"In Pride and Predjudice Caroline tries to engage Darcy with a powerful metonymy of phallic power: "I am afraid you do not like your pen. Let me mend it for you. I mend pens remarkably well." Apparently recognizing the significance of the sexual allusion, Darcy playfully invokes autoeroticism when he answers, "Thank you--but I always mend my own."
--Jill Heydt-Stevenson from "Slipping Into the Ha-Ha: Bawdy Humor and Body Politics in Jane Austen's Novels"
Wow, that actually almost makes me want to read that book. Almost.
Posted by: Tyler Grisham at November 30, 2004 9:22 PMBrilliant.
Posted by: zach at December 1, 2004 12:33 AMI strongly support you bringing this up as a topic for discussion in our next class, if for no other reason than to see the moment of conflict on Wildeman's face:
"Do I laugh? Do I cry? Do I do a little dance while the Austen addicts weep at their own loss of innocence?"
Yeah, I think that would be amusing...
Posted by: steele at December 1, 2004 8:43 AM