JANE EYRE BOOK CLUB…PART TWO! Thank you everyone, for your thoughts and comme…

JANE EYRE BOOK CLUB…PART TWO!

Thank you everyone, for your thoughts and comments so far about Jane. I wanted to introduce the question of AN ORPHAN'S RESILIENCE. Where does Jane's fortitude come from? The girl starts out with nothing in life — no family, no friend, no beauty, no wealth…with none of the currencies that generally give a person status. And yet she somehow armpit-deep in self-assurance and power. Born that way? Formed that way?

Is she strong because she is an orphan? Or despite it?

And can we talk specifically for a minute about the rich literary history of being an orphan? Have you ever noticed how many of our favorite literary characters are orphans? Let me list just a few of literature's most famous motherless children:

Oliver Twist
David Copperfield
Dorothy Gale
Annie
Harry Potter
Anne Shirley
Heidi
Huck Finn
Tom Sawyer
Tarzan
Mowgli
Pippi (well, she has a VERY absentee/drunk dad, but still…)
Peter Pan
The Boxcar Children
Madeline
Cinderella
Snow White
Sarah Crewe (from Secret Garden)
The kids in Narnia (de facto orphans: no mom around)
Frodo Baggins
James (of the Giant Peach)
…and, of course, our own JANE EYRE.

And there are more still. (Anyone who can think of another, do feel free to add to the list!)

Why is this? What attracts us about orphan tales? We know what orphans lack, but what do they HAVE? What is their advantage, their strength, their allure? Why do we keep telling this story again and again?

Could Jane Eyre have been Jane Eyre within the context of a solid nuclear family?

What does her resilience teach us about our own often less-than-ideal childhoods?

Discuss! I am listening with attentive eyes!

xo
LIZ

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

JANE EYRE BOOK CLUB…PART ONE! Dear ones, the great day has arrived. It is t…

JANE EYRE BOOK CLUB…PART ONE!

Dear ones, the great day has arrived.

It is time to discuss Jane Eyre.

I shall begin, and then — please! — jump in, everyone! Respond to me, respond to each other, respond to critics, respond to anything you like. I will try to post another comment every hour to keep the conversation going. I can't wait to read everyone's thoughts…

LET'S GO!

Let's start by discussing the character of Jane herself…

I would first like to say that I offer my apologies to Ms. Charlotte Brontë for never having read her quite wild and galloping novel, and for having somehow decided it was not worth reading because it would be moralizing, dull and simpering. Which means that I thought Jane herself was moralizing, dull and simpering. (Somehow I had conflated her in my mind with "The Little Match Girl." How? I have no idea.) I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE MISTAKEN.

Jane Eyre is a remarkable creation. She is not quite like any other literary heroine I have ever encountered. There is a beautiful and twisted strangeness about her, and I am absolutely with Mr. Rochester when he asks, late in the book, "You are altogether a human being, Jane? You are certain of that?" The question is worth asking, because she is so very unusual, so difficult to pin down. I found from the start that Jane had a odd, kinky, dark, unsettling vibe about her. She's "good", I suppose, but her goodness is cloaked in a prickly, stubborn, combative and almost aggressive personality — and I LOVED it.

I would not call her humble, no matter what her upbringing. I felt that Jane was always well aware of her special existence, aware that she was sort of better than everyone else — stronger, keener, brighter, tougher, worthy in some indefinable way. This is why she gets to tell her own story — because she herself feels intensely that her own story has value. Her circumstances may have been dreadful, but she still manages to hold herself in the highest regard. It's not arrogance, exactly but it's DEEP self-assuradness, which can sometimes feel almost spooky, coming from somebody so ignored and overlooked and (in society's eyes) so disposable. She will NOT be disposed of. She refuses to be overlooked.

She keeps describing herself as small and plain, but I had trouble believing that she really thinks of herself (in spirit, at least) as either tiny or insignificant. (I also don't think she minds her looks. I think she likes her smallness and plainness, as it is wonderful disguise for her electric and vibrant mind; she can be underestimated, and then make her play, without anyone seeing her coming.)

Even in her earliest and most abused childhood, there is nothing of the victim about Jane. Even as the Reed family is abusing her, she's thinking that they basically suck and thus she holds them in utter contempt. She is more contemptuous of them than she is fearful of them. (They can smell it, too — her contempt — and it only makes them hate her more. You can almost feel sorry for them. I would not like to be on the receiving end of Jane Eyre's diamond-hard disdain!) She knows she's better than the treatment she gets in her early years at Lowood, and doesn't rest until, indeed, she IS treated better. Later on in the novel, she knows she's better than the ridiculous society ladies who come to Thornwood and flirt with Rochester. (She's jealous of the attention Rochester gives to Miss Ingram, yes, but she still thinks Miss Ingram is basically a loser.)

Verbally Jane is adept at throwing conversational darts with unbelievable precision, even as a child. When she says that she prefers "rudeness to flattery", I don't think it's because of some deep Christian humility or fear of praise; I think it's because rudeness is way more interesting, and she would rather play rough than have dull, canned conversation. This is why she digs Rochester — because he's never boring, and she can go nine rounds with him verbally, in a way she cannot with anyone else. In the absence of interesting engagement, she remains silent — not because she is shy or retiring, but because she would rather say nothing than engage in boring conversation….just as she would rather marry a weird-ass, emotionally and physically damaged passionate man than marry a perfectly respectable, classically handsome, and utterly dry missionary.

Jane demands an interesting life, thus she gets one.

Good for you, Jane Eyre.

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF HER.

Tell me why you love her — if, indeed, you do love her.

Tell me how you see her.

Let us begin!

xo
Liz

.

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

POEM OF THE DAY: “Sweet Darkness”, by David Whyte. A friend of this page named…

POEM OF THE DAY: "Sweet Darkness", by David Whyte.

A friend of this page named Lois reminded me yesterday of this poem, which I once loved much and have not thought about in years. I thought I would share it with you all today.

Please pay close attention to these final extraordinary lines:

"Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you."

Commit that idea to memory, dear ones.

Love,
Liz

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

JANE EYRE DAY IS TOMORROW!!! My dear, sweet, fellow readers — The day is n…

JANE EYRE DAY IS TOMORROW!!!

My dear, sweet, fellow readers —

The day is nearly upon us. Tomorrow, Saturday June 8th, we shall spend the whole of the day discussing the mutually-read (and widely loved) novel "Jane Eyre".

The book club will begin as soon as I wake up.

It will go on for many, many hours. I don't know how many. But many. We'll see how long we can keep it going. It'll be a Brontë-thon!

I shall begin posting questions and notions about Jane Eyre as soon as I rise, and I look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts, so that we can all respond to one another throughout the day. I'll try to post a new thought or question or response every hour. Together — with delight and respect and, yes, a bit of fun — we shall take apart this weird and wild book.

You may all jump in and out of the discussion at any time.

And yes, you may join us even if you have never read it, or have only seen movie versions. Because we are not strict and cruel Miss Scratcherds here…no, we are not! We are Miss Temples, all of us. Thus, everyone is welcome.

HUZZAH!

See you back here tomorrow, my fellow Jane-i-acs!

Cordially yours,
Ëlizabëth Gilbërt

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall