Lord of the Flies stuff has happened and it has never been like LoftF. People generally cooperate to survive.

When society is lost, humans just build new societies. We like them.

I skip or skim gratuitous description, like in the Wheel of Time series. I usually don't miss anything important.

If I really like a book, I read it again and attempt not to skim. But honestly, even re-reading Lord of the Rings I'm like, "Do I really need to know about the grass that grew on this grave?"

I've only read Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Jane Eyre.

I liked them all but Tenant is my absolute favorite. I wish they taught it more in school. It's so relevant today and so important. The way Helen just walks by all these red flags and married Arthur is chilling. The middle part I read as fast as I can just to get her out!

I wish that book was more popular!

Yes we have about the same rural/urban divide as the United States (my parents own a farm, I live in a city).

Check our election maps, the countryside is blue (conservative) and the cities are red (liberal) or yellow (NDP or very liberal).

Whats great about TGG is that it shows for all America's bluster about throwing off the old ways , most rich people are still inheritors of generational wealth, the exact thing America was trying to escape from.

Daisy Buchanan would be at home in a Jane Austen novel. She doesn't marry the American Dreamer, she marries the trust fund kid who never has to work a day in his life.

The American Dream, start at the bottom and work your way up to being a millionaire. Get the hot girl whom you don't really see as a person. Move to a coast (y'all love New York or California)

By the way, we consume a ton of your media and news (it gets boring up here). We're your slightly colder stalkers. We know everything about you.

I knew George Washington before I knew about John A. MacDonald (our first prime minister).

Creole in this era meant (most of the time) a white, British person born abroad. I don't think anything in the book indicates otherwise.

British people believed that being born abroad/living abroad could mess you up. But Bertha is probably white.

Charlotte Brontë's beef with the French is kind of hilarious though.

I think it's interesting to talk about how weird Jane Eyre is as a person. She's got strange ideas and rage and very intense love in her. Most people find her off-putting. Rochester calls her a "changeling" or a fairy a lot and he's not just being strange himself.

Rochester seems to like that brand of odd while St. John tries to crush it out of her.

Also Canadian, also thought it was great at depicting American ideals.

I love the book though.

I found St. John absolutely terrifying, like cult leader sort of energy. Yet the writer seems to leave him on a good note? It was crazy for me.

However, I think the contrast is clear, Rochester is someone who actually loves Jane, but as questionable morals, and St. John loves no one as far as I can tell but has "perfect" morals (though according to the actual Bible that dude is not going to heaven because works without love is meaningless, but anywho). Jane rejects a life of duty without love and returns to Rochester because she cannot live without love.

Better ending: St. John peaces out to India and Jane and her two awesome female cousins live together in tranquility.

This may be a case of a high demand genre that not many people are writing in so the threshold for publication has been lowered in order for the publishers to offer something, anything.

Remember though, Elizabeth didn't flatter Darcy because she disliked him. She was often trying to make him angry; she wasn't trying to be different.

She's almost saying that he likes being insulted 😅

Don't worry too much, the navy hardly played a part. Mostly just trope and message carrying and making a blockade around France. They had already destroyed the French Navy.

But she did clearly do that on purpose.

And did you catch that Wentworth proposed the day Napoleon escaped from Elba?

Another war there shall be!

Perusasion is pretty abrupt too!

Jane Austen wraps up a lot of her books quickly, especially Perusasion, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park. When she's done, she's done.

At least we know that Henry and Catherine have their happy ending.

Also, if you want to discuss more, there is r/JaneAusten

Oh man I need to buy this book for my kids!

Don't read stuff you don't like, if you are reading for pleasure. There are plenty of other classics that you might like better. If you hate long-winded description, the answer is Austen.

Maybe if you do it well.

Mansfield Park 1999 didn't. Instead of showing how a moral person can believe that their income from slavery is moral, they just turned Sir Thomas into an irredeemable monster. But then inexplicably at the end he's redeemed and gets out of slavery... for no reason.

A good adaptation might have showed how all of society was involved in slavery through sugar and tea, and examined how someone can justify owning sugar plantations to themselves.

But nuance isn't Hollywood's strong point. The message "slavery bad" is so obvious and overdone.

(Mansfield Park by Jane Austen)

Interesting.

I feel like I usually like all of what an author has written. I probably wouldn't have tried Atwood again but I went camping and someone brought the book along.

I tried to read it and couldn't get through.

But I LOVED Oryx and Craike. So maybe it just wasn't my thing.

Wealth is the focus though. At one point Gatsby literally says that Daisy's voice sounds like money. She is not really a person to him, more of a representation of the wealthy elite that he wants to join.

Not a style per-se, but I really dislike covers that show the characters, be it romance or whatever genre, and then the characters don't look like the book descriptions.

Like cover, you had ONE JOB.

This may be the reason I prefer covers without character pictures. So the recent trend of not showing characters is fine by me.

Try reading the book as a commentary about what the real people at the top do with their lives. They aren't actually helping society, or using their money for good, they are selfish and they suck.

Gatsby comes into great wealth and blows it all trying to attract a girl. Tom Buchanan is a racist and he doesn't want to admit anyone into his class. Daisy literally married just for money and status. Nick is watching them all with disgust and he invites you to join him.

The Gate Thief by Orson Scott Card was amazing, loved the world and story.

The second book, as far as I can tell, was about how teenagers shouldn't have sex.