Gabba Gabba Jane

In all the weekend excitement I forgot to note the 191st anniversary of the death of Jane Austen. I bet there are plenty of people who would make note of the birth of Jane Austen, but her death went unnoticed in 1817 since she published anonymously so let us take note of it now.

As mentioned several times in this blog, I am amazed at the number of people who have not committed all of the Jane Austen books to memory and how many of them are men. Some of these people know all the titles to Bob Dylan songs too, and that's way harder to memorize than, say, all of Northanger Abbey.

This year, the Masterpiece Theater series did it's best to bring Jane Austen to the public TV watching masses, but that was really bringing coals to Newcastle, as Jane herself might say. And there was even a Bollywood version of Pride and Prejudice, with dancing, and I loved that but it was kind of an obscure reference to the book.

I think we can go further. I think someone, maybe me, should redo all the Jane Austen books in the style of a Ramones song. A Ramones song is short, well crafted and about everyday life. Well, maybe not my everday life, but you get the picture - just like Jane. Accessible! Singing about Jane Austen in 2 minutes or less. Emma (is a Punk Rocker)! And surely I Wanna Be Sedated is really about Northanger Abbey?

Just a thought.