Episode 2: One Day More!

(Ugh the angle is awful for my face in this one... >.<)

My JASNA Debut

So, my friends, on Tuesday the 9th I went to my first meeting with the Jane Austen Society of North America.  That's what this post will be about, but first a little backstory.

When I was first hired at my current library job, on the second day at work, I made the comment to my supervisor (her name is Jennifer) that "I liked this movie" (because I came across Emma 2009 and it made me smile).  She said she did too and that she loved Jane Austen, and my response was "I KNEW I LIKED YOU!!!" 

And then I was kind of embarrassed because, you know, she's my boss. I probably shouldn't be too weirdly enthusiastic right at the beginning.  She just laughed, though, and we went on talking. She mentioned that she was a member of JASNA.  I was highly interested and we had a bit of a discussion about it... I mentioned that it's hard for me to get to the book clubs or meetings because of where I live not being close by and the locations being tricky to drive in, and she made a vague offer to take me with her sometime.

Excerpt of the Day (and some Janeite rambling)

After the workshop, I drift back to the Emporium, where I am alternately charmed and repelled by the merchandise on display.  For every apron or tea towel or mirrored compact bearing a genuine Jane Austen quote, there seems to be a key chain or plaque or note card adorned with a line found only in an Austen movie.  The real Jane Austen, I’m sure, would have died rather than write anything as maudlin as “Sometimes the last person on earth you want to be with is the one person you can’t be without” or “Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another.” Hasn’t anyone around here READ THE BOOKS? I find myself wondering.  The movies had made Jane Austen more accessible than ever, broadening the base of her fandom and diversifying her appeal, and even as I register my silent squawk of protest, I feel a bit churlish… (But really—“Sometimes the last person on earth--?” That one wasn’t even in an Austen movie!  It was on the poster for an Austen movie!)  Once again, I’m face to face with the contradictions of fandom: I’ve come to a Jane Austen conference to enjoy the company of other Janeites, but I can’t help turning up my nose, just a little, at the gross ignorance—the sheer bad taste!—of people whose idea of Pride and Prejudice owes more to Keira Knightley than to Jane Austen.

In my reading of Among the Janeites, there have been moments—many moments, actually—where I groan inwardly, roll my eyes, and think such phrases as “oh, brother” and “ewwww no, stop” and even skimmed a little to get past some stuff.  But the paragraph above… it just spoke to me on a Deep and Personal Level.  (I wonder if that would qualify me as a “real Janeite” according to the ideas of its author, Deborah Yaffe?)