Dear readers, I have a confession to make. I’m a shipper. A hopeless romantic, fixated on relationships that are sometimes obvious and other times a figment of my imagination. When I was a kid, I thought Princess Aurora and Prince Philip were perfect for one another. I made up stories in my head about how Rhett and Scarlet would get back together. And seriously, who didn’t squee when Han Solo and Princess Leia socked us with “I love you/I know”?
But something changed in the early-1990s. AOL brought us the Internet in a way that made it possible for non-super-geeks to comprehend and take part in. (AOL also ripped us off with charges per minute—per minute!—beyond the first few hours. Holy crap, did I pay for those late-night chats!) Poking around on the message boards, I found a group of kindred spirits. Not just Star Trek: The Next Generation fans . . . TNG fans who were fixated on the relationship between Captain Picard and Doctor Crusher. And they wrote fantastic stories wherein Picard and Crusher proclaimed their love (and, ahem, made mad, passionate love at all sorts of times). I discovered my inner shipper and broadcast it to the world (at least, the world that was tapped into scifi fandom on AOL).
And then there was Mulder/Scully. Janeway/Chakotay. Xena/Gabrielle. Lorelai/Luke. I could go on, but you get the point.
In 1995, AMC aired BBC’s Pride and Prejudice with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. Another pairing was born: Lizzie Bennet/Mr. Darcy. Yeah, yeah, I realize that people have been mooning over that couple for ages. While I will always value the joy of discovering a story or a personality through the act of reading, there’s also something about a relationship when it’s fueled by good acting by attractive people and online chats with friends about every nuance you witnessed (or imagined) when viewing something on TV. Sometimes those conversations even bleed into “real” life. And now that it would take heroic efforts to escape the Internet, it all bleeds back out into the ether. (Am I the only one hearing The Circle of Life in her head right now?)
My two favorite Austen couples are Lizzie/Darcy and Anne/Wentworth. The attractiveness of the Lizzie/Darcy combo for me is the sharp dialog between the spunky and outspoken young lady and the intelligent, handsome man who is passionate about her. One of the benefits of these folks being from a novel is that we’re not tormented for several seasons hoping and waiting for the couple to finally admit their love for one another. Fans even get a bold declaration of love half way through the story. How awesome is that? As for Anne/Wentworth, how can you not feel for the thoughtful, sensible young woman who’s lost her bloom and must ignore the nagging oh-crap-I-never-should-have-dumped-him feelings when she’s around the dashing captain? These are couples I root for unabashedly.
So there you have it. I’m a shipper. Pray, excuse me while I wander off and watch some more Lizzie/Darcy and Picard/Crusher music videos on YouTube.
austenacious 
This is fabulous! Thanks for helping me understand the relationship between my Jane Austen obsession and my Trekkiness. I always had a thing for Patrick Stewart…
LikeLike
Here’s the thing: TV shows and films may be able to drag out a relationship, but typically they completely ruin it in the long run (I’m thinking Luke/Lorelai and the whole Christopher bomb of Season 7). Or Jim/Pam which is going really well right now, but in terms of plot, not much left to develop.
Jane Austen builds all the same anticipation of a relationship, yet is wise enough to not elaborate on the details or the futures of the couples involved. Genius.
LikeLike
I just learned that a “shipper” is not necessarily someone who frequently sends items via UPS. Thank you.
LikeLike
I have two things to say:
1) I think that UST is not the god TV writers think it is – and I don’t think Austen’s genius lies in leaving off when her characters marry. Sorry, but this is one of my pet peeves – I think long term commitment is seen as boring, and I resent that.
2) I am a Lizzy/Darcy shipper, but I have to say, as a contrarian (who is awfully not-thrilled that P&P is the “only” Austen novel that people seem to remember, a la Lost in Austen – arg) that I really love it when a fanfic writer takes a chance.
Like this one: http://www.austen.com/derby/allisonom.htm
Warning: this is, as you may have guessed, not Lizzy/Darcy. Don’t blame me or the author if you choose to read it – you have been warned.
LikeLike
And I’m with you all at being totally into long-term commitments, and being frustrated as to their being so few examples of happy marriages in literature, etc. But I agree with Miss Ball that it’s a delicate balancing act for a writer. Perhaps why, now that I am married and have been for awhile, I find hints about marriages much more interesting than previously.
LikeLike
Lannie & IBM – I think the problem with “resolved” (as in, no longer in the UST portion of the relationship) couples lies in the temptation to either manufacture external conflict (a la Luke/Lorelai, though I will say that I think David S. Rosenthal was totally ballsy in the way he handled Amy Sherman-Palladino’s dumping of Chris into his lap) or the impulse to have NO conflict (a la Jim/Pam, whom I also still enjoy–but only as a side dish). I think few writers/writing staffs have been able to use coupledom– the sharing of a life, and the inherent conflict involved–as a viable arc for the characters involved, but I do think it can be done. It just requires a ridiculous amount of careful thought and impulse control. (Oddly enough, my favorite TV example of this, off the top of my head, would have to be Sawyer/Juliet on Lost. Their domestic situation was stable, but it changed Sawyer so much that it was never boring.)
To this end, I would have loved to have seen what Jane could do with a novel about a married couple–taking into account what Mrs. Fitzpatrick said on the subject last week, I think it would have been fascinating, and also possibly…perfect.
LikeLike
Miss Ball, et al: OMG, you are so right! JA’s take on a marriage as the central story would have been *fascinating*! I think, however, that she just didn’t feel capable of taking it on – that she had no personal knowledge of marriage, and without that, trying to write a novel about it would be pointless.
LikeLike
I’m with you re: Darcy/Elizabeth, along with probably everybody who loves P&P as it’s written. It’s quite possibly the most appealing pairing in English literature, though I only really care for the canon version (adaptations always seem to darken it, especially Darcy – it’s why I can’t get on the Firth/Ehle bandwagon).
I can enjoy non-D/E, though I cannot stand Bingley/Elizabeth (or Bingley/Darcy, for that matter) – I’ve always thought Henry/Elizabeth, Eleanor/Darcy could be a fascinating dynamic, for instance, or Darcy/Emma. Still, not as shamelessly awesome as Darcy/Elizabeth. I’m not sure anything is.
Other than them, it’s got to be Booth/Brennan from “Bones.” A very similar dynamic, I think, though pushing the ‘willtheywon’tthey’ to the absolute limit.
LikeLike
Oh my![Wishing we could talk about this over coffee because I acknowledge typing something that came across so differently than intended!]
Ibmiller: I did not mean to imply that long-term commitment was boring in any way (because I am staunchly in the faithful life-long commitment camp), and did not intend to inspire resentment in anyone. I think that part of Austen’s genius (and there’s a lot of it 🙂 lies in understanding how much is enough in all situations, not just in ending the book with a happy marriage. And not because she thought that once her characters were married, the story was done and nothing beyond that marriage was interesting. I just wanted to draw a parallel to what we’re surrounded by today in media, where I think often writers cater to their audience to the point where they make silly choices to satisfy the desire for UST, and I enjoy Austen’s books because they always leave me wanting to know more(and others feel the same, judging from the hundreds of sequels out there!)
And I agree with Miss Ball above – JA was such an observer of character, she could have created a very intersting and realistic account of the married life of Mr.and Mrs. Tilney, for example, and if she did I would read it with pleasure. So again, no offense meant – I hope we can agree to disagree (if we do, in fact, disagree). I love that there’s an outlet to discuss things as minute as “shippers” for Regency novel characters!
LikeLike
Ah – sorry for my misunderstanding. I was reacting (as I often do) out of my irritation at the idiots who run TV shows, and a large mass of fans who seem to think that’s cool.
And indeed, I think Jane Austen writing a novel centered on a married couple would be fantastic. I mean, we have such great pictures as the Crofts, the Gardiners, and others on the sidelights who I just adore to read the snippets dear Jane gave us. What she could have done with a whole book is tantalizing.
LikeLike