Auditions, jazz and faeries

Let's begin with something that we missed some weeks ago. This hilarious piece in McSweeney's:

CATHERINE AND HEATHCLIFF AUDITION FOR TWILIGHT.

BY JAMIE QUATRO

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SECOND ASSISTANT CAMERAMAN: Twilight auditions, forest scene, take one.
DIRECTOR CATHERINE HARDWICKE: Roll camera ... and ... action!
CATHERINE: Your cold blood cannot be worked into a fever. Your veins are full of ice water, but mine are boiling, and the sight of such chilliness makes them ....
HARDWICKE: Cut! Bella, the line is "Your skin is pale white and ice cold." Let's try it again.
2ND A.C.: Twilight auditions, forest scene, take two.
HARDWICKE: Rolling ... and ... action!
CATHERINE: Wilderness of furze and whinstone—your bliss lies, like Satan's, in inflicting misery!
HEATHCLIFF: (to HARDWICKE) This lamb of yours threatens like a bull! It is in danger of splitting its skull against my knuckles.
HARDWICKE: Cut. Okay, that was, you know. Messed up. Catherine, Edward's the one whose speech is supposed to sound like it's from a different time. Heathcliff, the lamb stuff was good, and you've got the whole I'm-fighting-the-bloodlust thing going. But can you give me a little more tenderness?
CATHERINE: He's not a rough diamond, a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic. He's a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man. An unreclaimed creature, without refinement, without cultivation ....
HARDWICKE: Wait—have you even read Twilight? Because the wolf thing is way more important in New Moon. Plus it's Jacob who .... (Read more)

A new review of Sheila Kohler's Becoming Jane Eyre is published in the New Jersey Star-Ledger. The reviewer seems to have problems with non-linear (not mainstream) narratives:

Where do you get your ideas? Possibly the question most asked of authors. Possibly also the most bewildering, since ideas are plentiful. There is a story behind every shadow, inspiration in every incident.
There is also a story in every story. Fictional renderings of events in the lives of historical figures, particularly artistic figures, have always been fodder for novelists.
"Becoming Jane Eyre," by Sheila Kohler, is a tale of the creation of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel, "Jane Eyre."
The story begins with Brontë sitting vigil by her father’s sickbed. She uses the long, silent hours to craft an amalgam of experience and imagination, dreams and disappointments, which becomes "Jane Eyre."
Kohler also crafts an amalgam of fact and imagination. In her story, Brontë is beset — with financial concerns, with an addicted sibling and with the quest for a distant parent’s affection.
"Jane Eyre" won acclaim for its unstudied tone; Kohler’s story pays homage to its predecessor in atmosphere and cadence, but the lack of artifice — of structure — here is not without cost.
The narrative of "Becoming Jane Eyre" is challenging to follow: It shifts abruptly between Brontë’s present and her recollections. Likewise, point-of-view shifts among characters, sometimes several times within a paragraph. The reader frequently finds herself roused from the fictional dream, rereading pages and passages in order to determine what happened when or who said what. Fans of Brontë, however, may deem the story well worth the effort. (Marcia Hecker)

Elizabeth Kostova's The Swan Thieves is reviewed in the Asheville Citizen Times:

The intelligent woman living in Victorian England emerges as a key figure in “The Swan Thieves.” They were an interesting breed, those protected geniuses, producing many great novels: “Wuthering Heights,” “Middlemarch,” “The Moonstone.” By no means were they prude; they were highly romantic and sensual. (Rob Neufeld)

We have another Heathcliff wannabe according to The Mirror: Manchester United's captain Gary Neville:

Red Nev knows a nation will not mourn if he retreats to his moorland mansion to play the role of Heathcliff, passionate anti-hero. (Michael Calvin)

The Twilight frenzy has arrived even to Nepal. We read in República:

According to Meyer, each book in the series was inspired by a different literary classic: Twilight by Pride and Prejudice, New Moon by Romeo and Juliet, Eclipse by Wuthering Heights, and Breaking Dawn by A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Since Bella, the main narrator, happens to be a booklover, she also becomes a device through which the classics’ events and characters are smoothly interwoven into the current plot. (Nitya Pandey)

GAL Novelty has bought Wide Sargasso Sea, Cara Salley reviews Jane Eyre on Michelle D Evans' blog, Wayne Josephson (author of the ineffable Readable Classics version of Jane Eyre) defends his approach on 5 Minutes for Books, Niklas Hellgren (in Swedish) reviews not very positively the recent Stockholm performances of Jane Eyre adapted by Martina Montelius (although it seems that the author has also problems with the original novel). La vie en post-moderne posts about Wuthering Height in French and the Brussels Brontë Blog reviews Justine Picardie's Daphne.

A video written/directed by Freeman/Hughes featuring Rebecca Finch & Bailie James for the song 'Don't Leave Him Now' from the album 'Keeping The Flame Alive (The Bronte Legacy)' by Val Wiseman and pianist composer Brian Dee is now available on YouTube.

Finally, a very nice thing. On Paraphernalia you can find the one and only Secret Fairy Society Annual Christmas Newsletter. With the appearance of the known author Charflitt Brontë, author of Jane Faire. Do not miss it.

Categories: Fiction, Humour, Jane Eyre, Music, References, Theatre, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights