So, I have come to the realization that I have a bit of an obsessive personality.
I get really, really "into" different things. When I was moving and redoing our house, I was really focused on renovations and decorating. The outside deck space was the same. It works really handily in teaching, when I can get really focused on a unit or subject with my students, and completely envelope myself in whatever it is. That passion bleeds over to (hopefully!) sharing some of that excitement with the students, too.
It also is definitely related to the whole nerd, fandom thing that I talk a bit about here and again here.
This whole aspect of my personality helped me really enjoy my recent weekend.
Let me preface this with a quick explanation: I find it very, very difficult to name a favourite book, simply because I have so many favourites. But when I do have to name one, I go to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
I was in grade four the first time I read it. Jane Eyre was the first classic I read, and I was hooked. After that, I delved into Shakespeare, Dickens, the rest of the Bronte sisters... and then, then I found Jane Austen, and Elizabeth Bennet, and her sisters, and her parents, and Mr. Collins, Mr. Bingley...
And of course, Mr. Darcy.
It probably doesn't hurt that I have quite the crush on Colin Firth, to this day.
Age be damned, in my mind, this is what he will always look like:
Okay, who am I kidding? Probably also like this:
When I am sick, my husband makes me a "nest" of blankets on the couch, a giant pot of tea, and puts on the 1995 BBC production (which I believe is the quintessential movie version).
Anyway, the point is, that I love Pride and Prejudice. I am not sure of the exact number of times I have read it, but I know the number is definitely more than any other book (excepting, of course, the books I teach.)
So, a couple months ago, when a friend commented on Facebook about a "Pride and Prejduice Ball" in a nearby city, I may have had a minor episode.
The kind of episode where there is hand clapping, jumping up and down, eyes tearing up, and general "freaking out".
My husband agreed to go with me, on only one condition: he could grow mutton chops.
I have an awesome husband.
A couple of weeks ago, we attended a dance class in the city in which it would be held. We learned Regency-era dances. We bowed and turned and "casted off" and actually had a lot of fun. And we were a little better than we thought we would be! (Maybe we just set the bar low, but that is beside the point.)
I also decided I would read, or reread, all of Austen's novels. I didn't finish Mansfield Park in time, but I did squeeze in Lady Susan, so I was pretty content with that. (Stay tuned - after I finish Mansfield Park, I will be addressing and ranking each of them in a blog post. Gee, I wonder which will be my favourite?) I saved Pride and Prejudice until the end, and actually finished it about half an hour before I started getting ready.
Then, finally, after weeks and weeks of waiting, after flying through the familiar words and characters and landscapes and manners in the pages, and even after rewatching some Austen-themed movies (none of the ones adapted from novels, but rather Austenland and Becoming Jane), it was finally Saturday, finally time to start getting ready.
I managed to get my thin, rather short hair up, with pieces curled down in ringlets, a la Elizabeth Bennet. I did my makeup, put on jewelry, and slipped on the gown I had rented for the occasion. My in-laws were attending with us, and she actually made their outfits and my reticule! They looked amazing!
Then, the four of us were off - by the c-train! I am not sure which struck me as more odd: the funny looks and comments we got, or the fact that we got way fewer of those looks and comments than I was expecting!
We made it to the hotel at which the event was being hosted, and... just... oh wow.
Have you ever been caught up in something that is just so awesome that it is hard to put into words?
Yeah, that.
I have been blessed enough to have experienced a few things in my life so far that can be described in that way. This was one of them.
Dinner was lovely, the atmosphere was lovely. The manners and dances and ambiance were just incredible. There were so many people there, all in costume, all enthusiastic to be a part of something that has touched people for hundreds of years. References were thrown around about something being a "total Mr. Collins move." We were announced into the ballroom and "took a turn about the room". I wore long gloves. The men wore tails. We watched and admired so many different people, walking and dancing, playing traditional cards and dice games. And we danced - yes. You know those amazing dances you see in those old movies? We learned those, and danced them.
(I promise, it is not as hard as it looks! Well, mostly...)
But you know what is crazy? Hundreds of people came together because of two writers.
1. Jane Austen
2. Melanie Kerr
The first name on that list is pretty obvious, but expect an in-depth blog about her in coming days.
The second name may be slightly less familiar to you.
Tara-Melanie, the individual behind the Pride and Prejudice Ball, began the event with Kickstarter campaign as part of her author platform. She is an author of Austenesque fiction, and my lovely mother-in-law bought me one of her books while we were at the ball! I am definitely looking forward to reading that one.
A writer did all of this. It was for her writing.
Just think about that for a moment: a writer loves the era about which she is writing so much, that she begins organizing events. The events are popular and quite well done, at least from my own recent experiences. She even has collected costumes over the years, which she rents out. She connects with other costume rentals and related vendors. She has embraced so much of that era and world, all in relation to her writing.
It is so wondrous to me that the movement of a hand can scratch shapes out on a page - a stroke of a pen, an impression of a computer key. Those lines and curves and squiggles make up words, and sentences, and connotations, and ideas, and experiences. We laugh, we cry, we hope, dream, fear, wonder. We debate. Hell, we argue. We are swept away. We are crashed into the earth. Some of those figures and squiggles pass over us just as our eyes pass over them - fleetingly, inconsequentially.
But sometimes, some of those figures and squiggles stick with us, as imprinted into ourselves as surely as they are physically imprinted onto each page. Perhaps more-so.
Sometimes we become so wrapped up in whatever those shapes are, that the meaning of them, the characters that they bring to life, the settings they paint in our imaginations, the conflicts which cause us to shake our heads or bite our lips or tense every muscle as we turn the page - sometimes, those things become so important to us, that they change our ideas. Maybe about life, or death, or love, or hate. Maybe about history, or the future. Maybe about the world, or ourselves.
Sometimes, enough people are changed and imprinted that all of that still matters to the world hundreds of years later.
And sometimes, very, very rarely, those squiggles may even make one little girl fall in love with literature. So much so, that more than 20 years later, she will twirl and prance and giggle like that ten-year-old girl she once was, when she actually gets to step into that world for just a few hours.
What is your favourite book? Have you ever gotten to visit something related to it?
And here's another question: If you could step into the world of any book you have read, only temporarily, mind you, what would you choose?
I'd love to read your comments below, and please do not hesitate to sign up for my monthly newsletter, which you can do via my contact page. I am particularly excited about what is coming our for the writing piece in the next one.
In case you are interested, here is the contact information for Melanie Kerr's books:
and for the event-planning, including the Pride and Prejudice Balls: