Inadverdant Guestblog: My Austen-Hating "Friend," Whigwham

In Tom Hibbs's "Shows about Nothing," he cites favorably the analysis of Mark Edmundson when he claims that contemporary popular culture is a conflict between the Gothic and the genre of "facile transcendence." Explaining, Hibbs writes, "Facile transcendence, found in films like Forest Gump, the self-help movement, and even the revival of Jane Austen, dismisses the Gothic as juvenile and embodies the hope of an easy way out of contemporary confusion." This facile nature of the Austen revival reminds me of the introductions to the playing of the movies on PBS recently. That actress (I forget her name, she plays Scully on X-files), charmingly yet almost smugly introduces the Austen movie to be viewed with a sort of satisfaction in the fittingness and delightfulness of it all. Anyway, perhaps this is another way of describing the problematic Romanticism of Austen, or at least of the attempt to resurrect and appropriate Austen as a feminine savior to our rotten, degenerate culture (Cf. our discussions about the problematic nature of trying to transplant extinct social structures into contemporary society).

Hale's Note: I sort of like the idea of Austen as a feminine savior of our rotten, degenerate culture.