JASNA 2013
The Jane Austen Society of North American Annual General Meeting 2013
Kay (a close friend who is not on LJ) told me about this; it seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Kay really enjoys the JASNA cons, well, they don't call then cons. It was more expensive than World Fantasy or Worldcon, $250. But it did include some meals: two “teas”, coffee or tea and cookies and bars, one continental breakfast (good), a dinner (okay) and a brunch (inadequate). The only freebee was a canvas bag with that year's logo, stuffed with a lot of ad bookmarks and cards. And it was at the Hilton, which is really elegant. It was probably 90% women, and 99% white. Age was weighted towards older, but not heavily - I'm sure the cost was a factor there. There were upwards of 650 attendees; the cap was 700.
Some of the program items were excellent, some not so much. There were several “plenary” talks, and 4 breakout sessions; I believed it was modeled on a professional conference along the lines of the ALA (American Library Association) or the MLA (The Modern Languages Association - the Lit Professors Guild) and of course, the MLA (Minnesota Library Association) which I've attended several times. There was also a ball, with excellent musicians playing instruments borrowed from the Schubert Club for English Country Dances.
I could go into details on most of the items I attended, but that would get very long. If anyone want to hear more, let me know.
And the Cosplay! A lot of people, maybe a quarter during the day, more for the ball, were wearing Regency garb of some sort. It ranged from the simple to the elegant, from the very accurate (as far as I could tell) to a number of adaptations of anything with short puff sleeves and a high waist. I saw one woman in what looked to be full court dress of the Georgian era. Pretty amazing. The hats were glorious - I love hats, and while I wouldn't want to wear a bucket hat, I like the way they look on other people. The people watching was one of the high points.
There was a talk on Regency magazines, especially ladies magazines, by a collector. She had slides of several and held up a couple to show how small and flimsy they were.
The talk on carriages was fascinating, because the speaker discussed how different sorts were indicators of wealth and status. Saying, "we'll take so-and-so's barouche" is like saying "we'll take the Rolls".
The director of the Chawton House Library told us about progress there. The house where Austen's brother lived, and she lived in a cottage on the grounds, has been restored and is now library of several thousand books and a study center for research on early English female writers.
A talk on inheritance in the 19th century was a bit boring, but informative, and pointed out errors in Downton Abbey as well. Plot sometimes has to triumph over fact, after all.
"Would Jane have preferred a plain dish or a ragout?” was a talk, referencing Mr. Hurst's question to Elizabeth when she is staying at Netherfield because Jane fell ill there. It was all about Regency food, and was quite good. The author has a website, and is writing a book on the foods Jane Austen might have eaten. There are other Regency cookbooks around, but I think she is going to adapt the recipes for modern kitchens more than most.
A woman dressed as Hill, the housekeeping in P&P, delivered a wonderful talk on servants of the time, the rankings between them, how much they earned, what their duties were.
And to top it off, at the brunch on Sunday, three of the producers of "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries" gave a presentation, which was a hoot. It's a vblog on YouTube, if you haven't run into it, a modern adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" of 100 episodes, plus many side episodes, facebook, twitter feed, etc, etc. And they are starting "Emma" next week!
It was odd being in a "fandom" that is so different from what I'm used to. If you want to read more about that, a book was published titled, "Among the Janeites, a journey through the world of Jane Austen fandom" by Deborah Yaffe. The Hennepin County Library owns it.
Kay (a close friend who is not on LJ) told me about this; it seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Kay really enjoys the JASNA cons, well, they don't call then cons. It was more expensive than World Fantasy or Worldcon, $250. But it did include some meals: two “teas”, coffee or tea and cookies and bars, one continental breakfast (good), a dinner (okay) and a brunch (inadequate). The only freebee was a canvas bag with that year's logo, stuffed with a lot of ad bookmarks and cards. And it was at the Hilton, which is really elegant. It was probably 90% women, and 99% white. Age was weighted towards older, but not heavily - I'm sure the cost was a factor there. There were upwards of 650 attendees; the cap was 700.
Some of the program items were excellent, some not so much. There were several “plenary” talks, and 4 breakout sessions; I believed it was modeled on a professional conference along the lines of the ALA (American Library Association) or the MLA (The Modern Languages Association - the Lit Professors Guild) and of course, the MLA (Minnesota Library Association) which I've attended several times. There was also a ball, with excellent musicians playing instruments borrowed from the Schubert Club for English Country Dances.
I could go into details on most of the items I attended, but that would get very long. If anyone want to hear more, let me know.
And the Cosplay! A lot of people, maybe a quarter during the day, more for the ball, were wearing Regency garb of some sort. It ranged from the simple to the elegant, from the very accurate (as far as I could tell) to a number of adaptations of anything with short puff sleeves and a high waist. I saw one woman in what looked to be full court dress of the Georgian era. Pretty amazing. The hats were glorious - I love hats, and while I wouldn't want to wear a bucket hat, I like the way they look on other people. The people watching was one of the high points.
There was a talk on Regency magazines, especially ladies magazines, by a collector. She had slides of several and held up a couple to show how small and flimsy they were.
The talk on carriages was fascinating, because the speaker discussed how different sorts were indicators of wealth and status. Saying, "we'll take so-and-so's barouche" is like saying "we'll take the Rolls".
The director of the Chawton House Library told us about progress there. The house where Austen's brother lived, and she lived in a cottage on the grounds, has been restored and is now library of several thousand books and a study center for research on early English female writers.
A talk on inheritance in the 19th century was a bit boring, but informative, and pointed out errors in Downton Abbey as well. Plot sometimes has to triumph over fact, after all.
"Would Jane have preferred a plain dish or a ragout?” was a talk, referencing Mr. Hurst's question to Elizabeth when she is staying at Netherfield because Jane fell ill there. It was all about Regency food, and was quite good. The author has a website, and is writing a book on the foods Jane Austen might have eaten. There are other Regency cookbooks around, but I think she is going to adapt the recipes for modern kitchens more than most.
A woman dressed as Hill, the housekeeping in P&P, delivered a wonderful talk on servants of the time, the rankings between them, how much they earned, what their duties were.
And to top it off, at the brunch on Sunday, three of the producers of "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries" gave a presentation, which was a hoot. It's a vblog on YouTube, if you haven't run into it, a modern adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" of 100 episodes, plus many side episodes, facebook, twitter feed, etc, etc. And they are starting "Emma" next week!
It was odd being in a "fandom" that is so different from what I'm used to. If you want to read more about that, a book was published titled, "Among the Janeites, a journey through the world of Jane Austen fandom" by Deborah Yaffe. The Hennepin County Library owns it.