One question, though: fashions have been reaching into the past for “retro” looks for the past couple decades, with a lot of emphasis on the 70’s and 80’s. Could we please cast a little further back so that the fashions of the 30’s and 40’s would come back into style? There’s a level of class that seems to have gone missing, and I’d love to see it come back.
One comment I do have is that romance has indeed changed a great deal since Austen’s day. It hard to characterize the temper with which people marry in her stories. On the one hand, you have people that seem to engage after knowing one another for barely two weeks, then at the other end there are those who engage within a month of re-meeting after spending many years on ill terms. Yet, as they are depicted, their love is true. This leads one to wonder if the idea that the increase interaction in modern times of man and woman are a detriment to their ability to love and share true happiness. (Most often put forth in arguments against premarital conjugation and cohabitation.)
Perhaps it is my mood at the moment. I felt out of place today, awkward, alone, seeking something. But I don’t know where I do belong. I’m not sure I have words to describe what it is that’s missing in society. I can’t articulate why I ache. Sometimes I long for another era, for a resurrection of times past, but I wonder whether I am simply imagining a fantasy with rose-colored retro-lenses, painting a picture of a place in my mind that never existed in the world. Books and movies aren’t reality. But reading Jay’s review and then Michael’s has confirmed to me that others may share my longings and imagination. They’ve also given me words to describe what I want to see in our society: class and happiness.
