Projecting

Now it's time to get back to The Other Bennett Sister, which I still have not watched, though I have seen many more clips.

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2026/03/spotlight-on-jane-austen.html 

From those clips, it looks fairly charming, for the most part. I can see why people are into it. 

The Mary Bennett that you get seems like someone that the Mary Bennett you read about could become, but that is not how the series depicts Mary at the start.

They do the most dirt to Mrs. Bennett, which seems odd because there is never a really flattering portrayal of her; being true to the book is usually mean enough.

With the other Jane Austen discussion that had been going on, I had developed a new appreciation for Mrs. Bennett. Yes, she was a silly, shallow woman, but she understood the need for her daughters to be married for their own security and she was determined to see it happen. She did not get much in the way of thanks for that from her daughters, nor respect from her husband, who was mostly not helpful.

Regardless, she was still never vicious or mean. If anyone had suggested that Mary would be a better match for Mr. Collins than Elizabeth, I can see Mrs. Bennett immediately pursuing that. Sure, anyone with any sense would have figured that out on their own, but sense was not her strong point.

The most interesting thing was seeing how the series portrayed Mr. Collins, as someone timidly trying to understand happiness through reading Aristotle, rather than a self-satisfied sycophant who focused on sermons as befit his role as a man of the church.  

Based on that, I can only assume that the viewpoint behind this -- whether more due to the author or the adaptation -- is that smart, introspective people are not appreciated, especially if they are not particularly good-looking and especially by their mothers; shame on those mothers!

That is a thing that can happen, but that's not what Jane Austen wrote.

It's been close to fifteen years, but there was a time when I was reading a lot of fan fiction, trying to understand why people would write things certain ways. 

There is a lot of variation, including just that sometimes people find things they want to take further. What might be most relevant here is that often much of it was based on a hatred of one beloved character and an overly close association with someone who seemed to be a villain but had obviously just been mistreated and misunderstood.

That doesn't have to be bad, but are those writers missing something?

For example, if you are really smart and introspective, but the things you say to others frustrate and annoy them (Mary after Lydia eloped, or Mr. Collins always), that may be something to reflect on. It may require observing other people as if they are also important.  

It doesn't mean that you will mesh with everyone, or that you have to change your identity to fit in, but at least knowing if maybe you are a little smug or insincere can be useful.

Also worth thinking about; do you read only to project your views over others? If that's the case, you're missing out. One of the really great things about reading fiction is getting to understand other people and other thoughts. Empathy has been getting short shrift lately, but that's a problem.

Let me just conclude with something that came up when others were irritated at new, romantic Dracula ads (it's not just me). I can't find it now ( I think someone copied it from Tumblr), but someone suggested they would like to see a continuation where Jonathan and Mina solve mysteries together.

The end of the book implies that their adventuring is over once Dracula is destroyed; Jonathan will continue to work, Mina will be a wife and mother, and all will be well, happily ever after. 

However, he's still a lawyer who could end up with weird clients and property deals that happen to involve hauntings and she still types and knows shorthand; they have skills.

They also have one friend who's a British peer,one friend who runs an asylum, and one who's a medical doctor familiar with the supernatural.

It could work.