Thoughts on the re-write...

When I first starting thinking about this assignment, I wanted to do something epic - and bible stories came to mind. I was thinking about the story of Lot's wife who was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back when Sodom and Gomorrah burned. We never even know her name but her story always kinda stood out to me when I was a kid and subjected to Sunday School. The story goes that Lot received two visitors, (angels in disguise) who had come to destroy the city because the people there were so depraved. Lot took them in for the night and protected them from the city folk braying for their blood. The city guys gathered at Lot's house and asked him to deliver the visitors "so that we may know them" - apparently this is code for "we want to shag them". Lot says nah, you can't have these dudes but take my two virgin daughters instead. Nice one Dad! I imagine that Lot's wife wouldn't be too stoked about this prospect. In return for protecting them, the angels warn Lot that they're going to destroy the city and tell him to make a run for it with his family. They are told not to look back but Lot's wife can't resist - hence the transformation into a pillar of salt. For what? Not obeying the patriarchy? God? Depending on what version you read, some say she was punished with salt because she forgot the salt in the bread when she cooked for her husband's mysterious visitors. A bit harsh! So anyway I was thinking the story has elements of 'female oppression' - i.e the fact that she remains nameless and that her daughters are offered to the crowd to protect the visiting men. The women seem kind of voiceless to me, yet suffer the most. The story also has elements of homophobia and suspicion of strangers or outsiders. Food for thought.

HOWEVER...

I just read the new book by John Boyne (who wrote The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas) - it's called This House is Haunted. I think it has a lot in common with Jane Eyre. It's basically a ghost story (no kidding!) set in the 1860's about an orphaned 21 year old who accepts a job as a governess in Norfolk. Everything is of course, not as it seems and it turns out the house is haunted by the children's mother who was hanged the year before for murdering their previous governess and attempting to murder her husband. Her husband survived the attack, but has been left totally mutilated and lo and behold, he's hidden away in the attic (with his head all bashed in - not a pretty sight). Anyway, the mother (Santina) was Spanish, brought to England in her late teens by her new husband and not really accepted into his family (Monied English society and all that). In her childhood she had been a victim of sexual abuse and therefore when she has children of her own she becomes quite manic, and wont let anyone take care of them, lest they be hurt. When her husband insists on hiring a governess - the done thing in their circles - she loses the plot entirely and beats the governess to death with a fire iron. Awesome! Anyway, I would quite like to give Santina a voice - to describe the events of her childhood, her alienation in England, her fears (irrational or not) etc, which all ultimately lead to her freak out (very Wide Sargasso Sea-esque). Even in death she can't leave her kids and is depicted as this evil spectre up to no good but I'd love to rewrite her as a mother who fiercely defends her children no matter what - providing protection that she never had as a kid back in Madrid.