how i hate to see october go

[pensnest]

If only Jane Austen had had another twenty years of life. There are not enough Jane Austen books in the world.

If you could reach into the past and give someone an extra twenty years, who would it be, and why? I was going to put in a proviso of "not someone whose extra life would profoundly change the world", because plainly I am a trivial person who just wants more excellent books, but what the heck. Whom would you choose?

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Convention this weekend! Will be off to Harrogate on the coach on Friday morning. Have just bought a whole bunch of sweets for sharing on the journey. We will all be throwing up by the time we get to Yorkshire. We are third on in the competition, which will mean getting up early (by my standards) two days in a row, but to compensate, the clocks change on Sunday so there can and will be a lie-in.

*

The Chaps have begun work on our front door. It is at present a squitty little front door, which was originally the back door of the house (I know it's weird), and really a very tiny thing, so we are having a very minor extension in order to have a decent sized door that can actually open. Because of the geography of the house it was not possible to just make a bigger door hole—not enough space for a bigger door to open—so this is going to involve putting in a sturdy pillar in order to make sure the house doesn't fall down. Eep. We have got the same builders who built our two extensions when we moved here. Probably a more expensive choice that we might have made, but we trust them, and when there is a risk of the house falling down, trust is important.

Probably won't have a new front door by Christmas....

Comments

give someone an extra twenty years, but who?

[stranger]

Franz Schubert died at 31, leaving several song cycles that make you cry, and copious orchestral and chamber music still routinely performed now. He's very much an Austen contemporary in forging the 19th century standards for his art, that are remembered in the 20th and 21st; like her, he could be succeeded, but not superseded.

Re: give someone an extra twenty years, but who?

[pensnest]

A very good choice.

[turps]

That sounds like a lot of work to get your front door done, worth it though I'm sure.

Have a great weekend!

[pensnest]

I hope it will be worth it! I think so—the front door really is tiny.

[minoanmiss]

that's a great question. My first thought was Dr. King but then I saw "would have changed the world profoundly." My second was one of those lovely poets who died in The Great War but I wouldn't want to condemn them to 20 years of untreated PTSD. Maybe Mozart? I don't think he would have changed profoundly but we would have more music from him. Or maybe one of the ladies of letters I've admired who died in childbirth.

ETA may I toss this question in my journal?

[pensnest]

By all means share the question - it'll be interesting to see who people come up with.

It would be an interesting thought experiment to wonder what Dr King might have achieved if his time had not been stolen.

[stranger]

The case for Mozart is pretty good -- died at 36, still on the cusp of the change from Classic to Romantic music. He'd been tending toward the Romantic developments, and another 20 years could have let him produce a more polished vein in the music of the early 19th century, including a few more of those immensely human operas. I think of him as emblematic of the Enlightenment leading to the huge social and political changes in Europe in the 1790s through 1810s. He didn't live to see it, but he was looking toward it all the same.

And I could stand to learn more about female writers of the time, that's for sure.

[turlough]

I'm trying to think of someone but my mind remains stubbornly blank. So either there really isn't anyone I would want to give more years, or my brain is temporarily off line :-)

Have a fun convention and good luck at the competition!!

I'm looking forward to seeing your new front door when I visit next.

[minoanmiss]

It's our weird human brains. "think of a strange colored animal" never makes one think of a pink elephant, but "don't think of pink elephants" always does.

[pensnest]

The question occurred to me when I was reading the Jane Austen subreddit, but I'm happy with my choice. It'll be interesting to see who else is suggested.

It'll be a chilly autumn in the house, although the heat pump is being very efficient at present.

[manna]

Anne Bronte would be my choice. She was only 29 when she died, and Tenant of Wildfell Hall is such an interesting book while being only the second that she published.

[yarnofariadne]

I would love another 20 years from Ed Wood. I don't think he'd produce anything groundbreaking, or even good, but I just adore the earnestness and the community spirit in his art, and I would've loved to see a place carved for him and his particular weirdos for longer.

[frausorge]

That sounds very complicated about the door. Fingers crossed for the updates to go smoothly and the house to remain standing!