What makes something memorable?

Thursday's class brought up a lot of ideas about what we remember from the past. In some of my posts I have mentioned that a lot of my concepts and maybe misconceptions about the Victorians developed from the literary tradition that I know about the time. All off the Jane Austen and Bronte novels of the time have been what for me have become the classics of this era. It was so interesting to hear about another author, George Eliot, who wrote books that challenged society and wanted to bring attention to the faults of the Victorian era. I guess my literary exposure is fairly limited, but it really saddens me that I had never even heard of George Eliot before this article. A female writer, who adopted a pen name in order to be respected as an author and then writes these books that push the envelope so much over 100 years ago. How awesome! I love that through satire she was able to bring to light the issues of society that were "problematic" and should be thought about again. I guess maybe I do just live under a rock because in looking at more information about Daniel Deronda it has been filmed three times, once for silent film and twice for television. But maybe the most notable production of this book occurred back in the 1960s. But it is books like this that raise social awareness and toleration for others that should never be forgotten. I loved that Eliot was able to use social conventions of the time relating to music to further define the characters of the story. I loved the irony of Klezmer's/ the Wagnerian icon character, or the fact that Gwendolyn sung bel canto style opera (basically the furthest thing from Wagner) - terribly. How great to show dynamic and again reiterate the sentiments of the musical scene and how it translates to other aspects of Victorian life. I thought it interesting that George Eliot was unlike the "girled" women that we saw on Tuesday. It is great that her father invested in her education, although it was unfortunate that it was because of her low probability of being marriage material.