I kept thinking about Dude Watching with the Bronte Sisters. It's more obvious to me than when I was a kid that Emily B is writing out her fantasy. And that her fantasy is 'fuck the weak'. It would be repulsive coming from one of your Tory boys who are going to take over the country any day now, but from an impoverished nineteenth century spinster, physically weak herself, it is courageous and exhilarating I think. It's exhilarating because she is pushing her own vision so intensely. But it is surprising how extreme her vision is.
The other thing that I'd forgotten is that it's so outrageous that it's often quite funny. It might be Michael Kitchen's dead-pan delivery.