Let the Discussion(s) begin!

All right, readers! Here is the first "defense" of the Austen Hero Poll. Thank you, Author Bee for writing such an entertaining post. A good defense, too. Any other takers? You can write of it on your own blog or still email me your views and opinions. I'd love to see more on this. I thoroughly enjoy it!

And hang on to your Austen bonnets--a new poll coming soon! I have a few ideas of polls I'll be doing (Austen heroines, best movie adaptations, Austen and works vs. other authors and works), but are there any ideas from the readers' gallery?

"A certain something in her air and manner of walking..."

I am a walker. I love walking! I could never tire of it. Well, all right. I could. If I went about it incessantly for hours my legs might finally give out. But I love the time it gives me to think, observe, contemplate, revel, joy, and a number of other things. I get some of that when I run, too, but it is definitely a different thing. Anywho. I found a walking calorie burner counter today that I thought would be fun to have available for others. So, I'm including it over on the side of the blog. After all, Janeites are needed to be healthy in body as well as in mind and spirit.

What Else Doth Mine Henry Possess?

My dear Henry not only has an excellent sense of humor (complete with sweet sarcasm!), but he is also very clever and witty. Such a true comparison that it is one of my favorites. Observe from this passage of Northanger Abbey:

Her partner now drew near, and said, "That gentleman would have put me out of patience, had he stayed with you half a minute longer. He has no business to withdraw the attention of my partner from me. We have entered into a contract of mutual agreeableness for the space of an evening, and all our agreeableness belongs solely to each other for that time. Nobody can fasten themselves on the notice of one, without injuring the rights of the other. I consider a country-dance as an emblem of marriage. Fidelity and complaisance are the principal duties of both; and those men who do not choose to dance or marry themselves, have no business with the partners or wives of their neighbours." 

"But they are such very different things!" 

" -- That you think they cannot be compared together." 

"To be sure not. People that marry can never part, but must go and keep house together. People that dance only stand opposite each other in a long room for half an hour." 

"And such is your definition of matrimony and dancing. Taken in that light certainly, their resemblance is not striking; but I think I could place them in such a view. You will allow, that in both, man has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal; that in both, it is an engagement between man and woman, formed for the advantage of each; and that when once entered into, they belong exclusively to each other till the moment of its dissolution; that it is their duty, each to endeavour to give the other no cause for wishing that he or she had bestowed themselves elsewhere, and their best interest to keep their own imaginations from wandering towards the perfections of their neighbours, or fancying that they should have been better off with anyone else. You will allow all this?" 

"Yes, to be sure, as you state it, all this sounds very well; but still they are so very different. I cannot look upon them at all in the same light, nor think the same duties belong to them." 

"In one respect, there certainly is a difference. In marriage, the man is supposed to provide for the support of the woman, the woman to make the home agreeable to the man; he is to purvey, and she is to smile. But in dancing, their duties are exactly changed; the agreeableness, the compliance are expected from him, while she furnishes the fan and the lavender water. That, I suppose, was the difference of duties which struck you, as rendering the conditions incapable of comparison." 

"No, indeed, I never thought of that." 

"Then I am quite at a loss. One thing, however, I must observe. This disposition on your side is rather alarming. You totally disallow any similarity in the obligations; and may I not thence infer that your notions of the duties of the dancing state are not so strict as your partner might wish? Have I not reason to fear that if the gentleman who spoke to you just now were to return, or if any other gentleman were to address you, there would be nothing to restrain you from conversing with him as long as you chose?" 

"Mr. Thorpe is such a very particular friend of my brother's, that if he talks to me, I must talk to him again; but there are hardly three young men in the room besides him that I have any acquaintance with." 

"And is that to be my only security? Alas, alas!" 

"Nay, I am sure you cannot have a better; for if I do not know anybody, it is impossible for me to talk to them; and, besides, I do not want to talk to anybody." 

"Now you have given me a security worth having; and I shall proceed with courage."

Just Wondering...

Has anyone tried to send an Austen Hero email, yet? I'm pretty sure I got the link to the email working right. But I haven't received anything and I wanted to be sure it wasn't a problem with the link. I hope you're all enjoying your defenses. Gotta be better than defending something, like, say...a thesis!

Polls are Closed!

I wait in anxiousness for the words from thy mouths. Or, fingers. Thank you to all who helped contribute to the 19 votes! Although, does anyone notice that the thing below the poll tallied 15 votes? Trouble counting I suppose. Oh well. There are some men who need some defending. And maybe even some who need accusing. I don't know what may come, but I'm excited to see it!