Friday 16 September 2011

It's me, I'm...

I've slept walked through most of this week, or rather through the parts where I should have been writing and to keep myself awake today (because I'm fed up of snoozing) I've been singing along to You Tube and my newly painted walls and ceiling haven't cracked yet. Although I might have. Anyhow, that led me to this video....








...and to remembering that although Wuthering Heights wasn't the first book I fell in love with (Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree was probably my first) it was the first book where I fell in love with sentences and words and characters and the first where I bookmarked passages to read over and over because they were so beautiful... Okay, maybe not the first character I fell in love with because I was rather partial to MoonFace.

"...heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out, into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy. That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other. I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff, now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire."

"If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it."

It also thrilled my teen-heart that the heroine (is Catherine Earnshaw a heroine?) was a Cathy. Perhaps I would have fallen in love with Mr Rochester instead if I was a Jane.

8 comments:

Simon said...

And the song is sung by a Kate, too. Sigh... that's the first music video I remember. Along with the one for 'Bright Eyes' by Art Garfunkel.

Hope you're now perked up and awake and ready to write more wonderful stories.

Verification word: pretalor. Which sounds rather cool somehow. I'm sure you could do something with that :)

Deborah Walker said...

Checklist:

Kate Bush-- tick.
The Faraway Tree-- tick
Wuthering Heights-- tick

Are you sure you're not my doppleganger?

Cate Gardner said...

I'm ready to write, Simon. Well maybe just after I've snoozed.

Maybe, Deborah.

Simon Kewin said...

Ah, such a wonderful video. And song. And book, of course.

Anthony Rapino said...

Are you still snoozing? The cool weather has gotten me all fuzzy 'round the edges.

Cate Gardner said...

It is, Simon

Unfortunately yes, Anthony.

Katey said...

Unf. It's time for a re-read, I'm thinking. There is NOTHING like a book that does, well, this to you. It's been too long for me and Cathy.

(I loved Mr. Rochester more, though. You Catherines with a C!)

Cate Gardner said...

Catherine's with a C are vain creatures, Katey with a K.