Day 6: Favorite and Least Favorite Assigned Reading

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship]

I actually think the age difference between Rickman and Winslet is a pretty good proxy for the age difference between the characters. Colonel Brandon is 35 while Marianne is 17, but there are also a couple of comments made early in the book that people aren't typically expected to live past the age of about 55. (John and Fanny Dashwood, when discussing the idea of an annuity for the 40-year-old Mrs. Dashwood, are all, "But she's stout and healthy! She could live another 15 years! Horrors!") So Colonel Brandon really is an old man for Marianne, although it was much more socially acceptable at the time. A mid-30s actor alongside a 20-year-old actress might just have made Marianne's objections to his age look silly because in our age of better health and cosmetics the differences are harder to see.

[Gogol]

There! 16 years is normal, i think! Even by today’s standards. Isn’t it? Or perhaps here it is normal. As for the rest, I knew she was married to the Willoughby actor, but the thing is she was just wrong for my image of Elinor. Elinor always seems to be a font of strength and quiet fortitude in the book. But Emma Watson presented a harassed, subjugated, sad creature. Elinor is someone who takes any situation she’s thrust into in her hands, but Emma Thompson is this frumpy, forlorn person.
I think were I to recast Elinor and Marianne I’d choose the two Fanning sisters: Dakota and Elle. I think Dakota Fanning would make an excellent Elinor. She has this intensity that I always imagined Elinor to have had. Except that they’re american but I really liked Gwyneth Paltrow’s Emma (even though it wasn’t a faithful representation of the book Emma either, nor her Mr. Knightly)

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)]

My husband is 18 years older than me and we've been happily married for 37 years. He was 37, I was 20. We have no kids, unfortunately, but that's life. Now that he is 75 I do wish I could get some of the years in the age difference back for him...but he is a very young 75! He just got hooked on KDrama in the last year or two!
Brandon (Alan Rickman, *swoon*) is meant to be a calming influence on Marianne's impetuosity, but yes, I have often wondered how long that marriage would be a happy one after she was no longer weak from illness. A Broadwood Grand pianoforte would lose its charm after awhile, I should think...

[Gogol]

Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) wrote: "My husband is 18 years older than me and we've been happily married for 37 years. He was 37, I was 20. We have no kids, unfortunately, but that's life. Now that he is 75 I do wish I could get some ..."

The love of my life was 18 years older than me, and I met him in my early twenties. He was an ugly, big man but super, super intelligent and had more charm in his little finger than most people do in their entire bodies (including me). The thing is had he not died prematurely I think I would have never gotten blred with him.. Which is why I think Marianne and colonel Brandon were so badly miscast.
But seriously, swooning over Alan Rickman? And you’re not the first person either. What am I not seeing?

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)]

Who knows. Well, you do. As we say in Spanish, "for tastes, we have colours." Or, in English, "each to their own." Rickman did an excellent job of portraying an older man who has fallen head over heels for a young girl that he knows can't even see him as more than background for most of the story--and he would cut off his hand if he thought it would help her or please her. (I guess I recognise the attitude, as my own husband is like that.)

[Gogol]

But in the book, I distinctly remember that Marianne reminded him of that other girl with whom he had fallen in love in his youth and whom his family had driven away. Which is why I can never truly credit his feelings for Marianne. I think that’s my biggest problem with Brandon himself. As in the character in the book. It feels as if he projects on Marianne. And knock the wood as we do hère, for your husband.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)]

As far as that goes, any romantic attachment begins with an awful lot of projection on both sides. Over the years you finally meet the person and they meet you--hopefully, if the relationship is honest. I'm quite sure Marianne was whelmed by the grand house and the grand piano and the grand social/financial position which went with them, while he worshipped at the shrine of his old love through her youth, beauty and fiery temperament. How well that played out over the years...who knows. Marianne in both book and movie struck me as skim milk pretending to be cream, and easily bored.

[Gogol]

« Over the years you finally meet the person and they meet you » I think that’s the best thing I’ve heard about long term relationships.

[ꕥ Ange_Lives_To_Read ꕥ]

Gogol wrote: "...But seriously, swooning over Alan Rickman? And you’re not the first person either. What am I not seeing?...."

This made me laugh. He’s definitely not classically handsome but he’s got something... and I suspect those of us who are swooning are a bit older than you and doing so over the Hans-Gruber-era version of Rickman😊

[Gogol]

I just googled « Hans Gruber era Alan Rickman »!

[ꕥ Ange_Lives_To_Read ꕥ]

Gogol wrote: "I just googled « Hans Gruber era Alan Rickman »!"

I assume you don’t agree, but maybe you have a better idea why some might consider him swoon-worthy (eg vs Snape-era Rickman 😝)

[Melindam]

I am definitely Team Alan Rickman. Even that voice of his was divine! And he was an awesome Sheriff of Nottingham in Prience of Thieves. I laughed my head off every time he was on screen.
He was such a genius, versatile actor! And he was a magnetic man imho.

[Gogol]

Ange H wrote: "Gogol wrote: "I just googled « Hans Gruber era Alan Rickman »!"

I assume you don’t agree, but maybe you have a better idea why some might consider him swoon-worthy (eg vs Snape-era Rickman 😝)"

I think you just saw an aspect of him that I can’t see. It’s like that with some celebrities. Of course the problem with the Hans Gruber Image is that now I understand who so many post revolution era actors in state sponsored television, styled themselves after. The hair and beard and even the hand gestures holding the guns. Of course theirs was a very pitiful imitation. But when I see his Hans gruber pictures I see them. Let me see if I can find you any pictures.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)]

"What can I do? Give me a task, Miss Dashwood, or I shall run mad..."