Some weeks ago I was recommended a trilogy of books by Paula Aidan that re-tells the story of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice from Mr. Darcy’s point of view. I finished the first book, An Assembly Such as This, about a week ago and on the train on my way home from work this afternoon, I started the second book called Duty and Desire. It is set after Darcy and Bingley quit Netherfield and starts out with a scene of Darcy in church. He is listening to the reverend’s reading when Colonel Fitzwilliam arrives, late. And oh my goodness, that bit of writing made me laugh out loud! The train wasn’t full, but the burst of giggle did earn me some questioning looks. Here is that passage that made me laugh…
This kind of irreverence I love!
There’s humourous irreverence but there is also serious irreverence. The blatant, serious irreverence shown by that bumbling excuse of a US president can not make me laugh at all. I cringe and fear for the future. First the man makes an ass of himself in the Middle East and Europe, alienating European allies, looking like the stereotype of the garish American tourist (I truly cringe for my American friends when I see this, I know how mortified they are)…
… and then he decides to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change in such an act of selfishness that I just can not comprehend it! We’re 4 months into his presidency, how will the world survive 4 years of this shortsighted, selfish ignorance? I truly see him as a menace to the world. I do take comfort in the fact that there is loud opposition to this man, and I add my opposition here! I have this German magnet here in my house that I have had for years and which nicely sums up how I feel about every single Trump policy so far! It’s my little sign of protest…
In the meantime I try not to freak out and try to keep hope alive by consuming protest and more irreverence, like in the following video: Graham Norton, Salma Hayek and David Walliams commenting on part of Trump’s foreign trip last week…
… and new French president Emmanuel Macron poking at Trump yesterday in his reaction to the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, calling to “make the PLANET great again!”…
When I see things like this, I just know there must be hope for the future!
It is shaming and upsetting, particularly to get this message from a French politician. (I doubt that the president or his team realize that, though.) I don’t see a lot of Muslim scientists moving from the US to France just now, though. I know there’s been a decent exodus of Jews already.
LikeLiked by 2 people
What do you mean by particularly from a French politician? Because it’s a Paris agreement?
LikeLike
If it were a Finn or a German or a Japanese, well, those are countries that have serious reputations in the US for successful innovation.
LikeLike
Technology but what about diplomacy!
LikeLike
But this is an invitation to come to France to be a technological innovator.
LikeLike
The innovative technology that preserves the environment is the future, the one that destroys fossil resources and releases CO2 will not slow down the global world temperature rise, WHATEVER the COUNTRY which will use them.
LikeLike
We are not all racists far from it. One ought to be overlooking through the prism of media and their propaganda. We are not in a civil war, community against community. It’s not Moisi’s geopolitic views about “Engrenage”.
LikeLike
Pardon me, but I didn’t say anyone was a racist. That Jews are leaving France is well known; it’s reported extensively in the Jewish press. That France has experienced issues with its Muslim minorities for years is also well known; there are reams of scholarship on this issue, some of which I’ve read. This doesn’t mean that the US has not; however, if I were a Jew or a Muslim scientist I would not pick this moment to move to France. But I’m leaving this conversation now.
LikeLike
Racists? A little surprised here that this has suddenly turned to racism…
Alas, I know nothing about Moisi.
LikeLike
Dominique Moïsi wrote the essays: “The geopolitics of the series” in 17/2/2016
EAN: 9782234080478 The publisher Stock wrote: “This is the first book that explains the world’s emotions by television series.A pioneering work, a brilliant demonstration by one of the best known international geopolitical specialists ” For more information contact my email adress.:)
LikeLike
Thank you for the tip!
I think my French is too basic to be able to understand that. I checked him out on Wikipedia and this following book of his sounds very topical to me:
The Geopolitics of Emotion: How Cultures of Fear, Humiliation, and Hope are Reshaping the World. Anchor Books, New York 2010. ISBN 978-0-307-38737-0
LikeLike
Sorry if I overreacted for me France remains a land of welcome.
LikeLike
That’s OK. 🙂
I think Servetus is the last person who would qualify a whole country (and all the people in it) to be racist; she likes nuance too much. 😉
Luckily, conspicuously racist people don’t tend to comment here on my blog.
LikeLike
I wrote an article (1700 words) in “English” so that Servetus and Guylty could be able to explore the subjects of the book. Ask me…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Alright, I’m asking. 🙂 Could you e-mail it to me: bookestherblog@gmail.com?
LikeLike
In part because journalists, foreign countries knew only the obscene and scandalous side of news that stirred the imagination of viewers.
LikeLike
🙂 For sure, the subject is ecology.
LikeLike
And I thought it couldn’t get any worse than George W. Bush. How foolish I was. Now I know that it can always get worse.
BTW I read “An Assembly Such as This” and enjoyed it, but didn’t feel the pull to continue with the sequels. I think I prefer the more mysterious Darcy seen through female eyes 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I too thought it couldn’t get worse than W… now I almost like him in comparison… and that is truly saying something!
Admittedly, 3 books is a bit much, I’ll see how far I get… 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Is that the book I recommended? Maybe I had my Darcy books mixed up, because the book I was referring to is a stand alone that begins and ends in the same timeframe as P & P.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, that was the book you recommended. 🙂 Once I looked it up, I found out it was part of a trilogy, which is OK. I skip through some bits. 🙂
LikeLike
I’ll have to look up which book I was talking about. I thought that was the title, but I know the one I liked so much was one volume that, as I said, tracked P & P, but it was from Darcy’s POV. It included some verbatim conversations between EB and FD, but also added scenes – such as the back story of how and when his sister’s portrait at age 16 was organized, the wedding between Lydia and WIckham, etc.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe it was this one by Amanda Grange? http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12698885-dear-mr-darcy
I’ve been wondering whether that’s any good… I think I did read her Captain Wentworth diary way back and quite enjoying that.
LikeLike
Die Rede von Macron habe ich schon auf facebook geliked, er ist richtig gut! Ich freue mich, dass die Franzosen einen so innovativen Präsidenten gewählt haben. Auch der kanadische Premier gefällt mir sehr! Es gibt zum Glück, noch genug Politiker die Trump Paroli bieten und ihm deutlich zeigen was sie von ihm halten!
LikeLike
These politicians and their speeches are attractive but the facts remain.
In France the whole nuclear, all gasoil, intensive agriculture stifle other research in areas less harmful to health.
In Canada, there remains the enormous pollution generated by the extraction and transportation of hydrocarbons from oil sands (asbestos, mining, etc.)
LikeLike
Ja, ich mag den kandadischen Premier auch gerne! Macron kenne ich noch nicht so gut, aber was ich bis jetzt sehe gefällt mir. Vor allem diese Opposition gegen Trump. 🙂
LikeLike