So I guess it’s officially summer (at least in the U.S.) and I’m not here for it at all. The boob sweat is eternal at this point and all I want is the sweet, chilly embrace of central A/C. Anyone else sharing in my heatwave woes?
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In typical “the Smithsonian is awesome news,” they’ve created an interactive map for all of you Jane Austen fans:
A look at the houses and towns that shaped the life and writing of the famed author on the 200th anniversary of her death…
Beloved 19th-century author Jane Austen’s satire of Georgian Britain’s high teas and grand balls is so slyly entrancing, naïve readers might mistake that world for her own. Born in 1775 into the “pseudo-gentry,” an educated but landless lower class, Austen, whose literary oeuvre includes Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, Lady Susan and Emma, only peeped high society through better-off relatives and friends. “The experience of observing, rather than joining in, is what gave her insight into the lives of the rich,” says Lucy Worsley, chief curator of the conservation nonprofit Historic Royal Palaces, and the author of Jane Austen at Home. “A novelist needs a bit of detachment.”
I’m all for infographs or anything that blends interaction with learning!
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Yoshi Yoshitani is one of my favorite artists I follow on Twitter and she recently started a Kickstarter dedicated to her mermaid illustrations!
The art book features illustrations of mermaids inspired by different colors. It’s hard to pick a favorite from the previews, but I’m really digging the Jade mermaid.
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USB Wall Outlet Adaptors!
What do we want? More USB ports! Where do we want them? EVERYWHERE!
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Going to RWA or in the Orlando area? On July 29th, come say hi to Sarah at the free and open to the public RWA Literacy Signing! Since proceeds benefit organizations that focus on literacy, books will be available to publish at the signing.
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I know we have several members of the Bitchery who knit or crochet, and you all will probably love this article on how those hobbies for young girls increase their interest in the sciences.
While the research is only in the beginning phases and no hard data is available yet, researchers are confident that knitting can be used to teach math concepts, and they are using the studies to figure out which concepts work best. They hope their findings will be used in the near future to convince schools that knitting a scarf or crocheting a sweater provides a unique opportunity for students to learn hands-on, problem-solving skills in a way that is fun and interesting. And they are hoping that bringing knitting into math class will alert girls to the career possibilities of STEM.
Heck yeah, I’d read that research so hard!
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Don’t forget to share what super cool things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
Speaking of STEM, the Afghani girls’ robot team took silver.
JANE AUSTEN YAYAAAAY!
I get excited. Sorry.
/smooths hair/
Speaking of Jane Austen, there’s a really good feminist and sex-positive take on Mansfield Park, Mansfield Parsonage By Kyra Kramer, that focuses on Mary Crawford the outspoken and ‘improper’ neighbor (not on that annoying, opinionless Fanny, ugh). I loved it so much I read it twice and it’s on sale today only for 99 cents on Kindle.
Confession, I know Kyra. She’s a badass redheaded anthropologist who just moved from Indiana to Wales. Her prose is gorgeous and I think you should read it.https://www.amazon.com/Mansfield-Parsonage-Park-Regency-Novel-ebook/dp/B01N37HW3A/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1500489854&sr=8-1&keywords=mansfield+parsonage
@Cyranetta: They received a silver medal for courageous achievement, a special award for overcoming obstacles. They didn’t place in the upper ranks of the actual competition, but I think they still had the experience of a lifetime from what I read.
@Amanda: Boob sweat often becomes a year ’round companion when you hit menopause. Something for you to look forward to. :-O
Thanks Lora for that link to Mansfield Parsonage, I’m a fan of Mary Crawford too so I was hitting that buy button as fast as my fingers could click.
I will confess however to finding Fanny an extremely interesting heroine. She is difficult to like what with her timidity and priggishness but not only was she in a very vulnerable social position she also had to contend with chronic pain and malevolent harassment from her horrible aunt. As a teenage feminist when I first read it over 30 years ago I remember being struck with how courageous she was; strong enough to refuse to be bullied into marriage despite her passive nature. And how irate I became at all the men who were doing the bullying.
In Jane Austen we trust, on the British currency:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40641382
Oh and I apologize if it seems I was arguing from the position of authority granted to women of a certain age (cough!) when in reality I am arguing from the position of having not read Mansfield Park in many years.
@Iris
THANK YOU for defending Fanny. It is pretty triggering for any of the victims of real-life narcissist elders (in fiction, Mrs Norris in Mansfield Park) to hear Fanny dismissed. …And hard to get ahold of yourself to respond, especially with such a VERY complex novel. I read a bunch of essays on it. Loved the one that made your same point about Fanny fighting patriarchy valiantly, contrary to her milksop reputation.
The most illuminating interpretation I ever read on Mansfield Park was Mary Waldron’s essay:
“The Frailties of Fanny: Mansfield Park and the Evangelical Movement”
Basically, Waldron argued that Austen wrote Mansfield Park as a “Take That” to the Evangelical movement of the time and their “conduct-books”. Think not so much Fordyce’s sermons, and more Hannah More and Mary Brunton. They were “how to live Christian-ly and play the mating game to produce a HEA” books and Mansfield Park was Austen saying “here’s all the ways those strategies wouldn’t work”.
Quote: “In Austen’s novel, duty and submission fail to prevent a series of calamities involving the near destruction of a whole family.”
I loved Fanny – she was quiet and awkward and didn’t understand people’s intentions – there’s a scene where she’s sitting under a tree because she was tired from walking and suddenly starts to worry that everyone forgot her and if she should go find them and it spoke to me VERY much. And when she’s manipulated with the necklace but it bother her but she also feels she can’t be upset because it’s a gift? Man, I loved it so much it took me a long time to realize why other people didn’t like it.
Amanda – I’ll swap your summer for my winter, if you like? I’ve had enough of this cold weather!
@Zyva: I would love to read that essay! I get so frustrated when people call Fanny a weak heroine. I tell them to go back and reread the scene with her uncle where she’s refusing to marry Henry Crawford and tell me she’s weak. A weak heroine would’ve married him and been miserable.
@Susan: Something else to look forward to. 😛
@Helen R-S: DEAL!
@Azure: if you the first mentioned one, I’ll find the exact “fight the power” ref/title soon as I can. Probably coming days, due to appointment tomorrow. (Pity can’t upload wholesale, but don’t want to end up like Aaron Swartz.)
Heartily agree and that’s my favourite scene. Fanny Price reminds me of the French expression, “say nothing and think double [as hard].” She’s the scapegoat and dogsbody in that dysfunctional family, which is a weak position, but as often with scapegoats, her strength is in her defense mechanisms.
[…] Linkity from Smart Bitches. And more. […]
Cf:
Power in Mansfield Park: Austen’s study of domination and resistance
Author(s): Marcia McClintock Folsom
Source: Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal. 34 (Annual 2012): p83.