I can hardly believe it, but apparently I haven’t watched Blink since 2007. (Netflix link—Blink is on season 3, disc 4.) Nearly FIVE YEARS. Henry was FIVE MONTHS OLD the last time I watched it. (Happily, I’ve similarly gone nearly five years without finding another boiled spider in the coffee filter.)
I’ve seen Blink three times now, and each time I can’t BELIEVE it. The first time, I enjoyed it the least because I was too scared to appreciate it. I enjoyed it more the second time, when I knew how things were going to go. The third time (last night), I pretty much cried all the way through it, including when we were setting it up in the DVD player and when I was loading the dishwasher afterward. “It’s the same rain”—*BAWLS LIKE BABY.*
I just love it. It’s exactly the sort of thing I like. A girl goes to an old abandoned house to take artsy photos, and she finds a message under the wallpaper, written TO HER. And then, a letter is delivered to the house for her, when no one knows she’s there! WHAT THE HECK. Oh, it’s so good. Plus, the first two times I saw it, I didn’t realize the girl was Carey Mulligan! And no one is cuter than Carey Mulligan. (Except you. YOU are cuter than Carey Mulligan. But then it’s Carey Mulligan in second place.)
My heart was pre-tenderized, too, from watching Pride and Prejudice this past week. My dears, my DEARS, it is Colin Firth. But also, it is Jennifer Ehle, with her smiling eyes. And also, Colin Firth. “I beg you, most fervently, to relieve my suffering and consent to be my wife”—*BAWLS LIKE BABY.*
I was particularly delighted because I have NEVER been able to read that book, NEVER, though I have tried again and again. NOW I may be able to read it, now that I have the storyline and can imagine the characters. I am disappointed, though, that one of my favorite lines (the one in the previous paragraph) is reportedly not in the book.
Oh, I LOVE P&P! The book, the movies! I love it all!
There are a ton of spin offs written in the modern day that are fun reads too, when you’re feeling sad that you just finished P&P.
Blink sounds wonderful! I will have to find it.
I, too, have never been able to get through P&P. (I have read Sense and Sensibility, though.) I really enjoy all the Jane Austen books-in-movie form and feel like a loser that I can’t get through more of her books. But I did pick up a really great annotated edition (at Christmas!) and it really helps. I want to get the Sense and Sensibility one, too.
Blink is one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes, and it is one of the ones that I think stands on its own really well and I would be able to watch on its own without feeling the need to watch the entire season.
Ack! My comment was eaten by blogger! Anyway, I just wanted to say that I am a fellow P&P and Colin Firth lover. Since you have Netflix, have you tried “Lost in Austen”? It’s about a P&P fan who travels into the book and tries to “fix” things. Hilarity ensues. It’s very cute.
And (I promise to leave you alone after this!), I just noticed that Amazon is offering “Charlotte: Pride and Prejudice Continues” as a free Kindle book today.
The Doctor and Pride and Prejudice are two of my very favorite things in life. Not kidding.
Try P & P again. Please. I have read it so many times I can’t count and also have read all the sequels and seen all the movie versions and, erm, have a Jane Austen action figure and am generally just obsessed. But the book is SO GOOD. It will help that you have the characters in your head now. So try again!
And oh my, Blink is something else. So effing good. Don’t even blink. Blink and you’re dead. They are fast, faster than you could believe. Don’t turn your back. Don’t look away. And don’t blink.
SO GOOD!!!!!!!
“Blink” is by far my most favorite Dr. Who episode EVAH. Great story, romantic, and CREEPY. They did a follow up episode I think two years back that didn’t even compare.
Oh! I read P&P probably 4-5 times a year. I just LOVE it. (And the movie! Oh! Colin!) Do! try reading it again! And yes, Jane does have a tendency to NOT write out the actual dialogue in the mushy-gushy love scenes; she just leaves it to your imagination. It’s all inferred yet still works, IMO.
Yes to CAQuincy, except maybe more strongly — it works BECAUSE it’s implied. Ix-nay on the mush-and-gush, still waters run deep, whatever. On re-reads, you start noticing the signs and want to call out to Elizabeth: He just shifted his position in his chair! He LIKES YOU, dummy!
I realize this level of Interpretation of Every Move would be annoying and possibly dangerous in real, modern life, but it’s charming in Austen.
Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite books, and Colin Firth is my favourite screen Mr. Darcy. “I cannot bear it any longer. You must allow me to tell you how much I love and admire you.” RAWR.
Jana- Ooo, I’ll check out Lost in Austen!
Sam- Oh, an ANNOTATED Pride & Prejudice sounds like EXACTLY what I’d want! I added it to my wish list!
Katie- I will, I promise! I have it on my library list, and I’ve just added an annotated copy to my wish list (maybe Christmas/birthday!).
My two favorite things, the Blink episode of Dr. Who, and P&P with Colin and Jennifer. I always wondered why I loved that actress so much in that role, but you said it-the smiley eyes. So freaking adorable. I watched this on A&E when it aired, and I fell desperately in love with this adaptation. None compares in my mind.
Blink was probably the most scary show I have ever seen on TV. It was absolutely terrifying to me when I watched it, I swear to God, when I am somewhere with a lot of statues (Victoria & Albert Museum in London), I got the freaking shivers.
I never wanted to read Pride and Prejudice because it was something my teachers wanted me to read. After my husband and I got a Kindle I decided to give it a try because it was one of the free classics and I feel in love with it. In love. I went out and purchased a nice hardcover.
I haven’t seen the P&P movie version with Colin Firth but have seen the one with Keira Knightley and I cry every time. It’s such a great love story.
You said Blink!
Now I will not be able to sleep well, and will probably have nightmares about the weeping angels. Ahh!
Of course, I might watch it later, because David Tennant <3 <3
Yes. David Tennant. Sigh.
I have never successfully read any Jane Austen book. I have been trying for years and I just can’t do it. I love it in movie form though, especially the Collin Firth version, though I did really enjoy the newer one with Kiera Knightly in it.
And you are like the third person this week who has talked about that episode of Dr Who, or gone Who crazy this week. I want to catch up on it now so bad, and don’t have access to it. I am going to have to break down and buy it.
Watching the mini series was how I read P&P the first time – it was my first ‘classic’ book so it was really helpful to watch the episode, then read up to that point in the book. Eventually I got into the book enough that I read beyond where the miniseries was up to.
Hmmm, maybe that method would work for Dickens? I’ve never been able to finish any Dickens (they’re SO long!).
I’m so glad to see all these other people who have struggled with P&P! It was one of my high school set texts and that meant that I HAD to read it but oh, how I wanted to slap Elizabeth Bennet! I HATED the book, with a passion, and when we were finally allowed to whittle down our set text revision lists, I had no hesitation whatsoever in abandoning P&P in favour of the infinitely better (IMHO) Wuthering Heights. I have seen dramatised versions of P&P, but Elizabeth’s character always annoys me (much like Emma Bovary) so I can’t say I’m a fan.
As for Blink, I had no idea what you were talking about because I was thinking of an oldish (1990s?) film with Madeleine Stowe I believe as a blind woman who “witnesses” a murder or some such thing. I don’t remember the details, I just remember that it scared me. A lot.
I love, LOVE P&P. Although Colin Firth is by far the best Mr. Darcy I’ve seen and that version is pretty true to the book and it doesn’t feature Jena Malone as Lydia, I much prefer the one with Keira Knightley.
Magic27, funny how people’s taste are so different. I can read P&P all day long, but Wuthering Heights is at the top of my Most Hated Books list. I loathe it passionately.
Give P&P another try people. I have read it a million times, and that is not a joke. It’s my literary comfort food.
And to jump in to the Wuthering Heights thing. I hated that book. My best friend and I developed a theory in high school that you’re either an Austen person, or a Bronte person. But you can’t be both. I was Austen, she’s Bronte. We never really elaborated on the theory past that, though.
Totally agree with Anonymous just above – people are definitely either Bronte or Austen, never both. One of my best friends (of 25 years!) is a Bronte fan like I am, and her husband (of 16 years!) is an Austen fan. And there’s no compromise!
It’s possible to be both a Bronte and Austen person! I’m both!
Swistle, I have a Choose your own Jane Austen adventure book which is great fun. Also, I find the book much more dryly funny than the miniseries. Austen was writing satire, and so if you keep an eye out for it there are many parts of her books which are laugh out loud funny to me.
Try the other BBC miniseries versions of Jane Austen’s books. My two favorites are Emma and Sense and Sensibility. They are the rare case when I love book and movie almost equally. In fact, I like movie Emma more. In the book she’s such a snobby little twit. She’s still snobby in the movie, but the performance is so warm and charming that I don’t mind. Plus, Jonny Lee Miller. Swoon.