Lost in Austen

Yes I know it's not clever.  Yes I know it's the title of a movie- I just watched it.  And yes, I know every other woman has already felt what I'm feeling because I myself have been there too.  At least a few times.

This evening my friend Kim introduced my roommate and I to a film called Lost in Austen.  It has many memorable faces, one of which is Alex Kingston and the other two are Jemima Rooper and Christina Cole.  I am a big fan of novel adaptations that are done well and by adaptation I do not mean novel to film, word for word.  Here I simply mean that these ideas from the novel transpire in a fashion to the film (or tv) that we might not expect.  Typically, the contemporary ones grab my attention.  For example, I would classify Sherlock under this and love the show immensely.  Once Upon a Time also does this and, again, I have seen every single episode.  Now and again, a film does this and is quite good.  As is the case of Lost in Austen.  Mr. Darcy might not be my ideal mate(GASP!).  I think I am more of a fan of Mr. Bingley.  But both of them have a swooning courtship and they end up with their ideal mates.(The film twists this a bit, but it's okay because we identify with Amanda Price.)  And I think that's why most women get lost in the works of Jane Austen.

Now I have been to Bath, England.  And it is stunning.  The Roman Baths are full of history.  I know this is where Austen spent much of her time writing, and it is reference in the text.  But it has nothing to do with what my mind is truly thinking.  No, my mind is still stuck on the idea of honest romance. The picture she paints we find ourselves crying when love is denied and overjoyed when everything clicks into place.

When a woman reads an Austen novel, their favourite likely being that of Pride and Prejudice, they are instantly swept up in feelings of desire, passion, and courtship.  The Austen era, while maybe a bit too focused on the who knows who or the attention to a monetary marriage, is still a world we desire to be in.  We read these books, or watch these movies,  and this is exactly how many of us live.  Pinterest allows us to give our lives organization and an expression of what trends we would like to adhere to(an app I use often).  Facebook allows us to "be up on" the who's who and we find ourselves looking to money in our perspective careers.  The women of today are independent, thank god, so it's not that we need a man's money(unlike Austen's marriages) but we desire the passion that these characters feel.  With texting we have almost lost site of letters, or what once might have been a phone call.  And when a text is not received promptly, we carry on as if someone has slighted us.  We don't take our time anymore, exploring the depths of a person(also known as courting) but instead we expect things to be instantaneous.  I too fall guilty to this, I get it.  For crying out loud, I've been talking to a guy for a few weeks and just when I have started telling my closest friends about him, he goes MIA for the weekend.  All of this started to dawn on me throughout the movie.  WHen it began, my friends were talking about how confusing men were.  I kept quiet, which they noticed, because I am so in the middle of what I should be thinking.  My friend looked to me, she also knowing of my "courtship" and said "well I guess not you though, huh?"  and I said, "well I don't know what to think about not hearing from someone for a weekend."  By the end of the film, the only thing I could think was that the romance of the movie seemed so simple.

Part of me thinks on how I want that courtship, but the other part of me is caught up in my desire of this man and I find myself wanting constant connection via mobile.  And I hate that feeling.  Not the desire for a person- that's quite fun- but the inability to not overthink when a person takes their time responding to me.  I constantly rant about how (women especially) cannot unplug when they are spending "quality time" with their friends.  When out to dinner or watching a movie, there are screens constantly separating that connection between the people.  Often times we call this multitasking, but I feel that it's more that we've become unable to come to terms that something might happen if we leave the social media behind for a night.  I digress... And what's more, for someone coming around to the idea of letting someone in their lives again, relationship or no, trusting someone new is hard for me; it's even harder to know when I'm being crazy about my expectations of that person.  (If you've read my earlier blog posts, say this summer, that might make some sense.  A quick recap: I don't trust easy anymore.  I find myself constantly worrying about when someone will become tired of me because it has happened more times than...)

I think my want  to start romancing again is something I can relate to the works of Austen or at least the movie I saw tonight based on her works.  I feel like I can relate with Amanda Price, I'm a little out of touch with some of the women around me but, in the end, we just want to be loved and in love.  So, do we let that curiosity for another person come out of our lips?  Or do we play it cool and undemanding?  Seemingly letting others act upon us.  And that, dear readers, is how the mind of a woman works.  Do I know if the mystery of where this guy went for the weekend is simple, no?  But I want to keep reading anyways.