On "Persuasion"

I find it a curious coincidence that my literature selections of late have thematically lined up with recent major events in my life. For example, I read two terribly depressing Russian works as I awaited in Navy DEP-limbo; the uncertainty of the future painted those days with a palette of a morose gray. As I continued to read Jane Austen's "Persuasion," my romantic prospects became just as much on the rise as the main characters'. If this direct correlation is to persist throughout my life, it may be in my best interests to stay well away from darker themes and morbid authors! Oh man, I actually still have to pay Nietzsche a visit...

Austen's work contained plenty of characters and situations that I readily and easily empathize with, making the read fulfilling and enjoyable. As a hopeless romantic, it's pitifully easy to fall for these rosy Victorian-themed love stories, but their nature feels more real and the connections more concrete than the gritty representation the genre receives in Hollywood today. Given that, there really wasn't altogether too much to learn from the novel, per se, save for an anecdotal history lesson on the woman's condition in early 19th-century Britain.

Select quotations from Austen's work:

p.3

"... but Anne, with an elegance of mind and sweetness of character, which must have placed her high with any people of real understanding, was nobody with either father or sister: her word had no weight;  her convenience was always to give way; - she was only Anne."

p.29

"Anne always contemplated them as some of the happiest creatures of her acquaintance; but still, saved as we all are by some comfortable feeling of superiority from wishing for the possibility of exchange, she would not have given up her own more elegant and cultivated mind for all their enjoyments ..."

p.40

"If there is any thing disagreeable going on, men are always sure to get out of it ..."
"Nursing does not belong to a man, it is not his province. A sick child is always the mother's property, her own feelings generally make it so."

p.61

"... autumn, that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness, that season which has drawn from every poet, worthy of being read, some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling."

p.93

"One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best."

p.110

"My idea of good company, Mr Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company."
"You are mistaken," said he gently, "that is not good company, that is the best. Good company requires only birth, education and manners, and with regard to education is not very nice. Birth and good manners are essential; but a little learning is by no means a dangerous thing in good company, on the contrary, it will do very well."

 p.173: On Women Being More Enduring In Love

"Yes. We certainly do not forget about you, so soon as you forget us. It is, perhaps, our fate rather than our merit. We cannot help ourselves. We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us. You have always a profession, pursuits, business of some sort or other, to take you back into the world immediately, and continual occupation and change soon weaken impressions."

p.174: Man's Retort to Above, plus Irony

"... I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon a woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men."
"Perhaps I shall. - Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands."

 p.185

"When any two young people take it into their heads to marry, they are pretty sure by perseverance to carry their point, be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent, or ever so little likely to be necessary to each other's ultimate comfort." 

Oh, and by the way, Jane Austen loves the Navy:

p.12

"... in the way of business, gentlemen of the navy are well to deal with."

p.50

"... though professing that he would never willingly admit any ladies on board a ship of his, excepting for a ball, or a visit, which a few hours might comprehend."

p.73

"... the character of the navy - their friendliness, their brotherliness, their openness, their uprightness; protesting that she was convinced of sailors having more worth and warmth than any other set of men in England; that they only knew how to live, and they only deserved to be respected and loved."

p.188

"She gloried in being a sailor's wife, but she must pay the tax of quick alarm for belonging to that profession which is, if possible, more distinguished in its domestic virtues than its national importance."

 -----

Austen, Jane. Persuasion. Mineola: Dover Publications, 1997. Print.

So Ronery

Thank you, 4chan, for once again expressing in such simple terms the complexity of my desires.

Insulation

   How is self-imposed hermitage - the deliberate stifling of one's soul, the theft of ennoblement, the obstinacy against the arousing spirits of strangers ... how is this not a crime against the advancement of our common humanity?

   To stagnate is to die: Apply yourself to the employ of others' happiness; let not your character become scarce in the mirth of the crowd; do not readily refuse the pleasure of another person's company!

Economy Class

I wasn't especially thrilled about my flight back home from Virginia - widening the gap between my beloved cousins and myself by thousands upon thousands of miles was not exactly the most exciting way to spend a perfectly good afternoon. A gloomy homecoming did not befit a perfect spring day; I would much have rather enjoyed the cliche of an overcast and depressing day.

Yet a gentleman could not allow his spirits to be dampened to the point of crassness! That would be unacceptable behavior.

So when the lady who sat beside me told a flight attendant that she would like to buy a pair of headphones to listen to the in-flight movie - I find such sales to be an annoying business ploy - I kindly offered her the use of my own. Besides, mine looked much cooler than the solid black headphones Delta was selling. I'm still convinced that she immediately felt her coolness factor improve significantly as soon as she put on my white-and-blue Sony headphones but she was a bit too shy to thank me for doing her such an enormous favor. Surely her husband also noticed but was equally afraid to thank a fine young gentleman such as myself. Ha!

The lady returned my headphones as soon as the movie was over, but expressed thanks for only the act of sharing and not how awesome I just made her. I felt slighted, to say the least, but then she asked a question that more than made up for her now-insignificant "crime."

"So are you going to California for business?"

For a moment I was taken aback. No one in my short life thus far has ever asked me if I'm ever headed somewhere "for business" or something of similar importance. I felt good about her having asked me that. My heart began swelling with pride, my spirit suddenly lifted by her keen eye. Something about me must have stirred a curiosity in her, to have led her to make that inquiry. Then I had that "A-ha" moment:

I was wearing my Office Casual outfit as seen in this Lookbook entry.

So what's the moral of the story, kids?

1. Random acts of kindness is always in style.
2. Dressing like you're important is an automatic icebreaker.
3. Hugs, not drugs.

Anachronisms

• I have an antiquated, obsolescent, Victorian view of love and romance. 
• I find great enjoyment from the music of Miles Davis and his other jazz contemporaries.
• I am of the opinion that the classic works of literature are far more worthwhile, instructional, versatile, and timeless than modern writings.

• I believe that the true worth of man and woman lie in virtue, industry, and class; anything else is merely a bonus.
• I cannot help but be drawn to the smoky, almost coarse, qualities of a female jazz vocalist.
• I suffer from an unwarranted reluctance to accept simplistic modern American English as an acceptable vessel for eloquent delivery.

• I yearn to win a lady's heart through gallantry and charm, not through such shallow straits of sculptured physique and dashing handsomeness (although I wouldn't surrender the opportunity to gain either).
• I hate how hollow the catchy tunes of today sound, how insincere the words of these "love songs" ring.
• I deplore ignorance on all levels of expression - including my own. This post itself reeks of it.

• I, of improving wit and countenance and capability, am a fearfully old soul trapped in a time not of his own.