A Trip to JASNA AGM 2016 : Night 2

JASNA AGM 2016

A Trip to JASNA AGM 2016 : Night 2

Saturday October 22: Banquet and Ball

After the breakout sessions, I returned "home" to my cousin's house to take a quick nap and get ready for the ball. I brought a costume with me. I could either afford a Regency era dress or the AGM but not both. Luckily, in my closet, I had a costume ready to go. A few years ago I purchased a boho style blouse and skirt at an Indian store nearby. The white embroidery on white cotton looked very much like a Georgian/Regency dress. I made it look more like a dress by adding a sky blue satin sash to match my reticule, shawl and ballet slipper shoes. I also replaced the modern plastic buttons with Dorset buttons from Etsy seller ASButtonsMarket. (I highly recommend these buttons. They're beautiful, well-made and really made the outfit look somewhat more authentic).

I worked hard to achieve some kind of Georgian/Regency ringlets in my hair, tied my turban over my head and headed out the door again.

I took the public stage, otherwise known as the city bus, all the way across the city. As a consequence, I missed the social hour and barely had time to take off my modern shoes and outerwear and finish dressing for the banquet and ball. 

The banquet wasn't quite what I had expected. It felt very rushed and there wasn't much time to socialize. It felt a lot like a wedding. Being the world's pickiest eater over the age of 6, I had the children's meal of chicken fingers. They were OK but not great. Dessert was a sweet little apple tart in a graham crust with crumble topping. It tasted nice and was very seasonal but a little disappointing because it was something I could have made myself with some effort. With 850 Janeites and their companions, it was difficult to see or talk to many people.

I sat with some strangers who were quite nice. The lady next to me was from Madison, Wisconsin and I told her how much I love looking at their historical society's website. I wish I could get a job there! She said there are a lot of young(er) adults just out of library school like myself competing for very few jobs in that area. She told me about some other special libraries she had visited like the Budweiser archive. Who knew there was such a thing? Too bad I don't drink beer! It did expand my knowledge of special libraries and where to look for jobs. Next to her was a fellow New Englander and librarian who went all the way to Illinois for library school. On the other side of the librarian was a name I recognized - Janet Mullany. I've only read one of her books, The Rules of Gentility, and found it very funny; and one of her short stories in Jane Austen Made Me Do It. I didn't have a chance to talk to her though.

                                           

After the banquet I joined in the promenade around the hotel lobby. We went up the escalator, around the first floor; up the next escalator and around the main lobby; down and around again. I saw some very lovely costumes and wanted pictures so I dropped out of the promenade after two trips around to photograph the other participants. The gentlemen looked very nice indeed!

More pictures of the promenade:
Promenade Part 1 and Part 2

While the ballroom was getting set up I attended a panel discussion on Jane Austen Around the World. The speakers were Susannah Fullerton of JASA (Australia), Claire Bellanti, (JASNA), Maureen Stiller from the Jane Austen Society (UK), Adriana Sales Zardini of JASBRA (Brazil) and Laaleen Sukhera-Khan of Jane Austen Pakistan; moderated by Joan Ray. 

The last two societies are quite new but very popular. The Jane Austen Society of Pakistan has a large Facebook group with occasional meetings for tea. Jane Austen's world feels very familiar to them, Pakistan being a former British colony. In contrast, Adriana had a difficult time translating Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility into Portuguese. In Portuguese they have only one word for carriage, but Jane Austen's text is so nuanced, the type of carriage named represents the social status and character of the owner. She consulted Spanish and Italian translations for assistance. I wonder if Jane Austen ever considered that people would be reading her novels in a time and place where the rules of society and pop culture references would be foreign to readers? 

The panel discussed patriarchy and Jane Austen readers. It was a difficult question to answer. Susannah Fullerton noted that her native New Zealand was the first country to allow women the vote and female readers there identify with Lizzie Bennet's independent spirit! There were a number of gentlemen in attendance and not just as companions. It seems more acceptable for men to read Jane Austen now. Sadly, Susannah Fullerton's sons don't share the love but they are fully well aware of their mother's work. She shared a funny anecdote about when her son was small, he had a friend over to work on a project. They needed the dining room table so her son told his friend they had to clear off his mother's Jane Austen stuff first. "Who's Jane Austen?" the friend replied. The son responded incredulously "You don't know who Jane Austen is?!" 

I peeked in the ball as the dancing was getting started. I've seen and tried Regency dancing and it's not easy. 

More dancing

Health issues prevent me from trying to dance so I retreated to the card room upstairs. I met some nice ladies and together we learned to play four-handed whist, with special Jane Austen cards, of course. They also had instructions for piquet, lottery fish, backgammon and outside in the lobby area, an ongoing Jane Austen puzzle. See more pictures of the games.

Just as I was winning the card game, my too-modern phone rang with my ride announcing their arrival. Like Cinderella, I had to make a hasty early exit. I had just enough time at the ball to keep me from being bored. I was exhausted and ready to go to bed. 

What I Read in January Part V . . .

What I Read in January Part V . . .

Celebrating Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen's Masterpiece by Susannah Fullerton-- Austenesque

The author takes an in-depth look at all aspects of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's most famous novel. Chapters discuss the writing of the novel; reactions to the book; the style of Pride and Prejudice; chapters on the characters; the translations, and more modern topics such as the sequels, retellings, etc. and the branding of Jane Austen. There is even a chapter dedicated to the first sentence.

I liked the beginning of the book where the author discusses the actual novel and how it came to be. I also liked the literary explanations on the style and the characters. It caused me to think more about certain characters and how I feel about them. I enjoyed learning about the translations, especially since I just read a novel in which the French first edition makes an appearance. The section on the book covers was very interesting. Everyone has their own idea of what the characters are supposed to look like and some publishers ignore the characters and make the covers appeal to a certain readership. I enjoyed the breakdown of the sequels and adaptations. It will help me decide which, if any, I want to read next, though she omits some. I know which ones I do NOT want to read and that's important.

Then the book started to lose me when the author discussed the film and TV adaptations. She inserted her own prejudices and opinions in her summaries and I wish she had left the subjective out and let the reader decide. Everyone has their own favorite version. I felt like she was too biased and didn't appreciate the somewhat condescending tone of the writing. I happen to enjoy the BBC/A&E version by Andrew Davies. I've never seen the 1980s version and I don't think I'd like it because I enjoy watching newer BBC adaptations that are more cinematic than theatrical.

The discussion on Selling Pride and Prejudice and the last chapter on Pride and Prejudice now and in the future felt a bit redundant. I already read Among the Janeites by Deborah Yaffe and watched the documentary The Many Lovers of Jane Austen (look it up on YouTube). This was more of the same.

My favorite part was all the amazing pictures, especially ones from Jane Austen's lifetime and the early illustrated editions of the novel.

If you are new to Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice is your favorite novel, I suggest this is a good place to start learning more.

What I've Read Recently

What I've Read Recently . . .

A Dance With Jane Austen: How a Novelist and her Characters went to the Ball by Susannah Fullerton -- Austenesque non-fiction

This short, full-color book uses anecdotes from Jane Austen's novels, letters and other period resources to explain everything about going to a ball from the dance steps to the clothing, the etiquette, and music and much more. This is a very nice book and I learned a few things about dance in the Regency era. I especially liked the use of period images contemporary to Jane Austen's lifetime. There's an extensive bibliography in the back that leads to more resources including blogs and websites. This is a nice little book for a beginning Janeite who wants to know more about the history behind the dances in her novels.

A Rambling Fancy : In the Footsteps of Jane Austen by Caroline Sanderson

This unusual travel narrative does not provide directions to Jane Austen's homes and haunts, but rather chronicles one woman's thoughts as she travels in the footsteps of Jane Austen. The author claims her purpose is to portray Jane Austen as a contemporary- someone who is still relevant in the modern world. I'm not sure she quite achieves her purpose. She rambles a lot, as the title suggests, about Jane Austen's life, sometimes making controversial statements and provoking purposely. This is largely a biography with a lot of suppositions about how Jane Austen felt while at that particular location. It's more biography than travel. The author visits some interesting obscure places as well as metropolitan London, Chawton, and the usual places in search of Jane Austen. This is an interesting concept for a book but it reads more like a series of blog posts rather than a book. It might be useful for someone living in England who wants to find Jane Austen but for everyone else, it's largely useful for the biographical material. I wouldn't buy this book but if your local library carries it, it's worth a perusal.