This "American Morning" segment on Jane's birthday was fun...I think they got most of it right, though Jane Austen herself wouldn't ever have considered herself a "modern woman" -- or so I gather from critical sources. It's women today who see this "modernity" in her...another testament to her works being "classic"; they have value/truth beyond the period of their creation. That's why Jane and her works have persisted for more than 200 years!
Sad to think that, according to CNN, women interviewed could NOT come up with any woman today that they esteem as much as Jane. Perhaps women today could take some cues from Jane. She had to fight to be heard at first (her brother had to get her books published for her initially), but once she was read, people LOVED her and her works. She was not so much "image" as "substance," which to me, at least, is what lasts and ultimately wins people over.
Pretty crazy for a PR person to say, I know, but I think it's true (though marketing doesn't hurt either, today as then--I guess Jane's brother knew that). Tweets & lightening-fast, abbreviated communication have changed life for good, and in many respects this IS good. But why then do people still go back to Jane?? "It's a mystery!"-- as Rose Theatre proprietor Philip Henslow (Geoffrey Rush) says in "Shakespeare in Love". Or is it? May be it’s just that people still seek the deeper meaning in things!? What do you think?
Pretty crazy for a PR person to say, I know, but I think it's true (though marketing doesn't hurt either, today as then--I guess Jane's brother knew that). Tweets & lightening-fast, abbreviated communication have changed life for good, and in many respects this IS good. But why then do people still go back to Jane?? "It's a mystery!"-- as Rose Theatre proprietor Philip Henslow (Geoffrey Rush) says in "Shakespeare in Love". Or is it? May be it’s just that people still seek the deeper meaning in things!? What do you think?
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