#black spring

[kazz-brekker]

Some Wuthering Heights Retellings I Recommend, For No Particular Reason

Black Spring by Alison Croggon

A version set in a fantasy world with witches and ancient cycles of vengeance.

Lina, the witch daughter of a village lord, becomes fiercely devoted to her father's ward, Damek, but their circumstances of life threaten to tear them apart.

Very accurate retelling of the story and one of the only versions I've encountered to keep the series of nested narrators.

Really digs into the cycle of vengeance aspect of the story by making it a part of the world-building where characters are bound by tradition to avenge wrongs done to their family.

A great book to read for anyone who thinks Cathy Earnshaw deserved to have a telepathic fit and hurl objects at horrible men with her mind.

What Souls Are Made Of by Tasha Suri

A young adult retelling that imagines both Cathy and Heathcliff as being of British Indian descent.

Really digs into the history of the British Empire and colonialism, but also the communities of people of color that lived in 18th century England and the solidarity between them.

Interesting exploration of Cathy being able to pass for white and Heathcliff not being able to.

This book does some stuff with ghosts and forgetting your family history and birth language that I still think about on occasion.

Does an interesting job filling in the time skip of several years and what Cathy and Heathcliff were up to.

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

A retelling where Cathy and Heathcliff a pair of wildly successful but extremely dysfunctional ice dancers.

Believe it or not, the interpersonal drama of Wuthering Heights actually translates extremely well to Olympic sports.

Has a cool mixed-media format that intersperses excerpts of a fake documentary about the rise and fall of Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha within the narrative.

Especially recommended to anyone currently really enjoying the figure skating and ice dance at the Winter Olympics.

Some really fun descriptions of ice dance routines, and has a flawed but ambitious female lead I was rooting for.

Wuthering Heights (2011) dir. Andrea Arnold

Starring Kaya Scodelario as Cathy and James Howson as Heathcliff.

Notable for being the only movie I'm aware of to actually cast an actor of color as Heathcliff.

A very sparse adaptation, with stripped-down dialogue and almost no soundtrack, but beautiful cinematography and a lot of time set on the moors.

This version does a really good of cementing the bond between the characters, especially when they're children, so you really believe in the intensity of their devotion.

Has a very strong sense of place which I think is important to the story.

Wise Children's Wuthering Heights dir. Emma Rice

A stage adaptation of the book, with a filmed version currently available to watch for free on PBS (in the USA, at least) until 9/26.

Actually adapts the full story of the book across two acts, and does so very well.

Kind of a musical (Cathy has an angry rock ballad, among other musical numbers), with the occasional puppet, cool staging details especially the transitions between indoors and outdoors, and some clever cross-casting.

Is able to really dig into the themes of cycles of vengeance and generational trauma by adapting the whole story.

Also casts a Black actor as Heathcliff.

[lordofmusicvideo]

Here's Lush performing "Nothing Natural" from their 1991 EP Black Spring.

[thirdity]

For me the book is the man and my book is the man I am, the confused man, the negligent man, the reckless man, the lusty, obscene, boisterous, thoughtful, scrupulous, lying, diabolically truthful man that I am.

Henry Miller, Black Spring

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

Record Label History: 4AD Records (BAD 1016)

Lush

Black Spring (1991)

[sacredwhores]

"Every living man is a museum that houses the horrors of the race. Each man adds a new wing to the museum."

Henry Miller, Black Spring

[libraryleopard]

29 - Where the Heights Are Wuther and the Love is Gritty | Never the Twins Shall Meet

This episode, we’re taking a turn into the classics by reviewing two retellings of Emily Brontë’s gothic novel Wuthering Heights: Black Spri

in light of the horrible wuthering heights film news, i am reposting this podcast episode in which my sister and i discuss two actually interesting retellings of wuthering heights, black spring by alison croggon and what souls are made of by tasha, and how retellings engage with the themes of racism and cycles of abuse present in the original novel.

[walterkov]

Черная весна / Black Spring (2022-...) ►

[maslimanny]

I have a theory that the moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. I have tried this experiment a thousand times and I have never been disappointed. The more I look at a thing, the more I see in it, and the more I see in it, the more I want to see. It is like peeling an onion. There is always another layer, and another, and another. And each layer is more beautiful than the last.

This is the way I look at the world. I don't see it as a collection of objects, but as a vast and mysterious organism. I see the beauty in the smallest things, and I find wonder in the most ordinary events. I am always looking for the hidden meaning, the secret message. I am always trying to understand the mystery of life.

I know that I will never understand everything, but that doesn't stop me from trying. I am content to live in the mystery, to be surrounded by the unknown. I am content to be a seeker, a pilgrim, a traveler on the road to nowhere...!!