Ardeur- for free!

[naeko]

Awhile ago- I have no idea when, and I'm too lazy to double-check- I entered in Smart Pop's comment raffle to win a copy of the essay book on the Anita Blake series. A feather could have knocked me down when I got the email saying I had WON

Comments

[acrimonyastraea]

while Bertha and Britney failed at life, Anita is a strong, stand-up women that gets her groove on and takes no names. i>

...and English professors everywhere weep. Dear Ms Swain, please be reading on the racial politics of Jane Eyre and Bertha. See also, Madwoman in the Attic.

Anita and masochism

[world_dancer]

See also masochism and beater/beaten scenarios.

This is definitely an indication of mental problems on the part of the essay author if she's trying to approve the violence.

Re: Anita and masochism

[acrimonyastraea]

Yeah, that sounds really messed up.

[naeko]

Yeah, I wasn't really sure what she was trying to convey with even bringing Bertha up. Like I said, I haven't read Jane Eyre, but the way that Swain talked was very confusing. It took an arc of, "Bertha was a Creole woman who seduced Rochester, but went insane when she was brought back to the States. Oh, but she wasn't really crazy! Edward was just a douche who locked her up! She smashed Jane's veil- Jane was all over her man, after all- but she wasn't crazy! She was just like Anita! Now picture Anita in Jane's place beating up this woman who just escaped imprisonment by her husband!"

As to Britney, she did start to head into making a point by stating that Britney was originally pressed into the role of Southern Virgin by her agent/manager/handlers, but that she went the opposite way to rebel. That makes sense, but then Swain goes on to pretty much list all of Britney's faults, call her a horrible mother and then say she's crashed and burned (along with Bertha), while Anita is still going strong and has beaten the odds.

[acrimonyastraea]

I kind of want to read the essay now just because it sounds so bad. And full of the kind of faux-feminism that's actually sexist that LKH follows.

[othellia]

Apparently the essay writer missed the part where Bertha stabbed/bit off a chunk of her brother's arm, burned down Thornfield, and committed suicide by jumping off the roof.

[suzycat]

Thereby BLINDING Rochester and making him lose his hand!

[othellia]

To give her credit, he does start to get the sight back in one eye after several years have passed. And there are some adaptations where he doesn't lose his hand.

But yeah.

[suzycat]

The STATES?

oops! correction: not the states

[naeko]

Oops! I hadn't even realized I wrote that. The essay doesn't say that at all, so I don't know where I got it. Then again, this is the essay that made me feel violated by run-on sentences, so maybe my brain just got confused because of that.

The run-on from the essay itself:
This is in stark contrast to Rochester's wife Bertha- his brown sugar mama, who beguiled him with her seductive Creole charm then became a raving lunatic when he brought her back from Jamaica to the civilized world of merry old England where women were expected to submissively devote themselves to their husband's every need.

Re: oops! correction: not the states

[suzycat]

Dammit, that would have been lolarious.

This woman hasn't read Jane Eyre, has she? The women in JE are pretty much without exception Head Bitches In Charge IIRC. Jane, who disapproves roundly of the lot of them, is more of the Mild Sensible Helpmeet than any of the other women characters. (Literally puts out the flames ignited by Bertha in Rochester's bed. I mean, come on.)

Re: oops! correction: not the states

[icecreamempress]

It actually seems like she's confusing Jane Eyre!Bertha with Wide Sargasso Sea!Bertha.

Re: oops! correction: not the states

[electricpower]

...Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Bertha a white woman? I haven't read Jane Eyre either, but in Wide Sargasso Sea it's specifically stated she's white.