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...a jerk." She was a dancer. At least she had all the accoutrements: she carried a ballerina-appliqued vinyl shoulder hag full of leotards, tights, and soft little flexible slippers. She knew positions: first, second, and third. At eleven I couldn't see that her chunky little legs wouldn't get her past an intermediate ballet class. In the present moment of sixth grade, she was the authority, and I stopped dancing.
In sixth grade I was also not a reader of Jane Austen--wisely, I'd say in retrospect, since young, hormonally-driven readers of Austen frequently miss her wit, her satire, and her incisive social analysis when they are fixated, like Marianne Dashwood, on romantic entanglements. Austen and dancing came late into my life, but Austen did come first, in graduate school, where I could be as cerebral as I wanted, and no one expected me to expose my corporeal awkwardness while engaging in literary analysis.
Like most of my peers, I was able to obtain an advanced degree in the eighteenth-century novel...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
More articles from Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal
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