On Collision Courses...

I have three 2000 word essays all due on the same day. Research essays, I might add. The bane of my existence. I haaaaaaaate researching. I will do all in my power to avoid it.

So with the knowledge that I had two of these essays due on June 3, finding out about the existence of a third...well, lets just say it took all my effort not to scream and cry.

Oh, my first piece of assessment? In-class presentation next Wednesday.

Admittedly, that's my own fault.

But still.

Anyway, I went to the bookstore for the third day in a row to spend my dwindling lack of savings but the line extended the whole way around the store and out the door so I gave up.

Back to the assessments, and I have the feeling by early June I'll have burnt out. Oh well, gotta keep up with it. First assessment is an in-class presentation on Jane Austen's Emma. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I'm a sucker for Austen. I love Pride and Prejudice (obviously), swear by the BBC adaptation and loathe the Keira Knightley adaptation on principle. Love the movie version of Sense and Sensibility though, same with Emma, hated Clueless...okay, you get the picture.

Anyway, Emma's an interesting read. Quite frivolous on the outside, but has quite a bit of story to it. Also, I see way too much of myself in Emma Woodhouse (especially in Romola Garai's recent incarnation of our rather imperfect heroine). Not as universally adored as Pride and Prejudice (again, Colin Firth, lake scene, SWOON!) but very much enjoyed. Emma is perhaps the odd one out of Austen's heroines. While she goes through the same trials (being a witty female who makes errors, learns from her mistakes, and has a happy ending), there's the fact that at twenty, she's a very rich woman who has no intention of marrying. As opposed to, say, Elizabeth Bennett, the same age, but one of five sisters to a less well-off family, who's encouraged to marry.

And of course, the modern feminist would quietly (or not so quietly) seethe at Emma's childlike behaviour, and that she has to be set right at every turn by Mr Knightley (who, by the way, is absolutely lovely in the latest BBC version), I can't help but love this text. It's silly, it's fun, I'm even looking forward to most likely analysing it for 2000 words (most likely how the male roles in the text influence Emma's growth and development, ohai Mr Knightley).

If I can be bothered to get off my ass and research, that is.