It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a TV screen, must be in want of a good historical romance
I used to be somewhat dismissive of what I perceived to be female viewing habits. Rom coms, gushy shit, and something called a “period drama”. That is, until I watched the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I was hooked. Apart from a few slightly wobbly notes1, it was pitch-perfect.
If I could have only 5 DVD’s in my collection, this adaptation would be one of them.
It was a difficult choice between this and a season of Love Island, but I opted for Georgian reality TV instead.
Adaptations are a tricky business, with many people horrified by any change to the original text or story. For me, it kind of depends what is done and how it’s done. The recent Netflix adaptation of Austen’s Persuasion, for example, inserts some modern language and attitudes such as
It's often said that if you're a five in London, you're a 10 in Bath
Urgh. No. Just, no.
The beauty of the 1995 P&P adaptation is that it remains pretty faithful to the original text, and brings it alive.
The character of Elizabeth Bennet is that of a strong woman, a girl boss if you will. And she doesn’t need to lay waste to 20 members of Delta Force with impossibly stylish spin kicks, or behave like an absolute twat, in order to achieve this.
The scene where she destroys Mr Darcy after his first, awkward, proposal is a roast of epic proportions and whenever I re-watch the show, it’s this scene I most look forward to.
I was going to link to this scene but, instead, I found this edited and annotated compilation of iconic Lizzie moments to be too good to pass (6m 29s). You’ll probably only “get it” fully if you’ve watched the show, but it’s a very good mix.
And as much as I love those improbable action movies with the typical modern female hero conquering all, the rejection scene in P&P pips all of them, for me - and no blood is shed, nor bones broken.
One of the things that Austen did beautifully in P&P was the ‘technique’ of delivering a deadly insult, a perfect verbal takedown, whilst appearing to be very polite and cordial.
I’m not sure if there’s a word or phrase that describes this; damning with faint praise kind of gets half-way there I suppose, but it’s not quite right.
The thing that has prompted this mini Austen tribute is the link, provided by LSWCHP in the comments to my previous posting, to a substack piece written by Jeff Goldstein. It’s a magnificent piece, and one I will probably read at least once a week from now on.
Jeff, with savage passion, beautifully outlines his resistance to the “woke” nonsense. It’s not quite Austen, but it is no less powerful. It’s a kind of modern day version of Martin Luther nailing his theses to the church door.
But it got me thinking. How, exactly, do we combat this crushing lunacy, this woke madness, that has overtaken us?
If you make a stand at work, even in the mildest of manners by questioning some of the accepted precepts, you could find yourself fired, or at the very least harangued and discredited as being some awful bigoted person. The recent tragic case of Richard Bilkszto really brings this into focus - and this was a person who broadly supported the whole “white nations are racist hellholes of white supremacy” bollocks.
His “crime” was to question whether Canada was more ‘racist’ than the US during one of those DIE sessions arranged by his employer. He was told by the person delivering the ‘course’, in response to his question, that
Your job in this work, as white people, is to believe
It’s not overly far from saying something like “your job, as black people, is to work in the fields”. It’s just a different kind of slavery that’s being promoted. Your opinions are owned by your masters. These days, if you want to see real racism in action2, you can book yourself onto one of these courses. Or if you’re an employer, then for a mere few tens of thousands of dollars, you can subject all of your employees to hate speech and racism. Must be a bargain.
One of the things that is advocated as a possible ‘vaccine’ against woke is humour. Mock the insufferable buffoons, those joyless authoritarian woke goons, and expose them for what they are. But there are potential side effects. You might not get myocarditis, but you could get fired, if the humour is too on the nose, so to speak.
We need to get Bennet, as opposed to getting bent. We need to learn how to deliver our most caustic blows whilst appearing, on the surface, to be polite and supportive. It’s not easy.
I’m reminded of a famous exchange between George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill. It’s probably apocryphal, but it’s a great example of a polite takedown.
GBS : Dear Winston, please find enclosed two tickets to the opening night of my new play. Bring a friend, if you have one.
WC (by return post) : Dear George, can’t make your opening night. Would love to go to the second night, if you have one.
If you’re in the position of silently screaming at work, knowing that you could lose your job if you speak out, then I recommend another training course you could take.
Watch Pride and Prejudice.
Alison Steadman’s portrayal of Mrs Bennet, for example, was a tad overdone. It’s probably not Steadman’s fault because she is a fine actress, and I suspect directorial excess here.
If you’re “woke” you’ll already see racism everywhere. If you’re not quite woke yet, then you have to put in an awful lot of work, and preferably arrange for an elective lobotomy, in order to be able to see it.
I await with baited breath the remake of "We'll meet again" with all references to national socialism, racism, and so on removed so as not offend anyone. Maybe they could reshoot "Dad's Army" with an all-female-and-tranny cast, fighting 'orrible oiks (white men of course) who simply won't stop hosting BYO open-for-all barbeques?
Or "Father Ted" but this time it's a trio of moslem preachers instead?
Heck, why no re-write and re-shoot "Oliver Twist" as "Olivia Trans"? "Please, preferred pronoun, could I have a bonus hole?"
Give my a pint and a packet of crisps, and I can do this all day!
I will have to watch and take notes. What is just as important, I suspect, as what is conveyed through artful language is that which is conveyed through artful silence. I learned this trick from my father: when a person says something that would seem to demand acknowledgment or response, and their interlocutor simply plays Helen Keller, the burn is real. I’ve suffered many a prolonged silence followed by a non sequitur that felt both like an insult and a mercy, implying that what I’ve said is so unforgivably stupid that the greatest kindness is pretending it never happened.