P&P Journal: Volume II

I have not updated in a while, not because I have not been reading, but because I have not been reading in the same way as I was. For the majority of the first volume, I was close reading and annotating the text, letting my handwriting crawl, arachnoid, down the margins and weave long strands across interesting lines in the hope of catching at some analysis or meaning. The enjoyment I took from continuing to read was a devout and scholarly one, less jubilation than satisfaction at a job well-continued. I persevered, and took pleasure in nabbing bits of wit and splatting down my ever-so-clever wads of erudition.

Somewhere between my last post and my current one, I've ceased those practices. The change comes, I now realize, with an actual investment in the story. I've had my fill of academic distance, I suppose, and I've come to just enjoy the novel. Is this a lazy man's escape? Perhaps, but it is also warranted by the fact that I will not look back on Pride and Prejudice as a labor but as a pleasure. So I will likely have few interesting things to say about it from now on, but you, gentle reader, can rest assured that I am won over by the Divine Jane. Those who've known me longest will perhaps be surprised, but I am not too proud to admit that I was wrong to avoid Austen for so long out of a misguided kind of prejudice.