Pride, Prejudice, and Witches!"However, you have not heard me. There was another, who lost a love, a romantic love."
Bingley blinked in consternation, "No... Not Darcy..."
"No!" Elizabeth burst out laughing, "Darcy? That damned man has never known love in his life!"
"Not altogether true. Conventional love, perhaps not." Bingley replied and then shrugged, "Little point in hiding it, now. Not from the one who might read my mind. Darcy and a man by the name of Wickham, were once quite well acquainted."
Elizabeth hesitated, and then her eyes widened, "Oh. That is... Beyond my expectations. But... Quite apt, for this very moment. How very odd."
"What is odd?"
She sighed, "It was Caroline, sir. It was Caroline who loved Jane, more than even yourself. I am quite convinced that my sister was of the same affections. That the two were scheming a way that they might be together, and hide it with your marriage to Jane, if that could be done without entirely breaking your heart."
To be honest, I was hoping to never write something about this. I was hoping to never need to write this. The world was moving on, bit by bit, towards a brighter, more understanding, tomorrow.
Unfortunately, the world seems to be rolling backwards. Again.
I have never felt the need to advertise my books, by claiming and demonstrating the various romantic proclivities within them. I have written of trans and less clear gender divisions, but without making that the point of the work.
For myself, LGBTQIA+ is something that exists in the world around us, and so is reflected in the work. It is not the point of the work itself.
Unfortunately, the world has turned and turned about. Once again, acknowledging such a thing is seen as hateful and spiteful from those who see fit to push away that truth. It doesn't matter that the sistergirls of the Tiwi are over ten thousand years old. It doesn't matter that ol' England used to simultaneously isolate and uphold them. Nor that Shakespeare played upon it as a commonality of his day. They reject it all as something new and disgusting to their sensibilities.
The rules of what books are allowed, are currently being used as an excuse to control the conversation. They say it is a way to shield the children for things they could not yet be prepared for. But it is no shield - it is a pressure of externalities. A battering ram, to force people into a smaller set of acceptabilities.
The loudest of these, unfortunately, proclaim themselves to follow a man who welcomed whores and terrorists among his closest friends. I cannot say I would ever be as forgiving as that man. His loudest followers certainly shame the legacy they claim to follow.
The truth of the matter, is that the world is beautifully more complex than we usually find the time to acknowledge. There is something altogether wonderful about all of our differences. Brushstrokes that spell out a world full of a cacophany of love, pain, and a seething mess of dreams and hopes.
Perhaps, it is best to try and get through this new targetted back and forth, with a sentimental thought from a group who had their own fair share of gender-fluidity (and pain upon it). I'm sure that Anne Bonny heard this hopeful verse, on more than a few mornings.
Fish in the SeaWindy weather, boys, stormy weather, boys
When the wind blows
We're all together, boys
Blow ye winds westerly
Blow ye winds, blow
Jolly soul wester, boys, steady she goes
© Copyright 2024, James Milne