Transcript
Speaker: Hey all, before we start this episode of Jane Austen Remixed, a content warning for this week's book, The Bennett Women, by Eden Appiah-Kuby. Our discussion of this adaptation contains brief references to assault, suicide, racism, sexism, and drug addiction.
Speaker: These mentions are very brief, and they'll only be referenced as they relate to the book's plot and themes. If these topics might be uncomfortable for you, please feel free to give this episode a skip. We'll be back again in two weeks.
Speaker: Otherwise, let's begin. Hey, Melinda. Hey, Stephanie. What if I told you Pride and Prejudice was actually set in an all-women's American college dorm called Bennett? Our Elizabeth is studying to be an engineer, and the other Bennett sisters are actually other independent young women who also live in the dorm with her.
Speaker: Well, I suppose there's more than one type of sisterhood...
Speaker: Welcome to Jane Austen Remixed, where we investigate the Hamilton-loving and college dance-hosting world of Pride and Prejudice adaptations. I'm Stephanie.
Speaker: And I'm Melinda. And today, we'll be examining the 2021 novel, The Bennett Women, by Eden Appiah-Kubi. Now, this is our third school slash college set adaptation for this season, which we were a little worried about in terms of variety, but these books are so different.
Speaker: And honestly, while the other two are pretty firmly in YA territory, this one is definitely more at the mature end of that spectrum. And I would argue that it's more general fiction in style and presentation.
Speaker: There are references to spicy encounters and quite a lot of swearing, so it's a maybe a void for the younger readers in your life. Yes, very glad this is different, given how many we accidentally had in this season. Also, side note, on her author bio page on Amazon, Appiah Kuby recommends Unmarriageable, which you covered in season one as one of her favorite novels and as the book that opened her eyes to a new perspective. Oh, awesome. That's great.
Speaker: Yeah, super fun. Anyway, to orient us in the world of the Bennett women, here is the b blurb. In this delightfully modern spin on Pride and Prejudice, love is a goal, marriage is a distant option, and self-discovery is a sure thing.
Speaker: Welcome to Bennett House, the only all-women's dorm at the prestigious Longbourn University, home to three close friends who are about to have an eventful year. EJ is an ambitious black engineering student.
Speaker: Her best friend Jamie is a newly out trans woman studying French and theatre. Tessa is a Filipina astronomy major with Guy Trouble. For them, Bennett House is more than a residence.
Speaker: It's an oasis of feminism, femininity, and enlightenment. But as great as Longbourn is for academics, EJ knows it can be a wretched place to find love. Yet the fall season is young and brimming with surprising possibilities.
Speaker: Jamie's prospect is Lee Gregory, son of a Hollywood producer and a gentleman so charming he practically sparkles. That leaves EJ with Lee's arrogant best friend, Will.
Speaker: For Jamie's sake, EJ must put up with the disagreeable, distressingly handsome, not-quite-famous TV actor for as long as she can. What of it? EJ has her eyes on a bigger prize anyway, launching a spectacular engineering career in the real world she's been hearing so much about.
Speaker: But what happens when all their lives become entwined in ways no one could have predicted and EJ finds herself drawn to a man who's not exactly a perfect fit for the future she has planned?
Speaker: So, thoughts off the bat? There is a lot in that blurb. There's a lot in this book. Oh, Wow. So we have a very, very diverse Bennett cast, which is fun.
Speaker: Yeah, that's great. It is. Diverse people, diverse subjects. The fact that it's a Hollywood producer and a TV show actor is yeah kind of funny. Yes. There are a lot of famous people in this, famous within this world, people in this. Okay.
Speaker: But they're all in really normal circumstances. Like Longborn is the setting. So it's really interesting. And I think it adds an extra dimension. So instead of having class, we have like famous and not famous. Yeah, right.
Speaker: Cool. Sounds great. And I will say right off the bat, I loved this book and it charmed me from page one. The characters are engaging and full of life. There is a lot of ever so slightly obscure cultural references that seem almost tailor-made for my insane range of interests as well as yours, Melinda. so anyway, hop off here if you are looking to avoid spoilers and we'll see you when you've read the book.
Speaker: Okay, so while we're now firmly in spoiler territory, I want to establish something very much upfront. This is a queer-friendly podcast, something you, our dear regular listeners, will already be across. We welcome everyone, wherever they fall on the spectrum of human identity and lived experience.
Speaker: More pointedly for this episode, trans women are women. And now, on with the plot. Like I said, I love this book. The characters are real and richly woven into a very fun modern adaptation of our beloved classic. The book is structured a little differently in that it has four main narrators as well as a couple of side narrators and it hops between their perspectives throughout the course of the storyline.
Speaker: I am going to note the race of the main characters in the intros as it is relevant to each character's history and development and also just in case you missed it from the blurb. So the key characters are EJ, our Elizabeth, who is an RA at Bennett. And as you heard in the blurb, it is the only all-female dorm at a prestigious US liberal arts college.
Speaker: EJ is ambitious and focused. but also burning the candle at both ends with her college work and the RA position that she has to hold in order to be able to afford her tuition. She's black, she's also the first narrator we meet, and she tells the majority of the story.
Speaker: We then have Jamie, our Jane. She is a recently out white Jewish trans woman who is establishing herself in her new identity at Longbourn while still dealing with some unique issues.
Speaker: Heartwarmingly, she is accepted for who she is socially, but she's also dealing with some interesting mum issues. Namely, her liberal-leaning mother's strong opinions on just what sort of woman she ought to be.
Speaker: Tessa is our third main Bennett woman narrator. She's a little more like a supporting character to the other two, and she's functionally our Charlotte. Despite being smart, bubbly, and bright, Tessa is stuck in a dead-end relationship with Colin.
Speaker: This toxic relationship dulls her sparkle, but not her love for her besties. Tessa is, as noted, of Filipino descent. And the final main narrator is Will Pack, our Darcy. He's at Longbourn to lay low and lick his wounds while finishing his undergraduate degree.
Speaker: He's an, well, the story calls him almost famous, but I'm pretty sure he's just straight up famous actor of Korean descent. Yes, another one.
Speaker: His biting arrogance is barely hiding his emotional turmoil. He's recently been through an incredibly embarrassing and very public breakup with a much more famous actress.
Speaker: He's at Longbourn with his bestie, Lee Gregory, our charming Bingley, who is mixed race with a white father and a black mother, who is doing his best to support his friend as he behaves like, well, an arrogant, self-pitying loser.
Speaker: Now the book opens with EJ frantically preparing for the full formal, one of the biggest social events of the year at Longbourn. And unfortunately, the couch is on fire. What? Only lightly. And she soon sets everything right again. But is it an omen for her role in this story?
Speaker: We'll find out. Ooh. We are launched right into the middle of frantic dance preparation with EJ, or EJ, depending on who is speaking to her, helping a freshman who has glued her own eyes shut with false lashes. Okay. This Pepe Young thing is gushing about the dance being, quote, a Lee Gregory joint. EJ is completely lost as her baby student continues to babble on. And Melinda, you can read this for us. This is the baby student trying to explain who Lee Gregory is.
Speaker: Okay, so I need to channel my inner fangirl. All right. Are you kidding? He's like uber long-born famous. He's the president of the Gordon Campbell Society and he's got three solos on the Bourne Tones. Plus his parents are ultra-famous Hollywood people. Their divorce got a profile in in Vanity Fair. Their divorce got its own profile in Vanity Fair was what that last sentence was supposed to say. I got caught up in my own fangirl moment. I loved it. It was perfect.
Speaker: Now, as a certified elder millennial, my first reaction here was none of these words are in the Bible. But once we have recovered from feeling old, we learn that EJ is still baffled. So she texts her bestie Jamie for more info. Unfortunately, Jamie also has no idea what is going on. But Tessa, the third member of our triumvirate, is the biggest gossip on campus. Good. Now, on our way to find out what on earth is going on, we get our very cute twist on the opening sentence as we swap back into EJ's perspective. Melinda?
Speaker: It was a truth not universally acknowledged that a black girl at a mostly white college in an even whiter college town must befriend someone who can do her hair.
Speaker: ah Yes, nice. good It's cute. In return for getting her hair masterfully styled, EJ always refrains from telling Tessa to dump Colin, her insanely inconsiderate and awful boyfriend.
Speaker: He is, of course, our Mr. Collins. And it's an interesting approach to have Charlotte and Mr. Collins already together, with the focus here very much on the toxicity of their relationship. Huh. I'm not mad about this adaptation. It's relatable.
Speaker: Every woman had or still has that one friend who is incredible but just cannot break free of a relationship that has essentially become a toxic habit. Translating the I need a relationship for financial security into a college setting was always going to be hard and I feel like this way makes the most sense.
Speaker: Yeah, cool. I was going to ask, is Tessa Charlotte as soon as I heard Colin? And I was like, oh, I wonder if so. Okay. I think it's great. Yeah. In some ways you could translate the Mr. Collins and Charlotte. Yes, it's stable in the OG and we know that, but there is a toxic element to it. There's no love. So yeah, it's a great way to translate it.
Speaker: Yeah. Spoiler alert, there's not a lot of love here either. And my one beef with this part of the storyline is that it doesn't come up enough. I feel like it could have been explored further.
Speaker: So anyway, during the hair braiding session, we also learn via Tessa that Lee Gregory is not only cappella famous, having guided the aforementioned Bourntones to their first championship win. Yes, this is where I out you, Melinda, as an a cappella person. Though I do believe we are both equally big fans of Pitch Perfect.
Speaker: Longbone College is obsessed with acapella apparently and it just keeps getting, it's like a constant recurring joke. It's quite funny. But Lee is also the son of an uber famous couple. His father is a famous music producer and his mother is the famed director slash producer of what I assume are musicals. It's not clarified and the production names appear to be made up so I couldn't work that out. EJ is starstruck by this and Tessa then goes on to clarify why EJ's never heard of him. He hides his family name. He only uses half of it.
Speaker: And while his mother is a celebrated black director, Lee is very white passing. It's referenced that he's more like Halsey or Vin Diesel in his appearance. Right. Also, just a very quick side note. I read Bourne Tones in that quote and I was nearly going to say, have we got a cappella coming?
Speaker: And I didn't. And I now regret because I would have looked like a genius. But anyway. I was 50-50 on whether you were going to pull that up. i was like, she's going to know, but is she going to mention it? Oh, I thought about it. I had to fangirl that too hard.
Speaker: It doesn't really come into the main part of the story, but it is a constant running joke. Ah, okay. Look, running jerk is fine. That's okay. Also just side note here, everybody. I cannot sing, so I am not an acapella person. I just really like it. I think it's a lot of fun. no Pitch perfect. And i I think I own all of Pentatonix's album. So, you know. keep Last bit in mind for later team. oh Oh, yes.
Speaker: Yes. um Okay. I'm in now. Alright, so we start to see very early on in the book the threads of identity and self that drive the plot of the novel.
Speaker: Back in the storyline, apparently the extra insanity around this dance in particular is that Lee is meant to be bringing a famous celebrity guest to the dance, and a mysterious hot guy has been spotted around campus.
Speaker: Keep in mind the college is very small. So... EJ here is disappointed that the furore seems to be around the chance to hook up with a rich guy. And this is where we get a flash of the Charlotte that we know and love as Tessa pointedly corrects EJ's assertion that Bennett women are better than that when she says, i love that you believe that, but 90% of your fellow Bennett women would not say no to a rich husband if he came along.
Speaker: You've got to pay your student loans any way you can. Yeah, I mean, she's not wrong. And this really does come back to haunt EJ a little bit later when she is forced to acknowledge that her parents have paid more for her college degree than they paid for their house. Oh, yeah, that's rough.
Speaker: After some more scene setting, we get to the full formal, and this is our Merit and Assembly stand-in. The girls are having a blast dancing around when the famed guest of honour is finally named Zara Hernandez.
Speaker: EJ and Jamie are frozen to the spot. This is the musical actress who played Angelica in Hamilton at the Hollywood Bowl and Mia in La La Land on Broadway! A toast to the groom! at what point do I start launching into Hamilton?
Speaker: Oh boy, okay. After the whole crowd screams themselves hoarse, the trio are approached by Lee, who is clearly already very smitten with Jamie. who has also temporarily forgotten how to speak now that she is face to face with the perfectly imperfect romantic hero of a YA novel come to life, who is stuttering while trying to say hello to her. Okay, nice. It's all going so well until the human record scratch in the form of Will Pack appears from the shadows and asks Lee if it's time to leave yet.
Speaker: Lee is embarrassed and Jamie observes that this newcomer looks rich, rich. And I'll read a little quote here. First thing, Jamie was sure Will had money. He was very expensively dressed and distressingly handsome.
Speaker: That man has never bought his own groceries in his life, she thought. ah Oh, that's great. So apart from being famous, he's incredibly wealthy.
Speaker: He's also wearing sunglasses in the dark. So the douche vibes are quite high. Will follows up his callous, are we done here, by saying that Zara is ready to leave.
Speaker: EJ, obviously wanting Lee to stay as she can see the sparks flying with Jamie, squares up to go verbally toe-to-toe because she knows that Zara actually just requested a song to be played for her to dance to when she's dragged away in the nick of time by a younger Bennet woman who she has promised to do the Charleston with. Okay, that's a very specific reference. They're all doing the Charleston, hey? There's very specific dance references in this. It is key to the plot, but not the Pride and Prejudice adaptation part of it. So I haven't addressed it. EJ originally wanted to be a professional dancer.
Speaker: Oh, right. Okay. She's wound up in engineering. It's a whole thing. Read the book. It's fabulous. Later, as she's leaving the dance, EJ overhears Will calling her barely interesting. It is scene that is so laden with racist microaggressions that it actually shocked me, and I wondered how on earth Lee, as someone with black heritage himself, could honestly stand being friends with Will. And Melinda, I've got it here for you to read. Oh good, going to make me read it out, okay? all Alright.
Speaker: What about Jamie's friend, Lee offered? EJ, I think. She's pretty cute. She suddenly felt even more warmly disposed toward her new acquaintance. The rando in the rose gold sequins with the fake fur?
Speaker: Will asked acidly. She's... fine. Great if you like lady pimps. Oh, EJ's jaw dropped. She could see Will's shadow and shrug instant-susantly. She's definitely not interesting enough to drag me someplace called Cousin Nikki's. I can smell the grease from here. Oh, wow. Okay.
Speaker: Yeah. Great. Well done, Will. Got a long way to come up, buddy. oh yeah, he's got a big hole to dig himself out of. EJ is obviously horrified, but the day is saved by the tiny student of the aforementioned eyes glue shut with eyelashes stomping out of the darkness to tell Will that he sucks and he will never be as well loved on campus as as EJ. We love a girl's girl.
Speaker: Yes, nice. Later, at Cousin Nikki's diner, Zara and Lee show up with a drunk and dejected Will in tow. Lee makes a beeline for Jamie, and Zara heads right over to EJ to compliment her dress, and the two hit it off immediately.
Speaker: A bit later, sitting in a booth chatting, Will sits up. He's been drunkenly passed out on the other seat the whole time, and the following amazing scene happens. Oh! EJ exclaimed, I thought you were a coat!
Speaker: Will, this is EJ, Zara said. She's really fun. EJ, this is Will. He's usually fun, but he's had a rough few months. We're old work friends. We've met, in a way, EJ responded.
Speaker: My condolences. You met him in the middle of his audition for the world's biggest asshole. He's really going for it, the actress added with a slight glare across the table. Oh, that's great. Now, without spoiling things, because I'm guessing it's going to come up at some point, is Zara a particular Pride and Prejudice character you've yet to introduce us to yet? Hold that forward. I was just about to say, i want to note at this point that I was wondering whether Zara was meant to be our Caroline Bingley, albeit personality swapped one. or even perhaps our Georgiana?
Speaker: But no, he does have a sister, Lily, who we meet later on. So we'll just hold off on judgment here as we're less than a quarter of a way into the book. Zara's a mystery. Okay, bring it on. From context clues and illusions, we gather that Will is suffering from an existential crisis after a breakup with someone named Carrie.
Speaker: Due to EJ having almost zero working knowledge of pop culture, she has absolutely no idea who Carrie is or even who Will is. Great. The next day, Tessa finally gets a chance to explain who Will is. She didn't actually see or meet him the night before, but based on the description given, quote, medium tall, Asian American, black hair, attractive, but in a mean bro-y kind of way, kind of like a hot stockbroker, or the young villain in a Korean soap opera. Yeah.
Speaker: And like Google Stork, she deduces that the brat who insulted DJ is indeed Will Pack, a famous actor who recently went through an intensely public breakup with Carrie Dean, a Taylor Swift-level megastar actor and singer who has publicly won, heavy air quotes there, the breakup. As Tessa extrapolates, according to the Hollywood rag, the second verse in her new song, Dumb Blonde, is probably about Will. It calls him a boring snob she met on the job.
Speaker: Oof, I'd hide too. Carrie fans are intense. They're like a white lady bay hive. oh Or a white lady Taylor Swift hive. Yep. Side note, when Tessa is explaining who he is to Amy and EJ, the names of Will's movies and TV shows are just of beat enough to invoke real-life mega franchises without infringing on anyone's copyright.
Speaker: Like... When she says, oh, come on, guys, the Wolfpack trilogy made half a billion worldwide. Forensic Team Hawaii is one of the top 10 shows on TV. And you have to at least know Bandcamp, it was a musical. You love musicals for some reason.
Speaker: ah So we have Twilight reference. Hawaii Five-0. Hawaii Five-0. Or is it like Hawaii SUV? You know, SVU? you visit so i think there's one set in Hawaii. There is a Hawaii Five-0 though. I'm guessing Bandcamp is Glee.
Speaker: No, it's not Glee because they reference Glee by name. Oh, okay. I think it's Camp Rock. Oh, of course it is! Yes, well done. Yep, yep, yep. Anyway, it's a fun touch. From here we get the sweet development of Jamie and Leigh's relationship.
Speaker: Our Netherfield arc is her getting hit in the head with a lacrosse ball on a date, and Will rushing the lovebirds to emergency, while EJ, who is out on a nature ramble, rushes there on foot to meet them.
Speaker: Her urgency is due to Jamie's intense phobia of hospitals. And there we get a very funny exchange where EJ turns up with her leggings and sneakers absolutely covered in mud. And Will, who is still hanging around, bluntly says, you are phenomenally dirty.
Speaker: Just really racking up the points here, guys. EJ is rightly startled and he tries to backpedal with, but it works. You look earthy and refreshed like a wood sprite.
Speaker: Smooth, bro. oh Every woman would love to be called a wood sprite in that context. I know. I know. mean, it's a great vibe. Don't get me wrong. If the intent is there, great. If not, not so much. It's so funny. Now, in the original, Darcy's attempts in both Meryton and Rosings to get to know Elizabeth better and establish some rapport pre-proposal are mimicked here through social encounters that occur throughout the semester. But before we get to those...
Speaker: we have an establishing scene that, while not correlated to the original storyline, is relevant here and does need to be addressed. Lee sets up a meeting with Will to tell him to pull his head in.
Speaker: He explains that Will needs to find other friends because Lee already has a life at Longbourn and he can't keep babysitting him, especially when Will is going out of his way to be horrible to everyone, projecting his pain outwards. This scene is told from Will's perspective, So we can see how much of his behaviour is self-protective. He's really hurting.
Speaker: A lot. And he doesn't think that he can trust anyone other than Lee. Anyone who isn't, quote, legally obligated to keep his secrets. Oof. We also learn that Carrie really stuck the knife in after the breakup. And Will is under an ironclad non-disclosure agreement. He's not even supposed to have told Lee what happened. Though he does.
Speaker: Okay. Interesting take on that scene though, right? Like Beely and Darcy in the original have a strong friendship. So seeing that in a different context, obviously we'd never get that scene in the original because Austen didn't write what she didn't know. but those sorts of scenes would have happened. Yeah, Bingley would have told Darcy to pull his head in, but they would have interacted at some point. Yeah. I mean, there is that brief moment in the Meriton dance where he's like, I can't stand to see you standing about in this stupid manner. That's true. feel like it's like an extrapolation of that, but you're right. These are the things that we assume ah are happening in the background.
Speaker: It works doubly. Lee is such a sweetheart. It explains why he's friends with someone who is so awful. Right. And then it also explains why Will is currently being the world's biggest douche canoe.
Speaker: Great. Okay. But back to Will trying to make friends with EJ. He overhears her and Tessa talking about a once-in-a-lifetime meteor shower that will be overhead that very evening. After EJ is gone, Will sidles up to Tessa And we get her warring interior monologue of wanting to be loyal to her friend, but also really wanting to talk to the famous person that she is a big fan of. It's cute and relatable.
Speaker: She relents and she invites him to accompany her and EJ to a secret spot to watch the show. Tess is subsequently explaining to EJ what she has done is all time. She just starts blathering on about him being lonely. And she basically says, I never believe that hot people could ever be sad and lonely, but he is. Yeah. Everyone can be lonely, guys.
Speaker: Yeah. We're all people. Anyway, the odd threesome find themselves on the roof of the physics building and Will thinks that his conversation with EJ is going really well.
Speaker: Like this is Darcy quizzing Lizzie on how far she would want to live from her family levels of oblivious. Great. Okay. EJ is still completely unimpressed by both his presence and his efforts at conversation.
Speaker: It's really fascinating to watch her go through the motions with Will. She's deflecting him at every turn with her tried and true conversation ending tactics. And he simply brushes each one off. Like it's just water off a duck's back. And she's baffled. And it truly is the, I come on this walk every day and I'm telling you so you can avoid me scene from Rosings. And Will, like Darcy, blunders on obliviously, thinking that he's building a really great rapport.
Speaker: And this is where we get the first hint that he is falling for her badly. Now, a few weeks later, it's Halloween and Lee and Jamie have been to a party, the Bourne Tones Halloween party, in their first couple's costume.
Speaker: They wind up fighting over Will being such a douchebag and Lee decides to share what happened to Will in the breakup so that Jamie understands why they're still friends and this is where we find out exactly what happened.
Speaker: Oh, early! We learn that Carrie met Will on his Hawaii Forensics show and pursued him. They became the it couple in Hollywood very quickly and this is when Will really started to buy into fame and what could be possible with his newly expanded world.
Speaker: So he quit his very successful TV show where he was mostly just the token Asian scientist and shot a pilot for a show where he was the main character and the romantic lead.
Speaker: But this bit is long. I'm going to get you to read it, but we need the detail. Okay. One day, Carrie asked him to come over. At her manse in the hills, Will did not find Carrie. He instead found her agent, mummiger, and several bodyguards.
Speaker: On top of a pile of non-disclosure agreements and other legal forms was a note from Carrie that simply said, I'm sorry. Carrie's people called his agent, Katerina, and threatened to use their considerable abilities to make Will unhirable should he refuse to go quietly.
Speaker: Carrie's people threw a sizable, but still insulting, pile of money at Will for his trouble. Carrie then presented a crying face to the world and implied that Will dumped her. Implied that he's cold, snobbish, and a little boring.
Speaker: A romantic heartthrob no longer. His pilot, which sounded so good, went nowhere. Cast and crew blamed him. All other offers disappeared. Will was no longer interesting.
Speaker: Carrie's fans turned on him. There were jokes about his driving, his genital size, and his ability to speak English. Whoa. Yeah. that's intense. It's savage. it's Yeah. a cold callous takedown and it really goes a long way to explaining why he is such a self-destructive lunatic right now. Yeah. It's not an excuse, but it is a reason. Yes, exactly. Hurt people hurt people, but they shouldn't hurt people.
Speaker: And so, is this our Wickham? Our second ever gender-swapped Wickham, I think? Either way, she is a doozy. Yeah. and we'll get more into it as the story goes on and then in the analysis.
Speaker: From here, we immediately bounce off into EJ and Will going to their respective homes for Thanksgiving. Nothing particularly Pride and Prejudice happens here, so we'll skip over it like always. But it's a great book and I really encourage you to read it in full to get the whole picture. There's a lot of detail, a lot of nuance that I just cannot cover in this episode.
Speaker: Please note that Will's family home is called Pemberley. Hey. And while he is there, we get introduced to his sister, whom he adores. Oh, and Sarah joins them after performing in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade next to the Pentatonix. Hey!
Speaker: cook cook They're unthawing as we speak, ready for the Christmas rush. ah Basically, Will's Thanksgiving is how we imagine him moping around the house after the Rosings debacle.
Speaker: Lily demonstrates his massive crush on EJ back to him and to Zara by showing that her brother is so obsessed that not only does he know his crush has multiple coffee orders, he talks about it so often that Lily knows exactly how EJ takes her coffee depending on how stressed or tired she is. Yeah, that's, mate, you got it bad. Bad.
Speaker: And so he plans to make a move. He writes a letter. Okay. And it is spectacularly awful. Thankfully, he's dense enough to read it to Zara and to Lily and Zara snatches his phone off him and deletes it. good. I have some highlights for you to read for everyone, Melinda. Oh, good. Okay.
Speaker: I've tried, believe me, I've tried to keep this to myself, but it's impossible. I adore you, EJ. Who would have thought I'd find my dream girl in the boonies of Massachusetts? A girl whose clothes are from TJ Maxx instead of Saks. Fortunately, I'm the kind of man who can recognize a jewel in any setting. Wow. You were like Billy Joel's classical album. At first, I wasn't quite sure I even liked it, but then it became my favorite.
Speaker: That's one line, mate. Incredible. The girls school him in all the ways he is an idiot. And Lily straight up tells him that he is not ready for a relationship and she tells him to stay away from EJ. She said he is still too selfish post-breakup to pursue someone else.
Speaker: And honestly, love to see it. Great advice. And so the disaster of the first proposal scene is mostly averted. Mostly. Mostly. There is a lot of other college storyline stuff that happens here that starts bring EJ and Will together and they start to create a sort of a slight connection through this shared orbit. I won't get into it for the sake of time, but know that it's there and their relationship is slowly developing.
Speaker: The next big moment is EJ going to a salsa night, and she's rescued from some weirdo guy who keeps following her around the dance floor by a tall blonde Adonis named Jordan Walker.
Speaker: They dance and chat, and EJ goes back to his place for a frenetic hookup. It's all wonderful and lovey-dovey. She has no interest in him beyond the one night, and the next morning, over breakfast, Jordan, apropos of nothing, tells her how Will Pack ruined his life.
Speaker: Excuse me? And here we have Wickham number two? i Okay. Wickham 2.0. They're both blonde. So you know they're evil. Yeah. yeah I say that as a natural blonde. Guys, I don't have anything against blonds. No. It's not because it runs deep. That was a self-deprecating joke. Obviously oblivious to all of this.
Speaker: A little while later, Will turns up to EJ's dorm to give her a Christmas gift and she tells him to leave to take the gift with him and that they can't be friends um because she knows that he physically attacked Jordan and had his scholarship cancelled to their very posh school simply for dating Will's sister Lily.
Speaker: oh Oh. Now, that raises alarm bells for us readers because Lily is Oh. oh Not that EJ knows that.
Speaker: Will visibly starts to panic that Jordan is at Longbourn and EJ feels like his behaviour is just confirming everything that Jordan has told her about him. Will also doesn't deny attacking Jordan, saying he did what he needed to do. But he does pose a very interesting question.
Speaker: They've been getting to know each other, so why does she just believe this complete stranger straight away? Huh. Good point. EJ doesn't have an answer, and Will tells her to keep the gift, and says that on the day that Jordan shows her his true colours, she should open it, because now it's not a gift, it's a bet.
Speaker: Oh, fascinating. Yeah. After he leaves, she reflects that Will didn't look angry. He looked hurt, but she's not sure why. and she's also not sure why she feels so awful when she should be feeling victorious for, you know, winning a verbal battle over a bully.
Speaker: And that's all that we get of the first proposal. Okay. I like this take. It modernises it in a way that makes a lot more sense. It's really interesting. And just wait for the reveal. Oh, yep.
Speaker: Yep. Yep. Will is obviously very distressed by this whole situation. He goes to vent to Zara, who knows all about Jordan, and she rightly gives him a serve.
Speaker: He has been planning to leave EJ to FAFO, so to speak, and Zara is horrified that he would let her walk into the arms of a monster because he knows what Jordan is capable of.
Speaker: It's all starting to sound very dark. Yeah. She also points out that EJ believed Jordan because Will never apologized or even made an effort to make up for being such a prat to her when they first met.
Speaker: She points out that he never apologized for insulting her and calling her a lady pimp. And his excuse is, I didn't know she hurt me. Yeah. Amazing what difference Darcy could make if he'd had an emotionally intelligent friend he could have bounced his ideas off before he actually carries them out. Yes. Yes.
Speaker: So Zara also points out that EJ just thinks she's noticing a pattern in Will's behaviour. He's a snotty rich kid who is awful then throws gifts and money at the a problem to make it go away. Mm-hmm. So Zara isn't really our Caroline. She's more like our second Bingley with a bit of Colonel Fitzwilliam thrown in.
Speaker: Yeah, right. Anyway, we love her. Back at school for spring semester. Remember the sweet baby student who defended EJ against Will? Well, her name is Dia and she has just slipped into the orbit of Jordan and we're getting very worried. Okay, this is Lydia, right?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. She's Lydia, but she's quite on the outside and she bops in it out of the storyline so often. And then you get to this point and you're like, oh, oh she's been Lydia the whole time. This is why she's bopping in and out.
Speaker: Yeah, right. She's very sweet. She's very innocent. Just the kind of person that you really want to protect. And EJ is desperately trying to protect her.
Speaker: She's got family problems as well. So, you know, things haven't been easy for her. In the meantime, EJ relates the Jordan story to her sister, who tells her that it's literally the plot of a Korean soap opera that is very, very popular at the time. e j our completely oblivious to pop culture person, knows nothing about it and really needs to engage with modern media more.
Speaker: She also points out that Jordan is relying on EJ's, quote, respect for his privacy to silo people off at Longbourn and take advantage of them. Just like our OG Wiccan. Just like that.
Speaker: She tells EJ that she needs to talk to Will, and EJ agrees, reluctantly. But before she can go and find him, she finds him creeping around outside her dance class where he hands her a letter and runs away.
Speaker: Ha ha ha ha ha! Perfect ass in behaviour. Yes. And actually the reason for the letter is really intelligently woven into this. There's a whole thing where both he and EJ are kind of like Luddites and don't really go in for like modern communication forms. But in the letter, he explains that having had a stalker, he doesn't trust emails. Anything can get leaked.
Speaker: Yeah, great. Makes sense. Yeah. So it's accounted for really well. And that's how you see like the fame aspect of certain characters just being woven really neatly into the storyline.
Speaker: Kind of like stuck up and stupid in a way. Yes. We get the whole story. Jordan was a childhood friend. They grew apart until one day he turned up again at Lily's very posh boarding school, the school her father had sent her to, rather than have custody of her full time after their mother died.
Speaker: Their parents are divorced. Okay. Will is already famous at this point and is in Hawaii filming his TV show, so he's quite distant. Lily is really struggling and that's where Jordan gets his hooks into her and gets her addicted to first Adderall, then cocaine and then OxyContin. it doesn't come to the heart of drugs, but this is sounding now very much like accomplished. Yes. How have the three YA novels that we've done this year all connected? This is wild. Yeah, yeah, but in like very different ways.
Speaker: And then Jordan, as her dealer, comes to collect. Lily hasn't been paying for all of her drugs, taking them from him on credit. Will pays the debt and punches Jordan in the face to boot, which is where the story comes from.
Speaker: But Will's famous now, and Jordan has a lot of dirt. After Will leaves, he threatens Lily that he will release everything. Photos, text messages.
Speaker: All of it. Unless she pays him 10 grand in cash on their first day back at school. She's a minor. She cannot get her hands on that sort of money. Will's been trying really hard to keep the drug stuff away from their father because he's awful and he will just simply disinherit her.
Speaker: She can't get her hands on the money, so she attempts suicide. ah It's awful. And to make things worse, she wasn't the only teenage girl whose life Jordan almost destroyed. His modus operandi is targeting very young, marginalized girls, booking them on drugs, and then blackmailing them into things like being his drug mules.
Speaker: Oh, This is next level. and Yeah. And part the letter is a whole page of phone numbers and names for people that will corroborate his story. whoa These girls didn't want their lives completely ruined.
Speaker: They're all from a very, very posh background, so no one went to the police. It's horrifying, and I think this is one of the worst Wickhams we've come up against.
Speaker: Been a few bad ones but this ones, this one's pretty up there. Yeah. But also shades of OG Wickham so strong. So strongly just leaving this littering trail of damaged young women behind him.
Speaker: And operating in a society that requires secrecy in order to, oh, yeah, wow. Yeah. It's such a neat adaptation of how evil he is.
Speaker: Agreed. EJ is horrified by everything that she's reading and she's also terrified that she has led Jordan to his next swathe of victims. He was very interested in Bennett House being a women's only dorm, and now, unbeknownst to her, he has already got his hooks into one of her students.
Speaker: She makes some calls and gets him banned from the dorm, and thinks that will be the end of it. Mm. Mm. Later EJ opens the gift and it's a framed sketch of her, beautifully rendered, studying in the diner.
Speaker: She didn't know Will could draw and she certainly didn't know he'd ever been in there looking at her. She texts him to apologise and then she calls Jamie. She comes clean on everything.
Speaker: In return, Jamie tells her to get her act together and go and make out with Will already. Not the reaction EJ was expecting and it's very funny. yeah Instead, they meet up in person and they agree to start over.
Speaker: Now, again, so much happens, like a quarter of a book's worth of plot that is not relevant to this podcast, but basically results in the revival of Will's career and Will and EJ finally going on their first date where they kiss in a gazebo in the rain.
Speaker: I am 16 going on 17. Did they make that joke? Oh, of course they do. For anyone who doesn't know, it's the sound of music. Just to be a hundred percent clear here. They have like promised each other that they're not secret Nazis. oh
Speaker: Great. Oh, so funny. And then after that, they're officially a couple. Aww. Again, lots more happens. And then EJ gets a call from Dia's older sister. She's worried about her spending so much time with this guy called Jordan Walker that she's never heard of.
Speaker: EJ organises lunch with Dia and tries to talk to her about Jordan, but unfortunately, Mr. Conniving is way ahead of her. And Dia says that she pities EJ that Jordan never called her after they hook up and he feels so bad about it because, you know, like he's a really hard guy to get over.
Speaker: oh Nothing, EJ says, will change her mind. And Dia already knows all about Will and the other evil rich kids who had conspired against him to get him kicked out of school.
Speaker: So EJ calls Will and they start to plot. In the meantime, Carrie Dean has come crawling back, totally desperate for Will's attention after her rebound boyfriend, who is a quarterback for a football team, is outed as an insane racist. And then she was caught lip syncing the national anthem at the Super Bowl.
Speaker: Okay. She's been cancelled and Will is hot property, so she's decided she wants him back. ah All about the image. Mm-hmm. She shows up to the Bennett dorm. Whoa.
Speaker: Having got wind that he has a new girlfriend, fully intending to get rid of her. Huh. She corners EJ in the bathrooms. She calls her a chubby gold digger.
Speaker: Tells her that Will's friends will all hate her for being a boring feminist nobody. And this is where it turns out that Carrie Dean is actually our Lady Catherine. Oh. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I like it.
Speaker: EJ doesn't rise to the bait, tells her to get lost. And at the same time, Will is in a different room and gets a call from his agent who tells him that Carrie is there in a weird wig pretending to be in disguise.
Speaker: The funniest part of this is EJ being oblivious has no idea who she's talking to in the bathroom. right And like pieces it together through context clues. But it's like looking at her, she's like, who are you?
Speaker: Which obviously sends Carrie into like a spiral of rage. Yes, of course it does. Great. Very funny. But never fear, Will and his agent actually right out ahead of this one because Carrie had already weirdly paid a very large amount of money to Will's agent to get him to sit in a room and talk to her.
Speaker: oh Because her plan was to turn up, see off the new girlfriend, and then have the meeting to get back together. Right. There is some mild blackmail of Carrie by Will's agent at this point because she has photographs of her looking like an insane person in a wig in a college dorm where she doesn't belong.
Speaker: And part of the deal that they strike is that she will show up to Dia's performance at the drama showcase to congratulate her because Dia is a superfan, a deniac, if you will.
Speaker: Love it. Who has been all over social media defending her problematic fave. Will, in the meantime, has orchestrated to have Dia's parents fly out from Utah, and in the midst of their tearful family reunion at her drama presentation that Carrie has been roped into going to Jordan backs right off, because girls with supportive families are much harder to control. Huh.
Speaker: Okay. And then, of course, Jordan claps eyes on Carrie, and she, quote, talking back to l a like a souvenir, says,
Speaker: Deer is gradually deprogrammed from Jordan's control after he tries to get her to lie about where he is and why to his bosses at the drama school. And instead she outs him to them and he is completely blacklisted from all of New York State theatre community. Single tear.
Speaker: Okay. Good, good. This is all happening over like quite a long period of time. No, that's fine. You got to do the wrap up. It makes sense. Yeah. A lot more happens, like so much more.
Speaker: And none of it is relevant because none of it is Pride and Prejudice related. It's great, though. It wraps everything up really neatly. It's a happy ending. And we see all of the Bennett women heading off into their own sunsets to start their adult lives now that they've finished their senior year. And the book ends with EJ and Will telling each other that they love each other.
Speaker: Oh. No. Okay, that's good. So in terms of analysis... Identity and coming to know oneself are big themes in this book and it pulls off this delicate balancing act of the intersections between race, gender and class really well.
Speaker: I loved all of the little details that Appiah Kubi has put into her novel including the reason why all the Dorm characters refer to themselves as Women. It's because the commandments that all the Bennett women live by strictly forbid them from referring to themselves as girls.
Speaker: Huh, nice. It's a sort of vaguely futile but also empowering reframing of language that I would have loved as a baby feminist starting out at university. The author really captures what it's like to be coming of age as a young woman and the search for where you belong.
Speaker: It's a truly timeless concept whether you're examining young women in the Regency period or young women in the twenty twenty s The other aspect of young womanhood it captures really well is the somewhat relentless flow of misogynistic micro and not so micro aggressions that seem to permeate every aspect of life when you're young, before you become an embittered old hag who simply tells people to sling their hook, like me.
Speaker: The knowing glances, the anecdotes told a sort of raised eyebrow, it's a language that women everywhere understand and commiserate through. and it's artfully woven in here. In the same way that Austen weaves biting social commentary into her novels, Appiah Kubi is doing the same. It might be less subtle than the original, but it's not less valuable.
Speaker: And I've got an example here for you to read, Melinda. This is from The Fall Formal, where one of EJ's female classmates is complimenting her outfit and jokingly, remarking that she had no idea that EJ was so hot.
Speaker: Okay. Because in engineering classes, I dress like Ernest Hemingway, EJ said, laughing. In the department, she was known for her wardrobe of hoodies and giant sweaters. I had Samuelson freshman year and he didn't think you could do math and have boobs at the same time. The women laughed in commiseration. Seriously, though, he needs to get fired, Vanessa said darkly. Yeah. Yeah, he does.
Speaker: yeahp And we've all had conversations like this. Yeah. Yeah. Now, looking at EJ in more detail, conversely to the Bennett parents, EJ's folks are truly in love and they fell in love at college, something that EJ would love for herself but is very sceptical of her chances of in a very white school, in a very white town.
Speaker: She doesn't look like the ideal woman in this context. And I find that's a really deft translation of Elizabeth's predicament. EJ is also classically trained in music, can dance beautifully, as well as being smart, engaging and social.
Speaker: But instead of the barrier to finding love being her lack of familial funds and her mother not being gentry, it's her status as a tall, darker-skinned black woman in a world of waspy, upper, middle-class college students that places her at a disadvantage.
Speaker: For those unfamiliar with the term, WASP stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant and is a convenient and slightly disparaging these days shorthand for a very particular sort of upper-class rich white person.
Speaker: Wikipedia defines it thus. In the United States, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant is a sociological term used to describe white upper-class Protestant Americans, usually of English descent, who are generally part of the white-dominant culture.
Speaker: It was seen to be an exclusionary contrast to Catholics, Jews, Irish, Southern or Eastern Europeans, and the non-white. Fun. Yeah, fun.
Speaker: So I feel like it's a modern but also still intersectional way of looking at the predicament. What is it about Elizabeth that gives her a social disadvantage in her context? And I think it's really apt and I think it works really well in the story.
Speaker: Yeah, totally. Looking at EJ's relationships with her parents, her relationship is loving, but her relationship with her father in particular is thorny. And he functions well as a sort of general stand-in for that facet of the strained parent relationship that Austen delves into in all of her novels. He's not necessarily a Mrs. Bennett or a Mr. Bennett. It's more of a generalized, all of the parents in the Austinverse are pretty crap. And while he is loving, he's he's not great at supporting her.
Speaker: Now, a big part of EJ's storyline is her senior project. And when she excitedly calls home to explain that her work has finally come together and she thinks that it is her ticket to presenting at the National Society of Black Engineers, which will then open up huge job opportunities for her before she's even graduated college, he's not excited.
Speaker: um In fact, he rebukes her. for changing her idea away from something that is much more niche into something that is more broadly marketable. Basically, he tells her that she's selling out.
Speaker: Oh, that is really rough. That's awful. It's awful. And it's a huge weight on EJ's heart, but she's determined to stay the course. Her father's idealism won't get her a job that pays the bills after all.
Speaker: And this is where we do see that slight parallel to Mr. Bennett. For EJ's father, the point isn't the money, the point is the idealism. Yeah. But that also means that she's grown up with not very much money.
Speaker: And that sort of puts her in a bind. Yeah, okay. Will's dad, side note here, is also very spiritually a Mr. Bennett. He has fully exited the picture, preferring his new much younger wife and replacement baby to Will and Lily.
Speaker: Oh, of course. Yay. It's great. Back on Elizabeth, her prejudice has many facets. ah EJ's name is actually Elizabeth, by the way. We find that out halfway through.
Speaker: So her prejudice has many facets, making her well-rounded and certainly no less lovable as our central heroine. She is an amazing character, very easy to relate to, and just such a worthy, updated Elizabeth for this story.
Speaker: But after a lifetime of microaggressions from people who see her first by the color of her skin, she is unable to extend the same grace to Will and to understand how he can feel the same way.
Speaker: She sees him first and foremost as rich and privileged and from the same basket as her white waspy classmates. And we get inklings of this when she's surprised to learn that Will is majoring in art history.
Speaker: And there's a quote here for you. Why art history? EJ asked. She's expecting drama or finance. Then again, she'd met rich girls who studied art history so they could one day manage their husband's collections.
Speaker: Will seems like one of those husbands. ah Yeah, okay. Right, right. She also immediately arcs up any time she's questioned or even complimented by anyone she's not close to, immediately bracing herself for the inevitable racist or sexist remarks that have followed her her entire life. She is wary and on guard.
Speaker: And again, the caveat here is that while I have dealt with sexism my whole life, I do not sit at the intersection of sex and race like this character. i am merely observing and not passing judgment on life experience that I will never have as a white person.
Speaker: It's fascinating within the story to watch her unwind this particular type of prejudice, to become more open and more trusting, and to be able to develop her relationship with Will. Speaking of our Darcy, Will is hot, rich, rude, and brooding. He is also very proud. He knows he's hot and talented.
Speaker: But, as I quoted Lindy West as saying in our Darcy Story episode, without the strictures of the unbending social hierarchy of Regency England, Darcy just comes across as a douche with very little to redeem him.
Speaker: I mean, he does the OG as well, but for a modern context, there has to be another reason why he is like that. Yeah. and I quite like Kubi's solution. He has a massive chip on his shoulder due to the opportunities he is losing because Hollywood cannot see him as just an actor.
Speaker: They can only see him as an Asian actor. Someone to be tokenized, but never taken seriously as a leading man or a love interest on screen. He is shut out. And then he meets Carrie.
Speaker: She is a genuine star. And she sees him. She opens doors for him. And then he finds out that all he was was another opportunity for her to be used up, then tossed aside her, quote, token Asian boyfriend.
Speaker: if But it's more than that. It's not just his pride that is on the line for Will as an Asian-American public figure. he is carrying the hopes and dreams of a generation of young Asian-Americans who dream of proper representation.
Speaker: He is never just Will. He is always an avatar for his entire community. As Tessa, a fellow Asian American, puts it bluntly, this is so disappointing.
Speaker: There are only so many Asian faces on TV. He has a responsibility not to suck. Then again, he didn't say anything about Carrie Dean doing that problematic geisha photo spread, and that was after they broke up.
Speaker: I guess he doesn't care that much about representation. Oh, wow. Yeah, defining the narrative like that is Something else. And yeah, obviously different level being in the public eye and all of that. And you think about all of the modern stars that go through similar sorts of things. Yes. and Hudson Williams right now.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely. And the pressure that is on that is wild. And yeah, probably shouldn't be putting that pressure on people. Just saying. them out and do the wrong thing, but can we but not be that intense, please?
Speaker: Yes. Now, while the book in and of itself is not a meditation on fame, it does tackle so many aspects of intersectionality and the struggles of people who are trapped at the crossways of these intersecting identities. And Appiah Kubi is a deft enough author to present these weighty ideas with both gravity and humour within an entertaining storyline.
Speaker: But we do still get those occasional gut punches. Will's interior monologue is such an interesting look at someone who is so damaged by their life in the limelight that everything in his brain is framed around, will I be seen?
Speaker: Is this good for my image? Can this person be trusted? It's a really interesting translation of Darcy's constant thinking about his place in the hierarchy of society, which in the original we only really get a glimpse of in the first proposal, and then again in the second one, when he has his own come to Jesus with himself, as it were, about how he ended up so far from the good presently principles that his parents instilled in him.
Speaker: Four Will, surrounded by college kids, sure, he's famous and they know him, but they're also very focused on their own future and not interested in fawning over him. And he loves it. Suddenly he can actually be himself. It's like watching Darcy relax and be social with the gardeners at Pemberley.
Speaker: Here are people he can just talk to It's funny that what stopped him from initially making a move on EJ is the fact that she isn't a someone. There is no way for him to beat his ex who is now dating the aforementioned footballer.
Speaker: And also, side note here, I feel like Appiah Kubi predicted the Taylor Swift, Joe Alwyn, Travis Kelsey news cycle and I do not know how to feel about it. Anyway, we'll leave that one alone.
Speaker: And Will actually has to give himself a talking to and remind himself that he should be dating for love and not for paparazzi clicks. That's the number that this world has done on him and his brain.
Speaker: Yeah, I am loving hearing how the author has built out these characters They are so spot on to the originals in the new context.
Speaker: To our Wickhams, sort of. Carrie is a piece of work and her storyline really puts me to mind of that theory that people's brains stop developing from the moment they become uber famous and everyone stops telling them no. Suddenly their life is conflict free. Everything is handled by other people while they just cruise along, which means they are emotionally stunted to the age they were at that point.
Speaker: Carrie is very famous, has been since she was a child. She has endless resources, even when compared to the well-off Will. And despite her promises, she ruins his life, despite his taking the money and agreeing to go quietly.
Speaker: Yes, she is less of a villain than Jordan, but she still actively ruins his life, seemingly for no good reason. So I think she still fits into our Wickham archetype. Yeah, totally. She cries prettily in every paparazzi photo to the point that even the entirely oblivious ej has visions. Once they explain who Carrie is, she's like, oh, is that that blonde girl I keep seeing crying in photos?
Speaker: Oh, okay. So she's broken through to that level then. Yeah. She's she's controlled the narrative. Completely. Rebuilt history. Yeah. Yeah, she releases new songs about how he's awful and allows her fans to erupt with some utterly revolting racist stereotypes on social media to further compound his downfall and ensure his isolation. No one wants to cop that heat by standing up for him. And instead of the trail of impregnated maids and tradesmen's daughters left in the wake of a rogue, we get a sociopathic superstar discarding men once they are past a use-by date.
Speaker: One thing I will say is there's a bit of weird slut shaming that happens about her towards the end, which is really jarring in such a sex positive book. And I didn't love it. It's the only sort of fly in the ointment, if you will. Okay, that's fair.
Speaker: Her ability to completely control the narrative and completely disassemble his career and his life around him while he is powerless is fascinating. Yeah. It definitely frames her as a Wickham.
Speaker: I know we've said Lady Catherine and I think that does make sense because Lady Catherine is significantly more powerful than Wickham is within the social structure, but she's definitely still an active villain. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I thought it was really interesting and it adds like a whole other layer to this book away from Our next Wickham, Jordan, who is, let's be honest, the worst kind of predator. And I think he's a great modern update of the original to the point where there isn't that much to say.
Speaker: i do think it's interesting, as you already mentioned, that the YA adaptations have gone for this drug dealer angle, but this one completely removing the romance part of it. in its totality is very new.
Speaker: It's just about power, control, getting them hooked on drugs and making them do illegal things. Yeah. I do really love the way they get rid of him, though.
Speaker: Like that part of the storyline is completely madcap and I love it. Right. but Overall, a lot of the main characters are actually missing here. The other sisters, the gardeners, but the book doesn't actually feel that bereft without them. There is a cast of other characters that fill in those gaps in new and interesting ways. And we get our characters like Zara that are sort of amalgamations of other people that we know and love.
Speaker: Overall, though, the book really does capture the spirit of Austen, focusing on the interior lives, social issues and desires of young women who sit at the margins of the society they exist in, in one way or another. And I really, really loved it.
Speaker: So in terms of a rating, for me, this book is Austen approved. There is too much other stuff and characters missing to get fine eyes, but it is at the very, very top tier of Austen approved. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Jane Austen Remixed.
Speaker: We love exploring this wonderful corner of the literary world with you. Please share the podcast with your friends, family, literary fans and other Janeites. And we would love it if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you are listening. This helps us to reach other fans of Pride and Prejudice and build our community. You can also follow us on Instagram at janeaustenremixed.
Speaker: And if you have a question or a suggestion for a book, movie, or something you'd like us to review, drop us a line. You can email us at at gmail.com.
Speaker: And join us in two weeks when we examine the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. And now, Stephanie, it's time for the most important question of our podcast.
Speaker: Does this Darcy dive into a lake? No. But during the section of his career revival, he gets to do a skit on Saturday Night Live that involves him ripping his shirt open to show his abs. And he instantly becomes a meme gif that spreads like wildfire over a social media.
Speaker: And on that note, we'll see you next episode.
Speaker: you
