Bronte vs. Bronte

[elettaria]

eye_of_a_cat is posting an Austen vs. Bronte poll, which completely fails to take account of the fact that people seem to be very divided on Jane Eyre vs. Wuthering Heights, rather than just happily loving all the Brontes. At least, so popular opinion has it. The time has come to discover the truth, and as in all good polls I'm refusing to accept the existence of a middle ground.

[Poll #1282245]

Comments

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Actually, by "middle ground" I meant the "well I'd give Jane Eyre 8/10, but The Professor only gets 4/10, and I've never been able to get that involved with Wuthering Heights so I don't really know what I'd give that..." sort of thing.

Do you think we dare put up a poll about the fanciability of various characters? I'm not sure I could bear it if people on my f-list were salivating over Heathcliff.

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm totally going to put up that poll :D Heathcliff, well... I see how that kind of intense willing-to-rip-the-world-apart-for-someone passion is attractive in its way, but he's really not my type. (However, I think WH earns major points by presenting him as fucked-up and destructive, and showing explicitly via Isabella Linton that assuming he's actually a tragic Byronic hero who just needs wuv will only lead to sorrow and pain and bleakness.)

OTOH, I think Rochester's hot, but one of my most disturbing teaching moments was when my students got into a virtual slap-fight over Wide Sargasso Sea. "That is NOT Rochester! Rochester is NOT that much of a bastard!" Um, were we reading the same Jane Eyre?

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

I think he manages to be hot in WSS, but he's just too bloody annoying in JE. He manipulates everyone in sight in a distinctly unsexy manner, is horribly twee with all the elves-and-fairies stuff, is frankly pompous in the way the charade scene is All About Him, gets the colour of Jane's eyes wrong during a Romantic Moment, and cross-dresses in a fashion that varies from dodgy to laughable but does not include attractive. (Unlike Ms Snowe when she's playing Ginevra Fanshawe's lover.)

Oi, angevin2, add eye_of_a_cat to your friends list so that you can rejoice and despair over student delights together. You'll get on, I promise.

[leenah.livejournal.com]

oh, i love The Professor!

sigh. Brontes. it's my thing.



and it is TOO LATE for me, as i have had *litigation* class and red wine.

:)


(and, fyi, NO salivating over heathcliff. not here.)

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

GOOD. Anyone who salivates over Heathcliff immediately gets put on the At Risk register as far as relationships are concerned.

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

I remember back when I was teaching Wide Sargasso Sea and the students were getting all 'how dare she say that about Rochester the main is a saint' that me and J joked about setting up an Isabella Linton Intervention Centre for anyone a little too willing to overlook the flaws of various literary characters...