I was really excited to read Susan Greenfield's article. I think I've always been a bit annoyed by the obsession with Mr.Darcy, and I'm even more puzzled by it after reading the book. I just couldn't
understand why he became this literary heart throb. I'm not really a fan. The reasons I enjoyed this book had nothing to do with the "romance" aspect and everything to do with the snarky commentary and the variety of female characters. In an interesting twist, the men are kind of just objects in this book. So, it was really refreshing to see that Greenfield shared my opinion on this. In addition, I appreciate that she took the time to explain where the Darcy-heartthrob-phenomenon originated from, which is that BBC miniseries, which certainly has its strong points but misses the mark on other topics, like Mr.Darcy.
This brings me to my next point, which is the fan fiction. The pieces of fanfiction that I read are the embodiment of this misunderstanding of Mr.Darcy which was brought about by that miniseries. The Rated R fics and "Mr.Darcy Steals a Kiss" are particularly strong examples of this--I will focus on the latter. While this fan fiction does have some redeeming features in that it does focus on some of Lizzie's inner dialogue. Her mother is still very much in the picture and she is still pretty crazy. She attempts to give her daughters marriage advice which she obviously has never followed herself and Lizzie points this out. However, this is the extent of Lizzie's inward thought. This is the extent of Lizzie interesting dialogue. The rest if ewwy, gooey, gushy, lovey dialogue between Lizzie and Darcy as he tells her that she talks to much and plots to shut her up with a romantic kiss. -gag- This is not what Austen would have ever done with these characters, in my opinion. I wasn't surprised when I got to the bottom of the page to find that this was posted on "Firthness" in reference to Collin Firth who played Mr.Darcy in the miniseries. So we've come full circle to explain why we have Darcy the heartthrob appearing in this fan fiction, because it is not Austen's Darcy, but Firth's Darcy.
I agree with your confusion over why Darcy became such a huge thing with the fandom. I still don't understand it- the man may not be a TOTAL DICK, but he still acted like one for a while. And we barely even SEE his nice side in the book, we just basically have Lizzy tell us he acts very gentlemanly when we see him in his home. The nicest interaction we really see him have is when he helps the Bennets track down Lydia; which I mean DOES kind of redeem him, but I still don't see how the fans took all of that from 'awkward and sometimes kinda nasty guy is a pretty nice dude when you get to know him' to 'suave, sexy, and nice heartthrob'. They're like, polar opposites. Fanon Darcy is a totally different person.
ReplyDeleteAlso, agreed on the gross mushy dialogue between Lizzie and Darcy. That shit makes me want to barf. Plus I hate that trope of making someone shut up with a kiss; that's like, MEGA disrespectful.
I feel like Austen fans'/society in general's infatuation with Darcy is like a long-lived version of people's die-hard love for Edward and Jacob, respectively (minus all the stalking and abuse and general nastiness). Darcy is an introvert and can be an ass, but he is not an abuser, and that is definitely a point in his favor. I'm still #TeamBingley though.
ReplyDeleteSo, I really, really agree with you on the "men are viewed as objects" point. It was really refreshing to see an older text that viewed men as objects in a society that really looks as women as objects.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you, I didn't really understand the Darcy infactuation, and I still don't get it even after reading the book. I honestly didn't see them getting together, and then Lizzie just fell head over heels for him. It didn't make any sense, except to give the book a happy ending. Though now that I'm writing about Charlotte for my paper, I'm falling more and more in love with her character. Especially after watching the LBD.