a.s.
Valinor
(I wish we could use italics in the subject line, just a side-note!)
All right, for all of us who have had to endure skeptical looks and questions from our friends and families about the "Tolkien conference" we are attending, we are not alone in our oddness. Austen fans also have cons, see here for the rest of the article:
Jane Addiction
Among Austen's most fervent fans.
By Paula Marantz Cohen[/i]
Picture this: Several hundred people, many in Empire gowns, buttoned boots, and bonnets pirouetting in a stately line across a large ballroom. Women are partnering women for the most part, though here and there one sees a male specimen in knee breeches, long coat, and curled wig sashaying happily amid the beribboned throng.
The event is the Regency Ball of the Jane Austen Society of North America annual general meeting, held at the Westin Hotel in Chicago in October, culminating in two days of total immersion in Austeniana. Preceding the ball was a gala banquet and costume parade down Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. When the dancing ended, interested parties retired for games of whist at the little tables set up for the purpose in the lobby of the Westin....
...All are welcome and respected at the annual meeting. Intellectual rigor of the sort found, for example, in Peter Graham’s book Jane Austen & Charles Darwin: Naturalists and Novelists is presented side by side with “The Essential Regency Bonnet Workshop (registration required).”
All right, for all of us who have had to endure skeptical looks and questions from our friends and families about the "Tolkien conference" we are attending, we are not alone in our oddness. Austen fans also have cons, see here for the rest of the article:
Jane Addiction
Among Austen's most fervent fans.
By Paula Marantz Cohen[/i]
Picture this: Several hundred people, many in Empire gowns, buttoned boots, and bonnets pirouetting in a stately line across a large ballroom. Women are partnering women for the most part, though here and there one sees a male specimen in knee breeches, long coat, and curled wig sashaying happily amid the beribboned throng.
The event is the Regency Ball of the Jane Austen Society of North America annual general meeting, held at the Westin Hotel in Chicago in October, culminating in two days of total immersion in Austeniana. Preceding the ball was a gala banquet and costume parade down Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. When the dancing ended, interested parties retired for games of whist at the little tables set up for the purpose in the lobby of the Westin....
...All are welcome and respected at the annual meeting. Intellectual rigor of the sort found, for example, in Peter Graham’s book Jane Austen & Charles Darwin: Naturalists and Novelists is presented side by side with “The Essential Regency Bonnet Workshop (registration required).”
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