(no subject)
Dec. 17th, 2011 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solitary_summer# Perhaps I'm jinxing it and all hell will break loose next week when people realise they have only one week left and not done their Christmas shopping yet, but so far this has been the easiest, least stressful Christmas I've had in my entire career in retail. I'm tired in the evenings, but it's nothing like the complete mental and physical exhaustion I used to associate with this time of the year. Part of it (the part I'd be more worried about if I hadn't decided to stop worrying about things that aren't in my power to change anyway) is due to the fact that business has been much too slow for the season so far, but mostly it's a huge relief not having to be basically responsible for everything, but only for my department. Or whatever department I'm currently in. Not having to constantly worry about (figuratively, for the most part) stepping on M.'s toes is nice, too. No one is playing the boss here.
Also, all Christmas presents are, if not present yet in every case, then at least accounted for, a whole week before Christmas. I'm actually kind of proud of myself.
# Saw the new Jane Eyre movie with my sister on Tuesday and found it rather lacklustre. I especially liked the young Jane, and quite liked Jane generally speaking, although for me she lacked a certain... clarity, for lack of a better word, or detachment, to balance the passionate side of her character, but as far as I'm concerned Mr. Rochester didn't have the necessary force of personality, and I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between him and Jane, either. However, the worst failure for me was the scene where Jane runs away from St.John Rivers. I know, I know, movie, limited time, cuts are necessary, but it's such a crucial scene in the book, and for me it fell completely flat, because they never really took the time to establish his character, his uncompromising hardness towards everyone, including himself, his reason for his interest in Jane. With his fanaticism he's more frightening to me than the hypocritical Mr. Brocklehurst in the way he manipulates Jane and almost succeeds until she manages to assert herself at the last moment. In the movie his sudden angry outburst at the end came completely out of nowhere, petulant and rather hysterical.
(And it's not supposed to be a panicked flight either. 'I broke from St. John, who had followed, and would have detained me. It was MY time to assume ascendency. MY powers were in play and in force. I told him to forbear question or remark; I desired him to leave me: I must and would be alone. He obeyed at once. Where there is energy to command well enough, obedience never fails.' If Charlotte Brontë could write that 150+ years ago, why is it impossible to convey that now?)
Also, all Christmas presents are, if not present yet in every case, then at least accounted for, a whole week before Christmas. I'm actually kind of proud of myself.
# Saw the new Jane Eyre movie with my sister on Tuesday and found it rather lacklustre. I especially liked the young Jane, and quite liked Jane generally speaking, although for me she lacked a certain... clarity, for lack of a better word, or detachment, to balance the passionate side of her character, but as far as I'm concerned Mr. Rochester didn't have the necessary force of personality, and I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between him and Jane, either. However, the worst failure for me was the scene where Jane runs away from St.John Rivers. I know, I know, movie, limited time, cuts are necessary, but it's such a crucial scene in the book, and for me it fell completely flat, because they never really took the time to establish his character, his uncompromising hardness towards everyone, including himself, his reason for his interest in Jane. With his fanaticism he's more frightening to me than the hypocritical Mr. Brocklehurst in the way he manipulates Jane and almost succeeds until she manages to assert herself at the last moment. In the movie his sudden angry outburst at the end came completely out of nowhere, petulant and rather hysterical.
(And it's not supposed to be a panicked flight either. 'I broke from St. John, who had followed, and would have detained me. It was MY time to assume ascendency. MY powers were in play and in force. I told him to forbear question or remark; I desired him to leave me: I must and would be alone. He obeyed at once. Where there is energy to command well enough, obedience never fails.' If Charlotte Brontë could write that 150+ years ago, why is it impossible to convey that now?)