tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2790614306320534072.post3900787069389064524..comments2024-03-28T14:20:08.699-04:00Comments on The Book Rat: Emma Read Along: Discussion Questions, Volume 1Mistyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11436497955518156688noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2790614306320534072.post-43153405466959843102016-03-08T14:30:38.699-05:002016-03-08T14:30:38.699-05:00Oh, I SO very much want Knightley to have a little...Oh, I SO very much want Knightley to have a little bit of a harder time. Just like he wants Emma to have some opposition, I think he really <i>needs</i> some; he is just this side of smug, you know? And that is an excellent point about Isabella, and how maybe, if left unchecked, Knightley could end up just as insufferable. (I don't think so, mind you, I think he has a little bit better sense than that, but...we all do become <i>more so</i> as we get older, and I'm sure eventually he'd get to be too much). <br />Very good comparison of Darcy and Knightley; I think it's presented as more of a fatal flaw in Darcy, maybe because K. isn't quite so aloof, but it's an element that is definitely present (and even cultivated by those who surround him) in his character, too. <br />(As for Churchill, I can't imagine him as a redeemed character, even if it did give Knightley a little what-for, just because I wouldn't want to be robbed of my enjoyment in despising him. lol! But a similar character (ish) that I definitely DID want to see redeemed and the hero of the story, was Henry Crawford from Mansfield Park. There's not much I love about MP, except Henry, and I was very sad to see him fizzle out... )Mistyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11436497955518156688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2790614306320534072.post-78438787398275704212016-03-08T12:01:51.058-05:002016-03-08T12:01:51.058-05:00I mean, this may sound a bit farfetched, but if yo...I mean, this may sound a bit farfetched, but if you think about it, Emma is to comedy what Hedda Gabler is for tragedy. I can't imagine Emma saying things like, "I want for once in my life to have power to mould a human destiny", but it's clearly what's going on inside her on all that Harriet affair. Churchill is a wicked version of the real-life-playwright, delighting with his flirting, his secret engagement, his manipulation, his messing-with-your-heads-you-ignorant-fools.<br />I like how Bloom compares her to Shakespeare's Rosalind in As you like it, though Rosalind isn't betrayed by her imagination like Emma. And the other Bloom, the Allan, commenting on Darcy, talks of the unsocial aspects of virtue, and maybe that's what annoys me in Darcy and Knightley. Of course they eventually learn that virtue is not a self-contained thing, that they can't act like they were gods, above other people, not owing any explanations or satisfactions. I have to finish the book to see if Knightley passes through an agony worthy of comparison with Emma's (why do I delight so much in her despair? why do I find that so funny? am I sadistic?) Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2790614306320534072.post-86036993681674255152016-03-08T11:47:50.711-05:002016-03-08T11:47:50.711-05:00Well, I guess I'm arriving lately for this con...Well, I guess I'm arriving lately for this conversation, but hopefully not too late. Emma is the 1st Austen novel I'm reading, though I've watched Clueless, P&P with Keira Knightley, and Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow, and also read critical essays by Harold Bloom and Allan Bloom, which ignited my interest. I really agree with H. Bloom that, for Austen, Emma's flaws are just the excesses of her qualities, and I have a love-hate case with Knightley, because he's so preachy, but also so kind, but he's so self-conceived, but he's so tender, but he's condescending, but he's in love, and he's so harsh and judgmental with Frank Churchill, and I know, it's a bit of jealousy talking and it's funny ("I am not prejudiced!", I was delighted to see him baffled for the first time), and he's lucky enough that Austen will prove that his first impressions were right, but in a wicked way, I almost wish that Churchill was a marvellous man, just that Knightley would have to bite his tongue for once - nothing is more unsufferable than a character who's always right, that's simply not fair! I can't recall if that happens in the 1st volume, but I love how Austen comments that Isabella is a "worshipping wife", indicating quite clearly that John's flaws have only grown larger with the marriage, and that contrasts with the strong-willed Emma - she'll never allow Knightley become so rude and inconsiderate, and so their marriage will be more balanced. That's a point Austen is always making, comparing the relative happiness of different pairs. I find the misconceptions of Emma and her dramatic imagination big FAILS one of the most eternal things of literature, the desire for aesthetic realization, kinda parodying Austen's own field of action as an artist (she's a matchmaker for her characters, obviously succeeding where Emma fails), as H. Bloom again says.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2790614306320534072.post-50838302159727338622015-12-22T23:11:17.644-05:002015-12-22T23:11:17.644-05:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Courtney M. Tapiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18063086158516006796noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2790614306320534072.post-24424904004171566422015-08-18T19:22:52.924-04:002015-08-18T19:22:52.924-04:00Hoopla is another free audio and ebook source for ...Hoopla is another free audio and ebook source for reading along - all you need is your library card to check them out !Faith Hope and Cherryteahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06170392449995588653noreply@blogger.com