I'm coming back love, cruel Heathcliff (Kate Bush)

Olivier as Heathcliff (1939)

Wie geht's?

Having now finished Emily Brontë's novel, I'm a tad stunned at how much I'd misinterpreted the novel in my imagination.

Summed up by - what an evil bastard Heathcliff was, opposed to the poor doomed figure I'd always believed him to be. Olivier's body language is spot on, by the way.

Heathcliff really is a nasty, vindicative, vengeful, megalomaniac figure. Cathy has him summed up when she describes Heathcliff's character to the tragically naive Isabella Linton.

During morning tea at school the other day, when I mentioned I was reading Wuthering Heights for the first time, there were a couple of incredulous - really?? reactions.

But there must be heaps of 'classic' novels that people haven't read, right?

I suspect many people fudge it and say they've read Dickens, Austen, Moby Dick, Don Quixote, Hawthorne, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Shakespeare, Ronald Hugh Morrieson, Steinbeck, Frank Sargeson, Orwell, Katherine Mansfield, and so on. But in reality, maybe they watched a film version, or a condensed version or something.

For what it's worth, thanks to my interest in literature, I've read all of the above over the years, and yet I'm continuing to play catch up, such as Wuthering Heights.

Sitting in the heavy hitters' reading pile: Steinbeck, Dickens, Emerson, and Murakami.

Next up on the reading pile is a lighter one though: Anne Tyler's Celestial Navigation (she's always brilliant) and then maybe Ian McEwan's Sweet Tooth before tackling another biggie. I find McEwan a little hit or miss, so we'll see.

Love and peace - Wozza 

Time flies like an arrow but fruit flies like an apple

Wie geht's?

The secondary school I attended from 1971 to 1976 - Mount Albert Grammar School (MAGS), is having its centenary celebrations this year.

I was a student during the 50th anniversary in 1972, and a staff member during the 75th anniversary in 1997 (when that photo above was taken).

Twenty years before joining the staff as Head of English and Senior Housemaster I was to be found far right on the end of row three in 7 Wareing. 

Now, in the blink of an eye, it's 2022, 46 years after I left school as a student/ 22 years after I left the staff, and the 100th has rolled around.  

Celebrations are planned for September and I'm keen to go to something to mark the occasion. Would be good to catch up with a few old boys from my time as a staffer and a student.

Love and peace - Wozza

Ramble on and now's the time, the time is now (Led Zeppelin)

Photo by Daniel Mingook Kim on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

In pensive mood, I often find myself reading the excerpt by Michel de Montaigne that I've highlighted on the right-hand column. 

Up to this point I thought that summed up the whole purpose of writing posts for the weblog pretty well. Then I came across this quote from Arthur Miller (courtesy of Swiss Miss) and he appears to be riffing off that same idea: 

“I’m a writer, and everything I write is both a confession and a struggle to understand things about myself and this world in which I live. This is what everyone’s work should be…whether you dance or paint or sing. It is a confession, a baring of your soul, your faults, those things you simply cannot or will not understand or accept. You stumble forward, confused, and you share. If you’re lucky, you learn something.”

– Arthur Miller

I can definitely relate to 'you stumble forward, confused, and you share. If you’re lucky, you learn something.'

Seems to me that both excerpts sum up a weblog pretty blimin' succinctly. I'll be adding that below the Montaigne in due course.

Love and peace - Wozza

Out on the wily, windy moors we'd roll and fall in green (Kate Bush)

Emily Jane Brontë

Wie geht's?

This one's about Wuthering Heights. The novel by Emily Brontë. You may have heard of it.

Why is this one about Wuthering Heights?

Well - because of my ignorance. That's why?

You want details?

Okay. Sure. Read on!

An amigo recently suggested the Kate Bush song of the same name for one of our Spotify playlists. I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me a while to realise that it wasn't based on a Jane Austen novel, but Brontë's. Secondly, and this is in some ways even worse - I realised I'd, shock horror, never read the novel.

Sharp intake of breath.

Unlike Austen's novels, it had never been presented to me for reading at school or during my university years and I'd never taught it. Hence, never read it.

Plus, the subject matter had never interested me - a tragic love story from 1847? No thanks.

Ignorance upon ignorance upon ignorance!

That needed rectifying. So, I bought a copy from The Little Red Bookshop.

And I'm hooked. It's magnificent.

I have also realised something from reading it. I wasn't ready for this story until this precise moment. The book, the story has chosen me - right now, right here.

It's her only novel as she died young, aged 30, from TB, yet this novel, published the year before she died, is utterly captivating in 2022.

It makes sense to me and I'm glad I didn't read it in my youth - I wouldn't have enjoyed/understood it without my life experiences to this point, which have included living in England on a few occasions.

Although she died young, she lives on in Wuthering Heights for generations to come.

Love and peace - Wozza

I take my chances every chance I get (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

Wie geht's?

Maple Grove is well named. This might just be my favourite tree on the property. Especially dressed in its autumn cloak.

By the way, I normally like the maple leaves to drop naturally, as you know, but Jacky got a leaf blower recently and I couldn't resist a play yesterday.

This is the view from where I eat breakfast every morning (habit). I can't see outside Monday to Friday, but when the weekend comes...

Love and peace - Wozza

Bright light city gonna set my soul on fire (Elvis)

Wie geht's?

I may have mentioned this before, forgive me, but I have a cool staff noticeboard at school (in the staff room) that has many fun things on it that I've collected over the years.

One such item is a page from the Happiness Project (thanks to colleague Lise Hughes for that one).

In it, the author lists her Secrets Of Adulthood.

One of which is: Nothing Stays in Vegas.

This is an allusion to a phrase - what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

The Nothing Stays in Vegas bit I take to mean - you have to be responsible for your actions and forget trying to hide stuff you've done wrong - it always comes out. Cover ups don't work.

This coincides with a phrase on another section of this noticeboard (Rules for rising to the top): Never hide an elephant. 

Basically, if you make a mistake - own it, because Nothing Stays in Vegas.

I have found these 'rules' or 'secrets' useful. In essence, they mean - be honest. Own your mistakes (another 'secret' is - The things that go wrong often make the best memories).

Last night's dinner wasn't very memorable and we found ourselves remembering (with a laugh) a terrible dinner we had in the Middle East at a mall. 

Our hot water system packed up on the weekend so we have been managing without it until a new one is installed. That reminded us of when we lived in China and our pipes froze solid during winter and we had to boil water to bathe in.

Perspective is good.

And remember: Nothing stays in Vegas!

Love and peace - Wozza