After enjoying William Deresiewicz’s book, ‘Excellent Sheep’ (see this month’s SI ezine ‘Best Of’), I thought I’d continue the journey and go straight in to one of his earlier books, ‘A Jane Austen Education’.
It didn’t take me too long to make a connection to Deresiewicz’s connection that Austen’s six novels have something to say about ‘love, friendship and the things that really matter’. Austen tells us about life, Deresiewicz says. She tells us that it is a system is what I say.
TRIZ tells us, via the Law of System Completeness, that ‘a system’ must comprise six essential elements. Six Austen novels, six elements. Hmm.
Here goes…
Mansfield Park (COORDINATION) – being entertained is not the same as being happy. Perpetual amusement leads only to the perpetual threat of boredom. The keys to true happiness, purpose and meaning lie elsewhere. Il faut souffrir. We all need to find our direction and navigate accordingly.
Emma (TOOL) – pay attention to the everyday things – those little things that happen hour by hour to the people in your life: what your niece said, what your friend heard, what your neighbour did. This is what the fabric of our really consists of. This is what life is really about. The devil in the detail.
Persuasion (INTERFACE) – be honest with your friends. Unconditional acceptance is not real friendship. A true friend wants you to be happy, but being happy and feeling good about yourself are not the same thing. A true friend points out your mistakes – even at the risk of losing your friendship.
Northanger Abbey (ENGINE) – Stay awake; don’t take things for granted. By renouncing certainty and cynicism, by opening yourself to new experiences, you can turn your life into an adventure that will never end.
Pride & Prejudice (TRANSMISSION) – you aren’t born perfect. You are born with a whole novel’s worth of errors ahead of you. But making mistakes is the only way to grow up, the only way to connect your need for new experiences with the daily grind. Being right might get you a pat on the head, but being wrong is the only way to help you find out who you really are.
Sense & Sensibility (SENSOR) – Love is about growing up, not staying young. It means a never-ending clash of opinions and perspectives. A true lover is someone who is different from you and willing to challenge you. If your lover is already just like you, then neither one of you has anywhere to go. Being aware of (sensing) differences is essential.
It’s like a whole new world… “But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union.”