Read the answers to these questions here below and not necessarily in that order.
Recently I finished writing a novel. This would be my second, with the first lying somewhere preserved in a box, hidden from view. Those who write will know that writing a novel--even a bad one--takes a tremendous amount of effort and concentration. Finishing, therefore, feels like a great achievement, but after spending everyday writing and writing and writing, the days following feel incredibly empty. It is always necessary to leave a novel aside for a while to gain perspective on it and though I was not ready to start a new massive project, my fingers itched to be writing, so I began Lydia's Letters.
Writing erotica is like a walk in the park after writing a novel. You don't have to think about subtext or creating character depth, and plot--well, though sex and fantasy come in many forms, at the end of the day it is fairly linear and tangible rather than conceptual. Moreover, I already had the fantasy of Lydia's Letters in my head, so it was merely a task of putting the activities on paper.
I would not typically choose Lydia as a character to write about. When it comes to Pride and Prejudice I am much more like Lizzie than any of the other Bennet sisters. But with Lydia we have a way into a world of sex and sensuousness--a tiny glimpse into what, besides balls and marriage, was going on within Georgian society.
The story of Pride and Prejudice itself also gives a great way into creating erotica. We know from Jane Austen's work that Lydia is engaging in premarital sex and we know that she is writing letters to her sister Kitty, which are not to be seen by others. Austen writes:
"when Lydia went away she promised to write very often and very minutely to her mother and Kitty; but her letters were always long expected, and very short...and from her correspondence with her sister there was still less to be learnt-for her letters to Kitty, though rather long were much too full of lines under the words to be made public."
When Lydia went away she promised to write very often and very minutely to her mother and Kitty; but her letters were always long expected, and very short...and from her correspondence with her sister there was still less to be learnt-for her letters to Kitty, though rather long were much too full of lines under the words to be made public.
Something is clearly going on in Brighton that Lydia cannot share publicly. Only recently, I learned that the underlining of passages in letters was an indication of what needed to be censored, particularly as the sisters would have read aloud their letters as the Austen sisters would have done. And so, in Pride and Prejudice, in these gaps of information, there is so much that can be imagined.
Fans have such a devotion to both Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice--societies, movies, fan fiction. We love Austen to the point where her characters are deep within our own imaginations. With Lydia's Letters I add my own contribution to this conversation, albeit a racy on. And though I am not convinced Austen would approve, I hope my little work stays true to her characters and that my readers will have some fun.
Comentarios