Athena: Common Themes

Dear Augustine,

So I started Middlemarch last month, but got a little bogged down. I had hoped I'd love it as much as I did Pride and Prejudice, but I think I prefer the narrative style of the latter a bit more. I am appreciating the wit and incisive social commentary [that featured in both pieces, tbh, but it's a little more extensive in Middlemarch]. What strikes me about both of these readers is that even though both were written over a century ago (P&P was over two)...so much remains the same, even though certain externals have changed.

I read about Mr. Collins's "mansplaining" to Lizzy Bennet after his proposal--how utterly convinced he was that he knew exactly what she wanted and that she was merely playing "coy". Not to mention his narcissistic monologues, his constant concern with status...and I immediately thought, "I know so many people like that." And multitudes of Lizzies and Janes as well.

Or Mr. Bulstrode (Middlemarch) who, at least thus far in the narrative, seems to be so much more concerned with his Puritanical religious codes than with actual people...and I'm reminded of so many who attempt to control people's behavior with their religious whims, indifferent to the suffering it might cause--in their mind, it's worth it if it "saves their soul."

And how many happy marriages or unhappy marriages or marriages for convenience I've seen--even though, thankfully, there are more options and freedoms afforded to women today, and property laws are blessedly different.

And I think that's what's so astounding in some ways about these authors--not just that they wrote classic stories, there are so many classic stories that appeal to universal themes and have the same sort of timelessness--but what's wonderful about Austen and Eliot is that they are writing specifically about the society's they live in: critiquing them, replying in writing in ways that perhaps they couldn't in real life, wittily crafting their narratives to expose the truth as they see it. And yet, despite how embodied their stories are, they still remain timeless to an extent. We're able to see what has remained alongside what has changed--and how fun it is to wonder how some of these heroines might have turned out were they to live in modern times.

I wonder what sorts of stories from our time--especially now that there are so many, and with the proliferation of self-published stories--will live on to become "classics." And what that will mean in a couple centuries, as I imagine there will be a constant flood of new voices from all walks of life. I wonder what sorts of critiques their will be about modern society, and the ways in which future generations will wonder about characters like us...and think, "I wonder what they would be like were they to love today instead of being constrained by the social pressures of their own time..."

It's impossible to imagine, honestly, but I sort of like to think about it sometimes. :)

+Athena