Letters to Summer

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Hello Pen Pals! This is a bonus letter just for you, to thank you for supporting us on Patreon. In this one, we're talking about Pride and Prejudice. We hope you like it!


Jillian: ok so we just watched pride and prejudice with a bunch of our friends on netflix party

so itā€™s fresh in our minds

because they just put it on netflix, i think?

Summer: yes!!!

the first time i watched it was a torrented copy lol

Jillian: shoutout to netflix party for being the best way to watch movies with your friends during quar lol

but also the best way to watch movies with your internet friends who live several hours away, anyway

i canā€™t even remember the first time i watched it

Summer: itā€™s kind of wild weā€™d never done a netflix party before quarantine

even though we donā€™t see each other on the reg anyway

Jillian: i remember watching it on a rented dvd at some point in high school, i think? but that wasnā€™t the first time i saw it

maybe the first time i saw it was torrented too!

i truly donā€™t know but that sounds right

Summer: my first time was high school! I think my sophomore year. I read the book when I was a freshman

Jillian: i read the book around the same time

Summer: and I watched the BBC miniseries with Colin Firth? but I didnā€™t really like it.

Jillian: i read my momā€™s copy and somehow lost it, sorry mom

Summer: omgā€¦rip to that copy

Jillian: i have actually never seen that

iā€™ve only seen the joe wright movie

Summer: I feel like I would probably like it a lot more now in 2020, but it wasā€¦.boring

I didnā€™t really like the book the first time I read it either!

Jillian: i keep saying iā€™m going to reread it and i just havenā€™t

Summer: I felt like I just didnā€™t let myself read slowly, especially when I was 14.

and Austen deserves to be read slowly!!!! her wit is too quick to skim!

Jillian: i think the most recent jane austen novel i read wasā€¦ā€¦northanger abbey? which i loved

and i remember reading emma at some point in college too, which i also loved

Summer: SAME! I read it at your recommendation and holy SHIT. If there was ever a novel I would want to adapt to screen, itā€™s Northanger Abbey.

Jillian: itā€™s soooooo good and funny

it made me appreciate austen a lot more

Summer: I also read Emma in college, and enjoyed it a lot. It made me want to give Austen another chance, since I hadnā€™t enjoyed P&P at that point and I also read Sense & Sensibility and also disliked it

Yes!!!! Glad our experiences link up so much lol

Jillian: i also want to watch the new emma adaptation but letā€™s not go off on that tangent right now lol

i love emma

Summer: I think watching the Lizzie Bennett diaries helped me appreciate the core story of P&P a lot more and understand it was truly in line with my sensibilities, I just needed a different circumstance to read it.

Jillian: oh iā€™m so glad you mentioned LBD

i kind of forgot about it

Summer: I finally gave it a reread about a year ago when I was on the plane to our mutual friendsā€™ wedding

and i was like oh i actually love this

Jillian: but i was so into that

Summer: YES! LBD was so fucking good. I still think about it.

Jillian: and i agree that it helps you get into the story more if the actual novel isnā€™t your thing

Summer: I want to see more creative adaptations like thatā€¦

Jillian: did you watch emma approved?

Summer: I started it but I never followed through!

Jillian: (sorry to keep bringing emma up again, but emma approved was my first interaction with that story and i loved it)

i was very into that style of storytelling for a few years

i should look around and see if people are still doing that kind of thing now

Summer: Honestly? Yeah. I feel like I donā€™t actually give more..indie TV a chance as often as I do presses or film

Jillian: i was just so fascinated by the way they used social media to kind of roleplay the characters and add to the story outside of just vlog-style youtube videos

Summer: Yes! Full immersive experience!

It felt like they really GOT their audience, too.

Jillian: yes!

Summer: Like, the way we were all vultures for images of our favorite actors outside of the context of the show and would re-write paparazzi photos into canonā€¦.they just did that for us?

Jillian: the audience being probably mainly like, girls on tumblr

Summer: exactly lol

Jillian: i definitely have a lot of feelings about using social media for storytelling but we donā€™t need to get into that now

Summer: we can save it for another time haha

Jillian: i wanna talk more about the experience of watching p&p with our friends online

Summer: yes!

Jillian: because that was new!

Summer: It was cool because it was a joining of your different friend groups

but I felt completely comfortable to say/act/etc whatever in the chat because I knew we were all on the same page

Jillian: i have watched p&p with friends irl plenty of times before, because itā€™s the kind of movie that is good to watch over and over and over again, and is especially good to watch with other people who love it

yeah that was a huge advantage of using netflix party

we werenā€™t as limited by who could join bc it was online

Summer: See Iā€™ve only ever watched it by myself! but it felt like Iā€™d watched it with other people, sort of, because of the way some of our friend group references it constantly and talks about it. I know what weā€™re all attuned to

Jillian: which meant we could sort of blend friend groups

Summer: It was successful too! I think we all had fun

Jillian: it was very fun!

it was very cute to kind of bring together people who didnā€™t know each other but had a shared love for this movie

and to see everyone scream in the chat at the same parts

the hand flex!!!!! the hand flex!!!!!!

Summer: SO GOOD!!!!!!

CHILLS AGAIN!!!!

Jillian: right!!!

ok so aside from that, what are your favorite parts of the movie

Summer: OK SO

Whatā€™s interesting is what used to be my least favorite parts (the dancing/ball scenes) are now my favorite parts

Jillian: why were those your least favorite?

Summer: I think as a Teen I was stupid and didnā€™t pay enough attention to likeā€¦the way choreography develops moments so sophisticatedly

especially without it being like a straight up musical

but as my taste has developed and Iā€™m smarter now I am likeā€¦.eleganceā€¦..nothing better than some good blocking to tell a storyā€¦.

Jillian: i do think itā€™s funny how my opinions about the movie have changed

like with age, but also just because iā€™ve watched it so many times now that there are new things iā€™ve noticed and parts that i pay more attention to now

Summer: Tell me!!!

Jillian: the first few times i watched it i didnā€™t care at all about the scenes with mr. collins

to be honest i didnā€™t really care at all about the scenes with anyone but lizzie and mr. darcy

but as a teen i think i just didnā€™t understand how funny the mr. collins parts are

like when theyā€™re sitting at the kitchen table and heā€™s saying all this nonsense and lizzie and her father are stealthily making fun of him

i really think my favorite line in the movie is WHAT EXCELLENT BOILED POTATOES

the delivery is perfect

Summer: FUCK ITā€™S SO FUNNy

I cried

Jillian: itā€™s the best

Summer: I also forgot about the Mr. Collins scenes and just. how funny they are?

Jillian: the whole movie is really funny

Summer: I do sort of want to re-read the book again again

and see what different humor pops out this time

Jillian: yeah i think as a kid i didnā€™t really get that jane austen was supposed to be funny lol

and now that i see that more, itā€™s way more enjoyable

Summer: Yes!!!!!

Likeā€¦itā€™s not stuffyā€¦.at all

Jillian: like YES it makes me feel a lot of things that lizzie and darcy are in love! but letā€™s not forget to appreciate the absolute ridiculousness oozing out of like, every scene

itā€™s meant to be funny!

Summer: I havenā€™t watched the new Emma adaptation but I do appreciate the zany-ness of the trailer? because that seems like what Austen deserves? sort of the treatment of The Favorite or The Great

Jillian: especially for emma which i think is even more ridiculous

Summer: absolutely

thatā€™s why clueless is so good

Jillian: CLUELESS

yes absolutely

what a perfect story

so now iā€™m curious if there are any parts of p&p that you donā€™t like

Summer: Not that I can say off the top of my head, but I do really love the sympathetic lens give to Lydia in LBD

Jillian: ohhhh yes

Summer: The sympathy given to Lydia in LBDā€¦just reinforces how good that adaptation is. The transformative nature of it! It made me almost forget that sheā€™s just kinda a bimbo in canon

Jillian: i agree, kitty and lydia are both super annoying in the movie

Summer: Itā€™s funny that kitty is useless

Jillian: and LBD did a good job of changing that

i also really liked how LBD made charlotte An Entire Character

which the movie doesnā€™tā€¦ā€¦reallyā€¦ā€¦do

i donā€™t think thatā€™s because the movie adaptation is bad or anything i just think it was a cool bonus of LBD

Summer: Me too! I love the way characters get rounded out more and re-invented in the adaptations. Itā€™s not really a failure of the original, it just has different intentions but I think Iā€™ve been thinking a LOT about character since reading about the various Little Women adaptations and what Greta did differently with Amy etc etc

Jillian: YES

i love love loved amy in gretaā€™s movie, so much

it completely changed my perspective of the story

Summer: Iā€™d love to do an experiment of reading a book alongside the dearer adaptations and seeing what happens.

Jillian: i havenā€™t read little women in such a long time

since i was a kid

Summer: Iā€™ve been sort of fixated on project-based reading ā€“ like this month I did the Sealey Challenge, maybe next month Iā€™ll do something with Austen or lil women

Iā€™ve actually never read all of little women lmao

Jillian: that would be very cute and i would be happy to join you

i was super into little women as a kid

i loved the book, it was probably the longest book i had ever read

and my parents took me to the orchard house in massachusetts so i could ā€œsee where louisa may alcott wrote the bookā€ lol

a very formative experience for a young kid who wanted to be an author

Summer: thatā€™s precious

Jillian: anyway i love the idea of doing a mini austen book club

maybe even like, picking one austen novel a month to read and then watching various adaptations

Summer: Cross-media clubā€¦.what a Dream

Jillian: very cute

Summer: Sort of what MDZS is lol

Jillian: lol true

letā€™s not go there i canā€™t even get into it

maybe for a future chat once you watch the untamed

Summer: lmao yes Iā€™ll get there

Jillian: any last thoughts on pride and prejudice?

either the movie or the story in general

Summer: I love YEARNING

Jillian: YES

WE LOVE TO YEARN

what a perfect note to end on

Summer: šŸ˜Š