Men of Austen: Not Zombies. Nor Gay, But British Accents and Britches Are Close Enough

Straight Guy,

Great job on your 1/29 post on finding the "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" book. I don't know how you find this stuff.

I'm a big (Zombie-free) Austen fan. I know the Austen canon is considered girls' books, but I love them. (I draw the line at Alcott's "Little Women," don't worry. There are some places that Gay Guy may never go for fear of no exit.) Yes, Austen's books focus on women but they have gems for everyone: How do we see and experience the world? Do we see correctly? Can we trust the reliability of what others tell us? Or do we trust ourselves only? Great questions for all of us.

Most of the men in Austen's books have a powerful, yet clueless, lovable buffoon/prick side to them. Hey. . . maybe they really are zombies in those books.

Plus Austen is still damn funny. Society hasn't changed much in 200 years.

Do you remember --of course you don't, what was I thinking -- that last year PBS ran a series of all the Austen novels. It was hit or miss. The web site is still up. Just because it's sooooo hilarious, check out the teen dream interactive space on the site. Scroll drown a bit on the home page and you find the "Men of Austen." You can read all about them as if they were real and on a reality TV show like Amazing Race. Best of all, you can vote for your favorite Austen man.

We've kept our site clean and non-politcal, but can I please campaign for Edward Ferrars (Sense & Sensibility) or Edmund Bertram (Mansfield Park) for the 19th century Tiger Beat favorite. Please not that drone of Mr. Darcy. This site is one click away from feeling like voting for which of the Jonas Brothers is cutest. Not that I have an opinion.

Gay, gay, gay. No straight woman that I know would fall for this hook.

Okay, off to the gym here.

--Gay Guy

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

While I disagree with the slam to Darcy, I am in agreement that Austen's work is still both funny and spot on in some of her critiques of society today. Her commentary on families and what we put up with in them is amazingly accurate!

Be brave GG - there are lots of straight owner who are with you on the other Austen men, my particular favorite is Persuasion's Frederick Wentworth (Ciaran Hinds).

A fan - CS

Anonymous said...

Edmund does NOT get Tiger Beat 19th C. Favorite. Ugh.

I agree with Anonymous - Hinds' brooding but ardent Frederick Wentworth all the way.

But the new Persuasion's Frederick was quite lovely as well.

Yum.

Anonymous said...

Yes, knitlikeyoumeanit, Frederick is wonderful. So stoic, but a true romantic. He's the sailor come home for whom I was dousing myself with Old Spice.

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