Sunday, August 31, 2008

i dislike the bennets

I just finished watching 'Pride and Prejudice' with Terry -- the version with Keira Knightley, not the BBC one with Colin Firth -- and I am reminded how much I despise most of Elizabeth Bennet's family. I probably ruined it for poor Terry because I kept either snorting or shouting 'I hate you!' every time one of Elizabeth's family members said something annoying. But, because I despised them so much, and simultaneously loved Elizabeth and the guy playing Mr. Darcy, I really enjoyed the movie. Keira Knightley does an excellent job of sounding both pert and offended, which are two key characters traits for Elizabeth Bennet, and the Mr. Darcy guy excelled at both arrogance and suffering. Sigh!

Today was great; I spent the morning cleaning up around the apartment and catching up on news, and then Terry came up in the afternoon. We walked down to Yerba Buena Gardens with the intention of working (her on applications, me on the book), but I took her to Samovar, and it turned out to be unconducive to laptop use. I had the endless Russian Samovar service, which (as loyal/observant readers will remember) requires the patron to get up and serve their own damned tea from a samovar in the corner. But I like that tea, and I also like their scones, even if their clotted cream is not quite as good as what I ate in England. Yes, I am a snob. So Terry and I chatted over tea, then came back up to my neighborhood, where we worked at a Starbucks for an hour or two. I edited one of my favorite scenes in my romance novel, and then we went out for pizza before coming back here to watch the movie.

I fully intend to spend the rest of the weekend holed up with the book. I only have twelve days until I turn 27, and I want to have a finished draft by then. Also, Terry and I both had a bleak moment when one of the characters (Charlotte) told Elizabeth that she had decided to marry the odious Mr. Collins because *she* was 27 and was unlikely to ever get an offer. Sad! Luckily I live in the 21st century and am not necessarily destined to be a spinster at 27, but the odds ain't good. Ironic that I write romance when I feel like that, but c'est la vie. Goodnight!

1 comment:

f...... said...

On a related note, I saw that version of for the first time as well. I felt as annoyed as you did, minus the yelling at the TV bit

I also saw the more recent loose-Bio/Drama BECOMING JANE. I think they did an okay job of showing how a lot of Mrs. Austen must have influenced Mrs. Bennet. I'd be curious to hear your take.

p.s. I'm totally going to plug BRIDE AND PREJUDICE, not because Aishwariya Rai was so good at acting "pert and offended," but I like the Bollywood-style musical numbers and meditating on the Indian counterpart names of the original characters.