Nawwwwh, 'Jane Austen Book Club'

Posted on January 10, 2014 by richardgoulter
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I liked this movie.
It’s about readers, kindof. In a loose kindof way, about books and writers and readers and the ethos and relationships and interactions these have..
Of readers and their passion, and their prejudice, their interpretation and projection, their snobby-ness or naivety, knowledge or ignorance..

- And I love that meta-shit like writers writing about writers, or about loving books.
Or at least some narrative about readers. :-) And as a reader to ‘read’ a narrative about readers is cute, too.

Although just as I’m likely to like that, I’m just as likely to dislike parts of it.
There seems to be a zealous fever in favor of Jane Austen and how amazing Austen is. Appealing to that makes me feel the narrator is appealing to the zealotry (to “Austen fans”), rather than … I don’t know. Rather than ‘to readers’? – What I mean is, I dislike narrations which try and have value to some group of people, simply based on what this people likes. e.g., I reckon the later Harry Potter books are liked so well simply because they’re “Harry Potter”, and not just good narratives.

Anyway.

I think there are many moments in the film which are adorable.
The recommendations to the new acquaintance. (“Oh, you should read.. ..you’ll love it!”).
The story of how one first came to read the genre.
The willful(?) ignorance of a genre one hasn’t read; (“sci fi is all ‘spaceships and aliens’ … not about real people”). How’s one to know if one likes something or not if one doesn’t try it?
Reading a book until the last chapter at night. Reading a book all in one night. Being so excited and immediately reading the next book..

…I dunno. :-) It’s a cute movie.


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