Happy Birthday, Thelma And Louise

25 years ago, a new buddy action adventure film premiered. While most movies within the genre had male protagonists, this film had female protagonists who added one more crack to the glass ceiling.

That movie is Thelma and Louise.  Thelma Dickinson (Geena Davis) is a housewife. Her husband would prefer that she stay in that little bubble of everything that is being a housewife. Louise Sawyer (Susan Sarandon) is a waitress whose musician boyfriend is never home. Together, the women will go on a journey to not only free themselves from the confines of their past and what is considered to be “appropriate” for women, but they will also help to  inspire the women in the audience to free themselves of their shackles in their own lives.

 

This movie is revolutionary. Even today, 25 years after the initial release, the journey that the lead characters go on continue to inspire women. What also makes the movie stand out is that there are still very few movies with strong, female protagonists who are not reliant on a relationship or a romantic partner to get by.

Happy Birthday, Thelma and Louise. Thanks for the inspiration.

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What Matters in Jane Austen?: Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved Book Review

When it comes to classic novels and the authors that wrote them, there are two camps: those who look at the books from a scholarly or academic perspective and those who read and re-read the books because they simply adore them.

Jane Austen’s novels are no exception.

In What Matters in Jane Austen?: Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved, Professor John Mullan from University College London takes reader into the nitty-gritty questions that only someone who had stopped counting the number of times they’ve read a Jane Austen novel would ask. He asks questions about why certain character have one or two lines before only being referred to, the real age of the characters versus the performers who played them on stage or screen and the significance of how the characters refer to each other.

This book is amazing, as is its author. I’ve been fortunate enough to see him speak twice. He is as warm, funny, engaging on the page as he is in person. I will warn my readers that this book is for the serious Janeite.  A reader who has casually picked up one of Austen’s books or a reader who is new to the Austen literary universe might not completely understand what Mr. Mullan is stating. But what I loved best about this book is that teeters on academic without talking down to the reader or sounding like a dry college textbook.

I absolutely recommend this book.