1. PERSUASION: "Witty banter" & the courtship spectacle

On Nora Ephron, "Love Island UK," and Jane Austen

Austen’s novels flatten time, pulling the strings of contemporary readers’ thoughts into the 17th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

The undercurrent toward the past evokes Shakespearean comedies, where the hijinks resolve in a conclusive wedding. At the same time, all my favorite rom-coms creep into my head, their lines rickrolling the longer sentences of Austen’s characters: Billy Crystal’s “when you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody” monologue; Hilary Duff’s zinger about rain in a drought; Regé Jean-Page’s “I burn for you.”

The last example, from the first season of Bridgerton set during the British Regency period, echoes Austen. As we reach the end of long, flowery sentences considering everything but the truth, the confession comes out, and it’s short and fast. A letter in Persuasion, offered with a heated glance from the writer, states, “You pierce my soul.”

Within a line, two people exist, a “you” and an “I,” their connection sealed with a welding verb.