Car Rides with the Dashwoods and Co.

Fear not, faithful readers! All 3 (4, 5, >10) of you.  I have not abandoned my writing or my blog.  I have just been busy w/ a more ambitious project, which was partly inspired by a little trip I took recently.

A couple weekends ago I took a road trip w/ my mom for 8+ hours, and to make the time go faster we listened to Sense and Sensibility on audiobook.  I know what you may be thinking, "Yikes, 12+ hours of old timey English.  Boring!"  Well, if you are thinking that, well you suck, b/c Jane Austen is amazing.  And seeing as it was only ladies in the car, it's fine (although men would be smart to love Jane Austen too!)  It's better than the last road trip, when we listened to The Crucible.  While I have always loved a good Salem witch story (seeing as I am related to one), it was not that fun for the car.  Jane Austen is so much more witty and romantic.  And there was less dwarf singing, like the time as a child we listened to The Hobbit.  While I love all things Hobbity (like Elijah Wood ;^) ), I swear that dwarf song went on for hours, or I was just really young.

So, after 12+ hours of car time w/ the Dashwoods and friends (and enemies), I had a lot of time to think.  Granted, to me 5 minutes in the bathroom gives me lots of time to think, so you can imagine what those hours gave me.  Therefore, here are my thoughts on me and Sense and Sensibility.

The Ladies

I know that the object of the novel was to determine whether it's better to be full of sense like Elinor or be full of sensibility (i.e. very in touch w/ and moved along by your emotions).  I think Austen becomes less clear about her preference the further along you go.  I am personally a fan of Aristotle's golden mean, so all things in moderation.  Wait, maybe I can't choose b/c I can be extreme in either direction. Hmmm...

I find myself often trying to be very full of sense like Elinor when it comes to how I appear in public.  The way Maryanne behaves about Willoughby in public makes me want to cringe.  But then again I am the person that will behave the same (or at least try to) whether a guy is a stranger, a friend, a relative, or the focus of my idol daydreams.  Okay, maybe that's not actually true.  I cannot decide if it's because I have more sense or less than Elinor, but if I were in her shoes I'd try to avoid Edward Ferrars altogether.  She probably just has more sense, since she could be around him and still behave warmly to him, despite her heart being wrenched in 2 b/c she knows that stupid bitch Lucy Steele is engaged to him.  I'd have to avoid him completely because I honestly wouldn't know what to say, or would want to be fake nice when I didn't want to be.  And maybe that's why I have more sense.  She was made to sit in a room w/ Edward and Lucy, knowing too much and having to be in that totally awkward room.  If she had just given him his space to ease out of loving Elinor, that could have been avoided.

But then in private I can be such a Maryanne.  I used to think I was solely an Elinor, but maybe I only wanted to be.  I started to think differently from early on.  At one point Maryanne states that she will never find love w/ someone unless they feel exactly the same way about books and music as she does.  I may have scoffed as such a sentence when uttered (and w/ my mother scoffing too), but then I got to thinking.  I remember one day thinking about what I wanted in a man.  I jokingly (although honestly somewhat seriously) stated really what I wanted was myself as a man, maybe w/ some tattoos and face piercing.  Ideally I'd love to find a man who loved the same music like I do and who I could nerd out w/ to things like Doctor Who and Harry Potter.  So, yes, sue me, I've had Maryanne moments.  Not to mention that I bet some friends of mine could tell stories about times my sensibilities got away from me as I discussed this person or that.  And at times when I am home I do let my emotions get the best of me, until it's Elinor time and I talk some sense into myself.

So, as you can see, I am probably just as torn about what's best, and maybe the best way to be is evenly so throughout your life.  I could learn to loosen up my sense in public a little, and use some sense at home when I stress out about life.

The Gentlemen

It's been awhile since I have journeyed into S&S.  I've read it a few times before now over the years.  I used to think that there really was no likable man in this book.  And I don't me likable as a person; Edward and Col. Brandon are likable as people.  But I always felt it lacked a good crush worthy man, like a proud but annoyingly delectable Mr. Darcy, an ambitious and yummy Captain Wentworth, or the caring but older brother-ish Mr. Knightly.  These are the Austen men I love most, and why I prefer these books to the others.  But I found this time around, now that I am older and wiser, that perhaps I over looked the charms of the men of S&S.

Let's start w/ Edward Ferrars

Let's not forget Colonel Brandon.  I must confess it if I were to suddenly plop into S&S I'd take Maryanne out and marry Col. Brandon.  In the past I wasn't that big of a fan.  It could have been because I was much younger then, and to me a man of five and thirty was WAY too old.  Now, it's totally fine by me!!  Granted, back then men of that age my not have been so sexy as they can be today.  Pretty much every male actor that I love the most is in his 30's.  (Back to Col. B. in a sec).

Now, I have seen multiple versions of S&S, but while listening to this I was picturing the cast from the 2008 version I watched more recently (although I have the one w/ the super famous actors, the one w/ Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet).  I think it's b/c the guys are hotter.  I did rent it b/c my roommate and I were looking up other things w/ Dan Stevens after viewing Downton Abbey season 3 (*tear*).  Plus, Dominic Cooper is so hot, like proper hot no matter where you're from (unless you've bad taste).

So as I was listening I was imagining that Col. Brandon (b/c even if he wasn't actually the Doctor, he's still an attractive older man).  But that's really beside the point, tangentially.

I think what really drew me to Col. Brandon was that I could kind of relate to him.  Okay, I never lost a great love, or anything super tragic, but I could relate to him.  I particularly related to this comment by Willoughby: "Brandon is just the kind of man ... whom everybody speaks well of, and nobody cares about; whom all are delighted to see, and nobody remembers to talk to."  I don't know if everyone has felt like that, but I sure have.  I feel that way a lot, actually, and I think this succinctly summarizes something I couldn't put into words myself.  Well, this of course assumes that people actually speak well of me and are delighted to see me, but my powers of social interactions aren't so bad as to think that not true, right?  Throughout the book I just felt so bad for him; he is obviously a caring guy w/ taste in things Maryanne likes, he's just grown more weary with age, I would say. Or whatever, maybe I am just starting to get old myself. Well, not THAT old.

And that's a wrap on that. :^)