The postbox, the graffiti and Japan

The Guardian plays the politically correct card and chooses two response letters (one in favour, the other against) to the Kathyrn Hugues (in)famous article on Emily Brontë. We have to say that, as unbiased as it seems, it's not really fair to give the same voice to the two positions. You only have to take a look at the comments section of the article to know what's the position of the vast majority of the readers.

Hughes admits she has struggled to finish it, and rails against the emotional and physical violence. But this is an essential, powerful part of the book. Yes, Emily and her sisters wrote novels to earn money. To criticise them for that is surely unreasonable. And to suggest that Emily saw Heathcliff as a sex symbol misses the point. In Heathcliff, Emily created an uncouth, flawed character ruled by obsession. He was turned into a sex symbol by charismatic film actors (my favourites being Laurence Olivier and Timothy Dalton). (Hilary Ward)
Thank you Kathryn Hughes for reassuring me that I’m not alone in finding Wuthering Heights virtually unreadable, completely overwrought, while still retaining a “grudging admiration from a safe distance” for Emily Brontë. (Eileen Bernard)

A commemorative postbox (a vintage thing per se) celebrating Emily Brontë in Thornton. BBC News (and the Yorkshire Post or The Telegraph & Argus) reports:
Picture Credits: Royal Mail

A commemorative postbox adorned with Emily Brontë quotes has been unveiled to celebrate her 200th birthday.
Schoolchildren from Thornton near Bradford, where Emily was born in 1818, dressed in 19th Century clothes to post letters in a nod to the importance of correspondence to the Brontes.
The postbox is inscribed with the 1836 poem High Waving Heather and "I am Heathcliff!" from Wuthering Heights.
It will be on Market Street in Thornton for a month. (...)
Artist Lucy Barker created Brontë animations with Year Four pupils from Thornton Primary School, who visited the postbox dressed in "Brontë-style clothes". (...)
Rebecca Yorke, of the Brontë Society, said: "Correspondence played an important part in the lives of the Emily and her sisters; their letters have made a significant contribution to what we know about them."

Keighley News publishes an article about the recent Japanese culture activities at the Parsonage:

The literary society teamed up with Worth Valley-based Whitestone Arts to present an oriental spin on Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights.
The day this month featured specialists from the Land of the Rising Son who taught Westerners about historic Japanese art forms.
The activities were part of the Stormy House project, a cultural collaboration between Japanese artists and young people from West Yorkshire, which will culminate with an art installation in Haworth in November. (...)
In one session, Greco-Irish writer and traveller Patrick Lafcadio Hearn explore the ghostly elements of Wuthering Heights in relation to kaidan, Japanese ghost tales, that he has collected.
Another session, Following the Brush, was a workshop on Japanese calligraphy led by Misuzu Kosaka.
Misuzu guided participants through the process of transforming fragments of text from Wuthering Heights into creative calligraphy.
In the Japanese style of ‘following the brush’ she used kanji (Japanese characters) as a fluid bridge between words and images: both significant building blocks in the narrative worlds of the Brontës. (...)
In the day, Damian Flanagan explained why Wuthering Heights has a particular resonance with Japanese readers .
In his engaging engaging and informative talk, Damian explored possible literary and landscape connections between Emily Brontë’s work and the islands of the North Pacific where she set her Gondal fantasies (David Knights)

East Valley Tribune presents a new restaurant (The Novelist) in Gilbert, AZ with a very nice interior design:
Picture credits: Travis T. on Yelp

The space is decorated with graffiti-style portraits of famous female writers painted on the walls and across a full bookcase that lines the back of the restaurant.
The restaurant currently features paintings of J.K. Rowling, Zadie Smith, Charlotte Brontë, Stephenie Meyer and Mary Shelley. A book case in the back features works by those writers.
The novel-centric spot also incorporates the concept through other aspects of the restaurant. When guests receive their check, it comes inside an actual book rather than the traditional black check folder handed out at most restaurants.
Guests receive CliffsNotes, the popular study tool used by high school and college students that provides summaries of famous works. (Wayne Schutsky)

Frieze reviews the novel Eleanor, or the Rejection of the Progress of Love by Anna Moschovakis:

As feminist historian Jill Ker Conway has observed, when they began to be told in novels and in memoirs, women’s stories were often shaped by the romantic myth, concluding with some version of Jane Eyre’s ‘Reader, I married him,’ as if, once married, their own lives ended, were subsumed by the man’s. (Sarah Resnick)

Wesley Morris in The New York Times loves the soundtrack of the TV series Pose:

Kate Bush is everything the Brontës and the old movies told you love was. The makers of this show know what she knew: that love might be Cupid’s thing but relationships belong to Sisyphus.

Glamour Paris (France) recommends summer readings like The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë by Daphne du Maurier

Voici la nouvelle édition immanquable de la saison. L’auteure de Rebecca, Daphné du Maurier, y retrace l’existence tourmentée du frère Brönte (sic), Branwell. Bien parti pour être aussi doué que ses sœurs, il part néanmoins très tôt à la dérive, sombrant dans la dépression, la drogue et l’alcoolisme, pour mourir prématurément, à 31 ans. Jeune, mais aussi sans avoir réussi à se faire un nom, à accomplir ce qu’il pensait être son destin. On suit donc ici ses questionnements et ses malheurs, on s’étonne devant ce talent gâché, de peintre comme d’écrivain. Bref, une biographie tragique qui ne pouvait que plaire à Daphné du Maurier… et à nous par la même occasion ! (Sophie Rosemont) (Translation)

20 Minutes (France) asks for recommendations to the #MoiJeune community:

The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë by Syrie James
« Il raconte la vie de cet écrivain du sexe faible, qui doit se cacher sous un pseudonyme pour écrire, tout en menant une existence de femme de bonne famille entre 1816 et 1855, détaille Maëva. J’ai dévoré l’ouvrage et je me suis dépêchée d’acheter tous les livres signés par Charlotte Brontë sous son pseudonyme, Curer Bell. » (Compiled by Charlotte Murat) (Translation)

Jane Eyre is the recommendation of Libreriamo (Italy):

Giovane orfana cresciuta con estrema rigidità, Jane, diventata istitutrice, si dedica alla formazione di Adele, figlia di Mr. Rochester. Quest’ultimo, uomo ironico e dai segreti inconfessabili, rimane subito colpito dall’animo forte di Jane. Il capolavoro di Charlotte Brontë è un inno all’indipendenza femminile e alla caparbia. È un romanzo audace e celebrativo dell’amore più sincero, quello che si rivela all’improvviso, colpendo i due amanti. (Translation)

David Austin's new Emily Brontë rose will be exhibited at the Four Oaks Trade Show 2018 according to Horticulture Week. Melissa Joulwan's Well Fed briefly reviews Alexa Donne's Brightly Burning. Donovan Reads posts about Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair. Sanjida posts about Wuthering Heights.