Searching
for
Jane Austen

Searching For Jane Austen
by Emily Auerbach
2014

Thoughts Going In

I like Jane Austen, but I do not care that she is a female writer. Honestly, at this point, I hold feminism in complete disdain. True, the brand of feminism of which I speak may not be your brand. But what comes first to mind (for me) when I hear the word feminism is... um, unreasonableness. Personally, I no longer believe in the Glass Ceiling, the seventy cents on the dollar Wage Gap, or that somehow women are treated (encouraged, hindered, guided by the system) in a way significantly divergent from men. Please feel free to disagree. But before you get too self-righteous, please keep in mind that the foregoing statement pre-supposes that men and women share similar (essentially equal) mental facilities. And if we should one day prove (or simply assume) that the brains of men and women are substantially different (which they likely are), then there is every chance (and/or every reason to believe) that the brain of a woman is superior to that of a man in many key and very important ways... and correspondingly deficient in others.

Suffice to say, I expect (and may just find it difficult to wade through) a significant feminist slant in this book.

In other news, I am a great fan of Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice is fantastic. And much like Emily Auerbach (the author) I would be more than happy to teach a course about Jane Austen and her work.

Young lady, if by sitting in the front row, you intend to signal your seriousness as a student, might I recommend wearing shorter skirts and tighter sweaters.

Oh, and by-the-by, such dress-wear will undoubtable help in finding a future husband, as we all know women are not capable of pursuing anything more than a M-R-S in the academic world.

Um, I do not take feminism seriously.

I may have mentioned this somewhere in passing.

I believe the book at hand (Searching For Jane Austen) will go through each of Jane Austen's six major works. Are there six? De-constructing them in some rigorous academic manner, while also placing them in the appropriate (hostile to female) historical environment.

Somewhere, I should, also, note that Searching For Jane Austen was published by The University of Wisconsin Press. And that is the same university where Emily Auerbach is a Professor of English. So, I can easily see Emily covering a different book by Jane Austen, as she teaches (otherwise, more-or-less) the same course year in and year out in preparation for this manuscript. Truthfully, the idea of dedicating my life to the scholarship of another sounds outright boring. But I like Jane enough. And I could see spending a few weeks each year immersing myself in her works: it being a good excuse (as if I need an excuse, but it would be nice to get paid) to watch a few movies (and/or the same movies, over and over again), read one of her novels (I've never gotten past Pride and Prejudice, even if I've read that one at least three times), and add more points to my understanding of the historical setting in which Jane Austen lived. She lived in 19^th Century England, right? Anyway, I've looked into this subject a little bit (but just a little bit) on my own. And let's face it, reading this book will be (or at least, would have been, if I had not bailed) more of the same. So, getting paid a salary for what is pretty close to what I would do (and/or do do) for free would be bit of alright... but, also, in my experience, bloody unlikely.

For your first assignment, class, please write a five page essay explaining why, as good as she is (or is not, if you prefer to argue to the contrary), it is extremely unlikely we would be reading any of Jane Austen's works today if she had not been passed down to us through the years as a highly-celebrated cause de female.

So, yeah. Preconceptions, I have a few.

Oh, I, also, have the free-time (training, and appropriate mental attitude) to take on that Writer in Residence thingie that all your Major Academic Institutions are having a hard time filling (so clearly and painfully obviously) with any degree of competence.

Thus, please consider the rest of this web-page my application.

While for my part, I will consider your continued silence...

And here, please imagine that I filled in the rest of that sentence with something witty that made me sound clever and those in the Academic World a bit cowardly. I mean, sorry if that sounds all slap-dash and off the cuff. But seriously, enough of this non-sense. I have a book to read.

Words

How quaint. The literary minded lady knows a few fancy words that I do not. I kid, though. Just a few pages into the book and I am quite content with her angle of attack. And in the end, if this be some feminist tirade, let it be known that it is starting off quite fair and even handed... or so I assume, if only I knew what she was saying.

• Emetics
• Oh, you want to know what the word means?
• Fair enough.
• An emetic serves the opposite purpose as an anti-emetic.
• Oh, I'm sorry. Is all this spinning around in circles making you nauseous?
• Well then, I guess my writing is useful for something, after all.
  • It can be used as an emetic.
  • Booyah!

Running Thoughts

• I presume, someone with the initials LAD has checked this book out three times.
• WITHDRAWN
• Best Acknowledgement page ever.
• She uses one 'Thank You' excerpt (an excerpt of someone giving thanks in the story) from each of Jane's major works as a preface to the section.
• Inspired.
• 'Beginn2ing'?
• Hey, it's not my editing mistake.
• Or rather than a mistake, is there a hidden meaning?
• Or maybe, you think I'm being overly critical?
  • Well, listen up, Sweet Cheeks.
  • I'm just getting started.
• It would seem that, at times, Jane Austen was a bit acerbic.
• Thus, I stand in good company.
• Why, if I were a feminist, I'd say there was a plot.
• Our guide is very even handed.
• I am not.
• Though, it is ironic to note that it is the censors who come out looking like dolts.
• Wow! Jane Austen was much better at being snide than I'll ever be.
• But then, one must have aspirations.
• Genius!
• In my opinion, the word is used a bit much.
• Of course, I am a bit of a genius for recognizing this obvious fact.
• That thing with the sketches.
• What more ammunition does a feminist need?
• I am sure I would be outraged.
  • If I cared.
• Feminism by long, drawn out, getting boring now, example.
• Yes. Yes.
• But did she ever marry?
• Because she was a woman!
• It may be more instructive to ask what prejudices I have.
• How do they help me see more clearly?
• And how do they blur my vision?
• The simple fact is that the limited (domestic) scope of Jane's novels is what makes them delightful.
• It's not a diminishment.
• It's part of their delight.

The Debriefing

It's been almost half a year since I have made an entry on this page; and as such by extension, since I picked up this book. Very simply put, I don't feel like reading it. And I don't want it in my stacks any longer.

This is the end of the line.

It's happened to better books.