Activated With Austen

Today’s guest post is from member Mary C.M. Phillips. Sometimes we just need to disconnect from technology and connect with Jane Austen. 

___________________________

I decided to deactivate my Facebook account for a while; the main reason being that I have an addictive personality and once I log-on, I can pretty much write-off the next half hour.  I am perfectly content looking at chubby-cheeked baby photos and watching music videos from 1985 for extensive periods of time.   

But this is not helping me!  It is just a harsh realization.  I need to deactivate once in a while.  I need to write (or at least do my laundry) and I need to escape into other literary worlds.  The world I seem to revel in seems to be around 1800. 

Activated With AustenSo, once I’ve deactivated myself (temporarily that is, as fb is a network of friends and loved ones that makes it impossible to give up entirely) I then re-activate myself into a different period by turning to my friend… Jane.   

Keeping company with Jane Austen’s network of characters can be one of the most agreeable ways one can spend time, indeed!

With fb temporarily deactivated — and my addictive nature still in full-swing  — I have ample time for my Austen friends.

First, I like to start with both Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, then move on to Persuasion.  One might think that there is no woman in world as likable as Miss Elizabeth Bennet, but let me say, Anne Elliot comes pretty darn close.  It is a universal truth that I love these characters like friends: dearest, loveliest Elizabeth AND Anne.  I’d rather be Elizabeth Bennet over Anne any day, but I love them both equally.

Then there are other friends that keep the most pleasant company.

Like Mr. Darcy.  “Mr. Darcy?!  Tell me you are not joking.”  I am not.  One can never get enough of Mr. Darcy.

Marianne Dashwood. Hey, friends are not perfect! Some wear their hearts on their sleeves and that’s just the way it is.  (And I thank heavens that face book did not exist back then. Her posts would have driven most anyone absolutely crazy with all her morose drama and Willoughby nonsense).

Lastly, my way cool, quirky gothic girl Catherine Morland!  Time passes by so quickly with friends like Catherine.  I have a beautiful vitron hutch in my dining room, full of notes, and china that she’d be more than welcome to rummage through and speculate on.  

So, yep, I was in need of a brand new fix during my temporary fb withdrawal and Austen hit the spot and continues to do the trick.

*Photo: New book by Stephen Cummings, obtained through Flickr.

, ,