Confessions of a
Meredith Austenite
Lizzie Wood, Staff Writer
image via Meares
Allison Meares is a Senior Eng
lish major working towards a
Secondary Teaching Licensure.
She’s also an Austenite. These
are her words.
“I would define an Austenite as
being anyone who is completely
passionate about Jane Austen.
This would generally be someone
who has read all of her books
multiple times, knows quite a
bit about her life, and gener
ally collects at least one of her
works of literature. In essence,
it’s someone who’s fascinated
■with this incredible author and
wants to know more about her.
I feel like every Austenite has
one defining moment in their
lives that they can look back on
and say, “Yep, that was it. That
was the moment when I realized
Jane Austen was the best author
in the world.” There are so many
different levels of Austenites,
but ultimately everyone is united
under a common admiration for
Jane Austen.
There are several reasons why
I love her writing. The first is
how I can find something in each
of her books that directly relates
to my life. I often find myself, as
I begin to read her books, iden
tifying with a character within
each one and ultimately feel as
if I “become” that character, in a
way. Another thing I love about
her is the fact that in the end, all
ends well. She may have tragedy
in her romances, but every hero
ine always ends up with the right
man in the end. I love this about
her. Finally, her humor and wit
is quite incredible. She’s one of
the few writers I have read who
can hide pure sarcasm so well,
and I think it’s amazing.
There isn’t a book by Austen I
don’t like. I’ve never been a big
fan of Mansfield Park, honestly.
But the rest of her works...I’d
have a hard time choosing. I col
lect Northanger Abbey editions,
but I’d be hard-preSsed to rank
it above all her other works. I
think one thing people don’t
realize is that two of her works
were published after she had
died rather suddenly; Persuasion
and Northanger Abbey were pub
lished as a set after her death.
What’s interesting about this is
that Northanger Abbey, one of
her earlierAvritten books, wasn’t
published until much later.
There are all kinds of Aus
tenite gatherings, one of which
is the Jane Austen Society of
North America. There’s a chap
ter here in North Carolina, in
fact. I haven’t had as much time
lately to do much with JASNA,
but I got involved through a
former Meredith student two
years ago. She invited me to one
of their interest meetings, and
it was amazing getting to meet
other people who shared the
same love of Austen as I did. I
feel like there are various lev
els of Austenites, and there are
very few true, deep loyers of
Jane Austen within the world.
Austen is an author who has the
ability to link people from all
majors and fields. I had a con
versation recently with a friend
who is an engineer major at NC
State about Pride and Prejudice.
It was interesting that, even
though he hates English and I
hate engineering, we were able
to come together over the same,
simple novel and our opinions of
the characters.”
If you would like more infor
mation about JASNA, feel free
to explore their website in more
detail: http://jasna.org/
Freshman
Election
Results
Emily Hawkins, Layout Editor
Freshman Elections were held on September 12-
13th. The winners are as follows:
President:
Elizabeth Barfield
Vice President:
Meghan Bradshaw
Secretary:
Marlena Brown
Treasurer:
open
Cornhuskin’ Co-Chairs:
Alexie Mina and Samantha-Kate Shuford
Stunt Co-Chairs:
open
Elections Board Reps (3):
open
Student Life Reps (3):
Amanda Hall, Taylor Haines, open
Honor Council Reps (2):
Alexis Trell, open
Senators (3):
Sarah Elizabeth Crinkley, Elizabeth Marshall, open
Please consider applying for any of the open posi
tions. Email Elizabeth Barfield (embarfie@email.
meredith.edu) with any questions or interest.
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contact:
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