September 28, 2001 - 1:15 p.m.
We're all feeling better now. Zack is sleeping through the night again and I'm almost caught up on my sleep - not quite, judging by the effort it takes to peel (Or is it peal? Dammit, where's the dictionary...) open my eyelids in the morning, but close.
I took a little time off last night to put my feet up and channel surf. I don't watch a lot of tv anymore - too much else to do that interests me and there isn't always anything on worth watching. 547 channels and nothin' on...
So I caught up a bit on the news, watched the second half of the O'Reilly Factor and scanned a couple hundred channels for anything interesting. Not surprisingly, I didn't see much. I stopped on AMC a moment to check out the 1944 Jane Eyre starring Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles.
I read Jane Eyre about 18 years ago (man, that makes me feel old), about the time I was discovering books and novels and had begun browsing my mother's copious collection of classics, including Gone with the Wind, Wuthering Heights, Little Women, and The Once and Future King. The only one I didn't finish was Wuthering Heights. Out of all of them, and many I've read since, Jane Eyre sticks with me most clearly. Perhaps Charlotte Bronte was just a master of storytelling or I identified with Jane so strongly that the images of her life remain as persistent in my mind as my own.
Ironically, I didn't completely like Jane and could not comprehend her attraction to Mr. Rochester. Even after the penance of his home's destruction and the loss of his sight, I still thought of him as the wrong sort of man with whom to be happy.... Until I got caught up in Welles' performance.
Ooh.
I could listen to that man read his grocery list and be mesmerized by it.
Welles has (or had, rather) a voice that just resonates sex appeal (not oozes, mind you, there's nothing attractive about an unctuous speaking voice) - much like Jose Ferrer, Charlton Heston, and Rex Harrison (particularly in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir). Even as Rochester sinks into the fear and misery of losing his social standing and the woman he loves, Welles' voice never loses its strength: teetering on the abyss of hopelessness perhaps, but indefatigable nonetheless.
I don't know when I'll find the time, but I think I'm going to read Jane Eyre again with Orson Welles in mind and see how I feel about the book afterward...
What about you? Got a fictional character who particularly like, dislike, or have had a change of heart about lately? Sign the guestbook and tell me about it. :)
