Austen's Emma

I just finished reading Emma by Jane Austen. It was a good read and in truth was not as nearly boring as the only other book I’ve read by Austen, Pride and Prejudice. I would in truth re-title Emma with the subtitle, “the humbling of Miss Woodhouse.” Because in truth the main character starts off as someone you don’t really like and then morphs into a far less conceited and well-adjusted person by the end. What I think makes it superior to Pride in Prejudice (P/P)? Austen uses the omnipresent narrator a lot more effective way in this book. For example in P/P we are cheering for the main characters, since most it's the most stereotypical Austen novel; to get a man. Where as the character of Emma is usually messing something up or really doesn’t seem to be aware of what’s really going on. In fact at points I found myself wishing she was saying and doing the exact opposite of what she does. Not having the author always on the side of chief protagonists really made it a much more enjoyable read because it makes it a much more complex story.

I always take issue with the chief topic of Jane Austen novels; MUST GET A MAN! Maybe some might take issue with me editorializing about Austen’s subject matter, being a man who has voluntarily 'subjected himself' to an Austen novel. But honestly I found the main aim of the books rather tiresome and Emma took me longer to read then most books of the same length simply because it felt like I was reading antiquated cattiness. It forced me to put it down out of boredom more then once, but the quality of the writing always made me come back to it.

Having not read any Austen since high school, I was also struck by how little physical description there is. The scenes of the conversations that are main staple of the book are very rarely given little more than one or two sentence descriptions. Most books want you to know the scene that the characters are currently finding themselves, but Austen’s emphasis is entirely on the conversation and social context. There isn’t even a real lengthy description of what the main characters even look like. I might of missed it but I don’t think it even states what color Emma’s hair is; physical description wasn’t that important the author. I don’t really remember ever reading a book so lopsided toward conversation before, in terms of the narrative it sort of jumpy and almost like a play.

I guess I just don’t understand Austen’s lasting appeal. In the historical forward to the book, my edition stated that Austen’s novels have been in almost continuously published since her death. In truth I guess I just don’t understand why people, seem to enjoy them so much. The writing is great, but the subject matter as I said previously subtracts from the writing. Though I suppose for that very reason I have trouble with them is the reason a lot of people really like them. I don’t see myself scrounging the bookshelves for another round of Austen, but all in all I enjoyed Emma.

Today is Veterans Day in the US, Armistice Day in the UK and absolutely nothing in Spain. According to one of the Spanish teachers at my colegio, Spain wasn’t involved in either of the two world wars, something I find highly suspect, but would explain why they don’t celebrate today. It’s also kind of an awkward holiday since it’s not often on a weekend, I remembering sitting around doing nothing and sleeping in on what seemed like always a random day of the week. I do remember the few times my father dragged me to a veteran’s event, but it seems more like the exception rather the tradition. So now that I’m in a country that doesn’t even acknowledge it, I guess I miss it. It’s been amazing to me what I miss about the states, sometime it comes as a complete surprise.

Something I wrote a few months ago...

It’s odd to me this is a truly public medium of communication, so theoretically anyone who had a mind to look up a Sam would find this one. Though I’ve heard neither news reports nor any other great to-do made about my annuals, analysis, or musings here. In truth it seems like I have a subscription of one, not exactly enough to sell ads at this point. I do hope this isn’t seen as a complaint, I think you have to be far more extrovert then myself to truly be comfortable expressing yourself into the ether. I guess that’s all an excuse of why I have not tended this space better and written here more often. Maybe it would help if I knew some of friends keep them as well so we could blog together, but as yet I’ve not known many. Nor is writing here something I think I could do in a group. Whatever the reason, I’m just not much of a blogger, not to suggest this is the last entry but to explain the infrequency of my past entries and the possible intermittent postings in the future.

Well what is there not to report since, my last post? I’ve crossed a good portion of Western Europe, flew across the North Sea, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean twice, in general not bad.

Sweden was amazingly beautiful. I had to take a bus to the airport I was flying out of so that allowed me to see the countryside outside Stockholm. There was trees everywhere, which coming from Spain was a great shock and when you were out in the countryside there was stereotypical postcard type scenes every where with the red barns and grain fields. Stockholm itself was very beautiful with the old town in the middle of the bay and the new sections to the north and south of it. I had the opportunity to see a few of the museums, most specifically the Vassa Museum which has a ship from the thirty’s years war(circa 1630). It didn’t even make it out of Stockholm’s harbor before being sunk by a big wind. Because it went down in the Baltic sea it was well preserved. Sweden used to be ruled by Denmark until it broke away under the leadership of the first king of Sweden named Gustave. I went to see Sweden because I’d heard it was socialist’s paradise (thank you Econ-professor at Kenyon) what I found was no one living on the street and a city that was amazing clean and pleasant. I was fortunate enough to stay with a woman I knew from Kenyon who is married to a Swedish fellow who were nice enough to let me stay in their house for the duration of my time. Half of the reason I enjoyed Sweden so much was because they were great hosts.

From Sweden I took a flight to Dublin Ireland. It was the first time I’d been in an English speaking country in 7 months, it was weird. I could get over the fact people would pass me on the street and they would be speaking English. It was reverse culture shock and took some getting used to. I only spent one night in Dublin and from there I went to Galway for two nights. It’s a university town on the western side of Ireland. It was a cool town with a lot of bars that play traditional Irish music and plenty of tourists swarming all over the place. I’d never seen so many Americans abroad until I got to Ireland. Unfortunately we’re really easy to spot most of the time.

From Galway I headed back to Dublin where I met up with a boyfriend of a good friend of mine. He’s a native Irishman, so he was able to show me around to a few places. We spent the Thursday night I was there hanging with a few people from his work and talking a lot. He’s a real cool guy even though he and I don’t exactly agree on the whole spiritual nature of life. I stumbled home at about 4 am and had to get up around 9am to eat breakfast and make it to the airport. Man getting to the airport was rough, I felt like crap combined with the lack of sleep, it was not pleasant. I slept a good portion of the way back to the states, all in all it was a pretty uneventful flight.

It was a quiet homecoming, though my Mom true to form was there to collect me from the airport. It was great to see her and find out how she’s been. There is one thing to hear about how life is going over the phone, there is a whole other to have it come into your present reality. My Mom was doing well and it is always great to pontificate with her about whatever’s on my mind. A lot of travels and consequences were still ringing in my ears, so I was a buzz with those.

I spent about an entire week not wanting to do anything. In theory I was looking for a job, but in truth I wasn’t trying very hard. I ultimately was able to get a hold of a friend of the family who owns a painting business and needed help to finish his end of season work. He was in need enough to hire a novice like myself for a month. I worked for about two and half weeks for the four weeks I was home. It was fairly long days by comparison with what I was used to but it was nice to be of use to someone else other then just myself for once. I’ve never been part of a crew that was so focused on a task, I felt like the slacker for wanting to take the occasional break, where I’m usually the one with his nose to the grindstone.