Library of San Marco

I'm writing a story right now that I probably won't post at all and I still spent a good hour and downloaded a research paper to figure out if women in feudal China were allowed to have baths during their periods. The answer is no, as I suspected, but I checked! I also learned about their version of pads which sound much better than European historical period solutions and kept reading long after I'd found my answer. It was all fascinating to learn about because history is interesting.

So I guess what I'm saying is, why write historical fiction or make a period drama if you aren't even interested in or in love with history? When I read Bernard Cornwell, for example, it feels like he's fascinated by the period he's writing about. No one seems strangely modern, but they all feel deeply human. I don't need a female character to point out sexism or patriarchy to me, it's obvious. I'm trusted to think about it for myself. The author trusts that I care as much as he does about the past.

I may have to make my own, goddamn it.

Well I’m always looking for beta readers, although I should warn you the novel is mammoth currently…230k…hard to know what else to do with this period . I know it’s a bizarrely neglected period given the drama!

I may have to make my own, goddamn it.

I may have to make my own, goddamn it.

Incidentally, this is why I don't care that the recent Wuthering heights wasn't realistic period dress or society etc. It was blatantly symbolic (and Symbolic!) and wasn't trying for realism or period accuracy, so I don't criticise it for period inaccuracy. Like, who walks across the moors in a massive tulle gown in real life? No one ever, and that's the point. It's obviously performance, and that's what its going for. My criticisms are based on other criteria.

But this new adaptation of S&S seems realist - the colour palette and grading, the costumes and hair that aren't accurate but look like something real people at some point in time have worn, the characters that read like real(ish) modern women... It's trying to read as realist without being realistic and just. What's the point in setting it in the past then?? Why adapt Sense and Sensibility, a realistic realist novel, into an unrealistic realist movie?

I'm just so tired of earth tones being "realist." People wore bright clothes! The past wasn't drab, honestly it might have been brighter than now given our whole obsession with beige minimalism.

But no, it's not realistic unless it's BROWN and BORING

This is just modern minimalism imposed on the past. Just make a modern.

a) If you are doing Jane Austen, you are doing the top of society, percentage-wise. Stop lying to yourself. (Even the Dashwoods. They're poor in comparison to their previous situation but they still have incomes and more to the point, their old clothes.) They have servants. There is someone waiting to help them change clothes.

b) Oh my god it does not take hours to twist someone's hair up and stick a comb in it, and cosmetics were minimal. The alternative to pristine is not "full blown mess".

I feel completely spoiled by Chinese period dramas/historical fantasy because they embroider/decorate/print EVERYTHING. None of this B.S. minimalism. It's like how much embroidery and beading can we fit on a single outfit if we try our very best

Black and white outfits but with so much texture going on

Even more simple outfits have nice decoration

And Europe had lots of silk by Jane Austen's time, it's not just a fabric issue (Europe has had silk forever, to those of varying degrees of wealth, but these are the wealthy as you point out). But no, Hollywood thinks the past must be boring and minimalist and earth toned.

Right Eye of Miss Peggy Hawthorne, English, 1793

Roller Printed Day Dress

c. 1815

Is this an art blog? Not really.

Do I have 19,990 unfinished drafts on various interesting topics (imo)? Naturally.

Is there an unfinished Bonchamps in the room judging me? Of course there is.

Did I spend 50 minutes sketching what I choose to believe is Lucille in charcoal because I randomly found an old charcoal set? Of course I did.