"A book for people who like stories or a story for people who like books"
I'd like to start off by celebrating the triumphant return of my computer, Yané, to functionality. On Friday I was about a half hour into the second episode of North and South when my computer went crazy. I got a whole ton of virus alerts, then my antivirus program started "scanning my messages," whatever that means, taking up the whole screen at times with little popups about message scanning, and every now and then informing me that it couldn't send something because it was spam. And I was like, "I'm not even doing anything!" After a while of this I unplugged my internet connection and finished the N&S episode, but every two minutes or so a virus threat alert would pop up. The alert would say it had deleted the problem, but clearly it was lying because the popups wouldn't stop. My dad and I tried everything we knew how to do to fix it, but nothing worked. The weekend passed. On Monday we finally called a repair company, and on Tuesday Bryan Knauer from PC Pro Technologies came and fixed everything, and even reset my computer clock so it actually tells the right time, in a little over an hour. So if you live in the Indianapolis area and your computer gone done broke, call this guy. He was really nice and polite and he saved my computer.
Now I will talk about Thursday Next: First Among Sequels. I wasn't going to halt reading Les Mis before I was done with it, but hearing that this book had been released changed my mind. I am now back to Les Mis, on page 1206 with about 260 pages to go, but here is my review of TN: FAS. I have whited out major spoilers, things you don't discover in the first thirty pages anyway.
All in all, I think Something Rotten is still my favorite. This one lags a little in the beginning, it seems like the plot is sort of just meandering around, re-expositioning for new readers and readers who have forgotten what Jurisfiction is all about. But it really picks up after that, about halfway through. The gang is all back, though they are significantly older now. It's really weird to think that Thursday is 52, and very sad that SpecOps has been disbanded. One of my favorite things about Thursday's world was its appreication for literature, and in the beginning of FAS at least, it is inching closer and closer to this world. This is strangely depressing. On the other hand, this gives Thursday something significant and long-term to really fight for. I wish we had a Thursday Next to take care of the shrinkage of the Now in this world.
I really like Friday and Tuesday, and I like the fun things that Fforde does with perspective here. I'm not bothered by the closing of the ChronoGuard. It had gotten extremely complicated, and you can tell that Landen's one-word tip to people thinking of writing about time travel ("Don't.") comes from Fforde himself. These changes sort of call all bets off, which is a good place to be in for future books in the series, of which Fforde says that there may be at least three. Once again, as with the other Thursday books, this book was hard to put down, especially when all of the plots start to converge.
Some of the best parts, of course, were those that took place in the BookWorld. I'm getting more of the book in-jokes than ever, and they are hilarious. The Shakespere spin-off of Iago and Hamlet is... well, it's genius. The switch-arounds of Thursday1-4 and Thursday5 were great; I'd wondered before how that would work, since there are Thursday Next books, whether there would be book versions of Thursday. Answer: boy, are there ever.
Okay, I know you've been waiting for it: The Jane Austen portions were fantastic. So much love! The fact that for most of the book Mrs. Bennet is relegated to the wardrobe to calm her nerves; the whole Reality Book Show thing; the Bee Challenge. Jane's very Jane-like response to it: "Do you think that, perhaps, Mr. Bingley and I may meet again, as bees?" Awww. It is very fitting that Fforde chose Jane Austen as the jumping-off point for the reality book show, given her recent popularity. We keep getting more and more Austen adaptations in which directors and writers forget what made Jane Austen popular, a universal wit and understanding of people, and try to "make Austen sexy and modern." You don't need to do that! In the end, though, Fforde gives words of comfort to the Janeites; this is what we all hope will happen to the people who dip into Jane Austen because of things like the latest ITV movies and Becoming Jane:
“But here’s the good bit: All the readers who bought copies of the book to see the Bennets dress up as bees continued reading to see if Lizzie and Jane would get their men and if Lydia would come to a sticky end. Naturally, all the new readers were delighted at what happened-so much so that people with the name of Wickham have had to go into hiding.”
That is what we hope for. That is as things should be.
Fforde describes the series very well himself. It continues to be "a thought-provoking romp around literature; a book for people who like stories or a story for people who like books.” And that is why I love the Thursday Next books, the latest not excepted. First Among Sequels was a whole lot of fun and I enjoyed it immensely. Frankly, I don't want the series to ever end.
Speaking of the latest Austen surge, this article is a very good one. I may have become a hardcore Janeite only recently, but I think that's mostly because I've just reached an age where I can relate to it. It's not becaue of the surge. I tend to be very accepting of the different adaptations, though, as long as they get people interested. I mean, you saw what I said about Becoming Jane, as ashamed as I kind of am about it.
I especially relate to the part of the article where the colleage tells the author that he just can't seem to get through Pride and Prejudice. I've been there, and I, too, have been thinking, "Okay... why are you telling me this?" I'm not sure how I am expected to respond, but here are some of the possible responses I think are expected:
1) Okay, you caught me! I've been hiding the Ultimate Secret to Enjoying Jane Austen and keeping it all for myself! Mwhahahaha! I will share it with you if you give me five dollars!
2) You're right, the book sucks. I've actually never finished it, either. I just pretend I have because it makes me look smart. Really, it's impossible to read.
3) It's all right, my child. I absolve you.
4) Do you want to fight? Are you trying to make me cry? I won't cry, but I will by God make you bleed if you insult Jane Austen again!
None of these are true. I usually just smile and mutter things like, "Oh, that's okay... I understand... Yeah, it can be hard... Well, you're a boy..." The truth is, if you can't get through Pride and Prejudice, it's nobody's fault but yours. Yes, the language takes a little getting used to if most of what you read is modern stuff. But once you get accustomed to it, there is really no excuse. It's a good book. It has humor and heart and it's not just for girls, either. Just like Star Wars isn't only for boys. If you can't get through it, I don't know why. Don't look at me like you expect me to tell you.
Note that this doesn't necessarily apply to all of Austen. Mansfield Park is not to everyone's taste, and I realize that; it's kind of dark, and not everyone finds the protagonists likeable. That's a legitimate argument. I tell people not to try MP unless they're really serious aout Austen. Sense and Sensibility is Jane Austen's first work, and as such it is a little less tight in narrative and characterization, etc. It's a harder read. Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion are easier. But Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen's "light, bright, and sparkling" work, and besides, I'm betting you liked the movie. I can respect reading it and not really liking it for some reason, I suppose, but attempting to read it and failing? So I guess what bothers me is the "I can't get through it and I don't know why" statement.
I tend to take what I have come to think of as the Elvis approach to things like this. There is an excellent Dave Barry article about Elivs fas that I have quoted at length before it relation to the way I feel about my fandoms. There is one fan who says that she used to try to defend Elvis, but then she realized that he didn't need defending. In Barry's words, "If you don't hear what they hear, feel what they feel, that's your misfortune." And that's how I tend to look at this problem: You can't get through Pride and Prjejudice? Too bad for you. You're missing out. Don't apologize, you're not insulting me by not finishing Pride and Prejudice; you're only insulting your own intelligence.
(I really hope that nobody who reads this journal feels insulted by this. I do realize that the language takes time to get used to, and that can make reading difficult for a while. And I appreciate that you have to have a certain affinity for the genre to tackle the harder books. For example, Whitney, I do not think that you are intolerably stupid. Or, in fact, stupid at all. I hope that I have made that very, very clear. And Jenaba, I don't know how you're doing with P&P, but I don't think you're intolerably stupid, either. And Jonah, if you happen to read this, I truthfully think that maybe you're not giving yourself a fair chance.)