willingness to be this new thing

 I've been reading an article in Plough, an interview with Ken Burns, the filmmaker and historian. 

"This word 'liberty' had an incredible effect. Why would anybody want to give up the benefits of being a subject of the British constitutional monarchy? Most of everyone's wealth, education, prosperity, and literacy came from that colonial relationship. Why would you give up those benefits for freedom and democracy, ideas never tried before in human history? At the heart of the American experiment is possibility. At the heart is risk. At the heart of it is this willingness to be this new thing, a citizen.

It's not hard to be a subject. You're under authoritarian rule and you just put up with stuff. But to be a citizen is to assume responsibility, to assume the pursuit of happiness, which the Founders understood not as the acquisition of things, but the pursuit of lifelong learning. Lifelong learning made you more virtuous, and the more virtuous you were, the more possibility that you could begin to bear the responsibility of citizenship and to be able, if not to answer, then to ask more authentically those essential questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? What is my purpose? Where am I going?

I am interested in these gigantic conflicts like the Revolution that produce something as spectacularly interesting as this idea that people, for the first time in human history, could govern themselves. It wasn't just the aristocracy that pushed this forward, but ordinary people who debated over the ratification of the Constitution and the subsequent Bill of Rights. It is one of the most active moments in the history of humanity of people coming together in a civic way to create something. But did they agree? No, not at all.

In the compromises of the Constitution, there was the perpetuation of slavery, even though it had just been proclaimed eleven years earlier that 'all men are created equal'. And yet saying these things began to open the door to permit even the people who knew it wasn't about them to see path forward. Women, Native peoples, free and enslaved black people, and the poor understood that this was the opening salvo in battles that they could fight to make the words truer and less hypocritical. So, for me, in American history, the best sometimes comes out of the worst and sometimes the worst comes out of the best."

                                                     -  Ken Burns

I didn't mean to quote so much of it. But it's a week since the 250th July 4th, and it seems weird that it's not more of a big deal; I really appreciate his vision of this country.

flowering trees and politics

It was breezy today, and petals from our neighbors' crabapple tree have been flying by in blizzards, so the glory of the flowering trees is already waning. Our own cherry tree's blossoms have gotten paler, but they're still attached.

I'm still enjoying the garden book:  About A Gardener's Book of Plant Names (1963), by A.W. Smith, a British military man who later settled in New England - "Under PINE, he reminds us that in the seventeenth century all the noble New England white pines whose trunks measured twenty-four inches or more were marked as Crown property and were cut and transported to England to be used as ships' masts, and that as a consequence it is seldom that a pine board wider than twenty-three inches is found in early New England houses. He reminds us, too, that this confiscation was one of the many causes of dissatisfaction leading to the Revolution."

And, about the first named variety of apple in America, the Blaxton's Yellow Sweeting: "was introduced around 1640 by the Reverend William Blaxton, one of the best gardeners of his day, he also trained a bull to the saddle and used it to ride around Boston on his daily business."

I got to see Darkest Hour, which has brought me to pick up Boris Johnson's The Churchill Factor again.

Churchill:  "...it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time..." Yes.

The Ash Grove, etc.

We sang this hymn at the end of Mass today:

Sent forth by God's blessing, our true faith confessing,

the people of God from His dwelling take leave.

The supper is ended. Oh, now be extended

the fruits of this service in all who believe.

The seed of His teaching, receptive souls reaching,

shall blossom in action for God and for all.

His grace did invite us, His love shall unite us

To work for God's kingdom and answer His call.

With praise and thanksgiving to God ever living,

the tasks of our everyday life we will face.

Our faith ever sharing, in love ever caring,

embracing His children of each tribe and race.

With Your feast You feed us, with Your light now lead us;

united us as one in this life that we share.

Then may all the living with praise and thanksgiving

give honor to Christ and His name that we bear.

It has a nice, lilting melody, but - the problem is that I've heard it before. 

Every time we sing this my mind goes back to the 1980's Pride and Prejudice with Elizabeth Garvie. During the party at the Lucases, Lizzie sings a song at the piano, and it's this one, with different lyrics, of course.  

Well, I happen to be reading another book about trees -  Fiona Stafford's The Long, Long Life of Trees, and in the chapter about the ash, what do you think I saw? 

Down yonder green valley, where streamlets meander,

when twilight is fading I pensively rove

Or at the bright noontide in solitude wander,

amid the dark shades of the lonely ash grove;

'twas there, while the blackbird was cheerfully singing,

I first met that dear one, the joy of my heart!

Around us for gladness the bluebells were ringing,

ah! then little thought I how soon we should part.

Apparently, it's an old Welsh song called The Ash Grove, no doubt familiar to my (2 or 3) English readers. Ha!

I do think I'm partial to this version; I did hear Lizzie sing it first. Here, two young women do it charmingly, with all the verses.

Pride and Prejudice - 200th anniversary

I heard on the radio this morning that today is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. So, how can I post about anything else?

I would read it again, but since I'm in the middle of two or three books, it's probably a bad idea, so I'll say something about the film versions. I have three (the Laurence Olivier isn't worth mentioning, it's so bad); and my introduction to Jane Austen began with the BBC/Masterpiece Theatre program from the early 1980s, which made me pick up the book and that's where my acquaintance with Jane began.

That early version is very faithful to the book and is still my favorite because of it. The acting is rather formal, Mr. Darcy is very stiff, the costumes were what the budget could afford, but for clever dialogue you won't be disappointed. Elizabeth Garvie played Lizzie and she's very lovely. The scene where she gives Lady Catherine her well-deserved set-down is priceless. The characters of Lady Catherine and Mr. Collins are very well played, I think - without any going overboard, as often happens (e.g. as in the latest film version).

The A&E version from the 90's is very well done, and Colin Firth is the best Darcy so far, but I was always disappointed at some of my favorite lines being left out.

The Keira Knightly film was a most excellent movie - beautiful photography, clever directing, excellent acting; but it took so many liberties with the story that while I love it as an entertainment, it lacks that Jane Austen air - the more atmosphere you add to Jane Austen, the less Austen-ish it seems to me. When you read her books, the thing which stands out so much is her cleverness of speech - her own, in her descriptions, and the characters' dialogue. There really isn't any "atmosphere" - certainly nothing like a Bronte novel, which is the feel you get from watching the latest P&P film. Still, I do love to watch it, and I think Joe Wright (the director) did the best he could in squeezing a complicated story into a two-hour film; it really can't be done properly, which is evidenced by the barely-touched-on Wickham episode.

What would Jane think if she could see all the spin-offs of her work? Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - good grief! I haven't read any of them (except the Stephanie Barron mysteries, which I've blogged about elsewhere). I did try P.D. James' - it was so wordy I didn't get far at all. What I really want is not for someone to continue one of her stories, but for someone to write just like she did - and that's impossible. (Although S. Barron very cleverly imitates it - try them, if you like an amusing mystery.)

I will leave you with the eminently satisfying scene in which Lady Catherine de Bourgh visits the Bennet household - the source of my favorite line in the book -  "The wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation that she could, upon the whole, have no cause to repine."  A very clever girl, our Lizzie!

Dolly and I watch Downton Abbey

Season two. Episode one.  (excuse the mess)

Dolly and I watch "A Christmas Carol"

with George C. Scott.   (of course)

film review: Romola Garai's "Emma"

When this was on tv last year, I kept forgetting about it, so only caught a small part of it. But as a big fan of (most) Jane Austen film adaptations, I purchased it anyway. And then, put it on my shelf, and forgot I owned it.

Until the other day - and, I just watched the end of it. Aside from Romola Garai's portrayal of Emma as an unrestrained young woman, more immature than previous versions show her, I was able to overcome my initial dislike because it really developed the characters in a way the other films could not, being twice as long as the others. And I like the others (I'm thinking of Kate Beckinsale's and Gwyneth Paltrow's Emmas), but this one is so well done - I'm quite surprised at it.  This Emma grew on me, because everything else about the production was so wonderful, and I guess I'll have to read the book again to see if I'm being picky about the way Ms. Garai played her, or if there's a possibility Emma could really have been this way.

It was less like an entertainment, and more like a story of human nature unfolding before you - if that makes any sense. And I really recommend it.