The World According to Bridget by MWY
The following post was written by my friend MWY
Feeling stunted at work? Dreaming of quitting that job and getting a career? If you are down and out, rest assured that there is someone lower than you… dear Bridget Jones! Or, so that is what we are all led to think.
Don’t be deceived by BJD: The Movie. This is not a romantic comedy… you need to trawl eleven chapters of maniacal confessions before Bridgie actually has a decent conversation with Mark Darcy.
Yes, Bridgie pines- for a normal bloke sans fuckwittage- but so do the rest of us. But in the movie, the pining and the physical klutziness seem more central while the important things: her frustration with her job, her incredible relationship with her parents, her marvellous group of friends and her struggle for some semblance of inner poise… all take a backseat.
For the uninitiated, Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding is an almost 300-page (depending on which publication) ranting of a 30-something single woman who drinks like a fish, shags like a rabbit and smokes like a chimney. Self-centred, thinks she is fat all the time, has a knack for getting herself into terribly embarrassing situations… hey, I can relate to all of that!
If Lizzie Bennett were a mini-skirt-wearing Londoner, would her diary be this? It would be an absolute sin to compare Fielding to Austen (but NOT as unforgivable as putting Rowlings on the same plane of existence as Tolkien… right Ling?) but admit it, Fielding is channeling Austen like a Sunday afternoon séance.
“I suddenly realise everything has shifted and now I am looking after my parents instead of them looking after me, which seems unnatural and wrong. Surely I am not that old?”
That is a very touching observation because parents, as we all grow older, are not the superbeings they once were. With the wrinkles and spots, it is frightening that the strong arms that shield us all our lives now seem vulnerable and human.
I love Bridgie because she is loyal to her family. She can easily make some sort of stupid excuse to escape going to those embarrassing Turkey Curry Buffets, yet she turns up. In this time and age, do we really care about making our rounds at the senior citizen circuit… even though it is on the request of our parents? I get rebellious during Chinese New Year and refuse to be under the same roof as certain relatives!
A woman about town who takes care of her dad and takes all that crap from her mom. Not so self-centred after all, huh?
“Anyway, we’re not lonely. We have extended families in the form of networks of friends connected by telephone.”
If indeed that Bridgie’s life is so crappy… the 3 reasons she gets through her days at all are Jude, Shazzer and Tom. Her incredible network that feeds her obsession but gently tugs at her every time she needs to feel the earth.
Jobs come and go, men come and go but the defining constant in her life never lets her down and neither does she them. One of the important essence of this book is the tie that binds a few people into a formidable unit… no matter how bad things get, there will always be someone whom you know will, unquestionably, take you in on a rainy day or tilt your head back when you puke in a drunken stupor in the toilet.
For a person who seems so fluffy and rather dense at times, Bridgie seems to write a darn witty diary… which makes me come to the conclusion that this is after all a diary!
The very thing you write doesn’t represent you truthfully. You are probably wallowing in self-pity and every little incident blown into a preposterous proportion. If Bridgie is such a brick, how come she has all the great friends and families?
I’m probably reading too much into it but THINK! If Bridgie is such a git, how come she has a pretty eventful social life with gorgeous men falling over her? If she were such a fumbling fool, no way in hell would Mark ‘The Constipated’ Darcy- Big Shot Barrister- let her anywhere near his high profile client.
She must be doing something right, no? Will the REAL Bridget Jones please stand up?
Feeling stunted at work? Dreaming of quitting that job and getting a career? If you are down and out, rest assured that there is someone lower than you… dear Bridget Jones! Or, so that is what we are all led to think.
Don’t be deceived by BJD: The Movie. This is not a romantic comedy… you need to trawl eleven chapters of maniacal confessions before Bridgie actually has a decent conversation with Mark Darcy.
Yes, Bridgie pines- for a normal bloke sans fuckwittage- but so do the rest of us. But in the movie, the pining and the physical klutziness seem more central while the important things: her frustration with her job, her incredible relationship with her parents, her marvellous group of friends and her struggle for some semblance of inner poise… all take a backseat.
For the uninitiated, Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding is an almost 300-page (depending on which publication) ranting of a 30-something single woman who drinks like a fish, shags like a rabbit and smokes like a chimney. Self-centred, thinks she is fat all the time, has a knack for getting herself into terribly embarrassing situations… hey, I can relate to all of that!
If Lizzie Bennett were a mini-skirt-wearing Londoner, would her diary be this? It would be an absolute sin to compare Fielding to Austen (but NOT as unforgivable as putting Rowlings on the same plane of existence as Tolkien… right Ling?) but admit it, Fielding is channeling Austen like a Sunday afternoon séance.
“I suddenly realise everything has shifted and now I am looking after my parents instead of them looking after me, which seems unnatural and wrong. Surely I am not that old?”
That is a very touching observation because parents, as we all grow older, are not the superbeings they once were. With the wrinkles and spots, it is frightening that the strong arms that shield us all our lives now seem vulnerable and human.
I love Bridgie because she is loyal to her family. She can easily make some sort of stupid excuse to escape going to those embarrassing Turkey Curry Buffets, yet she turns up. In this time and age, do we really care about making our rounds at the senior citizen circuit… even though it is on the request of our parents? I get rebellious during Chinese New Year and refuse to be under the same roof as certain relatives!
A woman about town who takes care of her dad and takes all that crap from her mom. Not so self-centred after all, huh?
“Anyway, we’re not lonely. We have extended families in the form of networks of friends connected by telephone.”
If indeed that Bridgie’s life is so crappy… the 3 reasons she gets through her days at all are Jude, Shazzer and Tom. Her incredible network that feeds her obsession but gently tugs at her every time she needs to feel the earth.
Jobs come and go, men come and go but the defining constant in her life never lets her down and neither does she them. One of the important essence of this book is the tie that binds a few people into a formidable unit… no matter how bad things get, there will always be someone whom you know will, unquestionably, take you in on a rainy day or tilt your head back when you puke in a drunken stupor in the toilet.
For a person who seems so fluffy and rather dense at times, Bridgie seems to write a darn witty diary… which makes me come to the conclusion that this is after all a diary!
The very thing you write doesn’t represent you truthfully. You are probably wallowing in self-pity and every little incident blown into a preposterous proportion. If Bridgie is such a brick, how come she has all the great friends and families?
I’m probably reading too much into it but THINK! If Bridgie is such a git, how come she has a pretty eventful social life with gorgeous men falling over her? If she were such a fumbling fool, no way in hell would Mark ‘The Constipated’ Darcy- Big Shot Barrister- let her anywhere near his high profile client.
She must be doing something right, no? Will the REAL Bridget Jones please stand up?
posted by AL LEE at 12:53 PM
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