"Mitigating climate change means protecting what’s left of our ecosystems too"

Slow Boring explores how the approaches to Wuthering Heights keep changing as society changes:

As part of my ongoing quest to unscramble my brain by reading classic literature, I recently wrapped up an eight-week Zoom discussion group on Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel “Wuthering Heights” run by The Catherine Project. (...)

Still, I ultimately found the novel a bit unsatisfying. Brontë writes some great scenes, but with the complicated multi-layered framing device, I often found it hard to know what to make of the plot and I missed the social realism that a lot of other celebrated works of this time have.

But some of these unsatisfying elements are what make it an interesting text to engage with — the book has been received differently in different eras, in response to different modes of criticism and evolving political sentiments and social norms. I also think, though, that interpretations of the text have been driven at least in part by the film adaptations, many of which wrestle Brontë’s story into something more straightforward than the book: a great love story, as the distributors of the 1939 version put it. (...)

Hollywood went spelunking in a novel about multi-generational child abuse, abduction, and betrayal, and pulled out something more film-able. And yet, there are modern readings of the text that suggesting maybe the Hollywood version of the story is something closer to the “right” one, and that the story told the novel is a kind of slander perpetrated by a small-minded racist. (Matthew Yglesias)

Bristol Live, Portsmouth News, London World, Surrey World and Banbury Guardian announce the upcoming (next September) performances of Jane Eyre: An Autobiography:

Live Wire & Roughhouse Theatre’s critically acclaimed production of Charlotte Bronte’s timeless classic Jane Eyre: an autobiophy is coming to the Alam Theatre Bristol on 23rd September marking a deeply poignant anniversary igran the great novelist’s life. (...)

Adapted by award winning playwright Dougie Blaxland and produced by the same creative team that won the 2021 National Campaign for the Arts Award Live Wire & Roughhouse Theatre’s Jane Eyre: an autobiography is in fact a revival of the 2015 production that was hailed “a theatrical tour de force from a company with a rare gift for bringing classics to life with loyalty, energy and intrigue”. (Maeve Holloran)

A reader of The Yorkshire Post publishes a letter arguing against the Calderdale Wind Farm project:

The vast amount of cement and aggregate would forever remove the water retaining Sphagnum Moss (creating more water run-off from the uplands) and cause potential damage to the water courses.

If I had been given the chance, I would have also told her and the listeners that the proposed wind farm site lies in Bronte Country.

This is one of our country’s significant cultural assets. It attracts tourists from all over the world (as does the Pennine Way, which runs right through the centre of the proposed wind farm).

This unique land of wild moor and millstone grit, was home to the Brontës.

It inspired their young literary minds and some of the world’s most famous novels.

Emily Brontë knew every inch of the moors. Charlotte regularly visited The Lancashire side and they had connections to Calderdale.

We will forever lose this wild liberating moor and its unique identity and our heritage if this development goes ahead.

Interestingly, the young Brontë siblings whilst out on a walk, narrowly escaped a deluge from a mudslide, just above Ponden (an event that would be potentially more likely following the wind farm construction).

Mitigating climate change means protecting what’s left of our ecosystems too.

There has to be a balance, or else the system is completely contradicting itself and causing more harm than good. (Sarah Crane)

BBC talks about the project and its opposition:

Calderdale Council will play a "crucial role" in developing plans for England's largest onshore wind farm despite the government having the final say, a councillor has said.

Calder Wind Farm Ltd wants to install 41 turbines at Walshaw Moor above Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire.

Critics have raised concerns about the impact of the plans on the local environment, but the developer said the site could provide electricity to power about 250,000 homes.

The application will be decided by Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, after the site was designated a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP). (John Greenwood & Steve Jones)

Louder Sound asks several prog music stars about their favourite Kate Bush song:

Wuthering Heights (The Kick Inside, 1978)

Every year on the singer’s birthday, July 30, fans celebrate The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever by recreating Bush’s dance routine in the iconic red dress from the music video. The song topped the charts in six countries with its gothic grandeur and sweeping drama.

Mikael Åkerfeld, Opeth: “She’s one of those magical artists – there’s not a lot of them, not of that calibre. She’s top of the pile. Everybody knows it. She was running her own thing [when] nobody else did it. She carved out her own niche in the pop scene: Wuthering Heights, what a fucking genius song. How can you write a song like that? It’s in, what, 7/4? It’s a sing-along pop song, and you don’t even notice the turn on the drums. Running Up That Hill is a beautiful fucking song, too. I get shivers just thinking about it. She’s untouchable.” (David West)

Variety reviews the TV series My Oxford Year:

Anna de la Vega (Sofia Carson) has been fantasizing about attending Oxford University since she was 10 years old, cracking open a dusty old book of poetry for the first time. Even before her face appears on camera and the narration reiterates what’s already been shown, it’s clear that this Type A personality has built her entire world around this milestone adventure (reinforced by meticulously curated context clues, which include dog-eared copies of Austen, Fitzgerald and Brontë’s works, as well as a diploma from Cornell and other framed honors). (Courtney Howard)

Female loneliness in Cosmopolitan:

This pervasive loneliness has deep roots in art and culture. Reclusive and brilliant writers like Emily Dickinson or Emily Brontë described their own isolation at a time when women often couldn’t work outside the home, gain a university education, or own property. (Stacia Datskovska)

The MWHDE still lingers on the press: Tipperary Live, where she follows two locals who participated in the Haworth event last week. Lancashire Evening Post, The San Diego-Union Tribune, Avanti! (Italy) devotes a biographical article to Emily Brontë's anniversary. The Brontë Sisters UK explores how Yorkshire shaped the Brontë sisters - from the windswept moors to the local dialect and culture.