Johnny Depp's unexpected appearance in Jane Eyre

Germaine Greer, Honorary Patron of the Brontë Parsonage Contemporary Arts Programme, writes and article for the Guardian about what (British) culture means and englobes after the controversial declarations of Margaret Hodge, British Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, stating that the Proms were not a representative facet of the new British culture (another link) (complete speech here)

"Media" is our way of referring to the multiplicity of means of conveying information. If, out of this never-ending cacophony, we select what the British call grand opera, and listen to it on our iPods on the way to work, we are not suddenly tuning into culture, but choosing to concentrate on a single strand. The same applies if we are listening to rap, or reading Wuthering Heights, or Das Kapital in German, or watching World Series baseball. This is all culture; what Hodge is suggesting is more like "Kultur". Culture does not exist to draw us together or to keep us apart; to assign to culture the kind of ulterior purpose that Hodge proposes is profoundly philistine.
There are so few black people at the Proms because they would rather be somewhere else. This is, after all, a matter of taste. Will Hodge also object that there are too few old people at Glastonbury? (Most young people would opine that there are too many.)

We quite agree. Culture doesn't necessarily have to be high-brow, boring or for just a 'happy few' as the most elitist view of the concept would have us believe but that doesn't mean either that culture per se has to be inclusive in each and every one of its manifestations.

Joe Queenan, in the Los Angeles Times, complains about a 2007-2008 academic monthly calendar whose quotations were somewhat one-sided.

And then it came to me. With the exception of [Garth] Brooks, all the remarks issuing from male lips or pens or styluses were clever, instructive, wise. By contrast, the relatively obscure women represented here expressed ideas that were closer to Hallmark greeting-card sentiments. Why? Why weren't Jane Austen or Golda Meir or Madame Curie or Charlotte Brontë included? Didn't Katharine Hepburn or Queen Christina or Bessie Smith ever say anything witty or clever?

We find that to be utterly depressing.

Letralia brings to our attention yet one more Spanish-speaking Brontëite. In an interview writer Sandra Comino says:

Otras lecturas: las hermanas Brönte, Charlote con Jane Eire y Emily con Cumbres borrascosas. [Our bold]

Basically that Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights have influenced her. The awful thing is the amount of spelling mistakes concentrated in such few words.

The Brontë side of the blogosphere today is full of unusual posts. Derfward Manor chooses Jane Eyre to answer to the following questions:

If you could insert yourself as a new character in any book that already exists...
1. What book would you choose?
2. Who would your character be?
3. How would your character change the existing plot line and outcome of the story?
4. How would you arrange to have Johnny Depp as your hot and heavy love interest?

The Gay Recluse goes strolling in Washington Heights and reminisces about the other 'Heights' and posts beutiful pictures as well as a poem by Sylvia Plath. And Piggwidgeon writes a post on Helen Burns-like people.

Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights