Austen and SF

[altariel]

I finished The Jane Austen Book Club yesterday; it's enjoyable, although the characters didn't quite take off. I was pretty tired at the end of last week, so I'm sure I've missed all kinds of ironic connections between the characters' lives and the novels; having said that, if the characters had sparkled just a bit more, I think I would have put that bit more effort into making the connections. I most enjoyed reading what was said about the various Austen novels, and there's a great section at the back which is a compilation of the Critics On Austen.

One of the characters, the only male member of the reading group, is also a science fiction fan (he's the only one of the group who has taken the time to read The Mysteries of Udolpho; the others hadn't really realized it was a real book). He's probably the best drawn character in the book (or maybe I just identified with him), and there's a fun and sympathetic section set at a con. He presses Le Guin novels on one of the other members of the group.

Also at the back of the book, there are a set of questions for discussion, and I found these particularly interesting:

Austen lovers and science fiction readers feel a similar intense connection to books. Are there more book communities you know of that engage with a like passion? Why these and not others?

Many science fiction readers also love Austen. Why do you suppose this is true? Do you think many Austen readers love science fiction?

I'll finish this entry with a line that's quoted from Mark Twain, because it made me laugh so much: "Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone. Maybe, but note that "every time".

Comments

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

sounds interesting. and what a weird way to get to a concept of fannishness :-) may i throw sherlock holmes into the mix??? :-)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Holmes is a great one; I remember during that whole BBC Big Read thing there was a TV debate in which one critic slagged off SF and SF readers; and then, when asked to name his own single most treasured book, went into this passionate and uncritical eulogy to the Holmes stories filled with all the love he'd had for them ever since he was a fourteen-year-old boy. Bless.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Yes, I quite agree about Holmes. Holmes and Austen share characteristics of being pushed to an exterior position in society by their abstraction and irony, as well as fighting back using intellect.

I do like Austen and SF, but I thought that made me odd.

I also like Hammett and Chandler, whose heroes I see in the same light FWIW.

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

oh, i hadn't even thought about textual similarities, only that austen, holmes, and tolkien are these (semi?) canonical writers who have a rabid fan following as well. i mean, yes, i've been to the woolf conference and seen people track down hemingway's paths, but these three seem to stand out...

[aervir.livejournal.com]

Thank you for bringing this novel to my attention -- it might make a great birthday present for a friend of mine.

Another book community with a similar love for its reading matters seem to be the (often adolescent or grown-up) fans of certain children's books. In this case, there might simply be a healthy dose of nostalgia involved. In Germany, the children's book series The Three Investigators is one of the biggest hits of all times, whereas the franchise never took off in the U.S., its land of origin. Now, it is continued in Germany only, with several authors writing under the psudonym of Alfred Hitchcock (!) and publishing several volumes a year, which are especially popular as audiobooks on tape among male students from 20 to 30, according to some magazine articles I've come acroos.

As for the Jane Austen/SF crossover, I'm not so sure about that. I don't know anything about the preferences of SF writers, but the SF and fantasy readers I know in RL are nearly exclusively male, and they all refuse to touch Jane Austen even with a stick of ten feet length. For some reason, they seem to mistake it for a sort of Regency romance in the Harlequin style. I only know one guy who cherishes Pride and Prejudice almost as much as his Ian Banks novels and his copy of The Lays of Beleriand. However, there are several Jane Austen fans among my female friends (mostly students of English Literature and Linguistics), who all think that SF and fantasy is something for 15-year-old (male) nerds with acne and dandruff. (Apart from one or two exceptions in this group as well. One of them is a Jane Austen lover and rabid Trekkie, whereas the other loves Tolkien and Austen.) But all in all, I could say that never the twain (i.e. those two groups) shall meet.

Only in the online fandom have I discovered several (female) readers that appreciate both SF/F and Jane Austen, in more or less equal measure. Strange...

I don't know if this answers your questions. Sorry for all the blabbering. I've forgotten that I'm limited to saying only three stupid things at a time. :)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

All interesting points, thank you. I didn't know that the 3 Investigators had such a big following in Germany.

I wonder if the general thing really is being adventurous about reading; if people 'stick to what they like', they're not going to wander far from SF or from romance (if we're counting Austen as the mother of that genre!). furius made a good point below about the characters being key... I'm rambling now!

The book has been on 3-for-2 at our local Borders, btw, if you need an excuse to buy more books ;-D

[aervir.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the general thing really is being adventurous about reading.

It sounds like a plausible explanation, as it stresses the importance of overcoming one's stereotyped views of certain authors or genres (from both which Jane Austen and SF/F sometimes seem to suffer).

The book has been on 3-for-2 at our local Borders, btw, if you need an excuse to buy more books.

Thanks for the tip, even if I don't know whether it's such a good idea. :) (The last two times I went in there I came out with eight books and four DVDs, respectively.)

[furius.livejournal.com]

Hah, Jane Austen and sci-fi fans, I can name quite a few from among my friends. Good of people to notice the phenomena. It's Jane Austen, Star Wars, Star Trek and LOTR for most. I'm more a Dune than Star Wars/Star Trek person.

I think it's the interactions between the characters that caught us. Napoleonic era (for us) is about as distant as galaxies. When reading Austen, we're dependent upon her to build a world as much as we depend George Lucas. There are other historical novels, but whenever the setting appears alien, we look for the interpersonal play, the human drama as purpose, which Austen, more than most others, focuses on, and which in sci-fi is a necessity for plausibility. Furthermore, Austen writes ironically, and I think most sci-fi does have that ironic element.....

[kerravonsen]

Napoleonic era (for us) is about as distant as galaxies. When reading Austen, we're dependent upon her to build a world as much as we depend George Lucas.

It's that "history as an alien planet" which really made me fall in love with the works of Gillian Bradshaw, epecially "The Beacon at Alexandria". She really brings the past to life, with lots of casual details and point-of-view characters who really belong in their landscape. Interestingly enough, she's also written historical fantasy and a couple of near-future SF novels (one which I hated and the other which I loved).

Oh, and yes, I am one of these Austen-loving SF fans too.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Napoleonic era (for us) is about as distant as galaxies.

Good point; I read Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red with my reading group a little while back - it's set in the Ottoman Empire (16th C., IIRC). As I was reading, I realized I was going about it in the same way I read fantasy or SF: one finger kept in the back for the index, intermittently flipping forward to check where the strange places were on the map...

[popehippo.livejournal.com]

Pshaw, I love Mark Twain and his random quote-ness.

Oh, I should introduce myself; Siona, at your service. I found your journal via Booktrek.tk, and had to add you.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Hi Siona, welcome to the journal :-) I think I may have seen you posting at ds9agogo.

[popehippo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do post there from time to time.

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

"Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone.

*chokes on her Cappucchino*

Now I will have to read it myself.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The book itself isn't bad, although I did enjoy the quotes at the back a lot more.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I read this a couple of days back -- I think you're right that the characters don't quite take off, so one can't be bothered to search for connections with their chosen novels. I'd probably consign it to my Great Idea Pity About the Execution pile. (But then I read it on a plane after having no sleep, which may be a better explanation for my relative lack of enjoyment.) My favourite bit was the questions at the end.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

My favourite bit was the questions at the end.

That was probably the point where the characters did work well, I thought - their questions (and so their voices) became a bit more distinctive.