The Squeee

So yeah. These are some badges I quickly put together, so they're not brilliant. And none of the Fassbender ones turned out great. :/ But yeah, feel free to use, download, display on blogs, and so on. Might do some more (and might turn these into animated gifs), but of a different style, as in not looking anything like these ones, and of other sizes as well (suggestions?). If anyone's out there with actual photoshopping skills who'd want to make the Team Rochester community some goodies, that would be even better! :) Anyway, got two of each, aside from '34 and '49 (but the less said about them the better ...) and the two most recent ones - as the two most recent productions are the ones with the biggest amount of photos floating about. I've included every Rochester actor I could think of*, in character, so in reverse chronological order:

The Awl has posted a list of 111 Male Characters Of British Literature, In Order Of Bangability . (Thanks for posting about it in the forum, rhubarbsmom!) First of all, let's correct the image they use to illustrate the article, as they've chosen number THREE on the list as opposed to number one. Can't have that now, can we? There we go. MUCH better. Order is restored. Ta-daaaah!! Mr. Rochester of Jane Eyre made number one! :D Congratulations on your impeccable taste, Carrie Frye! Of course he is the most bangable character in British literature. Here are some reflections on selected parts of the rest of the list:

We interrupt the regular broadcast of FanstRAvaganza 2 in order to have a rant about some mucking fuppets I just came across online and want to scream about for a bit. If you're the sort of person whose religious prejudices get in the way of, oh I dunno, education , you should really give this post a miss, or you're likely to be tremendously offended. Don't say I didn't warn you. The first one, Jane Eyre: Oblivious or Needy? tries to make some kind of point of Jane being oblivious for not realising there was something shady going on at Thornefield. "No one can be that oblivious" it says, and also goes on to claim that Jane was needy for ... St. John wanting to marry her? Does not compute? How can Jane be blamed for being needy when it's not as if she encouraged St. John's attentions and in fact, when he asked her to marry him, she flat out refused? If she was needy, surely she would have accepted his proposal and ignored his jibe about her being ma...

Originally posted 3 April 2010 on a different blog. Another hand-written draft. This was written shortly after having watched some of the 2006 adaptation, so I felt as if Rochester's voice was coming through loud and clear for the first time, because it was as if I could hear him speak, telling his story, and me being there to write it down. It was rather pleasurable, really. :) And yes, it's back to first person, because it felt like the most natural way to write Rochester. I suppose I should tell you of how I came in possession of the litthe French girl, but in order to do so, I must first introduce her mother. Céline Varens, a danseuse at the Paris opera, where I happened to be taking in a fine performance one night. It was the day before New Year's Eve, the event spectacular, yet I can no longer recall the subject of the performance. There was this young woman among the dancers - everything so perfect, just what I was after. Her dark eyes mesmerised me; I could no...

Originally posted 3 April 2010 on a different blog. (Another handwritten draft, but this time, I've corrected a couple of places where I had left out some words. Here, I'm trying out a third-person narrative. Which didn't feel quite right either, as it happens...) Black like night the birds in the nests on top of the roof of Thornfield Hall. They had been told many times they were not allowed up there, but when you're an invincible youth, you don't always heed warnings from those of superior age. A boy appeared through the hatch from the attics below, his hair as black as the rooks in their nests.    "Come on, Edward! You're not scared are you?"    From below, the voice of a younger boy was heard: "Mamma said we were not to go up there. You should come down."    "Mamma is in Millcote all day, she will never find out. Unless you tell her. If you keep quiet, all will be well. Do you not wish to see the view from up here? All this ...

Originally posted 25 January 2010 on a different blog. Wow, that header sounds like a 50s/60s band! :) Work has begun on a second scene, set in Edward Rochester's childhood, where we get to meet not only him but also his older brother Rowland. From what I can tell, there's no names given for their parents, nor does it say what the age difference between the brothers is, or indeed what Rowland eventually died of. This means, I suppose, I'm at liberty to make these things up as I go along, which is both exciting and scary. I want to be following Charlotte Brontë's original text as closely as possible, so if I do come across a reference that actually mentions these things, I'll go by the book. Now, I don't think there are that many years between the boys. Doubt it's more than five. Haven't exactly decided on what, but on the other hand, I haven't even decided how old Edward is supposed to be in the scene, or exactly what happened, but I have an in...

Originally posted 25 January 2010 on a different blog. Edward is about 38 in the book, so that means he got married at 23, which I think explains a lot. He was still very young, and it explains why he was so quick to become besotted with Bertha Mason, even though he was never allowed to be on his own with her until they were married. He thought he was in love because she was so beautiful. It's a heavy burden to lay on a young person, forcing him to marry someone who it turns out is known to be insane, as insanity runs in the family. Do I think Edward was in the wrong for bringing Bertha to England? No, I think he was mistaken. To be perfectly honest, I think he should've dumped her back on Jamaica and gone back to England alone; however, I understand why he did it. He's not an awful person, he has a big heart, and even though he technically can't stand her, she is his wife, and as such, he feels obliged to take care of her. After all, they are married. Perhaps he se...

Originally posted 23 January 2010 on a different blog. I recently read that new writers often find third person narrative to be very difficult, because they are more accustomed to first person, and writing things from their own perspective rather than someone else's. While this might be true in some cases, perhaps a lot, it is not true for me. I struggle with it immensely. It's uncomfortable and weird. Most of the stories I have ever written, regardless of which age I was at the time, have been in third person, either in the mind of one character or switching between them, or omnipotent. This whole "I", "me" and "my" business feels unnatural, somehow. Not sure why. Okay, blogging and letters and that sort of thing I have no issue with writing in the first person (obviously), but stories are a problem. It doesn't flow as easily. There might be many reasons for it. First of all, I'm definitely more used to third person narratives, but eve...

Originally posted 23 January 2010 on a different blog. Handwritten draft, exactly as it was written on paper, so no corrections more than the ones on the paper itself. Just typing it down makes me want to change stuff around, add things, remove repetitions, and realise that there are a few instances of where the text gets rather confusing, or even goes to innuendo town...

Tonight, in an hour, the UK will pass from 2010 to 2011. Almost half the world is already there, in fact! I hope 2010 has treated you well, and even if it hasn't, I hope 2011 will be (even) better. :) Here's a quick re-cap of the year of The Squeee . The Squeee in 2010 - A year of unabashed fangirling January opened with the All About the Brontës Challenge , where I set to work straight away, listening to some old radio plays of Jane Eyre , watched the 1996 film adaptation of the same and finished reading Wuthering Heights for the very first time. I also wrote about my visit to Haddon Hall the year before, and had ideas on how you might be able to make sports interesting , because let's face it, it's not exactly all that interesting. I also discovered I was Marianne Dashwood , even though I don't really play the piano. February announced the first International Magic Day , the blog got itself a makeover, and we were being spoiled rotten by Mr. Armitage n...

BrontëBlog are reporting some very much awaited release dates for Jane Eyre 2011. Here's me thinking merrily that it'll have a release 11 March, or at least thereabouts. Wrong! In chronological order: 11 March 2011 - USA (limited) 7 April 2011 - Australia 14 April 2011 - Germany 9 June 2011 - The Netherlands 9 September 2011 - UK 23 September 2011 - Spain September 2011 - Denmark

I know the article "Mr. Rochester is a Creep: A List" by Edan Lepucki is just plain linkbait, and that by posting about it here, The Millions is/are (whatever) getting linklove, but I'll ignore that for now. As a "somewhat" obsessive Jane Eyre fan and definite "Team Rochester" member, my temper has been roused and will not be settled will less than a passionate rebuttal. While the webcomic that the article links to is one I've seen before and used to have as a wallpaper on my computer (although it completely ignores the fact that Anne wrote more than just Tenant ), calling two of the finest authors of the English language "deeply weird" is not on! Charlotte and Emily weren't weird. Heathcliff, fine - asshole, psychopath, creepy and duplicitous are all words that can be used to describe him. I can think of a few more to add to the list as well. But Rochester?! (The author hasn't read Wide Sargasso Sea yet - it's going to...

Question of the week: Meyerpyre or Fwuffy Doggie? And the winner is ... Team Arrrrghhhh-I-bloody-hate-Twilight!!! You can has taste, 11 peoples (52%). Well done. :) Team Sparkles & Team Jacob - 5 (23%) each - aww, dey tied. Team Bella - 0 (0%) - and quite rightly so. Thank you, 21 voters! Always interesting to have some polls going! :D 26 people voted in the next poll, which posed a most important question: who your favourite Edward is. Sparkles or someone else? Turns out Sparkles wasn't it. Woop woop! (*does victory dance in the background*) Your favourite Edward? Edward Fairfax Rochester *Snap* 18 (69%) votes! <3 *victory dance again* My favourite Edward too. Like you didn't already know. ;) Edward Scissorhands is tied second with "Some other Edward" - 3 (11%) Which other Edward would that be? Norton? But he's not fictional. At least I don't believe he is ... Mr. Edward Ferrars - 2 (7%)  Cravatted blokes. Nowt wrong with that a...

I got my Amazon package today, and wow, I never knew Amazon sold drugs, but by golly, Amazon can be my pusher any day! In fact, they have been for years, but today in particular. Happy happy happy!! So it's been established that I'm a fangirl when it comes to Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester in particular... well, the package had two contents. The first one being the book Rochester by J.L. Niemann, which apparently started its life on a forum somewhere online, says the introduction. The thing is, it's not just Jane Eyre from Rochester's perspective, it's book one in a trilogy . If the other two books are 325 pages too, we're talking nearly 1000 pages of smouldering hot Rochester!