During her first interview with host Tyra Banks, the fact comes up that Susan from Canton, Ohio just graduated from Harvard with a degree in English (or as they style it, English and American Literature and Languages). Here's how it played out:
TYRA: Who was your favorite English literature heroine?(Geez, when I write it out like that I wonder why I watch this show.)
SUSAN: [Looks confused] I didn't pay much attention in those classes.
TYRA: Are you serious but that's your major!!! Jane Eyre?
SUSAN: Oh, yeah, I like Jane Eyre.
TYRA: Rebecca? [SUSAN shrugs.] Gimme five poses that Viola [pronounced like the instrument] does. [SUSAN grins, shrugs.] Now we're gonna take it away from heroines and we're gonna go to animals. Let's do Jack London, WHITE FANG. Go. [SUSAN makes a face and shrugs.] Pearl S. Buck, THE GOOD EARTH. You're mining the fields [SUSAN mouths something, looks like "I don't know that"] of rice. Girl, you know Harvard is going 'Oh, lord, she's embarrassing us right now.'
SUSAN [interview]: I was talking to the judges and I just blanked out. I couldn't think of any heroines in English literature, and that's my major, so that was really embarrassing.
TYRA [to other judges]: Why is it that I didn't go to an Ivy League school and I'm throwing out English and American literature references that she doesn't even know?
OK, everyone loves to pick on Harvard, but since [spoiler alert!] Susan doesn't make it into the finals and thus onto the show, I'm going to go easy on her. Like IvyGate says, she's probably a really nice girl reduced to 30-second ignominy. Nor do I think she looks 44 years old, that's just not nice. Maybe she just got super nervous, and if someone told me to act like Jack London I would probably also look confused. For a minute. But come on! Lily Bart, people? Becky Sharp, whose cutthroat instincts would be right at home on reality television? Jordan Baker? (OK, maybe I wouldn't want to be Jordan Baker so much as hang out at Gatsby's house.)
That's not to say that Tyra's choices when she "tried to out-intellectualize" Susan weren't quite lame, although she gets points for bringing up Wormbook favorite "Twelfth Night." What I remember about the women in THE GOOD EARTH is how they were forced into vastly unequal marriages where they were forced to serve their mothers-in-law and husbands, clean the whole house and harvest all while pregnant. My feelings about JANE EYRE are documented. And I haven't read REBECCA in at least 10 years, but I think of her as defiant and scared without real bravery.
Play along at home and leave your fictional heroines from English and American literature in the comments.
3 comments:
No, Rebecca was the evil one, not the scared one.
I really like Scout Finch: does English literature mean English language literature or British literature?
And, of course, don't we all love Elizabeth Bennet?
Oh wait, your instructions said American literature was acceptable. Sorry about that.
You are so right about Rebecca, Elizabeth. Shows how long it's been since I've read the book. Oy vey.
I thought of Scout as well but excluded her because she was a kid. She would definitely qualify, though.
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