The Janeites by Rudyard Kipling (Best known as the author of The Jungle Book)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
"Ammick says what a pity 'twas Jane 'ad died barren. 'I deny that,' says Mosse. 'I maintain she was fruitful in the 'ighest sense o' the word.'"
The Janeites does the invaluable service of showing us that fandom drama has always existed, from modern-day ship wars to old-timey military trials over which Austen character is most reminiscent of which gun in their artillery... And also that there will always be people who want smut in their romance novels.
World War I lands a young man in a military regiment filled with Janeites, who proceed to try to induct him into their fandom. Much of the modern-day fandom practices prevalent online are shown here, though with an obvious lack of fanworks: characters headcanon which of Austen's characters would best equate to which gun they have and then have to defend their choices, speculate the life of Austen while equating her to God (going so far as to refer to her home in Bath as holy ground), and refer to other characters by the names of Austen's characters when they do something like them.
This is an unusual entry in fiction about fictional fandoms/fandom members, mostly due to the fact that it centers around men in a fandom based around a woman's work. There's really nothing quite like it.
View all of my book reviews | Quotes from the book (at the time of writing this, all of them were added by me.) | Other books I have tagged under "fandom"
No comments:
Post a Comment