a truth universally acknowledged

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Read this and you will have no need to go see Becoming Jane. Which may be a perfectly acceptable movie, but has been panned by enough people whose opinions I trust, that I have no desire to see it. Heck, I couldn't finish the Rozema Mansfield Park, and this sounds even more problematic.

Many of the complaints I've heard about Becoming Jane focus on the idea that in the movies, if a male author/artist has a female muse, all she has to do is exist and be beautiful to inspire greatness in him. But if a female author/artist has a male muse, then he must have tutored her, improved her work or otherwise deserved some degree of credit for her talent. I don't think I've seen enough movies about female authors and artists to have an opinion on this one. I saw Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle and I don't remember Benchley teaching her to write, but I don't remember it that well in general. I haven't seen any of the movies about Elizabeth Barrett Browning, also didn't see Frida. I did see that terrible movie The Muse, in which the muse inspires men and women in exactly the same way (I think so at least: it's been a long time and it wasn't that memorable). Help me out, somebody, is there a counter-example?

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There have been stories in which the Dark Lady was the brains behind Shakespeare. (I believe Anthony Burgess's Nothing like the Sun is one of them.)

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This page contains a single entry by Sarah published on August 9, 2007 1:45 PM.

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