Gothic Tech with a Gravestone

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It's remarkable how some (more trivial) stories reach the national and international media and some others (probably more interesting) are only featured in the local or specialised media. Take for example the redecoration of the Parsonage and Anne Brontë's grave 'correction' story. The first one was mentioned here and there but not with the intensity that such news deserved. The second one is now all over the news:

BBC News:

Author Anne Brontë, the sister of Charlotte and Emily, has been given a new gravestone after 164 years to correct an error on the original.
Anne, who wrote Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, died in Scarborough in 1849 after succumbing to tuberculosis at the age of 29.
But her headstone in St Mary's Churchyard gave her age as 28.
A new plaque on her grave has been officially unveiled during a service of dedication. (...)
Anne's original gravestone was refaced three years after her death, when Charlotte returned to discover five errors on it. The other mistakes were corrected but the age was not.
The Brontë Society has installed the new plaque alongside the original, which has deteriorated over the years.
"Anne was the quietest Brontë and can still sometimes be overlooked in favour of her sisters Charlotte and Emily," said the society's Sally McDonald.
"In some ways, though, she is now viewed as the most radical of the sisters, writing about tough subjects such as women's need to maintain independence, and how alcoholism can tear a family apart.
"It is a pleasure to honour her in this modest way... in the coastal town she loved so much."

ContactMusic, Los Angeles Times, The Northern Echo, Planet Siol (Slovenia), hvg (Hungary), Emisoras Unidas (Guatemala), Gerçek Gündem and Radikal (Turkey), El Informador (México), ANI (Asia), are some of the news outlets echoing the news.

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The Spenborough Guardian remembers that a replica of Charlotte Brontë's wedding dress and the original bonnet are now on display at the Red House Museum:

A copy of Charlotte Brontë's wedding dress and hat have gone on display at Red House Museum.
Charlotte’s original dress was destroyed by her husband Arthur after she died, but thankfully a copy has since been made.
The garments went on show as part of talks by historian Jim Summerscales and Brontë fan Imelda Marsden about Charlotte’s novel Shirley and its links to the Luddites and the museum.

The Telegraph & Argus also reports Friday's events at the Brontë Bell Chapel in Thornton:

Now a limited edition plate with a painting by watercolour artist, Ashley Jackson, of the Old Bell Chapel’s East Wall, has gone on sale at £24.99 each to raise the cash to replace the stone.
More than 100 plates have already been sold, with a further 220 still available.
Church warden Steven Stanworth, who discovered the original damage, said thieves had not returned since.
The issue about heritage sites being plundered by criminals will form part of a BBC 1 documentary later this year and the production team have been filming at the Old Bell Chapel to include the graveyard theft in the programme.
Mr Stanworth said: “We were having a poetry day on Friday with Lyn Cunliffe, the poetry reader from Hathaways in Haworth, a company which specialises in historical re-enactment and entertainment, and Mr Jackson was also there.
“They presented their works to support the fundraising efforts of the Brontë Bell Chapel Action Group.
“The production team was asking us about our plates and we told them we want to sell them all to get money to replace the gravestones.
“We have not had any problems with thefts since last year because people are now more aware of it.
“The plates are limited edition and we have some in Haworth Parsonage and at St James Church.
“We were talking about the effect the theft had on volunteers, but we have dealt with it now and moved on.
“We have dealt with it positively and we hope that shows in the programme.” (Dolores Cowburn)

Precisely on the Ashley Jackson Twitter we can read that:

My pencil sketch of Top Within in this months issue of @The_Dalesman.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune talks about the University of Minnesota's College in the Schools programme controversy:

The point here is not to censure the course for its contemporary, multiculturalist focus. Prof. McNaron and CIS have, in fact, developed machinery to ensure college-level teacher and student performance. We needn’t judge the works on the reading list, either. Instead, what matters is the active exclusion of the great tradition from Chaucer to Austen to Joyce — from the Puritans to Frederick Douglass to Edith Wharton. If a school chooses to teach pre-1950s English and American literature, students can’t earn college credit. In effect, the university tells schools, “If you study Melville, Emily Brontë and Du Bois, not Boa Ninh, Cormac McCarthy and Julie Otsuka, you can’t participate.” (Mark Bauerlein)

The film director Guillermo Del Toro is interviewed in Los Angeles Times about his new film, Pacific Rim. Not the first time he quotes the Brontës describing it:

“What I wanted to do was to make gothic tech,” Del Toro said of his new film “Pacific Rim,” due out July 12. “What we went for is a very, very romantic look. I wanted to have a lot of crazy rain, wind, all the drama of an Emily Brontë movie in a high-tech movie.” (Gina McIntyre).

Radio Angulo (Cuba) reviews Sixty Lights by Gail Jones:

De aquí su atracción por las historias, los novelas como Jane Eyre o Grandes esperanzas, las leyendas como la del Holandés Errante o el cuento de la Princesa que reconocía un guisante entre varios colchones. (Manuel García Verdecia) (Translation)

Do you remember the Naomi Wolf orgasms and creativity boutade? Profil (Austria) interviews her and asks her about it:

profil: Sie behaupten auch, dass eine Verbindung zwischen Orgasmus und Kreativität besteht. Eine Kritikerin stellte sich dann die berechtigte Frage, wie große literarische Werke wie „Wuthering Heights“ geschrieben wurden? Emily Brontë war laut Forschung Jungfrau.
Wolf: Wer sagt, dass Emily Brontë nicht selbst Hand angelegt und großartige Orgasmen hatte? Ich finde es immer interessant, wie oft ich für ein Buch angegriffen werde, dass ich nicht geschrieben habe. Ich habe doch nie behauptet, dass jemand in einer Beziehung sein muss, um in den Genuss gesteigerter Kreativität zu kommen!  (Tessa Szyszkowitz) (Translation)

Daily Kos discusses happy endings:

I don't insist on a happy ending, as the young Serena does, but I remember those days when I was thrilled about the way Jane Eyre ended and surprised at the turns Vanity Fair and Middlemarch took. (bookgirl)

The Film & TV magazine (Italy) reviews Wuthering Heights 2011;  Letters to Another World (in German) and Independent Reading review Wuthering Heights.

Finally, the Brussels Brontë Group posts a complete chronicle of the 7th Annual Brussels Weekend 19-21 April 2013:

Brussels member Selina Busch reports on the talks given by Elizabeth Merry and David Grylls at our 7th annual Brontë weekend in Brussels.