Jane Austen discussion
General Discussion
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Would Jane Austen do Facebook and Twitter?
I think she would enjoy them both! I would really enjoy reading anything she wrote. :)
Facebook, maybe, Myspace,maybe. But I think she would have her own blog. I believe Jane Austen would have been doing the blog and self publishing.
she wud definitely join face book... coz she likes to socialize n is friendly...
I agree with Kimberly, I think that she would have her own blog, I would defently be a fan!
I agree with those of you that said a blog, and she would get a kick out of facebook. Twitter? Mmmm... Her sentences are too long.
LOL! I love this thread :). Being relatively new to Facebook (I just joined this year), I can certainly see how the concept of it might pique Jane's interest. I'm still a little afraid of Twitter myself, but she was wittier than I am... If she Twittered, I'd join just to follow her!
Oh, I'd follow her on Twitter any time! You're right. She'd probably make some very witty statements, and I would certainly want to read them.![St[♥]r Pr!nc:$$ N[♥]wsheen pictures, pictures, pictures ||| ♥ Zin Uru ♥ ||||](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1378104145p1/1253494.jpg)
Charmless, what a cool topic!((Misty, where are you? *surprise*))
I feel JA would have her mandatory blog if she liked to blog or not. I don't twitter as yet, so let me hold off on that.
JA on facebook?? hmm..can't say for sure, it's rather silly.
Definitely her own web page as well and maybe fanbuilt web pages too, much like today.
This is an awesome thread! :DI like the blog idea :) I could see that!
Another interesting thought is: how would she have employed facebook, twitter, blogs, etc. for her characters. I wonder if this has been attempted in any of the recent Austen-esque books;> Can't you just picture Mr. E posting his riddle for Emma on her Facebook? Or Lucy Steele tweeting all the time? ;>
Dialogues from her books would start out as status updates. Day 1 on Facebook would probably be: "I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me."
And then the development of Lizzy Bennet's character would proceed. ;-)
Charmless wrote: "Dialogues from her books would start out as status updates. Day 1 on Facebook would probably be: "I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happines..."
Ooh! I LOVE that idea!!
Ann wrote: "Can't you just picture Mr. E posting his riddle for Emma on her Facebook?"I can! lol
I liked both the ideas on status updates and also Lucy STeele tweeting all the time..! ")Emma would, I guess, start her own facebook matchmaking club.
sTAR pRINCESS wrote: "I liked both the ideas on status updates and also Lucy STeele tweeting all the time..! ")Emma would, I guess, start her own facebook matchmaking club. "
Lol! Yup, I could totally see Emma doing that!
*giggles* ohh Emma!
Here's a fun article discussing the idea of how immediate "snail mail" was back in JA's day in London and how "Twitterish" is could be...http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/11/what...
Mail being delivered six times a day! Indeed, that's quite interesting. No wonder her family wasn't so well-off; they must have spent tons on postage alone. (Or whatever qualifies as postage during that time.)Quoted text from link:
"From reading Austen's novels, I'd always assumed that people in her era spent a long time waiting for the mail. But the show mentions that during Austen's life, mail in London and environs was delivered six times a day. Sometimes, a letter sent in the morning was delivered the same evening. Which makes snail mail sound a lot more like email or twitttering."
Mod
Does anyone know? In the U.S., we don't have much experience with this, I just don't think we have had frequent mail for a long time, if ever. I would like to know if we have, but I suspect it would have had to be regional if at all, because of our geographic size.
I know we run packages Express Mail, etc. but air transportation is expensive, so you couldn't really send your letters back and forth that way.
What an interesting article! And gosh - can you imagine writing that many letters!? No wonder she was such a good author :)
I think frequent mail is dependent upon distance. Jane Austen couldn't have been so very far away from her sister (my sister lives 500 miles away, my in-laws 4,000). In the U.S. it wasn't (still isn't) uncommon to live far away, so snail-mail was just that.
The telephone probably killed daily mail, just as email and twitter are finishing off the post office here in the US. I can talk to my sister for an hour everyday, but she still doesn't answer email all that often. I bet JA would have been big into texting, too! lol
The telephone probably killed daily mail, just as email and twitter are finishing off the post office here in the US. I can talk to my sister for an hour everyday, but she still doesn't answer email all that often. I bet JA would have been big into texting, too! lol
I stumbled upon this little ditty on Salon.com and thought I'd share it in this discussion. I can absolutely imagine Emma doing this on Facebook. Haha."Of course, an Emma transposed to 2010 would have a field day with Facebook, nudging acquaintances to friend each other and forming little groups like "People Who Have Heard Quite Enough in Praise of Jane Fairfax," to the dismay of Mr. Knightley." - Laura Miller
Source: Which literary character is a Facebook addict?
What a fun article Charmless! Thanks for posting.
Can you image if Caroline Bingley had a Facebook page? Mr. Collins? Sir Walter Elliot? Boggles the mind.
And I loved this quote from the Salon article:
"Scarlett O'Hara could have bypassed that loveless marriage to Frank Kennedy and financed the restoration of Tara by using the project as the premise for a reality TV show. That would be just like her -- and the dress made out of old curtains would still play."
Can you image if Caroline Bingley had a Facebook page? Mr. Collins? Sir Walter Elliot? Boggles the mind.
And I loved this quote from the Salon article:
"Scarlett O'Hara could have bypassed that loveless marriage to Frank Kennedy and financed the restoration of Tara by using the project as the premise for a reality TV show. That would be just like her -- and the dress made out of old curtains would still play."
I don't see Jane doing Facebook or Twitter, but as far as a blog I can see it, but I don't know if I could see her doing the LOL, TMI, that we love to use.
I wonder.Her available letters and drafts show she did use abbreviations a lot -- for example, 'Yrs' for 'Yours'; 'cld' for 'could'.
That era used those as we use FYI or BTW.
Yes, I didn't think of that, they had to use shortened words, especially with all the writing that she did.. But still I don't see her doing OMG Or LOL, even though it would be a hoot to see something written along those lines. We just want to modernize her, I suppose. But that is where we lose the magic of Austen's time, just another way of looking at things. I guess.
'Glad you liked it, Megan. If Caroline Bingley had a Facebook page, she'd be all over Mr. Darcy's wall. Heck, Mr. Collins would be all over Mr. Darcy's wall, if ya know what I mean. ;-) (And Charlotte Lucas wouldn't even give it a second thought while comfortably sitting in her drawing room!)
As for Sir Walter, he'd be tagging everyone with overly photoshopped pictures of himself with Kellynch Hall in the background, while cursing the nouveau riche on his way to Bath.
Megan wrote: "What a fun article Charmless! Thanks for posting.
Can you image if Caroline Bingley had a Facebook page? Mr. Collins? Sir Walter Elliot? Boggles the mind.
And I loved this quote from the Salon a..."
Jane was a modern girl for her time. She'd embrace all things feministic and techological. She would not be the woman we know in today's society. She was a person who loved company and social interaction, heck, she'd probably have created a social network and made the millions she deserved.As for the rest of the characters, yes, Caroline Bingley with a Facebook page would be a riot.
Patg
Well, this is a funny thread modernizing Austen :) To be serious with the idea, I guess it depends on which Jane Austen you are referring to. Jane Austen, the person/lady, yeah as Patricia and few others had pointed out eariler, would've liked to have her own social network. The little we know about her tells that she was a fun loving person who loved dancing and socializing with the neighbours as often as she could so let it be facebook or twitter... but
Jane Austen, the writer? I don't see she'd enjoy any of the eariler stuff. She liked to keep her identity a secret and published her novels anonymously ( by " A Lady") while writers like Ann Radcliffe used the name. I read somewhere she was rather shy when it came to her writing. I somehow don't see she'd be someone going after Twitter or Facebook but may be she'd have tried self publishing as Kimberly has mentioned.
True, Amelia, but would she be the same woman today. Remember she lived under a system of restraints on women that today would and should be considered savage abuse. Mental more than physical. She wouldn't have the same fears. And I remember reading somewhere that her perticular publisher wanted it this way, and certainly, her brother Henry would have preferred it.Also a lot of this restraint/fear could have come from Cassandra, the truly shy one. She may have burnt their letters covering the disputes between them for more reasons of her own than Jane's fears.
Patg
And didn't she hide her work and put it away once she thought people were approaching. I don't see her as being accessible on Twitter or Facebook. But his is purely speculation.
Patricia wrote: "True, Amelia, but would she be the same woman today. Remember she lived under a system of restraints on women that today would and should be considered savage abuse. Mental more than physical. She ..."You do have a point Patricia, she did face a lot of difficulties in getting her work published.. But I didn't know she went anonymous because her brother wanted her to do so.
I do find what Cassandra did was annoying. Have you read 'Jane Austen's Letters' edited by Deirdre Le Faye? You should definitely read it, if you haven't. It'll make you even more angrier about Cassandra's pyromania. I still wonder why she did it!
Amelia, I'm now reading Jane and Cassandra. Granted, fiction, but a studies assumption of what 'might' have been said. The assumption is that Cassandra felt Jane wanted anything to do with discent in the family to be burnt, but I feel it was statements made in passing and it was more Cassandra's fears than Jane's. I think once Henry became a clergyman, he too felt this a good idea. I have LaFaye's book on my list.patg
I've not come across that one, sounds great. Who's the author?
Actually, the correct title is:Cassandra andJane, A Jane Austen Novel by Jill Pitkeathley.
So far, very interesting.
I like this idea. She was quite the social butterfly, so I can definitely see her using the social networking technology if she were a contemporary woman. And I would follow her on The Twitter. Unnecessary fact #437: my favorite Tweeters are Nathan Fillion (humor) and the Dalai Lama (wisdom).
they need to make a JA movie about her, invloving bits and pieces from every book in a modern day time period!!Wouldn't that be awesome?
but as teenagers, and not like Clueless where all they talk about is drugs and...well..you know..
I know they didn't have to use JA or purport to use her ideas in that movie.
I'm imagining JA using a mobile phone. Would she choose a Blackberry, an iPhone or an android? Or would she be more of a mobile tablet kinda person? (And if she used the Twitter app, would her tweets be retweeted as often as Justin Bieber's? Hehe.)
I think she would definitely have a blog. Facebook or twitter? I don't think she would like people to see what she wrote to other people. But she might put her witty sayings on her page. I can't see using twitter, only because I haven't the foggiest idea how it works. I'm just getting use to facebook. Texting? No! I can't see her even doing that. She was for her time just like we are for ours.
On our web site, we resurrected a "lost letter" of Jane Austen, in which she discusses The Face Book.http://janetility.com/?p=309
I think she'd have a Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family. Though I don't think she'd enjoy Twitter. I think that, like you said, the 140 character limit would drive her crazy. I know it drives me crazy sometimes.
She was very into letter writing so I think she would have been all over email and texting as methods of short and long form private communication. If she were a 20th century woman, there would be no need to conceal her identity as an author and growing up with that knowledge may have impacted her approach to social media. I think she would have used Facebook and twitter not for personal reasons, but as means of self-promotion.
I think if she did use them, it's also possible she would get occasionally called out for excessive sass.
Love this thread from four years ago being revived. Yes, excessive sass in her letters, and buried in those well-honed long sentences.Some great leads in the earlier comments, such as this one: http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/11/what...
i think she would use twitter and she would be a blogger , her writing was cause she was complaining about the society , so we would definitely do the same now
I'm surprised no one posted these famous in boxesJane Austen characters
I'm inclined to say no Jane wouldn't use Facebook or Twitter but she did enjoy writing letters and S&S was intended to be an epistolary novel.
I've seen those inboxes before! They are very clever! Darcy's is the best I think!
I think she would enjoy Facebook but I have a feeling that Twitter's 140-character limit would just drive her crazy. . . But then again, the opening line in Pride and Prejudice is only a little under 120 characters! :-)