Brontëites and non-Brontëites

First, because this is what this blog is all about, love and praise for the Brontës as well as the impact they still have on the arts.

The Lawrentian carries an article about the première of a scene from Joanne Metcalf's 'opera-in-the-making' "Orphans of the Heavenly City." By the title only it's easy to see where we are getting at.

Metcalf seems to have been most drawn to the story's emotionally compelling nature."I really felt that the element of fate was at work in those children's lives," she said. "They could have had a terrible fate, and instead they became international celebrities and virtuosos." [...]
Still, Metcalf is quick to point out that even in the coro, the women's lives were not idyllic."Life was simply harsher back then," she said. "Think a little like the novel Jane Eyre." Members of the coro worked day in and day out, and had only one day a year of vacation. They led privileged but hardworking lives. (Cory Robertson)

NixPix reviews the Val Lewton Collection, which includes I Walked with a Zombie, the well-known Jacques Tourneur's masterpiece with clear Jane Eyre influences.

Lewton’s next exploitive effort is ‘I Walked With A Zombie’ (1943) a masterwork with arguably the worst title ever given a film. The story is actually Bronte’s Jane Eyre transplanted and updated to a voodoo cult on a tropical island. Okay, that sounds tacky. But when a nurse, Betsy (Frances Dee) journeys to the Caribbean with her charge, the very-ill (arguably possessed) Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon) the two discovers a cult of seemingly paralyzed un-dead natives who compel Jessica to her doom. (Nick Zegarac)

The Cebu Sun Star talks about new Filipino film The Promise, which, as you know, is loosely based on Wuthering Heights.

The project is quite ambitious as it veers away from the young love team formula that catapulted both Angel and Richard to stardom. The on-screen presence and chemistry of the two artists shine beautifully in this film, with a backdrop of scenic locations that set the mood for a superb romantic movie.

For Sure Couture - a blog devoted to fashion - has chosen Johanna Stickland as Model of the Week. One interesting fact about this model's life is that she's a Brontëite.

Favorite book: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, or anything by Jose Saramago.

Perhaps she has got to wear those Wuthering-Heights-inspired clothes that were so trendy on the catwalk a few months ago.

And on Australia Day's weekend, The Australian looks at typically Australian literature.

This balance of qualities was explored in an earlier novel by Scottish immigrant pioneer and proto-feminist Catherine Helen Spence, whose Clara Morison (1854) is a kind of colonial Jane Eyre. What makes this novel a study in early Australian character-building is not the obligatory romance plot, in which Spence herself is clearly not very interested, but the sturdy independence of the women in the story. The novel is set in Adelaide; when gold is discovered in Victoria, all the male characters rush east across the border like lemmings, in pursuit of an easy fortune, while the women stay at home, work hard, improve their minds, and learn to look after themselves. (Kerryn Goldsworthy)

And now for the anti-Brontë comments, which are a minority.

Computer and video games not only are anti-Brontë but also a little chauvinistic. Judge for yourself in this review of Rainbow Six:Vegas:

But it doesn't matter - plots are for Emily Brontë-reading girls. (PSW Staff)

Interesting comment since Wuthering Heights might have one of the most complex plots and structures in literature. We are very proud of our status as an Emily-Brontë-reading girls (and boys), aren't we?

And now for a taste of what a 19th century review of Jane Eyre might have said, only in such a modern format as a blog. Iced Earth looks into why Jane Eyre is an un-Christian novel.

Concluding, I will finish by making the thought that Charlotte Bronte’s un-Christian attitude in the novel may source from her personal life. Her continuous struggles, the continues change of institutions, but also the loss of many of her loving persons may had lead her to the conclusion that believing in Christianity is pointless and God’s help is not something feasible. Unfortunately the lack of evidence does not let me to support this opinion and that’s why I can not expand on this thought.
Taking in consideration all the above illustrations, according Jane’s personality but also all the other characters intervention to the novel as a whole I came to the conclusion that Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre is meant to be an un-Christian novel. (Neophytos M.)

The post is very well structured and the argument for Jane Eyre's un-Christianity is well presented but we can't agree with it at all, nor with the fact that Charlotte Brontë had an 'un-Christian attitude'. Rather the opposite. Just because she scorned at some aspects of the state of the Church that she disliked doesn't make her un-Christian. You don't have to agree 100% with something to be part of it and believe in it.

Categories: Brontëites, In the News, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Opera