- I have to say, even on a simple design and aesthetic level, I pretty much hate this new Twilight-inspired cover for Wuthering Heights. And that’s even before you throw in all the kind of sad cross-marketing with Stephanie Meyer’s books — which, as near as I understand these things, are pretty bad:
Quite what Emily Brontë would make of it all is anyone’s guess, although she would probably be quite gratified to actually have her name on the latest editions of Wuthering Heights – like her sisters, in her early career she adopted a male-sounding name, Ellis Bell, to overcome the prejudice against women writers. There’s a fair chance, though, that she might be spinning in her grave at the thought that her work is best marketed with the intimation that it is a pale imitation of Stephenie Meyer. And that’s not a course of action which is to be encouraged, given the latest publishing fad for mashing up classic texts, re-inventing them as gory horror stories, and flogging them to the Twilight generation.
I must add, however, that I have no great fondness for Wuthering Heights, which I quit reading about halfway through. Like Jessa Crispin, I worry about young girls swooning over Heathcliff just about as much as over Edward. These are not exactly healthy relationships, ladies.
- I liked Eat Pray Love both more and less than I expected to. It’s often wildly self-indulgent, whiny, and desperate in its new-agey-ness, but those are all complaints the book levels against itself throughout, and it’s often incredibly engaging, so… But honestly, I don’t know if I’m up for a sequel.
- I can’t say I agree with all of Quentin Tarrantino’s picks for top 20 films (since 1992) — I think Unbreakable is underrated, and arguably Shyamalan’s best movie, but masterpiece of our time? Not hardly — but he thinks intelligently and not at all pretentiously about movies. Here’s a man just madly in love with the medium, warts and all. (Also a man, if I’m not mistaken, physically morphing into Charles Nelson Reilly.) [via]
- Every time I read an interview with director Eli Roth, I feel like I’m getting one step closer to breaking down and finally watching Hostel. The movies he makes don’t really appeal to me, at least on the immediate and visceral level, but he speaks passionately and intelligently about them and the genre.
- And finally, via Gerry Canavan comes this (I wish) surprising statistic: 62% of Republicans say the government should stay out of Medicare. Which really does “[illustrate] the profound levels of ignorance that currently interfere with the debate over health care…”
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I actually liked “Wuthering Heights” and I don’t mind the new cover/cross-marketing either. As long as it doesn’t change what’s actually between the covers, anything that gets more youngsters reading things with a little more lasting significance than, well, “Twilight” is a good thing. Maybe reading something written in the 19th century will get them to stretch their language skills a bit, and also lead them to other things like “Jane Eyre” or “Pride and Prejudice.” Whatever works, just as long as they’re not getting dumbed-down versions of the originals.
I suppose we all hope that young women who read Twilight will move on to pick up the zombiefied Jane Austen or the prettied up ‘Wuthering Heights,’ but in reality, I have to say that I doubt they will. I suspect they’d happily read a book with vampires loosely based on ‘Wuthering Heights,’ though.