What If Jane Austen Lived Now?

Well, first we know she would have a very creative blog ;)  She would dress very chic, like no other blogger out there and she would be the best seller in romantic novels.

With the advent of health products, Jane would have been able to live past the young age she died and we would have been inundated by stories from a more mature Jane who had at least a few encounters with men and these light affairs, albeit non-contact, would have been integrated into her later stories.  I think she still would have been a lady, confident and what many call an old maid or a prude when it came to relationships with men.

She would still have kept herself out of the public's eye and kept fresh from any ridicule, been well loved by her captive audience for her sweet nature and maintain her innocence when looking through the eyes of romance.

Now with that being said, how would have Pride and Prejudice turned out from eyes of the society of England in our time from Jane Austen's point of view?  Would we be reading that story in 2213?  It seems that stories by now have all been told and to see Pride and Prejudice written for the first time in 2013, it may become lost in much of the thousands of books published every year.  It would have to be heavily marketed or have a very unique outlook on the high society of England with a movie coming out soon to give it that added exposure and audience.

Seeing a Pride and Prejudice for the first time ever in our decade, Jane would have already had her audience and written other books in other words, in order for Pride and Prejudice to have the impact it has now, she would have to be a Danielle Steele or a Nicolas Spark ladies hungering for a new release for it to even be recognized.

What type of story would it have been?  What about the couples falling in love with no contact and then getting married after just meeting? I think to have the innocence and quick rushes to the altar without even dating in our age would be hard to swallow.  It would have to be a part of that society where courting was acceptable without necessarily dating before taking the plunge, which I did so in my update in "Black Pride".

A second thing I found that doesn't translate well to our century is that everyone was in a rush before they were 20 to be married off or they were going to die. The fact we live longer these days than in Austen's century, I had to move my character's age into her late 30s where desperation of not being married may have more relevance.  Even now, being unmarried in your late 20 is not an "old maid" as Charlotte had said she was.

And thirdly, what I found didn't merge into our century was the fact nobody had outside interest.  As many critics say of the novel, it's just a book about women walking around in rooms and talking about relationships.  This was befitting superbly rich inheritance babies.  Even now, Paris Hilton has found her calling in fashion bags and reality shows.  They would all have their own businesses and actually work taking a lot of the scrutiny of just focusing on relationships.

When rewriting I was shocked that this was the only things that I found hesitation with when bringing Elizabeth and the gang to our time in black society.  That's pretty darn good for a 200-year old tale.  The book even has "call" someone and "ring" the door that translates with ease in the advent of the iPod.

I think Jane wishes that she could do an update or a sequel with her story getting greater buzz than billion dollar movies premiering   I hope I do her proud.  I won't even begin to publish until I get the best draft I can.  An artist is never finished with a masterpiece, they just know when it's time to share it with the world and soon that time will come.

Enjoy your rocking weekend everyone and thank you for coming along for the ride!  Think you know what you would do with your update of Pride and Prejudice, let us know what you would add or take away...see you next Saturday!

XX,
Denise Rochelle

Men Why Do You Shut Down?

"Men Why Do You Shut Down or get distant when you are going through something?"
Quick answers were, "For your protection", "We don't like drama/fighting", "It's a man thing/we were made that way", "Women are all about feelings and men are all about solutions." These were the quick and light answers.

 Hi, everyone, hope you are keeping warm this week as the temperatures remind us that it is indeed winter.




Yet again, I look toward the Facebook forum of anonymized questions answered by VERY vocal posters naming off their opinions.  This week, the question was to men only.  But like many posts, some women would answer for the men. .. (scratches head) yes, I understand in this day and age some women have to take up the role of man and woman in the family when they are left as a single mother, but I don't see single father's on any of those posts answering for the women-only questions.

And men made that exact point several times.  Many, many posted that the women needed to stop answering for the men and sometimes, LOL right after that post a woman will say, "Because of their ego." man.  How funny we women are, ha, ha sorry, men.  Some say that they try to explain to a woman how they are feeling,but instead get a woman 'in the face' talking bad things to them instead of just listening and understanding.

A few men out of 100 posts said that, "Women will shut down in relations with women because women will not listen to us anyway.  As you can see the question was posed to men and the women answered for them.  If women took time out to just listen to their man/husband/male friend, I'm pretty sure a lot more men would open up if they felt they were being heard!"

Well, those of you who like the Pride and Prejudice series have grown to like a man that has no ability to say a single word of what he is feeling inside- in the right way.  When he did finally decide to say a word, he always was making the situation a mess or hurting someone's feelings - mostly Elizabeth's.

Of course this inept beast describes Mr. Darcy. When we first meet Mr. Darcy at the dance, he is so cold and arrogant and owns the whole world.  He barely even returns conversation to his friend who tries to get him engaged in the party and away from the corner.

Then of course we see later that Mr. Darcy for most of the book was hiding his true feelings for Elizabeth so when his feelings of love came out with force he fumbles it all up.  Mr. Darcy is a prime example of a man who could not get in touch with his feminine side to talk to the girl he wanted to marry until the very end.

What would our Mr. Darcy be like if he was communicative?  He wouldn't be as loveable when we finally witness that because of his deep love for Elizabeth he changed to overcome this fallacy within himself.

Think about it.  If from the beginning Mr. Darcy could just give in to his wants, there would be no character growth, no tension - no 200 year-later blog about the story.  We need these elements in a story, our brain needs this dissonance or conflict on paper - the ups and downs.

Without a character who completely shut down his emotions, Pride and Prejudice would not have triumphed as much in all of our hearts.

Just as one man poster suggested, don't be so critical to your man, be quiet and understanding and just listen and we might not have to ask this question in the future.  And stop answering and speaking for the men is another step, ha, ha.

Unfortunately, I have had writer's block for the last two weeks even though it is just to rewrite the whole second draft for self-publish to get interested reader's feedback.  If they can ignore the misspelled words and grammatical mistakes.

As my romantic life changes and I enter Pride and Prejudice territory for the first time in my life, my viewpoint of my story grows.  Hey, I think that will be a great post in the future.  "How Online Relationships Could Change Pride and Prejudice".  Just a thought.

Have a fun one enjoy the rest of your four-day weekend!  

Denise Rochelle M.