JASNA-NY Juvenilia

via Orthodox Union

By Joyce Schur

As a post-script to Mother’s Day, and given today’s cultural manifestation of the Orthodox Jewish “superwoman”, what do King Solomon and Jane Austen have in common? Well, how about the following bit of repartee from Pride and Prejudice:

Darcy: “I cannot boast of knowing more than half-a-dozen (women), in the whole range of my acquaintance, that are really accomplished.”

Elizabeth: “You must comprehend a great deal in your idea of an accomplished woman.”

Darcy: “Yes, I do comprehend a great deal in it.”

Caroline: “Oh! certainly…no one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half-deserved.”

Darcy: “All this she must possess…and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.”

Elizabeth: “I am no longer surprised at your knowing ONLY six accomplished women. I rather wonder now at your knowing ANY.”

Elizabeth Bennet’s wonderment sounds awfully familiar to Proverbs, “A Woman of Valor Who Can Find?”. No wonder there, Ms. Austen, whose father was a clergyman, would most likely have been acquainted with those words.

In any case, it was Mrs.Yael Weil who pulled the dialogue from one of English literature’s most beloved classics and used it as an unexpected introduction to her workshop, “How Perfect Must a Woman Be? In Search of the Real Eishet Chayil” (OU’s One Day Conference on Jewish Life). Mrs. Weil, who happens to be the OU Executive Vice President’s Woman of Valor, is also the mother of a large family and an experienced professional educator, so she knows her subject well.

Considering the stress and pressure that today’s women feel, the workshop’s title poses a question that’s on the minds of many. Not only are orthodox Jewish women expected to be virtuous daughters, wives, and mothers who possess the culinary skills of a Cordon Bleu graduate (a souffle by any other name would still be a kugel), they’re also required to polish it off with a career or two. This has nothing to do with a husband who may be in kollel or graduate school, because even if he’s the primary breadwinner, the cost of day school tuition alone can provoke the need for a dual income.

Added to all that is balabusta-ism’s gold standard, the Eishet Chayil. Who needs post-it notes as a reminder? Every Friday evening, families gather around the Sabbath table and sing King Solomon’s description of Jewish Wonder Woman. I wonder how many Wonder Women are constantly wondering which attributes they can lay claim to and which ones they fall short on.

Which is why, after all this time, it was a relief to hear Mrs. Weil’s extensive analysis of Eishet Chayil, based on Midrash. King Solomon had not been describing one “perfect” woman, rather he had been describing how each one of our historical role models (Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel, Leah, Miriam, so on and so forth…) had contributed in her own unique way to the precious values that Jewish heritage holds in such high esteem.

No one woman did it all and no one woman is expected to; King Solomon and Mr. Darcy don’t really have that much in common as it turns out. While Darcy “comprehends a great deal” in his idea of an accomplished woman, our wise leader comprehended that each individual woman should be held in high regard no matter what her particular talents or strengths may be. And contrary to popular culture, beauty and charm aren’t part of the value system.

So relax, all you Jewish Wonder Women out there, because you are all truly wonderful! And too bad for Hallmark Cards, FTD Florists and Godiva Chocolates. Mother’s Day only shows up on the secular calendar once a year. On the Jewish calendar, we believe the “balabusta” deserves recognition at least once a week.

by Kimberly Matas

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

These words, written 200 years ago by Jane Austen, changed Gene Koppel’s life.

On a rainy New York night in the mid-1950s, Koppel was walking home from his job in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency when serendipity intervened. Koppel glanced in the display window of a book shop and saw featured “Pride and Prejudice.” He was compelled to buy it.

That night, in his rented room, Koppel read the novel and was transfixed.

“When I opened up the book and read the first line … I was hooked. Here was a novel that had width, depth, comedy, complexity, made you feel good and gave you something to think about,” Koppel said during an interview a decade ago for the Jane Austen Society of North America, an organization of which he was one of the founding members.

The discovery led Koppel to earn a Ph.D., specializing in literature and British fiction so he could teach students at the University of Arizona about Austen’s novels. The writer, he said, “introduces students to great literature and real entertainment, and gives them important insights into life.”

Through successful treatment for prostate cancer and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, Koppel continued to dissect and discuss the works of his favorite author. His passion for Austen’s prose did not go unnoticed. During a standing-room-only memorial April 26, family, friends and colleagues recalled Koppel’s enthusiasm for the author. Koppel died April 10 as a result of heart failure. He was 79.

Koppel grew up in St. Louis and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism. After a stint in the Army, he got his master’s and taught English at a middle school. Impelled by his love for Austen, Koppel returned to school for his Ph.D. He arrived at the UA in 1962, as an assistant professor.

“He thought she (Austen) was so remarkable. For a country girl to be able to have that kind of insight into relationships, he was fascinated by her,” said Koppel’s wife of 52 years, Betty Jane. “Unless you have somebody to guide you through reading, you really don’t get the full value of it. He was such a wonderful teacher. He just drew you in.”

Continue reading at the Arizona Daily Star

via Gather

by Kimberly Morgan

According to a new study, when we read about vampires or teen wizards and absorb the narrative around them, we feel like we’re part of that world. In other words, when we read about a character and “get into” the story, we identify with them. In a way, the characters become our friends.

The study, called “Becoming a Vampire Without Being Bitten: The Narrative Collective Assimilation Hypothesis” from the University of Buffalo, reveals that we become part of the group we’re reading about.

It’s a fascinating study and begs the question: what other sorts of books might we read and then feel a kinship with those characters? If it works for Harry Potter, what’s to keep us from feeling an identification with horror stories or murder mysteries?

Books are Your Friends

Study author Shira Gabriel, PhD, notes, “Our study results demonstrate that the assimilation of a narrative allows us to feel close to others in the comfort of our own space and at our own convenience.”

In other words, when we read a book, we become part of this other fictional group in our own minds. It’s another “peer group” of sorts. We find another group of friends when we immerse ourselves in a good book.

Sometimes, it’s impossible to not become absorbed in a good book; the best books are those which suck us into their world, drawing us into the conflicts, the characters, and the premise. With the suspension of disbelief—the reader’s willingness to accept the premise of a story—we allow ourselves to lose ourselves in a story. This new research suggests we get more out of the book than just an escape: we find friends.

Testing the Hypothesis

Researchers gave 140 University of Buffalo students either Twilight or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to read for 30 minutes, and then asked them to complete a series of questionnaires designed to test their responses to the stories on both conscious and unconscious levels.

The respondents felt more like wizards or vampires after reading the books. While they presumably did not bite people or jinx them, they felt part of a peer group. They felt good about the association.

They Seem Real to You, Too?

Avid reader Amanda Jenkins-Haury responded to the study results with both humor and understanding. “You mean they weren’t written just for me? We get so familiar with some of these characters that they feel like extended family.”

Reader Catherine Christian agrees. “I have always felt that characters in books I read become part of my extended family. This has been especially true with Harry Potter, Lestat, and all of Anne Rice’s characters, and all of Jane Austen’s characters. It’s so wonderful to open your imagination to writers that can bring their characters to life through written word. It doesn’t happen with every book I read, but it sure is nice when it does happen.”

Other book lovers think it matters on the book and the individual in question. “Anyone who really reads will become involved in the story line and will in the process begin to feel acquainted or friendly with the characters. Is not necessarily isolated to fictional characters,” says Wayne Hill.

Hilary Bednorz, who’s an avid reader herself, thinks the phenomenon could apply to all fiction. “I’m not as attached to someone in a Henry James novel as I may be to someone in Jane Austen. I think sometimes our attachment comes from how we can relate to their struggles/triumphs rather than how careful a reader we are.”

The most enduring characters in literature are those with which we can identify in some way, because we suspend our disbelief and derive benefits on an emotional level from our immersion in their story.

The director comments on mixing Jane Austen and the undead in the film adaptation of the hit parody/mashup novel.

via IGN Movies

Director Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) will follow up the upcoming remake of Fright Night with a film adaptation of the hit Seth Grahame-Smith novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which took Jane Austen’s classic original and added the undead into the mix.

The book plays everything completely straight, mostly using the original text, while also including martial arts and plenty of zombies. So how do you find the right tone for the film?

I recently spoke to Gillespie and when I brought up this topic, he remarked, “That’s always what I’m attracted to, is to see if there’s a really cool sense of tone on the page and that’s what I think makes the movies unique and makes it specific to you as a director. The mix of the humor in that and staying so faithfully to the dialogue and the structure of the original Pride and Prejudice and that period, and then throwing the clash of the zombie world into that, is what’s fun. It’s what’s really exciting about it.”

Added the director, “It’s going to have this very sort of scary, gothic side to it. You’ve got to be invested in those characters like you are in the novel.”