death. I hope LBD Lydia manages a similar trick, and comes through this with her verve and energy intact.

And finally - Jane is moving to New York! For an exciting fashion job! Eeeee! I still expect they'll get her and Bing together somehow, but you know, maybe they won't...Either way, I'm excited to see what happens!

Or maybe Bing will transfer to Columbia. How does Bing get all this time away from med school, anyway?

Grab Bag

Feb. 11th, 2013 10:25 pm
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
1. I had a dinner today! A grown-up dinner wherein grad students and professors mingled! And by mingled I mean mostly I sat there and listened to the professors talk, which was quite interesting - one of them met Herbert Hoover when he was seven (the professor, not Hoover, unless of course he is a vampire professor...) Plus I had roasted herb chicken with gorgonzola mashed potatoes which were DELICIOUS - even the carrots were delicious! - so clearly this should happen more often.

They seemed, disconcertingly, to be far more current on recent movies than I am (what is this Argo, you guys?). This clearly lends support to my nascent plan to start making pilgrimages to the movie theater more often. First on my list: Hyde Park on the Hudson.

2. The latest in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries: I'm not sure about this episode. They've stretched the vlog format before, but this eight-minute long festival of woe just seems...I don't know. One, it's just too long, and two, if this were real and not a show, why would anyone post that? Lizzie and Lydia's...I'm not sure what to call it, because it's not a full blown reconciliation...detente?

Whatever. Their interaction in this video is so emotional and intimate that I felt embarrassed watching it.

I see why the showrunners wanted an emotional reconciliation between Lizzie and Lydia, but I...just can't see why anyone would post that online. Yes, Lydia says it's okay, but a) Lydia hates herself right now, and seems to want the video posted at least partly as a form of self-punishment, and b) even if Lydia thinks she's okay with it, Lizzie is also in the video, and why would she be okay with showing one of the most emotional moments of her life onscreen?

I think something more restrained would have worked well. Remember when Jane had her break-down about Bing leaving, and Lizzie turned off the camera? Something like that.
osprey_archer: (lizzie bennet diaries)
Next, up in the Five Things meme: [livejournal.com profile] egelantier, who asked about my top five fictional female relationships, which is also a hard one, because there are so many and how can I decide?

I ended up having to leave out so many things! Sara and Ermengarde from A Little Princess, and Mel and Nee from Crown Duel, (two books I should post about someday!), and of course my beloved Lily & Nina from Black Swan, and Jess/Jules from Bend It Like Beckham, and Julie and Maddie (oh, Julie) from Code Name Verity...

But then, if I had listed everyone then probably this post would broken LJ’s word limit.

Anyway! Top five female relationships, from Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, The Changeling, Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Phoebe in Wonderland, Baby-sitters' Club )

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