Brigits_Flame November Entry 04: Night Life

[kenderlord]

Author’s note:

I have just read some Jane Austen juvenilia for this seminar I’m in; we read all the major works and now we’re reading stuff she came up with as a teenager.  It’s all ridiculous, and a lot of it is really funny.

I apologize to those of you that do not like Jane Austen.  But, then again, I also thumb my nose.

-D

“I dread these

Comments

[wierdauntie]

I love Jane Austen... and I really enjoyed this! *clicks to vote* Good job my Jungian friend.

[kenderlord]

Oh, hooray! I'm glad, because I, uh, didn't really do much research before writing this. I just called on what I remembered from the semester, and built some new characters on the, ahem, archetypes, that Austen had laid out. She has a thing for irritating vicars, so I decided to make Mr. Gossett a bit more palatable, more of an Edmund from Mansfield Park than a Mr. Collins.
-D

[kenderlord]

And I don't know how to use html. Such is life.
-D

[innana88]

Oh, gawd, Mr. Collins. *wretch*

I love Jane Austen. Huge shocker that we should delight in the same reading material, I know. Pride and Prejudice was forever my favorite novel and has only recently been joined in ranks by Catch-22 and, of course, The Shipping News

I thought you wrote this very well. Isn't Austen's voice contagious? I read several of her novels one summer and the voice in my journal that summer sounds like it should have been written with a quill. I might research the medical terminology a bit and see if it dates that far back. I also think that certain turns-of-phrase may have been far more shock-inducing to most than you have written here. A female surgeon? Why not make it a major gaffe that charms Mr. Watson anyhow. Methinks it may have drawn more than a snort. Add a few onlookers to increase the reaction.

I really did love this and I think you did the spirit of Jane Austen tremendous justice. :) Good luck!

[niphredil]

I really liked this. I want to read more! Definitely better than Mansfield Park Fanny, I couldn't stand her...

[kenderlord]

Fanny Price is an insipid wretch. I think I named this character Fanny as a sort of plea for the name's redemption.
-D

[kenderlord]

Thank you very kindly!

The best excuse I can offer for mulled wine is that it was nearing Christmastime. But I didn't want to say that outright, because what would Mr. Gossett be doing away from his vicarage so close to Christmas?

I was worried about my periodic sentences, because I was wrestling with myself: do I keep them labyrinthine, or do I break them up with the semi-colon, the clause-splitting axe of modernity?

What do you think? You recommend the paring-down of some of the periodic sentences, but I get the feeling you don't mean all of them. Are there a couple in particular that seem especially unwieldy?

I am honored to be the recipient of such a fine critique.
-D

[kenderlord]

It do! It surely do. Thank you.

Hee. I imagine a band of rogue commas - a rough and grimy troop of punctuational brigands - holding up clause-carriages along the roadside and demanding that they stop, but not for very long.
-D

[hwango]

Hah, excellent! In particular, I just love “They are hypothetical daughters, Miss Greywood,”

[kenderlord]

My friend Rafa is a huge fan of what he calls the 'ice burn', where someone manages to be brilliantly insulting and cool at the same time. Like that story about Winston Churchill: "You, sir, are drunk." "Yes, Madame, but you are ugly, and in the morning I shall be sober."

But the closest I can come to the ice burn is that sort of weary tone. I'm glad you like it, but one day, Hwango. One day I will master the art of the frigid insult.
-D

[pirate_poet]

While procrastinating from schoolwork and studying, I remembered you mentioned your blog a few weeks ago when I passed you in the hall so I surfed on over-- and I gotta say, this stuff is grand. I am envious of your ability to churn out these things. (The script Palin thing was great.) And your sense of humor is sharp in these bits of writing! Thumbs up.

-Lori

[kenderlord]

haha, cheers, Lori!

I am pleased that you are pleased.

of course, The Clean Platter hasn't seen an update since July. Look for another pizza entry to spring up over Winter Break.
-D