Lizzie Bennet diaries
Oct. 17th, 2012 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackhttp://www.lizziebennet.com/story/
Wow, that's awesome. A modern video-blog retelling of Pride and Prejudice. (I'm not sure if I'd like actual video blogs, but I like fictional video blogs as a medium :))
I know people will probably snark at me for applying the same level of literary analysis to something in the medium of a video blog, but I don't think accessible is automatically synonymous with simplistic -- I think often the most interesting analysis is of stuff that the viewers instinctively understand, but you need to understand why.
But what I find interesting is its relationship to the original. It captures some of the essence of the original story, while also living in a world in which Pride-and-Prejudice influenced stories like Bridget Jones exist ("Darcy? Wasn't that the name of the guy Colin Firth played in that movie?"). You'd think it would break the immersion, but it seems to work well.
Often missing in modern adaptions, #1
I only watched a couple of episodes of this so I don't know if these apply to this, but I've noticed a couple of things that people often complain don't really come through in modern adaptions or retellings of P&P.
The first is that "rich" isn't just an abstract concept, the people who want to marry someone rich aren't simply (or aren't only) being greedy, but that even if the family isn't poor by the standards of actual poor people, they're still on the verge of losing their home, and marrying someone rich will likely save them.
This was something mum pointed out to me in one of the BBC adaptions: the Bennets and the Darcys are both landed, but rather than both being interchangeable-upper-middle-class like so many protagonists, the Bennets had a nice house, and some land, but it was basically a big farmhouse, whereas Darcy had a real mansion of echoing corridors filled with marble statues, etc, etc.
And presumably women of that class couldn't really get jobs except on a very ad-hoc basis, so that's why they were inherently broke?
Often missing in modern adaptions, #2
Not as much in adaptions like LBD, but in loosely-inspired things is a recognition that being aloof and distant isn't actually a good thing. Partly because everyone knows the story, they expect the Lizzie and Darcy characters to get together and sometimes forget all the reasons Austen gave the characters to, or not to, get together.
Darcy is attractive partly because they overcome the aloof-and-distant thing, but it's easy to leave that almost entirely out, or to assume that acting like a jerk is sufficient to make a romantic hero/heroine and forget to actually include any bits where the new characters actually like each other.
Wow, that's awesome. A modern video-blog retelling of Pride and Prejudice. (I'm not sure if I'd like actual video blogs, but I like fictional video blogs as a medium :))
I know people will probably snark at me for applying the same level of literary analysis to something in the medium of a video blog, but I don't think accessible is automatically synonymous with simplistic -- I think often the most interesting analysis is of stuff that the viewers instinctively understand, but you need to understand why.
But what I find interesting is its relationship to the original. It captures some of the essence of the original story, while also living in a world in which Pride-and-Prejudice influenced stories like Bridget Jones exist ("Darcy? Wasn't that the name of the guy Colin Firth played in that movie?"). You'd think it would break the immersion, but it seems to work well.
Often missing in modern adaptions, #1
I only watched a couple of episodes of this so I don't know if these apply to this, but I've noticed a couple of things that people often complain don't really come through in modern adaptions or retellings of P&P.
The first is that "rich" isn't just an abstract concept, the people who want to marry someone rich aren't simply (or aren't only) being greedy, but that even if the family isn't poor by the standards of actual poor people, they're still on the verge of losing their home, and marrying someone rich will likely save them.
This was something mum pointed out to me in one of the BBC adaptions: the Bennets and the Darcys are both landed, but rather than both being interchangeable-upper-middle-class like so many protagonists, the Bennets had a nice house, and some land, but it was basically a big farmhouse, whereas Darcy had a real mansion of echoing corridors filled with marble statues, etc, etc.
And presumably women of that class couldn't really get jobs except on a very ad-hoc basis, so that's why they were inherently broke?
Often missing in modern adaptions, #2
Not as much in adaptions like LBD, but in loosely-inspired things is a recognition that being aloof and distant isn't actually a good thing. Partly because everyone knows the story, they expect the Lizzie and Darcy characters to get together and sometimes forget all the reasons Austen gave the characters to, or not to, get together.
Darcy is attractive partly because they overcome the aloof-and-distant thing, but it's easy to leave that almost entirely out, or to assume that acting like a jerk is sufficient to make a romantic hero/heroine and forget to actually include any bits where the new characters actually like each other.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-17 09:17 pm (UTC)ETA: I don't. I remember. They weren't broke, but because Mr Bennet only had daughters, when he passed on his property wouldn't pass to his children which would leave his family unprovided for. It was thereby important that the girls married well enough that their husbands could provide.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-17 11:10 pm (UTC)Ah, you're completely right. Sorry, I didn't mean to sound more certain than I was :)
no subject
Date: 2012-10-17 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 09:40 am (UTC)Gentry women were not raised with the expectation that they would ever have to work-for-pay; they expect to become wives and mothers and manage their husband's households - the Bennet sisters probably expect to marry men of small means, possibly even men in the "respectable" professions (the army, the clergy); which would likely mean being fairly hands-on at household management (Mrs Darcy probably has rather more staff). If she had to resort to earning her keep a woman of such a class could work as a governess or as a lady's companion.
Marrying outside one's class would be a social no-no; but also it would be very difficult for practical reasons - a farmer's wife would need to be able to work on the farm, a shop keeper's wife in the shop; a woman like Jane Bennet has none of the skills or practical experiences that would make a transition to such a life smooth.