Thoughts On The 30th Anniversary Of The Princess Bride

A few weeks ago, The Princess Bride celebrated its 30th anniversary.

Fred Savage plays a young boy who is home sick from school. His grandfather, played by Peter Falk reads the boy a story. The story is The Princess Bride.

Buttercup (Robin Wright) is a young lady from a poor farm family chosen to marry Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon). While she has agreed to go on with the match, she is mourning the loss of her true love, Westley (Cary Elwes). It has been five years since he was murdered. Needing a break from the craziness  of her upcoming wedding and her memories of her late beloved, Buttercup goes out for a ride. The rest is movie history.

This movie, except that it is pure genius. While the basic narrative to heavily steeped in classic fairy tales, the humor is modern and is can be very adult.

If I had to choose a favorite scene, it would be the one with Billy Crystal and Carol Kane. It is comedy at it’s best.

Here is to the 30 years of laughs from The Princess Bride. I hope that in 30 years, we will continue to laugh.

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Thoughts On The 2017 JASNA AGM

Imagine if you will, an academic conference, but with a twist. Add in a dedicated fandom with lots of goodies to bring home (and a good amount of attendees playing dress up) and you have the 2017 JASNA AGM.

Held in Huntington Beach, California, the title of this year’s conference was Intimations of Immortality. We remembered Jane on the 200th anniversary of her passing as we celebrated her life, her books and her legacy.

The AGM is more than my vacation. This year it was a chance to visit California, spend time with my friends and celebrate anything and everything relating to Jane Austen. It is a chance to thoroughly geek out and know that the people you are with understand why you geek out. It was a chance to dress up, dance and spend three days thoroughly immersed in Jane.

While I enjoyed the AGM (as I do everytime), it was the company (and the heavenly beach in Southern California) that always makes an AGM worth it.

Next year, Janeites  (as we are commonly known) will congregate for our next AGM in Kansas City where we will be celebrating Persuasion and hopefully not fangirling over Amanda Root (Anne Elliot in the 1995 Persuasion).

I hope to see you all there.

Thoughts On The Harvey Weinstein Scandal

It’s nothing new to hear of powerful men using their stature and/or name to gain sexual favors from less powerful women in trade for something else.

Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s name has recently been added to this list. Several women have come forward, claiming that over the past few decades, Weinstein has set up meetings with young actresses, who believe that they are meeting with him to advance their careers. Instead, he meets them, expecting sex.

If nothing else, this story reminds me that not only is feminism alive and well, but it still continues to be necessary in 2017. While we have no doubt come very far, there are also many battles to fight. Mr. Weinstein is not the first man, nor will he be the last man who believes that not only is he immune from the law, but that young actresses willingly submit to the casting couch to work in their chosen careers.

I keep hoping that as these men are publicly outed and vilified, that things will change for the better.  Women will not be seen as mere sexual playthings, but as full fledged human beings.

Mr. Weinstein will get what is coming to him, either in this world or the next. Perhaps this will finally send a message once and for all about how women are still being treated in 2017.

Perhaps is the key word here.