Yearning for Idiocy

The Daily Cougar vindicates the public school system and curriculum in front of the ones that want to create a society of "competent" (aka docile idiot serfs for our technofeudal pseudolords) people:

In one survey, the average American felt that they used “just 37 percent of the information they learn in school.” Some of the information that Americans found “most useless” included the Pythagorean theorem, the number pi and social activities like making paper snowflakes. Respondents expressed a desire for more practical instruction, such as how to file taxes or perform car maintenance. (...)

When a student is forced to write an essay about “Jane Eyre,” they are really practicing writing a persuasive argument and articulating their thoughts into words, which is useful in law, business and everyday conversation. (Maria Krylova)

The University of Delaware's The Review... well, reviews Wuthering Heights 2026: 

Now, this film was never supposed to be a remake or a direct adaptation of the novel, and the film’s director made that clear in interviews while explaining that is why the title remains in quotes. She has stated that it is how she remembers the book from the first time she read it as a teenager. While I can appreciate that this is how her teenage self read the book, even calling this an interpretation is a disservice to the original story. Emily Brontë is rolling in her grave. 

Despite my qualms with the film from a literary standpoint, I actually enjoyed it. Cinematically, it is a beautifully produced film. It is visually pleasing to watch, with intricate set designs such as the walls in Catherine’s room — which were modeled after Margot Robbie’s skin and included moles, veins and even hair. The costumes and hair for this piece, while albeit not the most historically accurate, are stunning and the overall attention to detail is impressive. (Jeni Nance)

Best Fictions of all time in The Sunday Guardian (India):

 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

A pioneering feminist narrative, Jane Eyre blends romance, mystery, and emotional independence in a deeply character-driven story. (Dikshant Sharma)

The fashion and beauty section of The Sunday Times (South Africa) concludes that this is the year of yearning and you know why?:

 From windswept cheeks to just-bitten lips; the runways are overtaken by yearning. (...)

The inspiration: Wuthering Heights, romance-novel yearning, feral, flushed skin, wind-beaten cheeks

As seen at: Chanel, Chloe, Ann Demeulemeester, Ermanno Scervino, and Simone Rocha

When we first saw butt-grazing princess hair at the 2024 Met Gala, we were inclined to think it was a fleeting phase. But it seems that the sighting was only the beginning of what would be a resurgence of all things romantic. In 2026, romance makes a triumphant return to the runways, red carpets, TV and film, with this year’s most heart-racing film, Wuthering Heights, based on Emily Brontë’s tragic romance novel, sweeping the world up in a surge of skin-flushing romance. Dubbed the ‘year of yearning’, it seems that the runways’ response to the world’s current state of conflict and war is one of unadulterated displays of love and feral human emotion, sparking a romance resurgence that can only be described as utterly joyful. (Nokubonga Thusi)

Hello! Magazine sells the wonders of  a paritcular Yorkshire Dales hotel like this:

The Coniston Hotel & Spa has a touch of Wuthering Heights magic from the scenic hills and offers some extra thrills onsite as well...

After watching Wuthering Heights and dreaming about being swept into the Dales in Jacob Elordi's arms, a staycation to the Yorkshire Dales suddenly seemed very appealing.  Except, of course, there was no Jacob Elordi (no shade to my boyfriend), and my stay was perhaps a little more "indoorsy" than running around the hills like Cathy. However, the Coniston Hotel & Spa did offer a sprinkle of Wuthering Heights magic with its hilly backdrop and moody, Gothic charm... (Iona MacRobert)

Sprinkles of Wuthering Heights magic... ok. Whatever.

Ipshita Nath, author of the forthcoming Diseased Empire: How Faith, Medicine, and Race Shaped British India writes in Scroll.in about Catherine as a ‘consumptive chic’ example:

In contemporary popular discourse, Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship is viewed as toxic and codependent, but deeper psychoanalytic interpretations of their behaviour become critical in studying the horrific dimensions of human attachment and desire. The themes of power, psychological disintegration and self-destructive trauma imbued in the narrative demand deeper engagement because while the characters are flawed to the point of appearing villainous, they are poignant for the fate that meets them in the end.

In this, Catherine emerges as perhaps one of the most haunting Victorian heroines, progressing from a wild and untamed young woman, to an obsessive and reprehensible heroine – an antithesis to an idealised Victorian lady – finally transmuting into a spectral apparition after her death. Her character arc resists any closure as her long sickness and prolonged suffering do not end in death, but assume unheimlich proportions as she comes back to haunt Heathcliff, disturbing the ontological boundaries between life and death.

Indeed, in the liminal space between life and death, Catherine is shown to be clinging to the past and then suffering endlessly due to it. Her despair, feelings of guilt and entrapment, progressive physical disintegration take on physical symptoms of fevers and anorexia that slowly wither her away. She becomes a tragic Gothic heroine not only for what happens to her in her dysfunctional relationships, but also for her emotional and sexual weaknesses that attenuate her in the end.

For this reason, Catherine’s physical and emotional deterioration needs to be studied as a product of a distinctly Victorian trend and aesthetic that valorised and eroticised weakness and suffering in women. She physically embodies the cultural idea of the “consumptive chic” who is fevered, emaciated and dying, as she becomes both victim and perpetrator – the haunted and the haunting.

A video of The Huffington Post, with some AI-generated deep dives explores the Charlotte Brontë "dislike" of Jane Austen's prose. The House of Brontë publishes a video on Heathcliff, man or monster?