Jane Austen Doesn't Suck

Warning: You are about to be subjected to a short college story because I saw "Mamma Mia" last night.

Junior or Senior year of college (Oh god, it's starting to blur...) I would get into arguments defending the validity of Jane Austen as a social critic and not "just another silly romance writer." So, one day I went and printed out a whole bunch of Jane Austen quotes on religion, politics, relationships, etc. I tucked them in various places in this guy's car, so that he would have a little Jane Austen with him whereever he went.

I thought I was extremely clever.

One day I come home from class (Ah! It was warm! It was Spring semester Junior year. YES!) Anyway, I walk in and open the door to my bedroom and there are thousands of papers all over my room -- on the floor, in my bed, on my desk. They are just everywhere. So I pick one up and flip it over, and it says, "Jane Austen Sucks." There were easily 2,000 little slips of paper that said "Jane Austen Sucks" all over my bedroom.

Eventually I was able to clean most of them up (and find the paper in my printer that had "Jane Austen Sucks" printed on the back) but to this day I'll sometimes pull "Jane Austen Sucks" out of an old purse or pair of shoes.

I had to admit defeat, since my original co-consipirator said they weren't willing to go head to head. And I knew as a prankster I could not match the five Walnut boys by myself.

But I still contend that Jane Austen does not suck, and that I was probably born nearly two hundred years too late.