A little over a year ago, I wrote this post about The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a web adaptation of Pride and Prejudice which
had had a pretty big impact on my life, pulling me through the most
difficult aspects of my final year and spurring me on to achieve my goal
of walking to collect my first degree (which I then succeeded in doing,
conquering a few of my own unforgiving hills. Huzzah!) I wanted, in
some small way, to express my gratitude to the cast and crew - and
hopefully that came across.
Having
done my best to articulate the myriad emotions I associate with both
Austen and adaptations of her work in the original post, along with how
fabulous The LBD especially
manages to be, it may well seem odd that I would write on it again -
after all, anything else would amount to little more than indecipherable
gushing. Nevertheless, more than a year after it finished (two years since it started!), I am still noticing the
positive effects - and it feels important to acknowledge that within the
context of my new goal and exploration. Part of my reasoning for
writing this particular post at this particular moment is because my
copy of the DVD box set arrived just two weeks ago - and it honestly
couldn't have come at a better time.
I
have written a lot during these early stages of this new venture about
how my power chair breaking down (which happened nearly a month ago
now!) was the catalyst for my decision to start blogging again
and to investigate the possibility of finding alternative ways of
moving independently in my daily life, whilst also working towards
walking to collect another degree - my Master's. What I haven't
mentioned so much, in a bid to keep things largely positive and
optimistic (because that constitutes my primary coping mechanism), is
the amount of time I have spent feeling trapped over the last month. The
thing is, although I am exploring different methods of motion, I am
still far away from the point where any of these experiments have proved
reliable enough for me to try on my own. So, to all intents and
purposes, I am still stranded and immobile unless there is someone
willing and able to push me around - and Life on Manual has been taking
its toll.
That said, though, I refuse to be defeated - and this is why The LBD DVDs
arrived at the perfect interval. When one (literally) can't move around
the house, to have a series which is brilliantly written and acted,
relevant to the sections of my dissertation that focus on the mechanics
of storytelling (yay costume
theatre!), and which amounts to over nine hours of footage, available
on the TV at the touch of a button...is amazing, and the best cure for
cabin fever and itchy feet I have come across thus far. Not only can I
revel in the combined awesomeness of my favourite author (joint top spot
with Tolstoy) and the hugely talented group of people who have done
such justice to her words, but I can relive watching it for the first
time, last year, and, through recalling of all the physical achievements
I made in the period that the story unfolded, be reminded that I can
and will get there again - broken chair or no chair at all.
I
wanted to take the opportunity to re-emphasise my thanks, even though
all the words in the world could never adequately encapsulate how much
the show still means to me. So I guess I'll end, not with my paltry
prose, but with one of the best-loved quotations from this modern-day
Lizzie - 'my gratitude is there, and always will be.'
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