There are fora and mailing lists around where you will find such discussion–but I didn’t set up this blog to duplicate them, but to complement them. I suspect the forum you mention in your post is mainly populated by young’uns trying to get someone to do their homework for them, including the poster from Sweden (because that is totally an essay homework question disguised as a “discussion starter.”) It would be silly to take them, or any one website really, as the definitive pulse of Janeites online. You have to look at ALL the outlets cumulatively, because people tend to congregate at one or two sites that best match their interests.

Also, I don’t think having fun with Jane’s novels (such as the “dress Lizzy and Darcy” interactive thing) and taking them seriously are mutually exclusive.

Incidentally, since you posted this comment on a two-week-old post, there’s a good chance that nobody but me will see it (since I get an e-mail whenever anyone posts) unless readers are following comments on RSS or something. Not your fault, that’s just how blogs work. In that context, the medium and the mission complement each other nicely, I think. (And actually they won’t be able to comment on it for much longer, as comments close automatically after 14 days to reduce spam.)

P.S. To answer a question raised elsewhere: Tilney rules and Darcy drools!!!

A forum that identifies itself as a ‘Literature Network Forums’, specifically on Jane Austen, is dominated by topics such as ‘What 2 Jane Austen book characters do you most relate to ?’ or ‘Darcy or Tilney?’ A thoughtful comment would be “hum, grrr.. i don’t like Jane Austen… yep, she’s a good writer and all that.. but all her irony and subtlety are wasted on boring plots…i mean aren’t all her books essentially about the same thing?” and the majority of posts seem to fall into the category “Hi… i would appreciate if any of u guys can answer these questions.. cause i need to graduate to.. i need a 66 in this fourth quarter.. and believe i dont think i can get it with this book.”.

If the ‘Literature Network Forums’ reflects the 8th grade mentality in Austen, it has the socially redeeming value to post : The character Lady Susan – “I read the book Lady Susan on the train back home after visiting my family during the holidays, and I liked the book, but at the same time I was annoyed by the character Lady Susan. How would you describe her character and the way she acts? How do you feel about her as a character?” The witter is from Stockholm Sweden and perhaps hardly reflective of the American teen.

How many post on Austen’s Juvenelia can you find in AustenBlog? Or for that matter any analysis of Austen’s style as opposed to the theme of romance or general gossip? Surely the contrast in theme and style between Lady Susan and Sense and Sensibility deserves some comment? And if the landscape was not barren enough there are posts such as, “I think Livia, Colin and Smiley Dress are all looking a bit smug and self-satisfied in that photo….love the little handbag, though. Speaking of dresses, you can have fun dressing Lizzie and Darcy here:” Is it a surprise that Austen has the reputation as ‘chick lit’?

If the comments above are representative of general appreciation of Austen, then I found the following an unalloyed pleasure. Andrew Hodges in The Inner life of Numbers begins chapter 1, The Unloved One, by” ‘It is a truth universally acknowledge that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’ So runs a famous first sentence, full of statements about One. It claims a universal truth, but there is an ironic touch in the grandeur of Jane Austen’s opening, bound as it so obviously is by human pride and prejudice, and specific to the English bourgeoisie of the early nineteen century. Even so, a modern reader finds it a good story-starter. It is well wired into human brains, tastefully pressing the buttons labeled ‘sex’ and ‘money’ in unison.”

I once had mentioned Jane Austen in one of my stories written for a creative writing class. A student wanted to know who she was. I mentioned that she was the writer of Pride & Prejudice. The gentlemen became very confused & said, “Oh…When did they make a book of the movie?” Another student turned to him & said, “That’s been out….For….Awhile….”

Forcing people to read something they’re not interested in is indeed a cruel punishment and likely to turn them off for life, remember the scene in Blackadder Goes Forth where Edmund punches Shakespeare out for all the future generations of schoolkids who’re forced to read him? I’m sure there were more than few people cheering at that point.