![]() ![]() ![]() Jane Eyre endures because it’s the story of an underdog, surely, as is the story of the author herself. I thought of this speech this week, on the 200th anniversary of a famous literary house fire otherwise known as Jane Eyre-Charlotte Brontë’s novel about the eponymous “poor, obscure, plain and little” governess who quietly triumphs over several archetypal gothic adversaries: poverty, cruelty, a castle, a ghost, a brooding Byronic lover. The rousing essay ended with this call to arms: “Let us burn this motherfucking system to the ground and build something better.” Her main focus was the industry’s domination by men, their tastes and their interests, which even writers who are not men keep in mind when working toward literary success. In November of last year, Tin House published the text of a speech given by the author Claire Vaye Watkins, in which she spoke frankly of the various intersecting systems of privilege that affect the publishing world. ![]()
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