At anyrate, that was to be the goal. Until I got to Jane Eyre and I realized I know about a good solid nothing about this novel other than who the author is.
Thanks to free two day shipping through Amazon Prime (plug!) I've had the book for about a week now. I've perused the first few pages of my Penguin Classic edition to find a timeline of the author's life (girl was allergic to marriage, man. It took her 40 years and some change to finally get married. She then died within the year.) and some "academic" writings about Jane Eyre.
Now, I'm an open minded guy. If I wasn't I wouldn't have even started with Pride and Prejudice which is forever vindicated in my opinions. My open mindedness ends when we come to most academic essays on books.
I remember being in an Intro to Lit. class many years ago, and our teacher was fixated on this one particular short story. It was something to do with a murder (?) and one of the guys standing around, the author mentions, was wearing a Hawaiian style shirt with a pattern of blue macaws all over it. Here I am, a freshman in college, and this teacher, a supposedly learned and respected individual, spends two days (no joke) trying to get us to figure out why the writer has this practically nameless character wearing a blue macaw shirt. We all looked at her like she was freaking crazy. Why? Because she was freaking crazy. "There HAS to be a deeper meaning, you guys. Come on! Writers don't just put this stuff in there for no reason. Open your minds! What does it mean!"
I am a writer. I can honestly tell you, we just put things in there for no reason. Why does Simon have messy red hair in my novel The Reliquary? BECAUSE! It's something I saw in my head and I put it in. Why does Cassie switch decades of attire every day? Cause I thought it would be fun to know someone who does that. No...Deeper...Meaning...
Why do I bring this up? Well, because mine eyes didst chance upon the academic essays that made up the introduction of Jane Eyre and it raised my blood to a rolling boil. Apparently there's a part where someone sings a song with the refrain "Poor Orphan Child" and they talk about how the writer is using that as symbolic foreshadowing for when the girl will grow up and find herself alone on the moor.
(imagine the following in my Angry Comic Voice)
Or maybe it's because the main character is a FREAKING ORPHAN!!!
Jonathan Safran Foer was in town a few years ago when his book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was our "One City One Book" and he came and did a Q and A to cover the book. One of the first questions was "What is the deeper meaning behind why the man character wears only white clothing." He chuckled a bit and said, "Are you serious?" The person said they were completely serious. Foer then turned to the crowd and asked who else had the same question. Pretty much everyone raised their hands. His reply was quite simple. "What did I tell you was his greatest fear? Nuclear annihilation. And what did I tell you in the first few pages that he learned survived untouched in a nuclear attack? Anything white." I've since read academic articles (well, skimmed before I angrily closed the link) that say there is a MUCH deeper meaning despite the author's protest to the contrary. He bloody TOLD everyone and they don't care.
I swear, so many academics with residencies should do the world a favor and perish rather than publish. I've done my own amount of Lit Analysis, but I always left in the realm of "This was going on in their life around the time of the writing which may inform why this feeling and word choice is used here." That makes complete sense to me. And often times I do find that my issues and childhood remembrances of objects, people and places populate my works, but I'm not playing some sort of peekaboo scavenger hunt with my readers. Gah! @)#U@)#($*@#$
Maybe I should have done this on camera...it might have been entertaining. If you ever meet me and want to start a conversation that would be longer than you enjoy (and consequently might make an embolism burst in my brain) bring up academic lit analysis. Or why I think Episode III is the worst of all Star Wars episodes. I'll watch Jar Jar on endless repeat before I watch Episode III again willingly.
I thoroughly look forward to reading through this monster of a book. It's huge and intimidating casting it's baleful glare at me from my nightstand... I better go cover it up or I won't get any sleep.
Pax,
W
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