Living a simple life is no easy task. We say that our electrical appliances are here to simplify our lives. Well, yes and no. My computer, for example, not only simplifies my writing, but makes any writing I do, after I’ve scribble away in my journal, possible. Drafts, final copies, publishing, and of course blogging.
I'm about to begin a little Jane Austen project. I'm planning to reread her works, as well as listen to them on tape; not simultaneously but more or less in parallel. Then I'll watch the DVD. As I begin, I’m in awe of what Jane (note how I consider her a personal friend) accomplished in her rather short life. She didn’t have a computer, not even a simple one. Imagining how a computer might have simplified her writing, is a rather useless exercise. What is important is her intense desire to write.
I’m not certain why I’ve taken on this Jane Austen project, but it feels comforting. All of Jane's heroines were homebodies, which is what I am this fall for the first time in quite a few years. I’m not in Italy. I’m home writing, on my computer of course. Jane is my heroine.
(At the moment I am reading Sense and Sensibility on my Kindle. More simple than “The Modern Library” print copy.)
I'm about to begin a little Jane Austen project. I'm planning to reread her works, as well as listen to them on tape; not simultaneously but more or less in parallel. Then I'll watch the DVD. As I begin, I’m in awe of what Jane (note how I consider her a personal friend) accomplished in her rather short life. She didn’t have a computer, not even a simple one. Imagining how a computer might have simplified her writing, is a rather useless exercise. What is important is her intense desire to write.
I’m not certain why I’ve taken on this Jane Austen project, but it feels comforting. All of Jane's heroines were homebodies, which is what I am this fall for the first time in quite a few years. I’m not in Italy. I’m home writing, on my computer of course. Jane is my heroine.
(At the moment I am reading Sense and Sensibility on my Kindle. More simple than “The Modern Library” print copy.)