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November 22, 2006
Oh For Pete's Sake....
Leave me my fond illusions, will you please?
Jane Austen had a lesbian affair with her older sister, Cassandra. It’s obvious, really. There was “the passionate nature of the sibling bond” so evident in the letters. There were her descriptions of women, betraying “a kind of homophilic fascination”. And, of course, there was her fascination with the “underlying eros of the sister-sister bond”. Case closed, I’d say.Well, no. All these quotations come from a 1995 article in the London Review of Books by Terry Castle, an American academic. Castle was simply noting certain important preoccupations in her writing. An eager subeditor, however, had other ideas. “Was Jane Austen Gay?” was the headline. The LRB had barely hit the newsstands when Newsnight went on air with an earnest discussion of the sexual proclivities of one of our greatest novelists. Good grief! Was Mr Darcy really a woman, the bulge in his breeches a clumsy prosthetic? We had to know. But why? Literary biography is one of the dominant forms of our time. Almost weekly, big fat books emerge to reveal new truths about our greatest writers. Among the current fatties are Zachary Leader’s The Life of Kingsley Amis and the second volume of John Haffenden’s life of William Empson. The first has drunkenness and promiscuity; the second a bisexual fascination with troilism. And, yes, Austen is in for another doing-over, as a film released next year, Becoming Jane, about “a little-known but true love affair with the brilliant, roguish and attractive young Irishman Tom Lefroy”. One way or another, it seems, we shall just have to accept the awful, the incredible truth: Jane Austen had sex. Gosh.
Is it too early in the morning to start drinking?
Update: Apparently this thread was misnamed.
Go ahead... take your best shot :D
Posted by Cassandra at November 22, 2006 08:04 AM
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Comments
The illusion that you were the (un)lucky sister?
[runs away...]
Posted by: karrde at November 22, 2006 08:58 AM
You'd better run, punk :p
Here I was thinking about my prim and proper schoolgirl memories of reading about the romances of Jane and Bingley and Elizabeth and the to-die-for Mr. Darcy...
For some reason, the Oink Cadre and girl-on-girl fantasies hadn't quite made it past the early morning fog.
Posted by: Cassandra at November 22, 2006 09:10 AM
Cassandra, are you in need of salts and the fainting couch? I didn't realize this would put you in for a case of the vapors.
I guess I'd better re read Sense and Sensibility again, as well as Pride and Prejudice. This is really cutting into my Ayn Rand worship.
Posted by: Cricket at November 22, 2006 09:39 AM
I guess that might explain your fascination for down feathers and pillow fights!
Posted by: vet66 at November 22, 2006 12:11 PM
[foot tapping....]
Posted by: Cassandra at November 22, 2006 12:24 PM
Dagnabbit! There are some times when the three hour difference between coastlines really sucks! Karrde beat me to the punch (and duck and run) line!
Posted by: Sly2017 at November 22, 2006 12:24 PM
[Running like mad....]
The joke just jumped out when I saw "Cassandra"...
[Still running...]
Why do people try to pick on the private lives of long-dead authors?
[panting for breath, jogging hard...]
Probably some misunderstanding...someone misread Miss Austen's letters to her sister...
[Hey, look. Sly's just as bad! go get him!]
Posted by: karrde at November 22, 2006 01:00 PM
[Grabbing one of Cass' prized antique chairs and holding in *lion tamer* position]
Oh, no, Karrde, you get this one. You beat me to it, fair and square.
[Where's that darn whip! Cass...don't shoot! ... think of the chair....]
I mean, I never actually go to type my snarky comment.
[Ducking amazingly accurate spitball....]
Time for me to use Miyagi-do theory of defense:
"No be there!"
[Setting chair down *gently*, turning tail and running ..... stuffed marmoset in hand]
Posted by: Sly2017 at November 22, 2006 01:38 PM
"... never actually got to type..."
I hate when I miss my typo's before posting.....
[grrrr]
Posted by: Sly2017 at November 22, 2006 01:41 PM
Wow, watch Karrde get into trouble with the ladies! I'd always thought him too gentlemanly for such things. That's normally the department of rogues and scoundrels, such as myself and JHD. :)
Posted by: Grim at November 22, 2006 02:34 PM
Ummm, Mr. Grim, have you noticed that the Blog Princess gets in trouble with her self? This thread should be exhibit "A".
Posted by: Rich at November 22, 2006 08:00 PM
Oh, that I've noticed. :) I'm just surprised to see young Karrde getting involved. But good for him! I'll promote him from "co-blogger" to "fellow scoundrel."
Posted by: Grim at November 22, 2006 10:43 PM
I think I'll be happy with the title "punk".
Posted by: karrde at November 25, 2006 10:59 PM