Thursday, December 2, 2021

"Wuthering Heights" and "Sense and Sensibility"

Tyler Cowen interviews Ruth Scurr:

COWEN: You also wrote, and I quote, “When I was an adolescent, Wuthering Heights appealed to me much more than Sense and Sensibility, but now the reverse is true.” How did that happen?

SCURR: Age.

COWEN: Why does age flip you away from Wuthering Heights?

SCURR: Wuthering Heights is the —

COWEN: It’s over the top, right?

SCURR: — high passion; Heathcliff, Cathy out on the moors. I thought that was it: I thought that was what it meant to love someone, to the extent where they’d be visiting you after their death and trying to get in through the window.

Actually, I completely changed my understanding of what’s involved in loving another person and actually being gentle with another person, whoever they are — my children, my relationships with my parents, and other significant relationships in my life. I think the Wuthering Heights model has not weathered well.

This resonated with me because I think my ideas about love have changed more since I was 19 than any of my other core ideas.

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