Good point in this review of Persuasion: Netflix, like the other streaming platforms, is mostly producing content for us to be (vaguely and mildly) entertained while we do other things. It's sad to see Austen used as fodder for such a project, but as Kayleigh Donaldson says, public domain material helps the production bottom line.
So a big part of what seems so objectionable in the new Persuasion, if the reviews I've read are correct, can actually be attributed to sheer laziness and dare I say cheapness of the enterprise, in which the viewers and consumers are complicit when we accept our part of the contract: that we won't pay attention.
Fine.
I just want to warn against the message conveyed at the end of the trailer, be it ever so ubiquitous and not limited to this disaster of a remake: "Don't let anyone tell you how to live -- or who to love."
Well, if we are honest, we can look around and see that if there were more guardians burdened by their duty to guide the young in our society, we'd be better off. This is on my mind right now due to a tragic event in my own community. Yes, girls! Let those who love you help you!
A lazy production can't help having a lame world view, but this one can destroy happiness. Those who read the book (perhaps belatedly, while in jail for their cinematic crimes?) know that Anne Eliot actually loves and respects -- and understands and even forgives! -- Lady Russell and her motives for directing her young charge away from her attachment to Captain Wentworth. The subsequent, more mature recovery of their love is the result, as always with Austen, of a rational attachment. It's only our modern sensibility that sees conflict in the connection between reason and love.
But a young woman who thinks, because her ideas of love are formed by the entertainment industry, that there is no danger to her happiness and even her life in being left without counsel regarding how to live and who to love (whom, really, but let it pass) is being sadly and even fatally misguided. Miss Jane thought so, even while she admitted that Lady Russell was mistaken. Erring is not as bad as not making the effort!
(I heartily recommend this book for a deeper investigation into Jane Austen's real view of romantic love: The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After by Elizabeth Kantor. Delightful in its complete grounding in the novels and clarifying for the perplexed.)
Hi Leila. Somehow in my discovery of Austen about 5 yrs ago, I found an unusual Austen scholar. He is politically very left as far I can tell, but he studies the, what he calls, shadow stories of Austen's writing. Although I disagree with most of his politics, I do find his writings interesting to read. Here is a quick fb post of this new production from him, which I find interesting. Certainly, I need lessons in acknowledgement of pride. Perhaps your friend knows of this man. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10160129065539382&id=843889381
ReplyDeletePersuasion is probably my 2nd favorite Austen novel. I could tell by the trailer that I wouldn't like the movie, and wouldn't be watching it. So many cheap jabs meant to make us laugh, I suppose. Anne doesn't seem to really be Anne at all. And yes, that closing line also proves they missed the mark. Another hijacking of a classic to be a vehicle of modernity, bummer. (But I am off to seek the adaptation mentioned in the prison article above!)
ReplyDeleteI just got that book, btw and it is wonderful! Linking how dear Miss Jane wrote the characters and linked them to the virtues and vices we all face in the world. An Amazing good read! Highly recommend!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this. I was unaware they were remaking Persuasion—and they obviously RE-MADE it, in their own image! The trailer makes it clear that it is not Anne Eliot they are portraying. Anne is probably my favorite Austen heroine—not because she was spunky, but because she wasn’t!!! As for that last line in the trailer—they may as well have put a rainbow flag up at the end.
ReplyDeleteThis whole idea that “no one should ever tell you whom to love” is so dangerous because it’s meaning is “don’t let anyone warn you about the dangers of marrying someone who might not be good for you”. I know of too many failed marriages in conservative Christian circles to believe that. If loved ones had had the courage to warn the person before the mistake was made—well, it might not have been made.
We have been discussing “dating” and finding a spouse in my house because of the young adults growing in my midst and so I wrote about our reflections on our substack. One of my pieces of advice is to involve loved ones early on in getting to know a potential spouse—especially loved ones who are accustomed to speaking hard truths (unfortunately those are the ones usually on the outskirts of families and groups). You need them to help you see clearly.
https://jfish1535.substack.com/p/the-course-of-true-love-never-did
Didn’t mean to post above without my name.
Delete