"Oops All Marys" Interview//Carina Finn
What happens when writer and Austen Neophyte, Carina Finn, encounters a literary classic through the lenses of two dummies?
Our friend (and incredibly talented author) Carina Finn talked with us about Austen, compliments, and eating bugs!
Carina was one of the first people to read Oops All Marys, and her guidance was instrumental in our inclusion of an introduction, so it was really gratifying to speak to her about this project! Plus she’s very cool, and has a book available for pre-order. We love her!
Carina: I guess some important context for the interview that I would like to get out of the way is that the first chapter of Oops All Marys begins with the sentence: "Reader, you are understood to be a knowledgeable and enthusiastic scholar of Austen's work, the possession of this text confirms it." And that is a direct quote.
I have never read Pride and Prejudice. I've only ever read one Jane Austen novel and it was Northanger Abbey, which was supposed to be a joke. Right?
Carly: Is it supposed to be a joke?
Carina: It’s supposed to be a spoof? It's her making fun of the form of the Gothic romance novel.
Tim: Yeah, I think so.
Carina: So I guess my very first question is: Do you think that Oops All Marys is a good introduction to Austen's work in general? And how should readers like me who are not knowledgeable and enthusiastic scholars of Austen's work, approach your texts, if at all? Should I be reading this?
Tim: I think one of the reasons why she is so enduring as an author is because her narratives are so flexible. I do think that part of the reason why we felt like we could touch this thing is because there is an Austen extended universe of people who engage with Austen stuff so it was like, oh, cool we have a riff on this, and we know there's an audience there. But just playing with the beats of her narrative and the beats of her characters.
Carly: They're like the prototypical rom com. You have Darcy, who is the guy who seems like an asshole when you first meet him but actually, he's like, he's The One. You have the headstrong, plucky heroine, you have like the schmoozy guy, Wickham, who seems too good to be true, and totally is. I think that's part of what makes her work really accessible, even if you're interfacing with it in the stupidest way possible, which is reading our book.
Carina: So just confirming that you think Oops All Marys is the stupidest Austen interpretation? Because I'm loosely aware of something called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which sounds more stupid.
Carly: What I think our adaptation has going for it is we are embracing the silliness. And I'm not sure—genuinely not sure—if the other ones are.
Tim: I have not read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. But I like reading the novel over and over again.
Carina: How many times have you read Pride and Prejudice?
Carly: You've lost count.
Tim: I can't count.
Carly: I've read it, like twice, completely through and then piecemeal countless times. Certain chapters, certain moments. I've read so many times, I mean, the Collins proposal, the Darcy letter, the Netherfield ball. Like I've read those so many times.
Tim: I feel like there's plenty of times when I'm like halfway through a very thick book that I need a break from and I'll just like, start at the Darcy letter and then just go to the end, and then go back to the book that I was reading.
Carly: I feel like I'm really tickled by the question of like, is it a good representation of her work? Because part of me is like, yeah. It’s not quite like a SparkNotes. But it is like, digested one step.
Carina: Like if you want to consume Austen the way like a baby bird would...
Carly: Yeah!
Tim: Yeah.
Carly: Which like, really hits for both of us because we like birds.
Carina: And worms? Yes? No?
Carly: No.
Tim: Yeah!
Carly: But I like spaghetti.
Tim: Worms are super valuable.
Carina: This is an important question for Tim only because I already know Carly's answer: eating bugs, yes or no?
Tim: Oh! Um, I would eat some of the dry crickets and stuff like that.
Carina: Chapulines, delicious.
Tim: Yeah, this sort of dried crunch.
Carina: Do you think that Carly would be bettered as a person if she tried eating a bug?
Carly: Hey, this is just like, for when this is transcribed, I'm never going to happily eat a bug. And if you try to convince me—
Carina: This isn't a question for you. This is Tim's question.
Carly: If you try to convince me I will block you.
Tim: Well, honestly, my feelings about this like is that in the age of climate change—
Carly: See this is exactly what I don't want!
Tim: —anyone who is interested in the natural world has gotta get comfortable with bugs. Like, be it consumption or as like a naturalist, like, that's...
Carina: It's an inevitability.
Tim: It's an inevitability.
Carly: I think this was a really hostile question.
Carina: This was not planned, it was just a natural outflowing of the conversation!
Carly: Getting back to the question I did like—
Carina: Would you assign this in a freshman literature class?
Carly: “This”? Ours?
Tim: Yeah.
Carina: I would.
Carly: I think it would be fun! I would do it alongside [the original], I don't think I would do it on its own.
Tim: I think it's funny, I think it's accessible. I think it'd be a great access point for high schoolers. I also love Austen's language–I find Austen's language very accessible, but it also asks you to really—
Carly: Tune in.
Tim: If we're going like, Hemingway to Shakespeare, if you're a high school student, this is going to feel closer to Shakespeare.
Carly: I also think that part of the joy of the project is like being good little children and writing in that language so that we then earn the opportunities to say, like, "this fucking guy."
Tim: Yeah, I mean, we're just starting our Collins moments, and you don't know Collins which is such a shame, but he is a blowhard, he is moralizing, he is dull. He fancies himself not only a wit, but a person of value and substance. And so his language is just like, long flowing and many-claused and you know, obtuse for no reason.
Carly: It was a really, really, I think, great joke in Austen's original version where Collins is talking about, like, "I love giving these sorts of compliments to young women." And Mr. Bennett is like:
“May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are the result of previous study?”
And Collins replies:
“They arise chiefly from what is passing at the time, and though I sometimes amuse myself with suggesting and arranging such little elegant compliments as may be adapted to ordinary occasions, I always wish to give them as unstudied an air as possible.”
Carina: So jumping in here, I'd love to know, unrehearsed: what do each of you think is the best compliment to give a young woman?
Carly: Um. I gotta think about this.
Carina: Nope, unrehearsed!
Tim: Can we narrow down the age range?
Carina: Appropriately dateable in relation to the age of the compliment giver. Young but appropriate.
Tim: “I just want to say that I find you to be totally charming.”
Carly: That's cute!
Carina: That's a good one.
Carly: I think it's always nice to know that someone is thinking of you a lot. So if I was giving a compliment to a young woman that I was like, into, and was age appropriate, I would be like," Oh, I thought about you today." I feel like that's so nice. Who doesn't like that?
Carina: And how similar or dissimilar are those two compliments to the ones that Collins gives?
Carly: Extremely? Well, no, he would say "You were uniformly charming...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."
Tim: Also, he tends to compliment people in a way that allows him to refer back to things that give him status.
Tim: So one thing about Collins that we love in the book is that he's always talking about his patroness, Lady Catherine de Burgh, and how amazing she isn't how good she is.
Carly: She is the one who makes him able to live at this nice house and who has given him the position at the church that he preaches at—
Tim: —and he is invited to dine with her like twice a week—
Carly: —which is huge—
Tim: The comedy feels like: "I'm invited to dine at Rosings like twice a month." Which is like, "oh my god." There's a moment in the book where he meets, like, the Bennett's aunt and uncle—
Carly: —the Philipses—
Tim: and it's like, "Oh, your beautiful home reminds me of one of the smaller rooms of Rosings Park."
Carly: And they're like, "What's your problem?"
Tim: And he's like, "Oh, Rosings Park is Lady Catherine de Burgh's..."
Carly: "You have to understand that Rosings Park is very grand. And they're like, "Ohhhhhh, okay."
Tim: And they're like "Oh, so it was a compliment." "Yes, and it's a place I've been many, many times. So you see, I know enough to be able to make this grand compliment."
Carly: Compliments are a platform for him to dive into what he really wants to talk about, which is himself.
Tim: Yeah, he's amazing.
Stay tuned for part II soon! Regular Marys updates will resume in 2 weeks!
xo
Carly & Tim