Generally these pieces are worker-like, obviously; they do more or less what you’d expect. This one did too. The close look into Darcy’s house, the views of diverging critics, the bonus part about how to write an essay were especially good. The example essay I, well, *understand*, as it’s certainly.... representative. That is to say, common. But, to be frank, I’ve always held that the portrayal of Jane Austen as a seething, bitter feminist is something less than honest. The question of what she should have been is something else. Sometimes to challenge unfair convention is better than to be one of the spineless Charlotte Lucases of the world. Austen gives you something a little too perfect to be real: you’ll have *your* say, plenty of times, but you’ll never have to take it on the chin— sure, maybe they’ll be a show of it, but it’ll never *hurt*. [Lady Catherine will simply.... be intimidated, right. You’ll just tell her off and you’ll just—win! Yay!] So, again, the question of what she should have been is something else, and something verging up *above* the bare minimum of critique might have been good. “And he never said an unkind word to me after that ever again”, that sort of thing.... The proles have it; they know who their champion is. But to simply look at someone who disagrees with you, and without acknowledging any tension or even compassion or *anything*, but to simply by sleight of hand *assimilate* their opinion to yours— to deny them the power to fight you, so you can skip straight to winning, by denying them the right to be themselves, is something less than honest: and if art is little indeed without truth, so too little indeed without truth is criticism.

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I still forget myself that people have the right to disagree with you: but they *do* have the right to disagree— and they *will*.

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This sort of thing is usually better; I suppose it was just distorted because the book is so fucking popular. To talk to the Popular Girl is to enter a distortion chamber. I’m a little too tired to imagine a masculine equivalent, but rest assured, rest assured.

I just read Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," and like the good little literary geek that i am, i promptly pulled out the SparkNotes study guide....mainly to see if i got so caught up in the story that i missed something important....which has been known to happen to me! A quick read, likely cementing the story more solidly in my memory base, and clarifying a few odds and ends of the political climate of the times and the social structures as they were. Of course I also got a freshen-up on writing a literary essay for English Class, and I am proud to report, i got a 100 on the quiz! ( )