"Rebecca" musical delayed, because world cruel

Meet the craziest theater ad you're ever going to see, that actually aired on network television:

 

Posted without comment: 111 Male Characters of British Literature, In Order Of Bangability (The Awl)

Okay, one comment: #21?? Ahead of #28, #69 (heh) (We read that one in book club!) #94... incorrect.

They Read It On TV, Competitive Edition

I was catching up with long-time guilty pleasure "America's Next Top Model" this weekend and confess to having a giggle over what happened to aspiring model Susan, who couldn't name her favorite literary heroine -- or rather the ensuing scene, which was patently ridiculous.

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?
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?

(Geez, when I write it out like that I wonder why I watch this show.)

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.