YouTube is here. Tony’s really getting obsessed with the hand gestures!
This week, we talk mental health, but it’s just an excuse to talk video games. Catching up on some old movies and new TV, we then try and answer a question for Beth, and do it fairly poorly (in my opinion.) Send us more questions, and…. Enjoy!
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So this is just a riff really on what Will said about certain writers being timeless, but I think one thing that both Austen and Shakespeare do is to be critical of narratives from their own times which created two-dimensional, stereotypical versions of human beings.
I just taught Pride & Prejudice last week, and one of the things we talked about is the way in which Austen gives the main female character, Elizabeth, the power of satire which, at the time, was said to be something only men could do. And one of the things both Austen and Elizabeth satirize is the representation of women in things like the very popular conduct books for women in the late 18th-early 19th century. ( “Between 1785 and 1820, somewhere between 59,500 and 119,000 copies of conduct or advice books were sold.”)
Here’s something Austen said about these books and the way they portrayed the ideal woman: “Pictures of perfection make me sick and wicked.”
That resistance to false narratives is what helps make those writers timeless.
Whereas I think Margaret Mitchell is pretty mired in the false narratives of her time.
Very good points.
Very interesting!
Now, please explain how this ties with Shakespeare, Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, Gone With the Wind, Ben-Hur, Clue, Yahoo Serious, and Godzilla. Explain how this theory applies to each to either make tons of remakes or not make remakes.
I’ll wait. 🙂