A couple of deadlines coming up for local Jane Austen events:

Sunday, May 1:  Send an email to our JASNA ORSWWA Regional coordinator, Margaret Christmann at [email protected], if you are interested in sitting with other regional members to attend the play, Emma, that will be put on at the Bag and Baggage Theater in Hillsboro. Member Pauline Beard will be doing a talk before the performances on Friday, May 20th and 27th. If you want to sit with other members of our group, send Margaret an e-mail by May 1st and note which day you want to attend. Margaret will then buy tickets together for the shows.

We have previously featured the 2015 title, The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen, written by our own regional member Collins Hemingway, on our website (here in Nov. 2015 and here in Jan. 2016), and we are pleased to further highlight two new audio interviews spotlighting Collins and his work.
 
Audio interview with JASNA Philadelphia, March 2, 2016 (45 minutes) 
​http://austenmarriage.com/jasna_interview/
 
Audio interview with book reviewer Diana Jordan (7 minutes) 
http://austenmarriage.com/diana-jordan-podcast-interview-collins-hemingway/

You can read more about Collins Hemingway and his works on his website, Austen Marriage, here at http://austenmarriage.com/ 

The "Austen Family Revelry" reading group discussion, which took place on March 13, 2016, featured several themed activities, including the movie script scenario:

Margaret Harshbarger took up the challenge and has contributed her movie script proposal, "Sex and Violence on the High Seas:  The Story of Charles Austen, brother of JANE AUSTEN," to be shared on our region's website. Enjoy!

TO:    Krank M. Owt, Head of Studio, EU Productions
FROM:    Annie Ting Formoney (aka Margaret Harshbarger)
RE:    Treatment for a new cheap movie as requested, incorporating JANE AUSTEN
Working Title:    Sex and Violence on the High Seas:  The Story of Charles Austen, brother of JANE AUSTEN

The scene opens with our hero, Charles, on board a sailing ship (one of those old, multi-masted jobs), watching the swabbing and floggings performed by sweat encrusted, naked-torso’d mates.

As his gaze shifts to the sky, the music swells for a flashback to a happy childhood with his beloved sister JANE AUSTEN. Suddenly, he is brutally ripped from her bosom and sent to HM Navy following in the footsteps of his older brother Frank. We watch our young hero as he learns the ropes (literally) and the subtleties of swabbing and flogging.

Flashback fades back to Charles and a frenzy of activity as an enemy ship appears. (All ship scenes can use stock footage for background and battle action (Mutiny of the Bounty, Master and Commander, etc.). After a satisfying scene of brutality and mayhem, the enemy ship is boarded and eventually sunk.

Scene shifts to Charles receiving his naval prize money and hurrying to buy topaz crosses for his sisters Cassandra and JANE AUSTEN.

Scene shifts to the high seas with land in sight. It is Bermuda, the island of Charles’ great love Harriet Palmer, where her father is the Great High Poo-Bah in Charge. On the way to see Harriet, Charles is driven by plantations with lots of evil slave labor (whips and stuff).

He and Harriet, after a steamy love scene, pledge their undying passion. Charles rushes off to her father to ask for her hand in marriage, but Harriet’s father is deaf and thinks Charles wants the older and plainer sister, Frances, and so gives his permission, glad to get her off his hands. When he realizes the mistake, Charles (having been taught manly honour by his sister JANE AUSTEN) rushes from the Governor’s Mansion and departs for a brothel in town to drown his sorrows. (We could have a Voodoo zombie scene here at the brothel, which would really vamp up the sex and violence. This would add 30 minutes to the film’s length. I leave the decision to the producers.)

Scene changes to a violent storm at sea (more stock footage). Charles’s wife is dying in childbirth. (Chance here for crashing waves and thunder corresponding to his wife’s screams and moans.) After a very affecting burial at sea (ten-hankie scene), our hero, who is now captain of the ship gives the command to make for Bermuda. (Swell of romantic music.)

Scene shifts to Charles and Harriet sailing into the sunset, which fades into a scene of JANE AUSTEN reading a letter from Charles, sobbing with joy.

The end.


I feel this movie would do well worldwide, as it will have the maximum of sex and violence. Also, it has the JANE AUSTEN cache and audiences will watch anything British. Viewers, especially in America and Australia, will eat it up. Trust me.

Regional member Arnie Perlstein recently had the opportunity of recording a 90-minute YouTube video chat, the subject matter of which was Arnie's interpretation, which he has been refining over the past 11 years, of what he calls the "shadow story" of Jane Austen's Emma.

Arnie's hosts were two witty, well-informed, and open-minded young Janeite friends, Kristin Whitman and Maggie Riley, who host the First Impressions Podcast, created by them for discussion of all things relating to Jane Austen's genius. They started the First Impressions Podcast a few months ago, and you can check out more of their videos here.

Thus begins Seth Grahame-Smith’s parody of Pride and Prejudice, now made into a movie to which JASNA members were invited for a sneak preview January 22. Since most of you did not avail yourselves of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Stephanie Fleming and I thought we’d let you in on what you missed. Please be aware that this description includes spoilers.

The story begins in a Regency England threatened not by the French, but rather by unruly masses of zombies. The zombies are the result of a mysterious infection, which renders its victims “undead” and which is spread through biting living humans. In this Regency England, young ladies of accomplishment don’t just cover screens and speak French, they also must be skilled zombie warriors and speak either Japanese (preferably) or Chinese, depending on where they received their combat training. Thus it is not just rain which threatens Jane as she heads to Netherfield for dinner on horseback, but also zombie hordes in want of more brains.

Grahame-Smith credits Jane Austen as “co-author” of his book, and indeed, the book fairly well hews to Jane’s original story, mainly adding in zombie attacks at appropriate moments and providing what some readers (myself included) found to be a much more satisfying end for Mr. Wickham than merely being banished to New Castle to join the regulars. The movie, on the other hand, deviates from Grahame-Smith’s book (and from Jane Austen’s story) in a number of important ways. You will be glad to know that Mr. Collins still makes an offer to Lizzy, whose refusal still receives approval from Mr. Bennet. And Elizabeth still tries to kill Mr. Darcy after his rather rude proposal (actually, this fight scene is one of the more entertaining parts of the film) and fights Lady Catherine (England’s most successful zombie killer in the book and movie) with swords and daggers rather than words. However, Austen’s/Grahame-Smith’s story is substantially simplified and changed for the movie. There is no trip with the Gardiners to Pemberley, and Lydia does not run away with Wickham to London. Instead, the movie includes a completely new plot line involving a mysterious Lazarus Church, where some zombies are hiding out eating pig brains in the hope (we are told) of living in peaceful co-existence with living humans. Wickham is a liaison to this community and – gasp – the community is not so benign as it is made out to be. Elizabeth’s feelings for Darcy in this film version overtly surface when Darcy rescues Lydia from Lazarus, where she has been taken prisoner by Wickham. Elizabeth reveals her true feelings for Darcy as he lays apparently unconscious after a climactic zombie battle at the walled city of London. Wickham does get his just reward in the movie, but it’s not nearly as delightful (in the book he is rendered paralyzed and incontinent after a carriage accident). 

Darcy is well played in the movie by Sam Riley, best known for his role as Ian Curtis in Control, a biopic about the lead singer of the post-punk bank Joy Division (OK, I had to Google Joy Division, too). A leading zombie killer, this Darcy doesn’t just put people off with his haughty behavior, he also disrupts dinner parties by loosing carrion flies to detect latent zombies (the flies can find undead flesh), and unceremoniously beheading them at the table. Lily James of Downton Abbey fame gives a feisty performance as Elizabeth, and is enjoyable as an action hero version of the Jane Austen heroine, who declares she will never trade her sword for a ring. Who-vians will recognize Matt Smith as Mr. Collins. Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) is the zombie-decimating Lady Catherine. 

This movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is clearly more zombies than Pride and Prejudice, although it’s entertaining to note that, apparently, zombie aficionados aren’t entirely satisfied with it as a horror film:

Yes, DecayMag.  Who knew?

For me, the actual “added genre” in the movie – zombies – worked as a parody. Much has already been written about sub-currents of dread in Pride and Prejudice related to threats of invasion and war, and the zombie threat clearly personifies that dread. But more importantly, I think the present day popularity of zombie-themed entertainment reflects our own sub-currents of dread in an increasingly uncertain world. Thus the zombie threat connects the modern audience directly with people in Jane’s world. And even the substituted plot line of the Lazarus Church (clearly added to up the zombie-ante) retains a connection to Austen’s original – can’t Darcy’s intervention to effect Lydia’s marriage be seen as rescuing her, in a sense bringing her back from the metaphorical “death” that her flight with Wickham imposed?

Don’t get me wrong. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is not a good movie. But it is good fun. ​

Jane Austen's works can truly touch every aspect of our lives. Here is a New York Times article, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/20/opinion/jane-austens-guide-to-alzheimers.html, about how Austen's novel Emma helped one woman during a caregiving crisis in her life:

Collins Hemingway, a member of our local JASNA region and author of several books, will be giving a book reading of his novel, The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen, at 2 p.m., Saturday, December 5, at the 23rd and Thurman branch of the Multnomah County Library. Collins will also be giving another reading on Sunday, December 6, at the Wilsonville Library.
 
The novel reimagines the largely blank period of Austen’s life, 1802-1809, to ask how marriage might have changed her as a person and writer. It is not light fare but a serious look at life for women in the early 1800s. 

You can read more about the book, and enjoy extras like podcasts and book reviews, on the book's website, ​http://austenmarriage.com.

This is the next in the series of posting letters that members wrote and shared during the most recent reading group. The reading group theme was to write letters to or by the Jane Austen character of their choice. 

Enjoy, and please check out the rest of the letters!

Dearest Jane,

I have had the most incredible news from Lady Anne Fitzwilliam. It seems our cousin Mr. Collins has followed in Lady Catherine’s footsteps almost literally. On making his daily visit to Rosings he chose to enter by the main portico which was being reconstructed after the dreadful accident of  Lady Catherine. As he entered, he engaged the workmen to ensure they were doing what he considered a proper restoration and in doing so failed to notice that the steps had not yet been mended. Being neither agile or alert accelerated his demise as he tripped and struck his head on the top step at the exact same spot  where his former patroness died.

Do you realize that upon his demise and himself having only two daughters, that the last of father’s male line has been terminated? This means, and I have checked with Uncle Gardiner, that upon Father’s passing, the entitlement now falls upon the eldest female in his line. In other words, to you dear Jane. Father can now rest easy in the thought that you will inherit Longborne and thus be able to provide for our younger sisters.  

Love,
Lizzy