Doppelganger Diary

I couldn't sleep--must be my shifting schedule--and I resigned myself to getting up to escape Husband's increasingly sonorous night breathing. Why shouldn't I go ahead and post my first blog entry?

Unsure of where I should start, I'll guess I'll just give background on my name for now. Everyday Attic refers to one of my longtime fav novels, Jane Eyre. I have a special teenage affection for Jane, and all things considered, she's probably my favorite female character of all time (John Proctor takes best male). I taught the novel to my juniors back in a previous life, and though closer adult inspection revealed flaws in Bronte's book, it didn't diminish my love for Ms. Eyre. I wish I could be more like Jane. Although I love her strength and intelligence and virtue, I love me some Bertha, too. Jane lives out in the world: obedient, modest, disciplined. Bertha, on the other hand, lives up in the attic: angry, impulsive, emotional.

Arin Fay, the artist of the previous painting, comments that "Bertha is Jane’s double, a kind of skeleton in the attic whose appearance serves as a foil to Jane’s naïve romanticism. Her appearance at all in a formulaic love story, especially one published well over a hundred years ago, speaks to the importance of giving voice, however disenfranchised, to significant female frustrations. With Bertha’s fire and violence Charlotte Bronte interrupts her own ‘conventional’ story, and thus gives the reader a limited but valid view of an alternative female reality."

Obviously, a blog offers a (somewhat) anonymous chance to pull back the curtain on one's less public thoughts, interests, habits. This is just a chance to open the attic doors... if you will. I used to talk to my students about this crazy woman trapped in the attic and how Jane is

n't the only place this insane femme fatale creeps up. Jane lives and works down on the lower, more public floors. Bertha is trapped upstairs... in her own head. And thus, I arrived at the metaphor of the attic for my title. Long story short, the blog will be about, wait for it, what's in my head. I know. Don't take this to mean that I will have anything significant to say in any my posts. I plan on being as shallow as possible. I might write about how my manager's voice is obnoxious or detail my latest Anthropologie obsession. But these trivial complaints, stories, etc are shadow side revelations in their own way.

It is getting late now, and I'm getting sleepy. I guess this would be an appropriate time to go set Husband's bed on fire. (Insert maniacal laugh here.)