A fun thing to do both in this Time and in Normal Times is to think of projects. (Example: this blog!) Actually completing, or even beginning, these projects is irrelevant. (Example: this blog! (how do you "complete" a blog?))
Sure, "following" "through" with these projects is not irrelevant to like... having a fulfilling life or whatever but it is irrelevant to the joy gained from simply imagining a world in which you will do that thing. I can't tell you how many projects I've had the joy of imagining for myself: writing projects, art projects, definitely doing the dishes tomorrow projects. Sometimes when browsing dusty old corners of my hard drive, I'll come across a document with an outline for a something-or-other and I'll look at it and think, "Wow, I definitely didn't do that nor did it think about it for a single moment after the day the document was birthed."
This is all a long-winded build up to saying that two nights ago I watched a Jane Austen movie (1999's Mansfield Park, I do not recommend it) and then I thought to myself, "What if I used these stay-at-home times to watch every Jane Austen movie?"
This, like most hypothetical questions, led me to Wikipedia, where I learned this project would be impossible, since a number of the oldest Jane Austen adaptions have been fully lost to the sands of time. They straight up do not exist anymore. How eerie! How dramatic!! How inconvenient for me personally!
I chose not to let this stop my scheming and adjusted course to, "What if I watched every Jane Austen adaptation that's available to me?" Then I spent the next hour making myself a spreadsheet listing every movie, miniseries, television show, and web series based on or loosely inspired by or vaguely thematically connected to Jane Austen or one of her works. Then I spent *mumble* hours the next day figuring out how and where to watch those adaptations.
Here is that spreadsheet.
Amongst the highlights of what's out there (or not out there, in some cases):
I managed to find ways to watch all or at least segments of a great majority of the things on the list, though even with some of those that I tracked down, some barriers remain.
I found the first episode of a 1957 Italian Pride and Prejudice miniseries on YouTube but it understandably isn't subtitled. I clicked around and figured out I could turn on YouTube's auto-generated closed captions and then translate those into English subtitles but it became clear very quickly that would not be a workable solution. This is how that process translated literally the first words spoken in the film:
Sure, "following" "through" with these projects is not irrelevant to like... having a fulfilling life or whatever but it is irrelevant to the joy gained from simply imagining a world in which you will do that thing. I can't tell you how many projects I've had the joy of imagining for myself: writing projects, art projects, definitely doing the dishes tomorrow projects. Sometimes when browsing dusty old corners of my hard drive, I'll come across a document with an outline for a something-or-other and I'll look at it and think, "Wow, I definitely didn't do that nor did it think about it for a single moment after the day the document was birthed."
This is all a long-winded build up to saying that two nights ago I watched a Jane Austen movie (1999's Mansfield Park, I do not recommend it) and then I thought to myself, "What if I used these stay-at-home times to watch every Jane Austen movie?"
This, like most hypothetical questions, led me to Wikipedia, where I learned this project would be impossible, since a number of the oldest Jane Austen adaptions have been fully lost to the sands of time. They straight up do not exist anymore. How eerie! How dramatic!! How inconvenient for me personally!
I chose not to let this stop my scheming and adjusted course to, "What if I watched every Jane Austen adaptation that's available to me?" Then I spent the next hour making myself a spreadsheet listing every movie, miniseries, television show, and web series based on or loosely inspired by or vaguely thematically connected to Jane Austen or one of her works. Then I spent *mumble* hours the next day figuring out how and where to watch those adaptations.
Here is that spreadsheet.
Amongst the highlights of what's out there (or not out there, in some cases):
- a Mormon adaptation of Pride and Prejudice - surprisingly okay-ly reviewed!
- an Indian soap opera loosely based on Sense and Sensibility that is apparently very popular and that Wikipedia bafflingly lists as somehow having one season and 1,612 episodes
- multiple Wishbone episodes
- an Israeli miniseries modernization of Pride and Prejudice that I am desperate to find a way to watch so if you speak Hebrew and/or are good at finding bootleg videos of things, please reach out
I managed to find ways to watch all or at least segments of a great majority of the things on the list, though even with some of those that I tracked down, some barriers remain.
I found the first episode of a 1957 Italian Pride and Prejudice miniseries on YouTube but it understandably isn't subtitled. I clicked around and figured out I could turn on YouTube's auto-generated closed captions and then translate those into English subtitles but it became clear very quickly that would not be a workable solution. This is how that process translated literally the first words spoken in the film:
Relatable, but most likely not accurate. The search continues.
I have yet to check anything new off my list in the two days since I made it. Will I ever? Almost definitely. Will I check everything off? Very unlikely. Does it matter? Not in the slightest.
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