(Blog 9) Art of Italy

This work is by Alfonso Simonetti, a Naples born artist who often painted nightscapes of Italy, lit only by the light of the moon.  This particularly painting is called Plenilunio or full moon. It depicts two lovers kissing under the moonlight. The details are largely obscured by the darkness and so the people and nature become less distinctive in the scene.

This seascape is another of his works. It contrast the first image with the sun just beginning to rise. Again, the distinctions between nature and human are obscured by the similarities in the color palette used for both. The painting is titled Ancor Non Torna, And She Never Returned. 

(Blog 8) Emma Approved

From 2012 to 2013 there was a series of popular vlogs called the Lizzie Bennet Diaries which followed a contemporary version of Pride and Prejudice throughout 100 video blogs. These were created by Hank Green and Bernie Su. The series was an incredibly popular, Emmy winning project which spawned several more series within the same universe. One such spin-off was Emma Approved, a similar series of vlogs documenting the story of Jane Austen’s Emma.

Emma Approved has been running since October 2013 and is currently up to 42 episodes (more to come). I’ve watched the first 17 episodes so far. Emma Approved chronicles the business ventures of Emma Woodhouse and her partner Alex Knightley. They run a lifestyle coaching and matchmaking business in which Emma personally contributes to the coaching and matchmaking while Knightley focuses on logistics and profits. Emma thinks about fame, attention, and personal success. Meanwhile, Knightley often criticizes Emma for her rash decisions which might hurt the company. The explanation for the vlog style within the series is that Emma wants to document her life for the inevitable moment when she gets a lifetime achievement award.

Her position as a powerful business woman and entrepreneur echoes some of her feminist ideas within Emma. She is constantly matchmaking for other people but does not consider it necessary for herself to marry because she is already happy and successful. She has money and resources which contribute to her independent status.

Emma’s selfishness and Emma-centric lifestyle is also represented in the vlogs. She wants the matches to work out for the sake of her business and her desire for a lifetime achievement award. She bases her decision making on what she wants and what will further her entrepreneurial endeavors, not necessarily on what the client wants. She often gives advice throughout the videos. A piece of advice from episode 6 highlights her self-centered ideals: “Always remember when you want something from someone to think of what they want first. And if you’re lucky their social media pages are public so you can see what things they like. This is how you make favors. But it’s really not a favor to them; it’s an obligation. Make people want to help you!” The title of the show is also called Emma Approved and Emma uses this catchphrase (with a lot of winking) throughout the series. It’s not so important what other people, but whether Emma approves or not.

Annie Taylor/Weston is one of Emma’s clients and the first few blogs are centered on her upcoming marriage to Mr. Weston. Harriet Smith is hired as Emma’s assistance. Later in the series Emma decides to make Harriet one of her projects with serious objections from Alex Knightley. Bobby Martin works in an IT department and occasionally fixes the computers of the other characters while falling for Harriet. Emma wants to use her matchmaking skills to push Harriet away from Martin and towards Senator Elton. Presumably the rest of the cast will all appear in the unfolding series.

I definitely recommend at least watching the first episode or two (or more).

This link directs you to the Pemberley Digital youtube home which has playlists for the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Emma Approved, and other related works:

https://www.youtube.com/user/PemberleyDigital/featured

There is also an Emma Approved website and a tumblr blog which can be found here:

http://www.emmaapproved.com/

http://emmaapproved.tumblr.com/

(Blog 7) Why is Emma the way she is?

      

Emma is certainly clueless at times (whether unintentionally or willfully so), but she is also clever, confident, condescending, and exhibits a great deal of power. Whether that power is real or perceived is up for debate and may change from situation to situation throughout the novel. So how did Emma get to this point? What was it in her childhood that led to her intense sense of self worth and her denial to perceive herself as part of the marriage market? I think Emma’s parents or lack thereof play a great deal.

Emma’s mother died before she truly got a chance to meet her or learn from her. While she has other female figures (her sister Isabella and her governess Miss Taylor), they do not necessarily provide her with an example of a motherly figure who might encourage the normative gender roles of wifehood and motherhood. Therefore, Emma values time spent with the people around her (her family and friends), but she values their attention in a selfish way. She is not concerned with starting a family of her own. She enjoys being the center of attention with the people she already has.

Not only did her mother die early, but her father is a needy and sickly person who needs caretaking and looking after from his daughter. Whenever he begins to panic about some illness or situation, Emma is there to calm him down and to remind him of the logical solutions to dispel his concerns. “His spirits required support.” And Emma supports him in many ways. She organizes dinner parties for him so that he does not get lonely or bored, she calms him down when he is worried about safety concerns, and she deals with his hypochondriac tendencies. Because of this, Emma and her father switch the traditional parent (caretaker)/child (cared for) roles. Having to take care of her father forces her to be the adult of the house from an early age which gives her power (at least within her family and household) and encourages her “in charge” personality. Emma believes that things should go her way because things went her way growing up. At one point Knightley says that “ever since she was twelve, Emma has been mistress of the house and of you all.”

Knightley also mentions that Emma “is spoiled by being the cleverest of her family. At ten years old, she had the misfortune of being able to answer questions which puzzled her sister at seventeen.” Emma’s intelligence and cleverness in relation to her family has also contributed to her personality. Emma is very bright, smarter even than her immediate relatives; growing up she had no one to challenge her. Her opinions and her words were therefore always right. Over time, this developed into her manipulative behaviors, because she believes that her ideas and decisions are incontestably the best ones.  

Emma’s view of herself in relation to the marriage market is also indicative of her father’s influence. Chapter 1 describes Mr. Woodhouse: “He was a nervous man, easily depressed; fond of every body that he was used to, and hating to part with them; hating change of every kind. Matrimony, as the origin of change, was always disagreeable.” Mr. Woodhouse is easily depressed and enjoys the company of others. He is particularly soothed and contented by Emma’s company. He does not look favorably on the thought of his daughters’ marriage as other Austen parents might. Instead, he loathes the idea of change and the thought that he will not get to see his daughters anymore. This is a possible factor in Emma’s decision to not be part of the marriage market; she does not want to leave her father depressed and lonely. Emma cares deeply for her father and wishes for him to be happy. If her presence is the thing keeping him happy, then she will have to remain at Hartfield.

(Blog 6) Mary Wollstonecraft Letter Comparisons

          In her July 1^st letter Wollstonecraft says: “I labour in vain to calm my mind- my soul has been overwhelmed by sorrow and disappointment. Everything fatigues me- this is a life that cannot last long.” This shows a mental state that is depressive to the point of suicide. In the other letters, she includes various complaints and hardships but always with an air of strength and overcoming them. Here she presents a figure who finds herself at rock bottom. She writes with a sense of hopelessness; the statements are not qualified by some show of power or achievement. Instead, she goes on and on about the negative state of her mind, physicality, and the place she visits. In the edited letters, we see that she often leaves out these passages into her mental state. She will talk about her desire to be in solitude or her various contemplations on the difficult aspects of life but she does not reveal the truly suicidal level at which she sometimes finds herself while communicating with Imlay.

In her first few letters to Imlay, words like ‘suffer’ and ‘fatigue’ are frequent. They are used to express the beaten down and exhausted state of both mind and body. In the edited letters she describes the hardship of riding on a cargo ship but she does not ruminate on the effects it has on her. By leaving this part to the imagination, one can envision a strong, determined, and independent woman. This is not to say that women cannot be strong and independent by suffering through fatigue and hardship. However, displays of vulnerability are often conflated with weakness, specifically a feminine weakness.

She also states in the July 1^st letter: “You can only contribute to my comfort.” She not only addresses Imlay directly (which is rarer in the edited letters), but she also gives him a lot of power in this sentence. She is telling him that she needs him; he is the only person who can contribute to her comfort. Whereas, in her edited letters she shows that she can do things without a man to help her. She also shows that she sees herself on an equal level of power and importance as the men. For example, when the captain tells her they cannot take a boat to shore, she ignores his opinion and continues to ask the sailors if they can take a boat to shore.

In the edited letters Wollstonecraft uses ‘you’ more ambiguously, often referring to the audience ‘you.’ In her letters to Imlay it is clear that she addressed him more directly and more intimately on several occasions. In her July 4^th letter she says: “I cannot tear my affections from you.” The word ‘affections’ reveals a level of intimacy between Wollstonecraft and Imlay which she is hesitant to display in the other letters. To maintain her independence and respectability she edits out passages in which she exposes her romantic or sexual nature. Again, it is possible to be independent and respectable while engaging in a romantic relationship. However, the time period has a great value on propriety and regulations on what is and is not acceptable for a relationship. Wollstonecraft had an illegitimate child at the time and was not actually married to Imlay but using his name. Because she published the edited letters after she found him living with another woman, it makes sense that she would want to inhibit readers from the former relationship.  

Wollstonecraft signs the Imlay letters with phrases such as ‘yours truly,’ yours most affectionately,’ yours sincerely,’ and ‘yours affectionately.’ In the edited letters she generally sticks with a more neutral sign off such as ‘good night!’ or ‘adieu.’ Once again she limits the focus on their relationship and de-emphasizes the level of affection between them at the time. She also reduces her use of the word ‘your’ in the edited letters which strengthens her self concept of independence.

(Blog 5) Primary Documents

To attend a ball (particularly public assembly balls), one would have to pay for tickets or for a subscription of tickets for the entire season. This is a document from the 1811-1812 dance season at the Bath Upper Rooms. It shows the stipulations for purchasing a year’s subscription and how one can pay a little extra to have tea at each dance. Someone might purchase these if they were staying in bath for several weeks or months and planned on attending many of the dances. 

The next document is an invitation to Almack’s Assembly Rooms in London. Almack’s was a social club open between 1765 and 1871 on King Street, St. James in London. It was one of the first social clubs to admit both men and women. Eventually the rooms would host a variety of social events, including English country dances. Almack’s was the place to be in Regency London and so a voucher like this was a highly sought after invitation to society’s elite. This particular invitation was for Anna Elizabeth Grenville, Marchioness of Buckingham in 1817. 

(Blog 4) Brainstorming thesis for first paper

It’s not what you read; it’s how you use it. I’m wondering if Shelley or Austen is trying to make this point in her book. I think I could use some of the characters and their applications of different types of knowledge to argue the point. I’m not sure which book I would like to write about so I did a little brainstorming of ideas.

In my last blog post I said “Shelley doesn’t seem to be questioning what types of books to read but rather- what will one use that knowledge for? To go on a great adventure? To produce something good or terrible? To understand the self? The question is not whether to read this or that but how one will use or apply that knowledge in their life.”

Michelle mentioned that this might be a good paper topic to explore with Frankenstein or Northanger Abbey so I’ve written out a few ideas about how characters use their different types of knowledge in different ways- forming relationships, exerting power, doing certain tasks, etc.

Northanger Abbey

·         Catherine

o   Using novels to bond with friends such as Isabella

o   Using novels and storytelling to bond with Tilney

o   Her imagination from novels gets her into trouble at Northanger Abbey

There is a lot of discussion about whether novels are useful or not and good or not for education. Catherine has examples of ways in which her application of knowledge from novels was applied to her benefit and to her misfortune.

·         Tilney

o   Uses education to woo Catherine

o   He also uses it to educate her and occasionally tease her

·         Thorpe

o   Uses his education to put others down and make himself feel superior

o   Disdains Catherine’s reading of novels

While Tilney and Thorpe may both be educated in a more formal way than Catherine, they exhibit this knowledge differently towards her and one is clearly more successful as a suitor through his application of education than the other.

Frankenstein

·         Victor

o   Gets formal education but uses it to create something unnatural and then abandons that creation

·         The creature

o   Uses books to try and understand human nature, emotions, language, etc.

o   Repeatedly uses this knowledge to try and make a friend or companion

·         Walton

o   Uses knowledge from voyage books to go on an actual voyage

(Blog 3)- Education with Books/Novels

All three of these pieces of literature discuss the importance of reading books in their own way. What types of book those should be and what kind of consequences may come from them differ between authors.

Wollstonecraft:

Wollstonecraft expresses an extreme distaste for novels. She might equate them to a modern tabloid or trashy harlequin romance, calling their authors: “stupid novelists, who, knowing little of human nature, work up stale tales, and describe meretricious scenes, all retailed in a sentimental jargon." However, she qualifies her opinion by pointing out that with the lives which they live, deprived of many interesting experience afforded to men, the novel is one of the few sources of interesting entertainment for them. Furthermore, she says that it makes sense for women to find the reading of history very dry when the rest of their time is filled with “trifling employments.” Finally she has to concede that reading something is better than reading nothing. Because Wollstonecraft is fighting against systems of oppression she must have a firm stance on education and therefore she stresses the importance of reading ‘legitimate’/education books but at the very least women should be exercising and growing their brains with something.

Austen:

Austen expresses more fondness for novels. Although Catherine has not been able to travel much in her life, she has been able to ‘experience’ certain countries and places through the reading of novels. The character in Northanger Abbey who expresses the greatest distaste for novels is Thorpe. As he is also one of the most unpleasant characters, his opinion is discredited. Meanwhile it is the more lovable characters (Catherine and the Tilneys) who have an affinity for novels and so this gives their perceptions a positive weight in the book. Nonetheless, Austen exposes the danger of indulging in too much imagination and not enough rational thinking with the result of Catherine’s suspicions at Northanger. In this way, Austen’s commentary on education does align somewhat with Wollstonecraft’s. Reading anything is good, reading novels along with other literature is better. I think Austen gives more merit and power to the novel, particularly in the sense of using them to experience things that might be impossible within certain lifestyles and financial constraints.

Shelley:

Shelley’s characters are constantly reading and storytelling. It frequently reminds the reader of the sheer power of books because they can divulge vast amounts of knowledge which can then be utilized by the characters- whether for good or evil. Walton is able to form a career from reading books. Frankenstein also learns his skills of natural philosophy through books but then he uses that power for morally questionable purposes. The creature uses books to try and understand language and the human experience. The importance of reading as a part of education is unquestionable in Frankenstein. Even when the character is learning from a teacher (Frankenstein and his professors/the creature and the DeLaceys), she is careful to describe their personal experiences of reading books as a part of that education. Certainly a factor in this significant theme could be connections to Shelley’s own life- learning her mother through her writings and living with a group of writers. Unlike Wollstonecraft and Austen, Shelley doesn’t seem to be questioning what types of books to read but rather- what will one use that knowledge for? To go on a great adventure? To produce something good or terrible? To understand the self? The question is not whether to read this or that but how one will use or apply that knowledge in their life.

[589]