Sunday, August 27, 2006

Pride and Prejudice and Samuel L. Jackson - I Don't Get It. I Just Don't Get It.

Oh! I am prepared for all the well-written and horrified comments from all of you Jane Austen fans out there (not so ready for you Snakes On A Plane fan -(and I mean fan) because all I can say is Really? I mean...really!!?? Pulp Fiction YES!! I get it - totally brilliant but everything else is just totally derivative. Sure the look -- but as a highly paid actor we need more than a look don't we? I do. But I digress and totally abuse any rules regarding parentheses).

Anywhooooo. Pride and Prejudice....boooring. BRIDE and Prejudice -- some song and dance lots of bright colors a strange hero drum solo at the end now that was a good time.

I want to preface this by saying I really enjoy historical fiction and moreover historical romance. I like slow books. I like romances that really just consist of a few key scenes filled with tension and unsaid things. All of those things are wonderful. I just don't get it in Pride and Prejudice. I don't see any of the restrained romantic tension between those characters. (The BBC version with handsome handsome what's his name -- that helped. That was pretty good. But until then -- didn't see it). None. That first proposal of Mr. Darcy's that is supposed to be so funny I didn't even smile at, not even when Keira Knightly was looking so horrified and bony during it in this last years version. I agree the father/daughter scene - quite touching - in all the versions - particularly the sweet Bridget Jones Diary. And I do agree it's hard to beat that first line. Literary and full of voice and character and sets the tone perfectly -- it's a home run of a first line - I just lose interest in chapter 2. That's right -- I haven't even finished the book - because I CAN'T. I'm simply too bored.

I understand the place it holds in the history of novels and particularly novels written by women and I have been beaten over the head repeatedly by friends (Sinead) telling me the importance this tome has in the history of romance. I certainly can admire the way it creates such fervid love and interest even now - for new readers introduced to it. I'm just not one of them. Not without some song and dance and weird drum solo.

4 comments:

Maureen McGowan said...

Well, you know where I stand on this one, Molly. I can't remember the first time I read Pride and Prejudice, but it was certainly well before I'd seen any movie or TV adaptations and before I'd discovered romance as a genre... And I LOVED it. (but I would argue P&P isn't a romance per se... Very few scenes with them together... I think it's more like modern chick lit... but I digress)

Whatever it is... it's a very funny book and very touching, too. The wit of Elizabeth Bennett is unequaled in fiction -- even in Jane Austen's other novels.

You're right... some of the humour isn't fall down on the floor laughing stuff... But her biting sarcasm and indignation at how she's expected to marry some boob with a quarter of her intelligence and wit, just to survive in her world is priceless...

Now, Snakes on a Plane? I'm with you there.

Anonymous said...

Ah! the debate. Love P& P as well. Read it from a reasonably early age, have seen most of the movie/Tv adaptations and loved them all.

The wit, the romance, the stiff british upper lip.

Snakes on a plane. I'm going to see it. Not so much for Samual, as for the snakes...

Molly O'Keefe said...

Zoinks- Maureen fill the deafening silence.

Tired of Dilana. So tired of her. Have a crush on Toby.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Molly. Love Toby right now... a sense of humor, what a concept.

I love Rockstar...I'm admitting it, not proud, but my secret shame can no longer be secret

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