(the BBC version made for AMC I think; PBS had it on). It struck me just how BORING their lives looked. No wonder they needed to make drama. They had other people to do all their work for them. They didn't have the internet. Hypervigilant propriety limited conversation. They sat around and looked at each other. And cross-stitched. How many samplers can one house have?!
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"There is order in the way the Lord reveals His will to mankind. . .we cannot receive revelation for someone else's stewardship." L. Tom Perry
I watched it too. I have a friend who considers this movie to be her all-time favorite. Not me, but it's ok to watch once in a blue moon. But, that kind of struck me too, how boring their lives had to have been. Particularly if you had servants who did all the housework.
Cat watched the end of it with me last night and was pretty much thinking, "BORING!" He didn't think Mr. Darcy had any personality whatsover.
P&P is my wife's favorite. We have the DVDs, she just watched them again. In fact we have numerous Jane Austen movies and my wife has all the books.
-- Edited by Valhalla at 07:39, 2008-02-26
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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever
Didn't see that version. I like the story well enough. There's even an LDS version of Pride and Prejudice, which is entertaining to watch. I like the part where the single sister gets up in the middle of sacrament meeting and chucks a hymnbook at the character who is trying to scold her for being fickle and denying her womanly duty to marry him, and nails the man right in the forehead... It was hysterical. :)
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
One thing about the book (actually, about a lot of Austen's books) is how much of it is social commentary. The fact that all these girls did was sit around and needlepoint and gossip was a point of discussion in England at the time, as there was a growing upper middle class with aspirations to aristocracy. Many of them wanted their daughters to marry into the gentry, and so were "grooming" them in lives of indolence. So there was the problem of a whole subset of young women who had no clue how to cook or run a house or do anything practical, yet they weren't being educated in anything of substance either.
Makes me REALLY glad I'm a solid middle-class girl.
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They might not look it, but bunnies can really take care of themselves.
No beefche, my wife loves it. I see it as six hours of quality computer gaming time while she is watching it.
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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever
Yikes. I have a good friend who's into Jane Austen and "that stuff" ... sometimes I'm amazed at why we're such good friends. Give me Calamity Jane, baby!
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
I found Pride & Prejudice frustrating, most especially the 6-hour version. But I adore Emma. Hilarious. I liked Sense and Sensibility too, although I was a little annoyed when the mother and her three capable daughters were forced to move from their mansion with 20 servants into a cottage that was twice the size of my current home! And the deprived women only were able to afford two servants! Puh-Leaze.
I LOVE all things Jane Austen. Have all the movies. Love the 6 hour P&P and have watched it multiple times. Some things to note: 1. Jane Austen main characters are always gentry, generally poor gentry, but never upwardly-mobile middle class. 2. The people actually had to know much more about household duties, animal husbandry, and the like than you would think, as they had to direct the servants, and sometimes they had duties in those areas as well. Public schools were not always used so much of a child's education was accomplished at home, sometimes with the help of a governess but not always. 3. Look at Mr. Darcy's definition of an 'accomplished woman'. They were very busy, very well read, very well educated young ladies! Do you know Latin and French? Art? History? Performing music? Embroidery? How to run a household without appliances or conveniences and teach your children without sending them to school? And Emma was an example of how they often spent much time helping the poor as well. Not to mention all the intense social activities. I don't think their lives were 'boring' -- just different.
I wonder what our modern version of an accomplished woman would be...
Get all the kids to their activities on time. Keep laundry to under two mountains. At least some real food each day. Nice white teeth. Nice Suave hair. (Or Herbal Essence if your hubby's a tad boring...) Front room tidy enough for Home Teachers.
Any other ideas?
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
And back on topic, I've never seen the big long Pride and Prejudice movie... I sorta like the images in my own head better than movies most often. But I do enjoy Jane Austen books.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
I know it doesn't matter, but I just thought I'd mention an answer to Jen's question: How many samplers can one house have?!
A sampler was a little girl's practice piece, where she worked a sample of the stiches she would need to know. After that, they embroidered chair covers, wall hangings, their clothing, their undies, their napkins, their handkerchiefs, and possibly much more that I don't know about. They lived in a highly ornamented world and they produced many of those ornaments.
Producing stuff is not boring, and producing stuff that matters is fascinating.
P.S. I don't think ornaments "matter," except possibly things for the temple.
I wonder what our modern version of an accomplished woman would be...
Get all the kids to their activities on time. Keep laundry to under two mountains. At least some real food each day. Nice white teeth. Nice Suave hair. (Or Herbal Essence if your hubby's a tad boring...) Front room tidy enough for Home Teachers.
That's why I adore you Coco. You are hysterical!
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no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing... the truth of God will go forth till it has penetrated every website, sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done
I love the A&E Pride and Prejudice! I've read the book several times as well. Once, DaKnife watched all six hours of P&P with me. True love! Well, not really. It was in exchange for me watching "Joe Dirt" with him.
Joe Dirt? Gah! Janey, you got ripped off. I would have negotiated for the complete Anne of Green Gables series as well. :P
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
Just wait a doggone minute. What- like initials or something? Little (or big, as the case may be ) scenes with trees and birds...? Maybe they could embroider in code... hey! I'm getting an idea here...
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
Bringin' back polygamy with a modern twist are ya? How many hubbies ya got currently?
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
This discussion reminds me of a line from the movie Clue. A habitual widow is discussing her past husbands and says "I feel that men should be like tissue paper; soft, strong, and disposable".
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
Dude. I was saying hubbies, like ALL OF OUR hubbies. We, of course, may implement our own secretive codes. Or, for the less creative, you may copy mine.
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
I don't know the code, but in what I've seen of historic clothing, they put fine, tiny flowers and vines and such on undies -- frequently white thread on white cloth -- and on collars and wristbands and on baby clothes. You've probably seen the occasional modern version of that done by machine.
As far as I know, they reserved the scenes with trees and birds for chair covers.
And yes, they did initials, too. I read that for a girl's hope chest, she was supposed to have lots of household linens and embroider her initials on almost every piece. Which seems odd to me, because her initials would probably change. Perhaps I am mistaken -- perhaps she was supposed to make quilts and pillowcases and napkins and tablecloths and so on, and then when she knew the name of her intended, go through it all and add initials. I don't know.
When I went off to college, my mother had sewn my initials onto the top of every stocking I owned. None of my room mates (or later mishy comps) ever "borrowed" a pair of socks as they knew I'd know.
Believe it or not she also had her special mark on the size tags of my G's.
Once I was in the mission field, I saw the wisdom in my mother's medling. She later wrote and told me that she shouldn't have done that, I just told her it was one more reminder for me of who I was and how I should always wear them and keep them sacred. :0)
OK, go back to your chick thread here.
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no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing... the truth of God will go forth till it has penetrated every website, sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done
just for fun once, she sewed the fly's of a couple pairs of G's of me and my Dad's shut.
Out working on the farm we would sometimes find a bush or a fence post or the side of a straw stack to sidle up to, to relieve ourselves but with one piecers back then, it wasn't funny for us!
OK, back to your regular programming.
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no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing... the truth of God will go forth till it has penetrated every website, sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done
Attempting to be funny once, I mailed a missionary son a can of green beans. In some circumstances, he might have thought it a funny "gag gift," but just then he was in a difficult area having a tough time.
He did not mention it to me, and it must have been before Mother's Day or Christmas because I got to talk to him about it not long afterward. When I asked about it, he tried to be nice, but it was obviously Not Funny.
Since then, I have been much more careful in my attempts at humor. "First do no harm" is a good rule.
Never watched it or read it so I don't know. Now I really don't feel like watching it.
) scenes with trees and birds...? Maybe they could embroider in code... hey! I'm getting an idea here...
