Tag: Books

Fictional relationships that have turned me to goo

You know how sometimes you become too invested in a fictional couple? That’s me, currently. And while I have wild ambitions to fill this blog with smart posts that closely analyze media and show that I am capable of deep and nuanced thinking…uh, instead here’s a list of some of my favorite fictional couples!

In case you were wondering, the cause of my current case of distraction is Our Flag Means Death on HBOMax. It’s a ten episode season of half hour episodes and is a goofy, funny little pirate show that somehow makes you really sad at the end? Give it a try and then harass HBO to renew it for a second season.

The ships are comin’ in, captain! The relationships, that is. (Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash)

Or check out this very non-comprehensive list of some of my favorite fictional couples.

A quick aside: This list was mostly for what was top of mind, but I did decide to do a quick Google search for some all-time great couples just to see if I was forgetting anything glaring, and some of the results were wild. And proof that not enough people have actually read classic novels. (Listen, Scarlett and Rhett are a very interesting couple but they are not goals! Cathy and Heathcliffe is the weirdest relationship goal you could ever have, please don’t! Who included Pip and Estella from Great Expectations? That’s obscure and also wrong! Also, the correct ship from that book is clearly Miss Havisham and her old wedding dress. If you would like more classic novel relationship hot takes, let me know and I will provide.)

All right, with that out of the way, here is the list in question:

Television

David and Patrick – Schitt’s Creek

Have I had out of body experiences because this particular relationship on this particular show makes me so damn happy? I’m pretty sure I have.

In general, Schitt’s Creek is a show absolutely worth watching and anyone who has spent five seconds on the internet and been inundated with nonstop memes knows this already or is too annoyed to give the show a chance.

Almost every last character on this show is an absolute delight. But David might be my favorite? And his relationship with Patrick is one of my favorite things in the history of scripted television and on my initial watch definitely made me cry at least thrice.

Josh and Donna – The West Wing

Okay. I know this is kind of problematic. Josh is ~~sort of~~ a huge asshole and flirting with the person who works for you is complicated on a whole number of levels. BUT Bradley Whitford and Janel Moloney have a lot of chemistry and I was still happy they ended up together.

This is one of my early ships from middle school or something so my feelings about the The West Wing are considerably more complicated these days. Still! They are a formative fictional couple for me. I enjoy watching this emotionally constipated man realize he’s been in love with someone for like five years.

Leslie and Ben – Parks and Rec

Another workplace relationship but this one I still fully endorse. Leslie Knope is one of my favorite characters on television in general and Adam Scott is incredible? (If you haven’t seen Severance, you should. He is startlingly good in it.) I picked up this show when it was around season four, and I remember absolutely tearing through it at every free possible moment not just because it’s very good but also because I was dying to see the Leslie and Ben thing play out.

Impossible not to love a “they have so much chemistry and really want to get together but are trying not to because of other reasons but can’t stay apart” relationship. Inject it into my veins.

Books

Darcy and Elizabeth – Pride and Prejudice

This is my most basic opinion, but it’s not wrong. Also, all the classic literature lists that included Heathcliffe and Cathy as an iconic relationship but not Darcy and Elizabeth…huh?

I personally like Jane Austen (very brave, I know). Her sense of humor strikes me just right and her characters are so fun to watch bounce off each other. And that includes the main couple in this book. Darcy’s first proposal and Elizabeth’s subsequent rejection of him his an incredible scene that should be put in a museum. The scene at the end when Elizabeth tells Darcy’s aunt that she and Darcy are definitely NOT engaged but she will also not agree to never become engaged to him just because she’s pissed off? Chef’s kiss! I love a man who comes back to propose because he heard you told off his mean, rich aunt.

Also, yes, Colin Firth is the best Mr. Darcy and his smolder is very real.

Remus Lupin and Sirius Black – Harry Potter

My feelings toward this series have become pretty complicated in the past few years largely due to the author of said series being a mean person. In order to include the series, I felt it only fitting to push my favorite relationship of the series even though it has been explicitly rejected by the author. I don’t care. She can shut up because she is wrong.

Lupin and Sirius 4ever.

Yes, this still holds true if you are a Lupin and Tonks fan. People can be bisexual!

Just, come on, the friendship, the hiding, the betrayal, the reunion, the cohabitating, the joint Christmas present? I wrote a lot of fanfiction back in the day. Don’t fight me on this.

Achilles and Patroclus

I guess Achilles and Patroclus are technically a fandom ship because The Iliad never outright said they were a couple but um…I consider them canon. (And when it comes to Greek mythology, what really is canon, anyway? The Iliad is basically fanfiction.)

Because I am a History Nerd^TM and a School Nerd^TM, my support for these two as a couple started in high school when I read The Iliad for the first time in Latin class. (In case you were curious, the previous sentence is a good encapsulation of who I am as a person.) And I have been shipping them ever since.

Saying this makes me a bit of an Achilles/Patroclus hipster, since I was about them many years before Madeline Miller wrote The Song of Achilles, but I don’t judge. Also, The Song of Achilles? Good book.

I don’t really recommend reading The Iliad unless you want to read a lot of gruesome battle descriptions and lists of how people are related to each other. But I do recommend you consider that after Patroclus was killed by Hector, Achilles had an all out grief fest, hosted funeral games, killed like half the Greek army, and then murdered Hector and defiled his body because of how upset he was. Just consider it.

Also this:

A black cloud of grief came shrouding over Achilles.
Both hands clawing the ground for soot and filth,
he poured it over his head, fouled his handsome face
and black ashes settled onto his fresh clean war-shirt.
Overpowered in all his power, sprawled in the dust,
Achilles lay there, fallen . . .
tearing his hair, defiling it with his own hands.
Book 18 of The Iliad

It is worth mentioning Achilles and Patroclus both brutally murder their fair share of people on the field of battle. So, like, iconic couple, but also…it’s complicated.

Red and Blue – This is How You Lose the Time War

This book is extremely good. I listened to the audiobook and the narration was also extremely good. And it’s short! Now I love a long book, but a novella composed of love letters opponents write each other during an intergalatic war that involves time travel is one of the best ideas anyone has ever had.

There was a time when this book was getting recommended a lot and some people thought it was overhyped. But those people are wrong. I just love all the ways these characters find and consume letters to each other (sometimes literally consuming the letters in the process). It is somehow sweeping and epic and also deeply personal and just really lovely all around.

Movies

Danielle and Henry – Ever After

This movie has been a favorite of mine since I first saw it in theaters when I was in the third or fourth grade. And I have watched it so many times since that I basically have the entire thing memorized. And it is still so good! And so quotable.

Danielle and Henry first meet when she throws an apple at his head to stop him from stealing her father’s horse. Then, during their second meeting, she tells him off for being a rich boor. And he is about it. I love how this relationship centers around Danielle unabashedly speaking her mind, even when that involves insulting Henry, and he cannot get enough of it. I also like that he’s a rich brat and Danielle helps expand his worldview.

The actors have really good chemistry and the relationship is believable. And all the side characters are so fun! The entire move is gold.

Dido Belle and John Davinier – Belle (2013)

Anyone else other than me remember this movie? I own it on DVD and watch it at least once a year and I love it a lot. In fact, despite being an aforementioned History Nerd^TM, I refuse to read about the real history of Dido Belle because I like the movie world and I suspect history is not as good. (Sorry, history, you’re a real one.)

John Davinier is one of the most earnest men written into existence, and this movie is what helped me recognize that I am super into earnest men as characters and love interests. There’s a scene where he yells at Belle’s uncle in a carriage about how sincerely he loves her and every time my entire body threatens to explode with feeling.

Don’t know what this says about me, but I recommend checking it out.

Evie and Rick – The Mummy (and The Mummy Returns)

These movies are good. There I said it. And Evie and Rick are a perfect power couple. The squabbling and coming together in the first movie is good and then the married couple wild for each other in the second movie is great! I love to see happily married couples on the screen (side shoutout to Thin Man movies for this by the way), even if they are chaotic and horny in weird situations.

As a history nerd librarian, Evie is basically life goals and Rick is a perfect himbo. How can you not support the two of them?

It also does the fun one-two punch that the Alien movies do, where the first movie is a sort of horror (liberally sprinkled with clips) and the second is mostly just action adventure (also with many quips). On a related note, I refuse to acknowledge that the third movie exists.

Give me your opinions on these couples or share your own faves. Let me know if you would like some hot takes on classical literature. Let’s pretend the world is not terrifying and is instead gentle and comforting for a moment.

June 1, 2022
Read more banned books

It’s Banned Books Week! Or, maybe you’re reading this at some point in the future and it’s no longer Banned Books Week. Easy solution: Live your life like every week is Banned Books Week.

In the past, I have often celebrated this auspicious occasion by reading a banned book. When I used to do a book podcast (um, I used to host book podcast called Novel Ideas, if you want to listen to some old book takes), my brother and I would go look up recently challenged books and read them.

On the one hand, if you take this approach, you get to read a lot of great books! On the other hand, it’s depressing and predictable what’s going to make the list. If a book has LGBTQ+ content it’s like a million times more likely to be on the list. Also, books that deal with important but dark subjects get put on there a lot because the content is so shocking and terrible! But the point is to talk about a difficult subject? And how can we talk about difficult subjects without talking about them?

It probably goes without saying, but I am not a fan of banning books or trying to dictate what anyone reads. When I was a kid, my mom let me read pretty much anything, even if it was out of my age range or above my reading level. (This is how I read The Fellowship of the Ring in the fifth grade and didn’t understand it at all and then read Dracula in the seventh grade and what the hell. My mom truly let me read whatever.) I got to experience some really cool books this way! I also read some stuff that went way over my head and I didn’t realize just how much until I read the books again at an appropriate age.

I was going to make a joke about someone knocking that stack over, but I don’t think anyone will ever want to read any of those books. (Photo by Ying Ge on Unsplash)

I’d also like to say that this isn’t the sort of position where I don’t like it when certain books are banned but am okay with it in other contexts. I do not approve even when stupid books I don’t like are challenged. Reading a stupid book I don’t like has often made me annoyed, but I think there’s value in reading them nonetheless. Reading opens you up to new worlds and perspectives and helps you learn more about what you like and what you think. And if that book challenges your set worldview? Good.

Reading dumb stuff you don’t like sometimes can help you clarify your thinking more. Maybe it helps you better articulate why you don’t like certain things, maybe it helps you think more critically about why you don’t like certain things. Whatever the result, the process is good and it helps you grow.

What’s not great is looking at list of what a book contains and claiming that it’s going to corrupt young minds. That shit is tired. Scandalized by sex? The internet and television both exist and both of those things contain sex, so it’s not like teens will never hear be exposed to sex unless they read Lady Chatterly’s Lover or something. Violence is all over television too. The American Library Association points out that some of the most frequently challenged books contain diverse content. I mean…gay people exist and so do Black people and banning a book won’t change that.

Also, can we please stop trying to ban books that teach children about their bodies and where babies come from? They need to get the information from somewhere and a reliable book with good information is much better than a parent stammering through a half-assed explanation. We all have bodies! It’s okay to learn about them.

Reading new books will challenge you, will teach you to think about different people and points of view, will introduce you to new ideas, will generally make you more empathetic, more open, and more willing to embrace nuance.

I’m incredibly biased because I love to read, but even if you think the above is a little too rosy, you have to admit that a good book can make you have a lot of feelings and a lot of thoughts and that’s a good thing.

With all that said, I encourage you to read some banned books! Maybe some that have been challenged recently or are frequent targets. Maybe something like…

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

I had to include this because Speak was one of the most challenged books in 2020 and the thought that a whole swathe of people saw a book that is literally about a young girl trying to find the courage to speak out and then decided they wanted to silence it is really just a whole level of irony I wasn’t prepared for.

The book does deal with sexual assault, so take that into account. But I remember when I first read this book in high school, it blew my entire mind. It takes the issue really seriously and shows the long-lasting effects of assault and how people’s responses to it often continue to harm victims.

Apparently one of the reasons it was challenged was because “it was claimed to be biased against male students.” Umm, only those who commit sexual assault. Which, is probably an okay reason to be biased against someone. Maybe read the book next time?

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

This is a cute picture book features two male penguins at a zoo who adopt an egg and when the baby penguin hatches, they have a little family. The story is based around two real life penguins who did something similar.

The fact that an adorable children’s book about gay penguins nurturing an egg and subsequently a baby penguin is the sixth most challenged book of the past decade really tells you something about society. Not sure what, exactly, but something.

Read this one to your children out of spite and then feel a little warming in your heart.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

A graphic novel and a memoir, this book is a really interesting look into Bechdel’s family and her relationship with her father. It includes a couple surprising revelations about her dad and her own journey to discovering who she is.

In case you haven’t guessed it already, the book is not called Fun Home because Bechdel grew up in a really fun home. But certainly one rife with secrets and frustrated desires.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Timely for a whole host of reasons and I’m sure it’s challenged for the exact reasons it’s relevant. I liked this book and thought it did a good job tackling a tough topic and making it relatable. The book is definitely YA and features some of those common YA tropes, but I didn’t mind that so much because of who the intended audience is. It’s a good entry point for adults too, though.

This book also recently was made into a movie, which I didn’t see, so I can’t vouch for its quality. But the book is definitely worth checking out.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

This book is wild and dark. It has lots of metaphorical hauntings and one haunting that seems to be pretty literal. At times this one takes turns that will leave you scratching your head, but ultimately it faces the brutal history of our nation and grapples with how the past can cause ongoing trauma that people carry with them for a long time.

Quick aside: I recommend reading Toni Morrison in general, but if you are an audiobook person, try to find one that she has narrated! Her voice is lovely and soothing and listening to her read her own work made a lot of the writing style come alive for me in a way it didn’t when my own clunky brain was trying to process it.

Awakening by Kate Chopin

In my junior year of high school we had the option of reading a couple different books, and I specifically chose Awakening because it had created such a scandal when it was first published for featuring a woman who cheated on her husband. Spoiler alert: This book is not lurid and contains no sex. It’s all implied and vaguely talked around. Seventeen-year-old me was extremely put out by this fact.

Reading the book again years later, I was less annoyed by the lack of sex. Instead, I was struck by the fact that the main character had complicated feelings about her children, and I thought that was really cool. She’s allowed to be unhappy in her marriage, not because her husband is a terrible, abusive human being, but just because she doesn’t like him very much. And she’s allowed to be ambivalent about being a mother. Those are not things you get to see very often!

Spoiler alert: She is not allowed a happy ending and gets punished for her transgressions. Thank goodness they don’t make us all walk into the sea when our children give us complicated feelings.

This list is definitely not exhaustive. I’ve read other books on the banned and challenged lists and enjoyed them! I’ve read some books on those lists and not liked them much at all. Consider checking out these 100 most challenged books from the last decade. Give one a try. Or if you’re just looking for some books from different perspectives, you can see some of my recommendations for Juneteenth and Pride Month.

It’s okay if you don’t like one. Or if you don’t want to read a certain entry. We can all choose what we want to read. And it’s okay if those things are different than what other people want to read.

Have you got a favorite banned book? Let me know!

September 30, 2021
Book recs for Pride Month and Juneteenth

One day I will be able to live in a bookstore. I bide my time waiting for that day. (Photo by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash)

I read a lot of books and over the past several years I have tried to be more mindful of the authors I read and the stories I seek out. This first started with a concerted effort to read more women authors and has grown into reading more authors of color and LGBTQ authors.

Despite strides made in recent years to publish a more diverse range of books, publishing as a whole remains predominately white. This can cause a lot blind spots and weirdness and I’m glad those are being addressed and called out. At the same time, the progress can be frustratingly slow.

I’m thrilled that the book landscape is changing. And I love nothing more than a critical look at the so-called “literary canon” students have been taught forever. Do we really all need to be reading Charles Dickens still?

In 2020, a lot of anti-racist reading lists were going around, and people started pointing out that you can’t just read your way out of a problem. That’s definitely true. But I think it’s worth celebrating different kinds of stories and taking the time to look for typically marginalized voices. That’s why I’m throwing together a little reading list in honor of Pride Month and Juneteenth. I myself am a straight white lady living in the suburbs, so if you want to gets your recs elsewhere, I get it. But you might find something you want to check out below!

The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin

Genre: Fantasy

I basically force everyone I know to read these books. I am an unending hype person for the trilogy, which I typically try not to do with books because then it makes people feel awkward if they don’t love them too. But I can’t help it. Basically from the moment I started reading The Fifth Season, these books set my hair on fire.

This story takes place on a planet that is not our Earth. It is undergoing an apocalypse (more or less an extinction event that the people on the planet call a fifth season). A huge rift has opened up on the planet and things are not looking great. We follow a woman named Essun, who has the ability to control tectonic forces and is trying to find her daughter. She’s part of a small class of people who can effect the earth and are marginalized and hated for it. (If you get mad and cause an earthquake that kills people, that’s not great.)

On top of that, there are all sorts of fantastical elements at play. Creepy Guardians who seek to control this underclass, rock eaters, mysterious floating obelisks in the sky. And at some point you realize there’s no moon and is it a myth or is it real and it wandered off???

The action in these books is great, but the characters are so fantastic and the world is so complete. Plus, a bunch of mysteries get raised and then addressed in super satisfying ways down the road. Read these books!

Warning that there is a lot of death and violence and oppression so reading these books does not always feel good. And if you can’t handle that right now, it’s okay.

The Changeling by Victor LaValle

Genre: Horror/Fantasy

I had a few small gripes with this book (like how quickly the birth scene happened, but that’s sort of a personal bugaboo of mine), but overall it’s very compelling. Just take the basic premise that your wife becomes convinced that your infant son has been replaced by a changeling. She becomes so insistent that finally she acts on this belief, killing your son (who she thinks is really not your son) to get the real version back.

And then stuff gets weirder from there!

The actions that surround the changeling baby are really traumatic to read, but the book is making all sorts of observations about the horror and trauma of parenting and relationships and being believed. It is a ride worth taking.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Genre: Romance

The first time I read this book, I was sick, and spent the entire day lying on the couch and absolutely devouring this book. It is super charming! Sometime in the last year or so, I picked it up again and took maybe 24-48 hours longer to read it, but still crammed it down as fast I could.

It’s not perfect, but you know what, I love it for that. The characters are super earnest and the love story is very sweet and ultimately everyone is trying to come to terms with who they are and how they present themselves to the world. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say this book has a happy ending and sometimes you just need a happy ending, dang it.

The set up is catnip for me. The son of the first woman president has a sort of pseudo-feud going on with an English prince. They’re forced to pretend to be friends for PR reasons and then, you know, feelings happen.

Fake dating is absolutely one of my favorite tropes that exists on this earth. I am a sucker for it every time. And the fake friendship bit really falls close enough that I can’t resist it.

I will say that all the characters are very quippy! At times it feels a little like the author watched too much of The West Wing (no judgement). I personally like this, but just a head’s up if you don’t like constant quippy cleverness.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Genre: Science fiction

I believe that this one is short enough to be classified as a novella. So not only is it wonderful, but it won’t take up too much of your time!

I love this book. It is exactly my jam. Two agents on opposite ends of a time war leave each other missives in all sorts of weird places across space and time. And I am talking like, you chew on a seed and get the letter that way kind of weird places.

The creativity of the different settings is so fantastic and the way these characters start realizing that their dedicated antagonism has started giving them deeper connections than they intended is quite delightful. It helps if you like books largely composed of letters.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Genre: Non-fiction

I can’t tell if everyone in the world knows about this book or if it just seems like everyone in the world knows about this book. So its inclusion on this list might not be that creative, but it’s still well worth the read. It’s super important to be aware of the biases and deep flaws in the American justice system and this book really highlights them.

You have a through story about a man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and spent many years on death row, which in and of itself is worth the read, but then Stevenson gives us more. In addition to the main story, you will read about other people and other cases that highlight other types of injustice in the system. Just last week I read about a man in a Missouri prison who was originally convicted to life without parole at sixteen until the Supreme Court ruled that convicting minors to life without parole was unconstitutional. Bryan Stevenson worked on this issue!

I try to stay informed about this kind of stuff and my jaw still hit the floor multiple times throughout the book. I highly recommend it.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Genre: Literary fiction

I loved this book. It’s a fascinating character study, and I drank in every word. If you are a person who loves plot, this is probably not the read for you. But if you like the idea of following the lives of two women who grew up as twins in the same small town before parting ways for good and then also exploring the lives of their daughters, you might want to check it out. I should also mention that these characters are light-skinned black women and one of them manages to change her life by leaving behind everyone she knows to pass as white.

The issues of race, gender, and sexuality in this book are all explored in interesting ways, but ultimately, it came down to the characters for me. I loved following them, getting to know them, learning about what went on in their heads. And that’s really what the book is about. People being people.

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

Genre: Romance

The summary of this book mentioned fake dating and I was immediately in (see above).

Two men decide to fake date because they think it will help them both out somehow. Does their weird logic make a whole lot of sense? Not really! Is that one of the reasons fake dating plots are so great? Pretty much!

I will never tire of two people pretending to date and then actually falling for each other. I just won’t.

Not to mention the lead characters are fun and their chemistry is good and you really just root for them and want that happy ending to happen. I have been seriously considering rereading this one just because it gave me so many feel goods the first time around.

Also one of the main characters is a vegetarian and I appreciate that.

There you have it! I tried to pick books of different stripes to give everyone something. There are so many more, of course, but I’ve already rambled long enough. Drop your own recs in the comments if you like. My to read list gets worried if it drops too far below 100 or so.

June 16, 2021
Would I date Mr. Darcy?
I can only ever hope to look this cute and playful while reading Jane Austen. (Photo by Dexter Fernandes on Unsplash)

He’s tolerable, I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me.

But to be fair to Mr. Darcy, is it really worth it to try to date any of the men in Jane Austen novels? The books are a delight, and I find some of the relationships to be wonderful. But Mr. Darcy as relationship material? I’m not so sure.

Here’s a brief look at how Jane Austen heroes stack up in my mind and whether they’re worth dating. (Note: This list is not complete. I haven’t read all Austen’s work, so I can’t comment on whoever from Mansfield Park. Sorry?)

Fitzwilliam Darcy

Perks:
- He has a lot of money.
- He is nice to his sister.
- He’s a dick, but he’s honest about his dickishness.
- He has lovely curly brown hair (probably just thinking about Colin Firth now).
I know, I know. The whole thing about Darcy is that he seems to be an unbearable prick but is actually a decent dude. But he seems like a lot of work. You’d have to really drag his feelings out of him and that seems exhausting. Also, he’s prone to making snide remarks, and so am I. Most of our relationship would probably just be saying really rude things to each other.

If I were to choose a man from Pride and Prejudice to date, I think I’d lean Mr. Bingley. Super earnest, nice, willing to show affection toward women. Plus, I love it when he tells Darcy “I hate to see you standing about in this stupid manner” and “I wouldn’t be as fastidious as you are for a kingdom.” Yes, Bingley. Give him what for. Downside? The Bingley sisters are unbearable. So maybe not.

Captain Frederick Wentworth

Perks:
- He’s a captain, I guess?
- Doesn’t hold much of a grudge.
- Willing to be friendly with you even if there’s an awkward break up.
There’s a lot to like about Persuasion. It’s a weird little book that grows on me the more I think about it. I like that there’s a heroine a little more advanced in age and so more in line with modern sensibilities. I also like that Anne made a pretty huge error that she regrets. There’s something to be said about second chances and the quiet pensive feel of this novel.

So what is a Went really worth? More than any of the other jackasses in this book. Yeah, I’d probably date him. Even if his life, his love, and his lady are the sea.

Henry Tilney

Perks:
- His family has a super weird creepy house.
- He actually reads and will talk books with you.
- Will back your play and stand up to his dick dad.
Who has even read Northanger Abbey, seriously. I mean, I’ve read it twice and at the same time, somehow, have never read it. Let’s just agree we have another book full of assholes and at least Henry can be, like, a nice dude. I’d probably date him just so I could try to see a ghost in the family manor, honestly.

Edward Ferrars

Perks:
- Uh.
- Hmmm.
I just love Emma Thompson, okay. Don’t think I’d date Ferrars.

George Knightley

Perks:
- He sees the value in being kind to people.
- He’s willing to humor your weird relatives.
- He goes on lots of walks.
- He will, in fact, call you on your bullshit.
I don’t hate Knightley, but ultimately, I don’t think he’s my jam. All the characters with money in Emma are a little much for my tastes. Also, he’s like 20 years older than Emma or something and I know it was the times or whatever, but comes off a little weird for my tastes. Rein it in, Knightley.

Emma is a book rife with terrible men for dating. Mr. Elton and Frank Churchill being prime examples of suck. If you gotta go for a guy in this outing, it is definitely Robert Martin. I would 100% date and marry Robert Martin. He is the most dateable man on this list. A hill I will happily die on.

In Conclusion

Jane Austen writes a good book. Her characters are sharp and because she keeps an eye toward social commentary, many of them are entertaining but also huge jerks. The leading men in these books can be charming at times and impossible at others. But in the end, you probably wouldn’t want to date a guy who was raised in the 1800s. He’d probably have appalling opinions.

Except Robert Martin, of course.
May 7, 2021