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chocolatepotSomehow I've ended up browsing Amazon's "historical fiction about women in tumultuous periods of English history" section again. I don't know how it keeps happening. No, okay, I do - the covers are very attractive and I theoretically would like to read about that subject. They just always seem to be so stereotypical. But I click on cover after cover and then read the 1 and 2 star reviews. It's not like I'd spend $6-$9 on an ebook anyway! Pointless.
I realized last night after reading a chunk of Pamela for the next blog post that Pamela is Twilight. In every respect.
1) It speaks to the Id - the only way to find it really enjoyable is to be completely uncritical and accept everything that happens in it
1)a) The Id elements in the story are highly tied to contemporary mores and conventions
2) It was massively popular, with all kinds of merchandising tie-ins (made by people who didn't give money to Richardson, as far as I know, but still)
3) It was popular among "the people" and received some pretty stinging criticism from other writers
3)a) At the same time, it has collected scholarly defenses taking the position that it is anti-conservative
I'm not the first person to think of this, but it hadn't occurred to me before. Pamela is total idfic, and if it weren't written in a style that's considered unreadable by modern standards it would probably be pretty popular today (oh, also that whole "seduction" issue, but you know ...). In a couple hundred years, will Twilight be the bane of 21st century lit classes?
I realized last night after reading a chunk of Pamela for the next blog post that Pamela is Twilight. In every respect.
1) It speaks to the Id - the only way to find it really enjoyable is to be completely uncritical and accept everything that happens in it
1)a) The Id elements in the story are highly tied to contemporary mores and conventions
2) It was massively popular, with all kinds of merchandising tie-ins (made by people who didn't give money to Richardson, as far as I know, but still)
3) It was popular among "the people" and received some pretty stinging criticism from other writers
3)a) At the same time, it has collected scholarly defenses taking the position that it is anti-conservative
I'm not the first person to think of this, but it hadn't occurred to me before. Pamela is total idfic, and if it weren't written in a style that's considered unreadable by modern standards it would probably be pretty popular today (oh, also that whole "seduction" issue, but you know ...). In a couple hundred years, will Twilight be the bane of 21st century lit classes?
