Heeeeeeeeeeee! Well, some caveats. You don't have to have read it to talk to me about it; I will talk at you ad naseum if you don't mind it; I just try to keep myself restrained when it comes to fandoms people I like don't share. Also, I haven't read the book in 2 years, and then I wasn't paying SUPER close attention. I've been reading pieces of it now and then for this fanfic, but I didn't want to reread the whole thing because I knew it would start to make me feel like I had to be faithful to the book, and really what I want to be faithful to is the N&S in my head, which takes pieces from the book and adaptation and my own needs and combines into something very cool.
Last, I just don't think the book's that great. I LOVE the social issues, and really respect Gaskell for wanting to talk about them. I also think there's a really intense sexuality about it which is surprising for a novel of its era, but the repression that seems to prevalent in said era makes the sexual overtones read really strangely. And that, I feel, was because EG just wasn't that great of a writer. I just don't think the book is that good, although I love parts of what it's trying to say.
I also had trouble liking the main character. I thought she was a total badass in some ways but in other ways she drove me up the wall. I think maybe we were *supposed* to see her annoying parts as character flaws, and see that she comes to terms with them in the end, but I was pretty annoyed. I'd like to do a fic based solely on the book, though, that deals with that a little more to my satisfaction.
But yeah, I planned on talking about N&S even though I didn't think anyone on my lj would care. Whenever I go to do it, though, I think about how random it will seem, and then I come up with meta about how I use lj/dw, fandom, etc. I have these huge, long Star Trek musings I never got around to writing up because when I went to write them I had to write about the nature of human thought first, and my feelings towards science second, and then I started writing about tidepools...and none of this was actually what I wanted to talk about, which was Star Trek, so I didn't post any of that, either. my_daroga says she lives in hope that one day I will be able to talk about the things going on in my brain.
I haven't read Shirley or Hard Times, but I've been meaning to. I want to give Gaskell another chance--you said Mary Barton was good, right? To fill my Victorian voids I'm reading Daniel Deronda right now--it's REALLY interesting, but Eliot is such slow going.
I don't know what con.txt is, but I saw you post about it. I wanted to go just because I thought it would be so cool to hang out with you! But it looked like it was this summer which is problematic because we're doing Star Trek in the Park. I'll look into it though, because ...that victorian panel!!!!!!!!!
I only ever really felt fannish about fanfic in the case of mistful, but I do know what you mean. I felt like a great big old suck up, which is why I tried to make it clear that I considered the fanfic a canon of it's own. Sure, I think the author is amazing and it's so cool she's online and I get to talk to her. But what I'm really interested in is her WORK, and I want to talk about it the way I talk about other canon. I'm going to read that novel fanfic you like--I've been meaning to forever.
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Last, I just don't think the book's that great. I LOVE the social issues, and really respect Gaskell for wanting to talk about them. I also think there's a really intense sexuality about it which is surprising for a novel of its era, but the repression that seems to prevalent in said era makes the sexual overtones read really strangely. And that, I feel, was because EG just wasn't that great of a writer. I just don't think the book is that good, although I love parts of what it's trying to say.
I also had trouble liking the main character. I thought she was a total badass in some ways but in other ways she drove me up the wall. I think maybe we were *supposed* to see her annoying parts as character flaws, and see that she comes to terms with them in the end, but I was pretty annoyed. I'd like to do a fic based solely on the book, though, that deals with that a little more to my satisfaction.
But yeah, I planned on talking about N&S even though I didn't think anyone on my lj would care. Whenever I go to do it, though, I think about how random it will seem, and then I come up with meta about how I use lj/dw, fandom, etc. I have these huge, long Star Trek musings I never got around to writing up because when I went to write them I had to write about the nature of human thought first, and my feelings towards science second, and then I started writing about tidepools...and none of this was actually what I wanted to talk about, which was Star Trek, so I didn't post any of that, either. my_daroga says she lives in hope that one day I will be able to talk about the things going on in my brain.
I haven't read Shirley or Hard Times, but I've been meaning to. I want to give Gaskell another chance--you said Mary Barton was good, right? To fill my Victorian voids I'm reading Daniel Deronda right now--it's REALLY interesting, but Eliot is such slow going.
I don't know what con.txt is, but I saw you post about it. I wanted to go just because I thought it would be so cool to hang out with you! But it looked like it was this summer which is problematic because we're doing Star Trek in the Park. I'll look into it though, because ...that victorian panel!!!!!!!!!
I only ever really felt fannish about fanfic in the case of mistful, but I do know what you mean. I felt like a great big old suck up, which is why I tried to make it clear that I considered the fanfic a canon of it's own. Sure, I think the author is amazing and it's so cool she's online and I get to talk to her. But what I'm really interested in is her WORK, and I want to talk about it the way I talk about other canon. I'm going to read that novel fanfic you like--I've been meaning to forever.