2018 AGM Review

HMS Pomone built 1805

Color lithograph by T. G. Dutton after painting by G.F. St. John

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_art

“We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days.” Persuasion chapter 8

Persuasion – 200 Years of Constancy and Hope

Event:       JASNA CWNY November Meeting

Topic:        Update on the recent JASNA AGM in Kansas City, MO

When:       Saturday November 17, 2018 at 1 pm

Where:      Pittsford Barnes and Noble, Community Room

Several members from our region attended JASNA’s 2018 Annual General Meeting in Kansas City on Oct. 28-30. At our November meeting we will share with you our impressions and experiences. The theme of the meeting was Persuasion – 200 Years of Constancy and Hope.

It’s an interesting choice of theme since Captain Wentworth appears anything but constant in his affection for Anne Elliot throughout most of the book. Indeed, he thinks himself ready for any foolish match.

"Yes, here I am, Sophia, quite ready to make a foolish match. Anybody between fifteen and thirty may have me for asking. A little beauty, and a few smiles, and a few compliments to the navy, and I am a lost man. Should not this be enough for a sailor, who has had no society among women to make him nice?" Persuasion chapter 7

He finally begins to notice Anne only when Mr. Elliot does.

“Captain Wentworth looked round at her instantly in a way which shewed his noticing of it. He gave her a momentary glance, a glance of brightness, which seemed to say, "That man is struck with you, and even I, at this moment, see something like Anne Elliot again." Persuasion chapter 12

Meanwhile Anne Elliot has all but given up any hope.

“They had no conversation together, no intercourse but what the commonest civility required. Once so much to each other! Now nothing! … there could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.” Persuasion chapter 8

These two are in anything but smooth waters for much of the novel.  As Jane Austen makes clear in all of her novels, life is rarely about smooth sailing, but more about navigating the shifting shoals of the seas we sail. We must always be trimming the sails and adjusting the tiller. This can only be done by understanding the circumstances and people around us.

In the end, of course, Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth come to understand each other. Wentworth asserts his constancy and Anne’s hope is restored.

"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever… Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W.” Persuasion chapter 23 (ok, you knew I would work in a quote from the letter)

Of Anne’s response “who can be in doubt”.

And we, as readers,  have a novel of hope and constancy that can be discussed for 200 years. Come and join us for a review of the AGM. You will also learn about the heroic exploits of JASNA CWNY's Team Benwick at the Pub Quiz.