Everything Old is New Again: Pick-Up Lines
Long before Atkins, there was Banting. The first low-carb diet was the creation of William Banting’s doctor. A pamphlet about it titled Letter on Corpulence, published in 1864, was a huge best-seller. The verb to banting meant to diet.
And long before The Game — albeit less well-known for teaching pick-up lines — there was Jane Austen. The lessons of The Game were a subplot of a recent episode of Ugly Betty in which Betty interviews an author of a similar book that says the best way to get a woman’s interest to follow praise with criticism. Later in the episode, we see this advice in action: Henry tells a woman that she has a lovely face — “your doctor did an excellent job.”
Here’s Austen, from Northanger Abbey:
“I have sometimes thought,” said Catherine, doubtingly, “whether ladies do write so much better letters than gentlemen! That is — I should not think the superiority was always on our side.”
“As far as I have had opportunity of judging, it appears to me that the usual style of letter-writing among women is faultless, except in three particulars.”
“And what are they?”
“A general deficiency of subject, a total inattention to stops, and a very frequent ignorance of grammar.”
A little later:
“And pray, sir, what do you think of Miss Morland’s gown?”
“It is very pretty, madam,” said he, gravely examining it; “but I do not think it will wash well; I am afraid it will fray.”
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:47 am
[…] Well, Seth Roberts has found an interesting parallel in Jane Austen’s writing. Roberts, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, gives these two excerpts from Austen’s Northanger Abbey: “I have sometimes thought,” said Catherine, doubtingly, “whether ladies do write so much better letters than gentlemen! That is — I should not think the superiority was always on our side.” […]