"She has a different way of working and is totally immersed in the work," says Kay Mellor, scriptwriter of Band Of Gold - the ITV series that made Morton famous for playing a drug-addicted teenage prostitute - and of a 1997 adaptation of Jane Eyre in which Morton played the lead. "Where other actors come in and out of character, and have a laugh and relax, I'm not sure Samantha would," adds Mellor. "I don't know if she still does that, but when she was doing Band Of Gold she instinctively kept in character most of the time. I took her outfor dinner when she was playing Jane Eyre, and I basically went out for dinner with Jane Eyre. It was quite weird, really." (Peter Ross)The Guardian reviews the retrospective on Cornelia Parker - Never Endings - that can be seen at the IKON Gallery, Birmingham until 18 November. Tim Adams - the reviewer - considers Parker's art 'hit-and-miss'. The retrospective includes some of her Brontëan Abstracts:
It is not only Cornelia Parker's exploded shed that sends her work spinning off in every direction. How would you hold these recent adventures of hers together apart from with invisible wires: a filmed interview with Noam Chomsky about American barbarism; the dress worn by Mia Farrow in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby; a tape recording of an inconclusive seance with the Brontes at Haworth; rocks and stones taken from beneath the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Jonathan Watkins, the director of the Ikon Gallery which houses this retrospective of her work of the last decade has a go: Parker, he suggests, is 'engaging with subjects that loom large in popular imagination, universal triggers perhaps of a collective unconscious'. Well, sort of. [...]Personally, we like what we've seen of Cornelia Parker's work and we like her innovative ideas, but we understand she's not everyone's cup of trea. Still, Brontëites in the area which didn't get to see Brontëan Abstracts at the Brontë Parsonage Museum now have a chance of judging for themselves.
She is happy at times to borrow this atmosphere of spookiness from other, more conventional places, which diminishes the surprise. The Bronte room here, with its hyper-magnified photographs of the nib of Charlotte's pen and the surface of Branwell's wallet, is a case in point. Haworth represents readymade ghostliness and Parker's intervention doesn't make it any more spectral.
After doing an MPhil on Charlotte Bronte at the University of Pune, I did my Doctorate on ‘Insanity in the English Gothic novel’ from CIEFL, Hyderabad.Now for a few reviews - all of them linked somehow to Wuthering Heights/Emily Brontë:
Richardson also infuses Ambrose and Zipper with certain endearing characteristics - he cannot stand Wuthering Heights, while it's her favorite book. (Elizabeth Fox)That could be fun indeed.
Chloe Dale is an artist preparing to illustrate “Wuthering Heights” and intrigued by the compelling and troublesome Heathcliff, whom she has decided must be a gypsy. (Claudia Smith Brinson)And finally Amanda McCabe reviews Shaggy Muses on Risky Regencies.
Parker takes her excavations a step further in the Ikon's upstairs gallery, where she attempts to unpick the mythology of the Brontë sisters and the modern pilgrimage site of their home at Haworth, West Yorkshire. Using electron microscope photography, she presents a series of images that show in molecular detail the quotidian objects of the sisters' existence: their well-worn quill nibs; the mottled surfaces of their blotting paper; a pinhole made by Charlotte which, under the magnifying eye, becomes a bottomless cavern on the surface of a scarred moon. The photographs, together with a film and an audio piece that follows Parker as she tours the family homestead under the guidance of two psychics, are the product of her residency at Haworth last year. The prints hold a superficial fascination, but the project as a whole lacks the potency of her installations. (Jacky Klein)The Washington Post reviews Liz Workman's Dr. Johnson's Doorknob: And Other Significant Parts of Great Men's Houses. The author of the preface of the book is Germaine Greer, who justifies the absence of women on the list of houses arguing, somehow unaccurately, the following:
"most of the houses in this book were inhabited and run by women, whose influence has been obliterated by history." Greer goes on to explain that even in the "modest dwellings" that would become house museums of accomplished members of her own sex, "there is nothing designated Jane Austen's chair or Charlotte Bronte's desk because these women did not have property or a space of their own." (Annie Groer)What? There's such a space as Charlotte's room or Emily's desk and there most certainly is a Charlotte's writing desk! (usually on display at the Bonnell Room). A most puzzling statement coming from the Honorary Patron of the Contemporary Arts Program at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
His character, Broughton Brocklehurst, merits only a mention in the book, but producers decided to bring the character to life. It's a nonspeaking role, but once onstage, Mac is required to exude bully. He prepares by making faces backstage and doing vocal exercises ("Toy-boat-toy-boat-toy-boat-toy-boat") to prime the right mean face. (Maria Elena Baca)On this video from WCCO Minneapolis you can see a mini-interview with Stacia Rice, Jane Eyre in the production.
Favorite author: All three Bronte' sistersAnother Brontëite is author Steph Swainston, interviewed by Eos Books, where she proves she knows her Brontës quite well.
A series of attractively abstract photographs turn out to be no more than magnified smudges from Einstein’s blackboard or the marks in the margin of Charlotte Bronte’s manuscript for Jane Eyre. (Peter McCarthy)On Margaret Cooter's blog you can find a comment and a photographic tour (no Brontëan Abstracts however) of the exhibition.
As a director, Swicord doesn't have the control she has as a screenwriter. Blunt, in particular, is allowed to darken the mood unnecessarily: She overpowers what ought to be a lightly comic role, as if she had just swept in from Bronte's moors rather than Austen's parlors. (Margaret Quamme)Jools Holland's recently-published autobiography: Barefaced Lies and Boogie-Woogie Boasts is the subject of an interview in The Scotsman. A Wuthering Heights-related anecdote appears:
She [Paula Yates] did come to stay. Once he got out an old movie for them to watch together, Wuthering Heights, which he hadn't realised was all about obsessive love leading to madness and death. She couldn't believe it: "This is in the worst possible taste!" she exclaimed. But they had a laugh. She seemed to be improving and getting herself back together, then came the shocking news of her death. (Jackie McGlone)The Times reviews the recent concert of the Puppini Sisters at Sheperds Bush (London) and their Wuthering Heights cover is highlighted:
Their new single Spooky came with a synchronised dance routine, pitch-perfect harmonies and silly sound effects, but it was their cover of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights that raised the first cheer from the seated crowd. “Let me in at your window-ah,” they purred, scratching at imaginary glass with their painted nails. (Lisa Verrico)On the blogosphere: Mam'zelle Poupée brings back an interesting text from 1930 by Daniel-Rops (pseudonym of Henri Petiot) about Emily Brontë: Emily Brontë, poésie et solitude (in French). The Brontë Parsonage Blog reminds us of an upcoming talk by Tamar Yellin, author of Kafka in Brontëland.
BUCS +10 at ColtsCategories: Art-Exhibitions, In the News, Music, References, Weirdo, Wuthering Heights
Haven't we seen this somewhere before? The protagonist is driven from his home, scorned by those he loved and trusted. He rises up in the world, returns, and from the lofty perch of his improved circumstances exacts his bitter revenge. Tony Dungy, you are soooo Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. Emily Bronte? Anyone? (Poor Donald Penn gets to make his first NFL start at left tackle against Dwight Freeney.) Colts 24, Bucaneers 17 (Kevin Helch)
That trust has now given its blessing to Rhett Butler's People by Daniel McCaig, a respected historical novelist with a white moustache that sits on his lip like the rim of sugar on a mint julep, giving him a resemblance to Colonel Sanders. “Readers will get inside Rhett's head as he meets and courts Scarlett O'Hara in one of the most famous love affairs of all time,” promises a New York Times review quoted on the jacket.The Coventry Telegraph covers briefly the ongoing Cornelia Parker's exhibition Never Endings:
Clearly, the trustees are not great students of the love story. The last place readers want to be is inside a romantic hero's head, of course. Imagine Heathcliff's take on Wuthering Heights. Imagine Mr Darcy's perspective on Elizabeth Bennet. Imagine Maxim de Winter's account of his second marriage. At one point in this book, Rhett Butler wonders if he and Scarlett were lovers in a previous incarnation. No, no, no. (Celia Breyfeld)
A roomful of works from time spent at the Brontë Parsonage Museum shows the writers' possessions in a new light, massively magnified, so a pincushion looks like a swimming pool, and Branwell's wallet like an attractive textile. (Julie Chamberlain)BookStove publishes a short essay on Jane Eyre while Fok! reviews the DVD Dutch edition of Jane Eyre 2006. craig_352 publishes a very nice picture of Top Withens.
The Brontë shrine is to employ its first person dedicated to championing the museum as a centre for contemporary arts.As BrontëBlog readers know perfectly well, the Brontës are alive and well in the 21st century, so this new post at the Parsonage will be a very interesting one, we are sure.
The job will be to reveal how the Brontë sisters and the wider story of their family, is an inspiration to 21st century writers and artists.
And to help fund the three-year post, the Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth has won a grant from the Esmee Fairburn Foundation.
Brontë Parsonage Museum manager Alan Bentley, said: "The grant has given a significant boost to the groundbreaking work to establish the Parsonage not just as a heritage museum but as a place of excellence for contemporary arts."
The arts programme has been in operation since 2005 and had attracted internationally renowned artists and poets like Cornelia Parker, the poet laureate, Andrew Motion and Paula Rego.
The programme of events for 2007-2008 has already been drawn up and includes Amanda Dalton, who will act as poet in residence to mark National Poetry Day, which will be celebrated at the Parsonage tomorrow.
Best selling author Margaret Drabble, who has written about how landscape has influenced writers like the Brontës, will come to Haworth on Wednesday, November 28.
She will be reading her work and discussing the influence of the Brontes.
Joining her will be poetry award winner Wendy Cope who will be discussing her Whitbread poetry award poem If I Don't Know."
Novelist and prize winning writer, Tamar Yellin, who lives in Stanbury, will speak about being a jew in Bronteland, on Wednesday October 17. (Clive White)
Last night critics of the group said children needed a healthy balance in their reading. Others said the book burnings were a sinister reminder of similar events in Nazi Germany.The book burning in Don Quixote didn't burn his imagination, if anything it fuelled it even more. We hope these children - and their mothers - will eventually enjoy books in general, not just shiny, happy books.
But children's charity Kidscape condemned a campaign which would lead to young people 'missing out on the magic of literature'.
Director Michele Elliott said: "There is a distance between you and a book which allows you to experience emotions and think about what's happening - but it's not happening to you. That's incredibly healthy.
"There has to be a balance. I would not feed children a complete diet of morbid books."
Award-winning children's author Kevin Brooks, whose books have a reputation for emotional rollercoasters and disturbing cliffhangers, said the proposed burnings were reminiscent of the Nazi regime.
"Controversy and bad stuff is everywhere," he said. "It is far better to find out about it in books where it is written with some feeling and poetry and power." (Andrew Levy)
Jane Austen was a provincial Englishwoman who wrote six novels about courtship and class before dying unmarried in 1817 at the age of 41. She was an astute observer of social customs, but subsequent writers who considered Austen's work to be mannered and lifeless included Charlotte Bronte, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mark Twain.You would think rather than a mere opinion, what Charlotte wrote was a curse, vowing she would sell more books than Jane Austen ever after. We leave the 'inspiration for her fiction' bit to the experts, who kindly explain that that's simply not true.
Yet these days, Austen probably outsells them all, in part because her books have been adapted into countless movies. She also was the subject of a recent biopic, "Becoming Jane," which suggested that her star-crossed life was the inspiration for her fiction. (Joe Williams)
Dog breeder Jocelyn (Bello, who’s marvelously earthy here) is oblivious to the throbbing passions of biofueling book-clubber and sci-fi nerd Grigg (Dancy, reportedly next appearing in Brontë) while fretting about her recently abandoned friend (Brenneman). (Marrit Ingman)Hugh Dancy will supposedly play George Smith. Variety also echoes the news in the cast in an article on Icon Entertainment International.
Icon’s theatrical slate includes “Push,” starring Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning and Djimon Hounsou, “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” directed by Christopher McQuarrie, and “Bronte,” starring Rebecca Hall, Natalie Press and Evan Rachel-Wood. (Archie Thomas)We hear today of a book that includes Brontë references. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an article on Rudolph Delson's debut novel Maynard & Jennica.
Then there is Jennica, a transplanted Californian who loves Manhattan but has little luck in employment or romance. She is a relentless self-analyzer, yet also a perennial romantic, always hoping for the lucky fate that has proved so elusive in the past.Also Past the Popcorn chats with Daniel Housman about the movie he's adapted, The Treatment, and we find out there's a reference to Wuthering Heights in it as well.
As she says, "I don't think my life is as sad as, like, 'Wuthering Heights' or 'Love in the Time of Cholera,' or Dave Eggers, or whatever. But I am the only person I know who is practically 30 years old but who has never had a relationship last more than a year. Obviously I am doing something wrong. That, or I am unlovable." (John Marshall)
I really tried in the school-teaching scenes to show his soul, and those are my writing—they don’t exist in the book at all.The Lancaster UAF blog has a post on Terry Eagleton, author of Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontës.
Oh, really?
DH: No, he’s not depicted actually teaching at all in the book. And when we first started to adapt it, that was the first thing I said: “That’s how we’re going to relate to this man: as we see him with kids.” And there’s another scene that didn’t make the cut—and is available on the DVD—that was meant to go first. There was meant to be a little bit of an arc seen in how he interacts with the kids, identifying with the protagonists in the books that he’s teaching. In the first scene, that was cut, he’s teaching Wuthering Heights; he’s identifying with Heathcliff, the romantic, doomed, self-pitying hero. And he’s giving one of the students a really hard time, almost like his therapist, Morales, does with him. And he’s giving this stuff to the kids: “You cannot be a fully-grown child.” And in the second scene, he’s teaching Chekhov, and there’s this beautiful poetry in Chekhov, and all this sympathy for these very flawed characters that don’t always fit in with our modern view—and he’s telling the kids to back up and give these characters some room with their flaws. And finally, looking at The Stranger, and about taking responsibility and existentialism—and he’s connecting with the students the most. So one of those scenes is missing in the end, but that’s where I was trying to reveal his personal arc. (Greg Wright)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane AustenCategories: Books, Brontë Parsonage Museum, In the News, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (you may be interested to read Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, which is something of a 'prequel' to Jane Eyre)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (you may be interested to read Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman, who was inspired by the themes of Wuthering Heights)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Unless explicitly said
