Jane Austen

This will give you some idea of my working environment: it is lunch time and Katie just put on "All That Jazz" to get us in the mood to stop working. I spent all morning reading statutes and doing just a little bit of net-surfing. I have been coming in early to check my email, etc, since I don't have internet access at home. I read the excellent debate about the Supreme Court on slate.com and Jeffrey Toobin's article in the New Yorker. But there was one article in particular I thought I would share with you all. It's a discussion about the new Jane Austen mania on salon.com. Now, I confess to being a bit of an Austen maniac myself. I've read all her books at least twice; am the proud owner of Jane Austen's Guide to Dating by Lauren Henderson (last year's Christmas present from Kyla - very helpful, although I resent that I came up as Mary Crawford on the Which Austen Heroine are You? quiz); love Bridget Jones, both the books and the first movie (don't get me started on the second - how could Helen Fielding have agreed to such a misogynistic interpretation of her work?); and am the co-author of a drinking game to be played while watching the 1995 BBC miniseries of Pride & Prejudice (Rule 1: Every time Colin Firth is wet, take a shot). But this description of the new publishing-and-adapting frenzy was a little bit disturbing. Here, check it out: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/06/27/jane_austen/index.html

My favorite quote: "One of the great pleasures of female life in the 21st century, especially if you're of the class to which Austen belonged and into which she sunk her sharp teeth, is the possibility of earning your own living, of not having to land a man to survive financially, of no longer having to wear your need for a husband on your sleeve ... or tote bag or bumper."

Ok, I'm off on an "adventure" with the other interns for lunch.