A Mathematician's Mind and A Fine and Subtle Spirit

An alert for today, November 10, from the Australian Brontë Association:

A Man's Mind: Emily Brontë

Talk by Christopher Cooper
Saturday 13th November 10am for 10.30am
Castlereagh Boutique Hotel (near Town Hall Station) at 10:30am

Sydney, Australia

Monsieur Heger is reported as having described Emily as having a ‘man’s mind’. By this he meant that she had a logical mind. As a mathematician I would say that she had a "mathematician's" mind. She had little more than the rudiments of mathematics in her education, but I recognise that in Wuthering Heights she displayed an innate appreciation of some of the fundamental ideas of higher mathematics such as complexity, nested structures and symmetry. In her novel she has planted a logic puzzle in terms of reconstructing its chronology. She displays complex symmetry in its genealogical aspects. She goes into great detail concerning the architecture and hardware of the two houses and even includes examples of at least fifteen different uses for windows. Moreover she deliberately omits the scenes that neither house could witness. Wuthering Heights is not so much about nature and the moors, but rather about the two houses. Could it be that the novel is a story in which those two houses are the main characters?

And a long-postponed concert in Manchester: 

Anne Brontë 200: “A Fine and Subtle Spirit” – A Celebration in Words and Music

November 13 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Cross Street Unitarian Chapel, Manchester

A bicentenary celebration for Anne Brontë will take place in Manchester on Saturday, November 13th 2021.  Postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic, this unique concert event features choral settings of Anne’s words, written specially for the occasion, as well as new poetry inspired by Anne’s life and example.  Lucy Pankhurst, BBC commissionee of The Pankhurst Anthem, has composed the title work which sits alongside other new settings by Paul Vowles and by American composers Cristi Cary Miller, Judith Herrington and Dale Trumbore.  There is also music by John Rutter, David Fanshawe and John Joubert.  The performers are Manchester Musicians’ Choir, Withington Girls’ School Choir, soprano Lesley-Jane Rogers, pianists Janet Simpson and Wendy Nugent and Brontë scholar Nick Holland.  Poets Liliana Pasterska, Philip Watts and Edwin Stockdale will perform their own works. Artistic Director: Pamela Nash.