Jane Austen: Woman for the ages

[concorde]

God, sometimes I really just love Jane Austen. I saw this quote from Mansfield Park in minnow1212's LJ. No one should feel compelled to reciprocate an admirer's feelings.

"I _should_ have thought," said Fanny, after a pause of recollection and exertion, "that every woman must have felt the possibility of a man's not being approved, not being loved by

Comments

[lunaris1013]

I'll give anyone a chance. How much of one is negotiable, but everybody gets one. I know it takes some time for folk to warm up to *me* oftentimes (because I tend to be shy, which comes off as aloof), so yeah. Fair play and all that. But that's on a first meeting.

I most emphatically won't see someone a second time out of some sense of obligation, no matter how much s/he likes me. It's just not right.

That happened to me recently.

[inapickle]

When Pac Man made a play for me. Nobody has made a play for me in about eight or nine years, you know? So I had this horrible, Satanic moment where I was thinking, you know, maybe I DO find him physically repulsive and I have several major objections to him as a human being, not the least of which being that I hate him. What if this is my last chance?

Luckily, before it was too late I remembered that hooking up is about number 17 on my be-all end-all do-before-you-die list.

Re: That happened to me recently.

[concorde]

I can't believe I didn't reply by now; I thought I had. I apologize. I'm right in the middle of wrapping up my MA degree and LJ is temporarily getting the shaft. :-(

I can't say I haven't had some low moments myself (let's not talk about high school), so I know what the feeling is like and that's why it bothers me so much.

You have to make the decision that makes you happiest. But you remembered yourself and what you wanted. And I feel like my roommate choosing to go out with guys that she doesn't like indicates her own low opinion of herself and a failure to consider what she really wants. I worry that hurts her esteem more, in the end. *sigh*