Boys In Literature, and My Life
From Jane Austen’s Persuasion:
Anne to her sister Mary: You have had your little boys with you?
Mary: Yes, as long as I could bear their noise; but they are so unmanageable that they do me more harm than good. Little Charles does not mind a word I say, and Walter is growing quite as bad.
Substitute 5yo Drake for Charles, and 2yo Guppy for Walter, and you have a typical day in my house. I grew up with sisters. I did not foresee the noise, opposition, and chaos of boys.
One of my favorite scenes in Persuasion is when Anne is rescued from a disagreeable situation by Captain Wentworth:
[2yo Walter] began to fasten himself upon [Anne], as she knelt, in such a way that…she could not shake him off. She spoke to him, ordered, entreated, and insisted in vain. Once she did contrive to push him away, but the boy had the greater pleasure in getting upon her back again directly.
‘Walter,’ said she, ‘get down this moment. You are extremely troublesome. I am very angry with you.’…
In another moment, however, she found herself in the state of being released from him; someone was taking him from her, though he had bent down her head so much, that his little sturdy hands were unfastened from around her neck, and he was resolutely borne away, before she knew that Captain Wentworth had done it. (Chapter 9)
This scene follows the motif of a knight rescuing a princess from a villain, who in this case is a toddler. I suspect Austen didn’t much like the noise and mess of little boys, either.
October 28th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
This may be old news, but do you know The Edge of Reason, the sequel to Bridget Jones Diary, follow the plot of Persuasion? In particular this scene is lifted off Persuasion in every detail - this is where I picked up the parallelism. Incidentally, what do you think of rewrites of this kind? like Zadie Smith’s rewrite of Howards End? I’m not really sure I like the idea but I can see its attraction in a theoretical way…
October 28th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Elle, good to hear from you! I am abashed to admit I had no idea that BJ2, the book and movie, riff on Persuasion. It kind of–kind of–makes me want to re-read the book. There was that hilarious scene in which Bridget Jones interviews Colin Firth. I was really sad they didn’t do that in the movie.
I think rewrites like this are an interesting idea, but they need to stand on their own. Bridget Jones Diary did that, I think, while its sequel did not. I’ve done so many Shakespeare-related reading lately, and some are better than others. Updike’s Gertrude and Claudius was amazing, some of the others were less so. It’s ambitious to take on big literature, but I think it also testifies to how the works of literature continue to speak to readers and audiences through the ages.
October 29th, 2008 at 8:59 am
It’s been so long since I watched Bridget Jones (and before I had read any Austen) that I think I need to watch it again. I’m even tempted to watch the sequel, just to see the parallel to Persuasion… then again, after your less-than-glowing assessment, perhaps I shouldn’t bother.
And I love your take on boys! My wife (who has only a sister) has shared similar comments. The biggest bonus for me, however, is that I think I would be a basket case with teenage girls — picture the father from 10 Things I Hate About You (aka Baptista from Taming of the Shrew).
And sorry to ramble, but that reminds me… did you ever see the Moonlighting episode of “Taming of the Shrew”??? Perhaps it was my age at the time, but I absolutely loved it!
November 1st, 2008 at 9:30 am
Yes, it is a truth universally acknowledged that little boys are hard, but that teen girls are scary. I am very happy not to have to deal with the Disney princess and Hannah Montana nonsense; I saw a LOT of those on Halloween last night, and many on very young girls.
I loved 10 Things, and have fond, though vague, memories of that Moonlighting ep. Just saw Vincent Schiavelli in eps of Buffy we watched last night on DVD.
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:36 am
Vincent Schiavelli! I didn’t even know who that was ’til I looked him up, though I’ve seen him in numerous shows/films. In fact, I recall seeing him wandering around the L.A. Times Book Fair on the UCLA campus many years ago. I recognized him instantly, though couldn’t place him — now I can (embarrassingly, yet fondly) place him in Better Off Dead among many others…