JASNA Newsletter Tampa Bay Regional Chapter

August 28, 2004
by: Jill Henaghen

Volume 1                                                                                                                                             Number 3

"It was a delightful visit - perfect, in being much too short"
                                                                     Emma

OUR MERRY PARTY:
          Kathy Blackwell, Jill Henaghen, Terry Hubener, Kersti Linask, Kathy Murray, Dede Natale, Heather Wallace, Joyce Wallace

          Our "delightful visit" was held at Terry's who again delighted us all with her "Janeobelia" and a delicious repast. We had all escaped Hurricane Charlie which thankfully missed Tampa Bay completely. Our topic was Emma.

          All were concerned with exactly when it was that Emma and Mr. Knightly discovered their feelings for one another. We agreed that Mr. Knightly most probably had gradually developed feelings for Emma over the years and was already in love with her when the book opened. Emma, on the other hand, did not fully realize her feelings for Mr. Knightly until she looked upon him as a suitor for another (Jane Fairfax and then Harriet Smith). We wondered who, if not Mr. Knightly, would make an acceptable suitor for Emma given her social status, independent means, and small, circumscribed social circle. Mr. Elton was not really eligible for Emma and Frank Churchill entered her life rather late on and, as one later learns, was already engaged to another.

          We could not but comment on Mrs. Elton, and were reminded of Lady Catherine. Not that Mrs. Elton can begin to compete with Lady C. in haughtiness and "delightful condescension," but they do seem to be on the same continuum. In fact, upon further consideration, possibly Emma herself is on the extreme left of the continuum with Mrs. E. somewhere in the middle and Lady C. on the far right!

        We all found the Gwyneth Paltrow version of Emma delightful, although some disagreed with the choice of Toni Colette to play Harriet Smith. The discussion of the movie brought to mind the recent Clueless, based on Emma. Those who had seen Clueless agreed that, although appealing more to the younger in years, Clueless was completely inoffensive to Jane. We were, however, much harder in our rating of Hollywood's Bridget Jones' Diary which we found insulting to our always tasteful Jane and offensive to our (dare we say "Darling"?) Colin Firth. On this there was universal agreement among those who had seen the films.

          As expected, given our penchant for comparing life in Jane's day with ours, Jane again did not disappoint. We recalled Emma's exceedingly topical speech to Harriet, explaining her own unique position of not having to marry, owing to her place of importance in her father's house as well as to her financial position. This provided us with a perfect jumping off place for a discussion of opportunities for women from Jane's time to ours. We discussed a number of factors that have so changed the lives of women. We were again reminded of the number of children women gave birth to in Jane's day. We cited the mind-boggling growth and availability of communication that we have seen in our own lifetime and the way it has impacted sex roles.

BOOKS, VIDEOS, MOVIES, ETC. RECOMMENDED BY MEMBERS DURING THE MEETING:

OTHER GREAT NEWS:
Amy Robinson and Kadesh Minter of the University of Florida are opening a new North Central Florida regional chapter of JASNA in Gainesville, FL. Their first meeting will be September 18th at UF. We are all invited to attend. Please recommend to anyone you think would be interested in joining this new chapter to regularly attend meetings in the Gainesville area. For more information, to reserve your spot, or get directions contact Amy or Kadesh.

NEXT MEETING OF OUR TAMPA BAY REGIONAL CHAPTER: October 2nd at Terry's house. Disussion topic: Persuasion.