"I was primed for the Kate Bush version of "Wuthering Heights," an avant-garde musical number, all shrieks and pleading. Somehow Bush, that Ur-diva of the '80s, wrapped up the plot of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel better than any SparkNotes could (this was long before AI). Swathed in lyrics and melody instead of chaptered prose, I got it: Here were two people who embodied the idea behind can't live with or without you."
"I'm still a reader, one who spends some of my reading time professionally, as a book critic. Talk about wild and windy moors, temper and jealousy! Yet I come back again and again like Cathy, to my own "only master," stories, words and their creators. In the words of Kate Bush, I can't "leave behind my Wuthering Wuthering Wuthering Wuthering Heights ...""
"Once I'd heard the song, I was hooked, both on Bush's music (we all saw "Stranger Things" blaze "Running Up That Hill" back to life) and on a quest to find out how other musicians might use stories and novels in their work. Some songs are obviously based on fables and folktales, like Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On" ("The Lord of the Rings") and "Ain't Necessarily So" by Bronski Beat (the story of Moses, etc.) Given my fiction addiction,"
A childhood preference for Jane Eyre's solitary heroine gave way to a deep connection with Wuthering Heights during first love, catalyzed by Kate Bush's theatrical song that condensed Emily Brontë's 1847 plot into urgent lyrics and melody. The reader remains devoted to stories and their creators and reads professionally as a book critic, continuously returning to literature. A new Emerald Fennell film adaptation starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi promises to introduce the fevered, mismatched lovers to a broad audience. Musical adaptations and literary references appear across genres, from avant-garde pop to rock songs that borrow from fables and canonical works.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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