#rational creatures

RIP, Jane – you would’ve really loved how much queer literature is explicitly gaying up your work. *** For generally Austen-inspired work, check out: I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Conner George has major problems: They’ve just inherited the failing family estate, and the feelings for their best friend, Eleanor, have become more complicated than ever. Not to mention, if anyone found out they…

Round 2

Rational Creatures (Inspired by Persuasion)

Mina Murray's Journal (Inspired by Dracula)

Propaganda under the readmore

Do not consider me now as an elegant female, intending to plague you, but as a rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart. - Elizabeth Bennet, Pride & Prejudice

“But I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures. We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days.” - Mrs. Croft, Persuasion

She dearly loved her father, but he was no companion for her. He could not meet her in conversation, rational or playful. - Emma Woodhouse, Emma

“Oh! never, never, never! he never will succeed with me.” And she spoke with a warmth which quite astonished Edmund, and which she blushed at the recollection of herself, when she saw his look, and heard him reply, “Never! Fanny!—so very determined and positive! This is not like yourself, your rational self.” Fanny Price, Mansfield Park (we know that this is very much her rational self, also after a marriage proposal)

Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition. -Elinor Dashwood, Sense & Sensibility

- What about your flight?

Rational Creatures is an official selection of The Jane Austen International Film Festival!

Review: You should be watching Rational Creatures.

Persuasion has always been my favorite novel by Jane Austen. Sadly, there was no Persuasion in the wave of YouTube modern adaptations that started a decade ago with the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Not only did adaptions of Emma (Approved) follow, there were two adaptations of Northanger Abbey (Northbound and The Cate Moreland Chronicles) and an attempt at the unfinished Sanditon, well before it became a PBS series. Mansfield Park became From Mansfield With Love, the very best adaption of Austen’s least popular novel. I kept thinking Persuasion would be next. But after a few years, the YouTube literary adaptation had lost its bloom.

Rational Creatures  debuted in 2019. Its slightly minimalist aesthetic beautifully captures the tight plotting and the melancholy tone of the original novel. The short episodes sometimes feature more meaningful glances underscored with music than actual dialogue. The series is shot as a film rather than a vlog. This makes it possible to more subtly suggest the inner lives of Ana Elías (a Latina Anne Elliott) and Fred Wentworth, who fell in love as teenagers but parted badly. She went to college, he became a famous travel blogger. Ana’s high school YouTube videos provide flashbacks of their relationship and feel appropriately old-fashioned.

The changes to adapt Persuasion to modern times are deftly handled, and the acting across the cast is uniformly compelling. The circle of friends that Fred returns to after many years of travel is queer and bisexual, and thus genders of characters have been changed. Louisa Musgrove is Louis, and Ana’s sister is married, but to a wife not a husband. Missing characters and other details from the novel show up in stray references, inside jokes for those familiar with the original source material. The writing for the remaining characters is perhaps kinder to them than Austen’s often biting satire, though without them losing their core features. Louis, in particular, has a notable new depth as does Ben (Captain Benwick). Fred is not simply a modern version of Austen’s conquering naval hero. He is someone who has traveled the world but finds himself strangely stuck and unhappy. It’s heartening that Ana is not the only one with lingering feelings from their ended relationship and a sense that her life is not going anywhere.

The first season of Rational Creatures had thousands of viewers. Although crowd funding subsidized season two, the pandemic hit, making production impossible. Three long years later, the series has resumed, like Anne and Captain Wentworth’s relationship, finally fulfilling its original promise. Yet sadly, while Netflix’s ridiculously terrible Persuasion generated international attention, a smaller number of viewers are enjoying seeing the YouTube rendition play out. I imagine that they, like the makers of Rational Creatures, are the best company: clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation. You should join them.

Creators of Rational Creatures: Ayelen Barrios Ruiz Pagano, Hazel Jeffs, Jessamyn Leigh, and Anya Steiner.