Bearing grudges

[pegkerr]

It is quite ridiculous for me to be so resentful about something that happened almost two hundred years ago. But although I know that Jane Austen loved her sister Cassandra probably more than anyone else in her life, I still nurse a furious resentment towards Cassandra for burning many of Jane's letters after her death (by some estimates Jane wrote over 3,000 letters over the course of her life, but only 160 or so remain). And the ones she kept, she censored. Even if it was what Jane wanted her to do.

Comments

[eal.livejournal.com]

Oh, I completely understand. I have a beef with James Boswell's family. The burned scores of things that he wrote because they were "embarrassed" by him. There are some answers that had to have been in the stuff they destroyed, but we'll never know.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

For me, it's Richard Burton's (the old one, not the actor) widow.

[mayhap]

Oh, I know! I could just bring her back to life to kill her again for it, although it would be both highly uncharitable and necromantical.

[maribou]

While I can relate to your furious resentment, I am also oddly touched by Cassandra's actions ... I mean, I think about how attached I am to the letters I've been written, particularly by my Best Correspondent, and I'm not sure I *could* bring myself to burn them. Even though if she asked me to do so, it would be the right thing to do... but I would be far too attached. And so I imagine Cassandra similarly heartbroken, weeping as she burns and censors, and I can't really hold a grudge against her.

[maribou]

I should say, it's not the right thing to do from a global perspective. But, if you love someone so much, I can see how honoring their wishes about their own stuff HAS to be the right thing to do, no matter how awful the result.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Hey, a good grudge is worth more than diamonds. Nurture it.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

If it helps any with perspective on that, I can still get worked up to tears over the Library of Alexandria in less than a minute.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know what you mean. That's another grudge of mine. I actually wrote a short story on the subject, but I wasn't able to ever sell it.

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

I get this. I really, really do. It makes me furious when anyone destroys history, whether it's huge, grand monuments and buildings or little things like letters and photographs.

Ooo, and look! An excuse to use my Jane icon!

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

I'm still mad at Bruckner for revising his scores at the drop of a hat.

[nwl.livejournal.com]

Interesting that you're upset with her sister rather than Jane herself. What would Cassandra have done had her sister not left any instructions? Those were different times and Cassandra was only doing as her sister asked. Had Jane not died and lived longer, she probably would have destroyed them herself, as she seemed to feel they should not survive her. Either way, the letters would be gone.

Makes me think of the discussion of what people leave behind after death in the "Ask Amy" column a while ago. It started with a letter about some embarrassing letters a family found after the death of the family member. In response, some people said they made sure anything they didn't want coming out after they were dead was destroyed while others didn't feel they needed to do anything. I got the impression the people who opted to destroy letters and pictures did so because they felt they were protecting others in their family who would be hurt by the information becoming known. The impression I had of those who chose not to destroy letters was because the info would not hurt anyone else and others in the family would find what was left interesting about the deceased.

[tinymich.livejournal.com]

Ah, then I guess we know where you stand on the Nabokov's-last-book controversy?

(many links I could have given, but here are three -- Tom Stoppard contradicts you, the economists agree with you, the outcome.)

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3364211.ece
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/02/dont-burn-it.html
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/02/getting-oneself.html

[chelsearoad.livejournal.com]

I'm not angry at Cassandra but I am heartbroken at the loss to those of us who would love to read the letters, both for their wit and their content.

[mark356.livejournal.com]

I have a beef with Bishop Diego de Landa-- he burned thousands of Maya codices, so now we've only got three left and a fragment of a fourth. It's so frustrating, because we know that they had huge bodies of literature and science, and he destroyed so much of it so fast!