The things I do to avoid grading.
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?
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?