Not Jane – The Not Series, Part 3
Though I can picture myself in England long ago writing with a quill, wearing bonnets, addressing my friends as Miss and leaving calling cards, my fantasy stops at chamber pots.
It also stops when I realize I am not Jane Austen.
This is not an epiphany, mind you. I read Jane Austen in my twenties and knew then I had something special in my hands while I rode the “El.” But with the proliferation of books, movies, magazines, ebooks, audiobooks, ezines, journals and blogs, I wonder if there are any modern authors people will be reading 100 years from now while they’re flying to work with their jetpacks.
Will Jane Green’s or Jane Porter’s women’s fiction hold up like Jane Austen’s? (I like both of these Janes for different reasons, by the way.) What about Jane Addams or Jane Seymour? Jane Bancroft? Jane Burke?
Our needs are different today, we’re spoiled for choice. If we don’t like a book we simply choose another. Perhaps the fact that it wasn’t painstakingly written in long-hand takes away some of the mysticism, I mean, we all type don’t we? For hours sometimes for work or for emails or for Facebook or even Twitter. It takes a lot of time to type a days worth of 140 characters. In our country most of us are brought up to believe we can do anything – that we have the inalienable right to pursue our dreams. It’s a country where anyone can be anything. And that includes a writer, even if that writing is in the form of blogging or self-publishing.
And while the world of mainstream contemporary publishing holds most of us at arm’s length with a sharp stick, we have access to it via the internet and there are even ways around it if that’s your fancy.
Jane Austen had to fight stereotypes, prejudice, lost love, ink stains and a lack of adequate health care, I presume, since she died so young.
I’m sure (since I’ve seen the movie, I’m an expert) that in becoming the Jane Austen we know, she did not set out to sample immortality in her novels, she was simply compelled to write stories and live as an working author.
I guess in that way, then, I am a bit like Jane. Lucky me.
The “I must” feeling that is born with certain writers is fleeting in other poeple, the same way other urges are fleeting in writers. In this time, as a modern woman, I can attend a dance class at my gym when I feel that I “must” dance TODAY, but skip it for a week when I’m not in the mood. I know people who feel this way about writing. I think our “musts” are genetic programming balanced with circumstances. And by the way, I feel lucky too.
Susan,
I think you’re right. We are who we are…with minor edits possible!
Amy
If I was the publishing world, I’d be threatened by the Internet. I am now realizing that there are things called ‘webisodes’ of actual tv programs that arent shown on tv. There are blogs out there that are basically a reality tv show. There is so much the Internet can offer than the traditional mediums (tv, newspapers, magazines, etc) cant.
I have purchased self-published books in the past, and will continue to do so as my money will then go to the author and not some book store or publishing executive. = )
Melissa,
Things certainly have changed…and continue to do so. Just when we think we know what’s going on, we realize we don’t.
I’m not sure I’ve ever purchased a self-published book, but I’m not against doing so if it seems right for me.
Amy
Not that I’ve been doing any of this lately, but my laptop will NEVER be able to replace a book while at the beach/pool on vacation. And you just can’t curl up with a laptop in bed the way you can a book or when you take a soak in a bubble bath. For those of us who love to read as much as write I can’t see books and novels becoming a thing of the past.
I’m with you Mindy…and I’ve tried the laptop in the tub thing…it’s no good, truly.
Amy
Amy, True confessions: I’ve never read Jane Austen, and I’ve never seen any of the JA movies. It’s kind of like cooking; I’ve simply never been interested. I wonder if Jane were around these days if she would have made it through the complicated maze of the publishing industry, or if she would have self-published as well. Maybe that’s a premise for yet another JA book!