OFF THE BOOK – BEYOND FICTION’S BRONTË EDITION: A SEASON’S FINALE

Last but not least
The Brontë Edition of our beloved ground-breaking radio show put the icing to the cake: it was the third and last edition of the first season (on select British classics.) Recorded somewhat later than expected, but carried out in a great way, it made both hosts become rather melancholy, like it always happens at the end of an era. This didn’t, however, prevent their packing the edition with fun comments and hilarious moments, not forgetting their comprehensive analyses based on their own experience of the books dealt with as well as on some articles and fun facts found throughout the vast virtual sea.

Why the Brontë sisters?
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the Brontë sisters are part of the corpus of British classics. In addition, they are three of the most popular authors of that corpus. There are lots of people who have read the original novel, a faithful translation or a kids edition (in whatever the language) and learnt to enjoy the stories, get inspired (or even shocked by them) and relate them to some aspect of themselves – which is the ultimate goal of classics. Both Dee-Dee and Freddie are part of that massive group of people – which is not really surprising – and felt that the Brontës could not be overlooked.
As it always is with literature, this didn’t mean that we (the hosts, that is) loved all the works by the Brontës. But as it also always is with literature, including them in (and reading them for) the show helped wipe out some prejudices that we had as regards them.

Before
“Off The Book – Beyond Fiction” had already included some debates on Brontean novels in its first edition, where Dee and Fred compared and contrasted some of them with Jane Austen’s novels.
However, the analysis made there of novels like “Jane Eyre” was not deep enough and we thought it appropriate to prepare a full show dedicated to these enchanting Yorkshire women.
The corpus we chose to work from was, as usual, their well-known books as well as passages of letters they wrote, articles discussing their works, films and TV-series based on the novels and in fact everything we could find and deemed interesting to bring up.
As I said before, we didn’t like ALL of the Brontës pieces on equal grounds. In addition, the time factor was challenging. So once more we needed to divide the corpus and be some kind of a foil for each other. But I think that this way the result is much richer. If we read each and every novel, tried to get info on them and supporting material and so on in only a month, the quality of the show would have been shallow and poor.


Hosts playing Heatchliff and Cathy
from "Wuthering Heights," by E. Brontë

During
As with the other two editions, we did enjoy a lot the making of this one. We found ourselves far more relaxed and cheerful, which I think reflects on the final cut. Let me tell that “Jane Eyre” is one of my favorite novels. So, in addition to relaxation and cheerfulness, I had extra excitement to do this edition in sight of that fact.
Perhaps you may wonder what we do between sections. Well, the answer is: take a while to chat a little, plan what we’re going to talk about next, take some photographs which will illustrate the edition. That’s basically it. As you can see, we’re having fun throughout and that’s what we want you to grasp: we’re not intending to be just another literature lesson. We experience literature at our own pace and want you to do so too.

After
I think I should speak not just about the “after” of this edition, but of the first season as well.
As for the edition, I can say that it was kind of exorcizing personally: it helped me forgive Emily’s “Wuthering Heights.” I was rather shocked by its constant violence and wildly passionate nature, and read it almost laughing at it for being so exaggerated. But the show was somehow a re-reading of this novel for me. I saw that even though the story may be somewhat awkward, the narrative technique was something brand-new at the time the novel was written. With that in mind, I’ve come to appreciate Emily more than I did. As for Charlotte and Anne, the show helped me increase my admiration and love for them and, of course, find new things in them too.
Now let me plunge into the show itself, as we are coming to an end and I feel reflections and reviews are mandatory.
I like to define “Off The Book – Beyond Fiction” as “a sample of how much fun literature can be.” Literature is all about discovering new visions and broadening our minds, and people –especially youngsters- miss this entire fantastic world just because they don’t read at all. Nowadays literature is thought to be dull, long, tedious and stupid by many. This is much more so when the piece features long sentences and complex structures and piles of adjectives. This can be emphasized when they have to read compulsorily. Now, wouldn’t it be better to come to terms and try to enjoy what we are reading? That’s one of the spin-offs, I think, of our lovely little radio show. If we can manage to make literature a little bit more comfortable, it will always be welcome.



I loved the process of our first season, and am eager waiting for the new one to begin. American authors: here we come!!!

Comentarios

  1. Hahaha excellent review! of course it's not for me to judge, but I think that you, from your own point of view, grasped exactly what the essence of the project has come to be. It was half built beforehand, and half improvised... Chance and Fact meet in OTB like they were destined to meet. And of course I agree with your definition of our programme: a sample of how much fun literature can be. Indeed, literature IS fun!

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