It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. I’ve been putting my fingers in other pies, so to speak. I got “interested” in the behemoth that is the YouTube algorithm and started learning how to make videos.
I finally settled on video essays about storytelling: fiction and grammar, close reading etc. I was struggling with the visual element - generating images to visualise the characters and scenes - so I decided to focus on an adaptation, so I could use film footage alongside the illustrations and animations. It seems to have worked, and the video has been noticed by the creature lurking inside the Alphabet servers.
It’s about Pride and Prejudice and the 2005 film with Keira Knightley.
In preparation I reread the novel (so much funnier than I remembered) and then rewatched the film. Austen keeps us very close to Lizzy with an ironic wink, allowing us to constantly question whether she is misinterpreting people. The book is a masterclass in the free indirect style - withholding characters’ perspectives through just the right stretches, and making the most dramatic errors in judgement at exactly the right moments.
A film can’t stay inside someone’s head in that way. It has to show us the other characters through the objective lens of the scene, and we are forced to take them at face value. So there is less to interpret and wonder about.
The director, Joe Wright, makes an interesting choice though. He shows us Lizzy divided between her body and her dialogue - so we can see her attraction before she can.
The YouTube channel I’ve started is called What Words Do. I’m going to keep making videos on novels and their adaptations (Remains of the Day next) alongside shorter companion pieces on storytelling and grammar rules.
I’ll post the longer pieces here with a few notes in case you don’t like heading over to YouTube. But if you enjoy the video it would be great if you could pop on over to the channel and subscribe. Small channels don’t get much exposure so each sub is really helpful at this stage.