#sensenoi

[tazmuir]

questions of lyctorhood

Thank you everyone who’s left interesting, lovely notes in my inbox, and I really hope I can respond to them all; I am currently only allowed short bursts of goofing off in a day and I am ashamed to say that I mainly spend them losing my life to the sea ice challenge in Rimworld. Here’s a wonderful question from @sensenoi about the book that I will put under a read-more due to spoilers --

What a lovely thing to say; thank you, everyone in my inbox is so great.

Let’s say everything had gone according to the Emperor’s plan and Cytherea hadn’t interfered

I will try not to be aggravating and expound loads on “WELL THIS IS WHAT I THINK” because death of the author etc etc who’s to say what’s canon, but this is very funny because I accidentally had this conversation with my editor just the other day. Fragment:

what follows instead is a years-long detailed refurbishment of Canaan House found families etc quiet slice-of-life slow burn romance between various people, only to end in tragedy when they all get botulism from a bad clam, and die

(I don’t think you can even get botulism from fresh clams, so this is even more tragic)

(my editor immediately speculated on what kind of new murders would take place; wow, I was only trying to give some gentle slice-of-life botulism)

In that particular exact scenario (lack of Cytherea, all else the same), which I cannot actually expound fully upon because there are facts from Harrow the Ninth which may prove useful here, I will give this answer on the understanding that I am not saying everything --

WHO WOULD HAVE STILL DONE IT

Ianthe

WHO WOULD HAVE CHICKENED OUT

Everyone else

[janeaustentextposts]

What were the basic requirements for a girl to be 'out' in Austen's era? Did she need to have a season in London? In P&P, Lady Catherine is astonished that fifteen-year-old Lydia would be out before any of her sisters married. Was Lydia's situation unusual/inappropriate or was Lady Catherine being her usual stick-in-the-mud self?

Girls were usually brought ‘Out’ into society when their education was seen as complete and they were considered eligible for marriage–the general age for this at the time was 17 years old, but it wasn’t necessarily set in stone. Also, in families with more than one daughter, it was a little unusual to have more than one Out at the same time, though the elder might have their debut delayed for some reason or other, usually family issues or finances. A girl could be brought Out into any social circle, even in the country–somewhere around here I have a post where I reference a scene in Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters where this is made fun of, because they are literally middle-class people in a country village and only uppity people really care. A proper Season spent in any fashionable city (especially London or Bath) was ideal, but also the most expensive.So Lady Catherine’s surprise that a fifteen year old girl is Out attending balls and such speaks to her more sophisticated and snobby sides, and while it might be a little weird to some, and Elizabeth realizes this, Lizzy can see the sense in allowing the rules some flexibility when it’s a smaller, more rural community, and Lydia being so precocious and determined to flirt and have fun.

Ultimately, of course, Lydia encounters some problems; but it’s unlikely that insisting she spend another year or two on her ‘education’ while her sisters are out having fun would have made her much more sensible. She’d’ve sulked the whole time and Mrs. Bennet would hardly have the ability or will to force Lydia to mature.