The History of Emily Montague

      As the first novel written about and set in Canada, Frances Brooke’s 1769 epistolary novel, The History of Emily Montague, contains surprisingly little insight into the political and socioeconomic realities of post-Conquest Quebec. In fact, what we can deduce is Brooke’s prejudice of colonialization. For example she portrays the land/landscape as both “naturally rich,” thus ideal for English gentleman farmers to cultivate, and as “sublimity” itself, in order to entice their wives to accompany them (letters 22 and 131). The lives of the protagonists are shown to be full of leisure and pleasant company, completely removed from and unaffected by the “squabbling at Quebec” (letter 45). Hence, Brookes assures the English gentry that they can comfortably integrate into Canada without involvement in the inconveniences of “some dregs of old disputes” that they may be wary of encountering (letter 45). Other fears that potential colonists may have, such as of the harsh winters, uprisings by the French, or savageries by the native population, are all diffused. Thus the narrative is framed as an argument for the continued colonization of Quebec by Brooke’s audience: the English elite.

             This ideal settler resembles Ed Rivers and also his correspondent in England, John Temple: single, relatively wealthy, and healthy. Rivers provides his friend many examples as to the advantages of living in Canada which I read as Brooke’s appeal to such men. Even if most of her readers were likely women, Brooke’s narrative gives them arguments to convince their husbands to move to Canada. One such enticement is financial and social betterment. Rivers tells Temple that he “cannot live in England on [his] present income, though it enables [him] to live en prince in Canada” (letter 36, italics in original). Female readers could use this anecdotal evidence to prod their husbands into making the move. If these potential colonists were resistant to the hardships of cultivating the land of Canada, Brooke responds to this argument by emphasizing the fertility and availability of the land; one can be a gentleman farmer even in the New World. In fact, Rivers tells his sister that “the pleasure of cultivating lands here is ... much superior to what can be found in the same employment in England” (letter 7). This is partly due to the “extreme fertility” of the “naturally rich” soil which makes growing crops possible even for the most lazy (letter 22). Furthermore Rivers points out that the land is available to those that come to settle it; again to his sister, Rivers writes that the “far greater part [of the land] remains unpossest, and courts the hand of labour for cultivation” (letter 2). The “wilds” of Canada are thus presented as tameable, even by the least experienced.

            The land beyond the farms and gardens and outside of the city limits is shown to be formidable, yet safe even for young single women to venture into. Here Brooke seems to be directly addressing her educated, leisurely female reading audience. She relieves their fears of the harsh wilderness so that they will not be resistant to their husbands’ plans to immigrate to America and may even encourage them to become colonists. To do so, Brooke has the character Arabella (Bell) Fermor emphasize the awe-inducing aspects of nature and minimize its dangers and hardships when addressing her friend, Ed Rivers’ sister Lucy. The comparison of the landscape and natural phenomena with that of England is one method of making this argument. For instance, s­he claims that the “thousand wild graces” of “bold, picturesque, romantic nature” that “reigns in all her wanton luxuriance” in Quebec “mock[s] the cultivated beauties of Europe” (letter 10). Thus “the thunder is more magnificent and aweful than in Europe, and the lightening brighter and more beautiful than in Europe” (letter 10). Note that here “aweful” takes on its significance of “inspiring awe” (Random House Dictionary 2011). Again describing the “wild magnificence” of Montmorenci Falls, she writes that “you are struck with an awe...from the grandeur of a scene, which is one of the noblest works of nature” (letter 81). Another hardship of Canadian life, that of the long, harsh winters, is also shown to be rather agreeable. Bell assures Lucy that “the season of which you seem to entertain such terrible ideas, is that of the utmost chearfulness and festivity” to such a degree that she considers a winter in Quebec to be “pleasanter ... than that of England” (letter 80 and 52). Winter is not to be dreaded, but rather enjoyed as the “season of general dissipation” in which “amusement is the study of every body” (letter 52). She estimates that there are only a dozen severely cold days in a winter (letter 80), but even these days are bearable because of furs and their “uncommonly warm” houses and carriages (letter 52). These fears are thus dissipated.

            Brooke realizes that others may be wary of entering a hostile political environment. To this end she portrays the French as lazy and ineffectual (See Letter 6 for example). In fact, the English protagonists rarely have to interact with the French so there is no cause for conflict. The C anadians are never shown to be a threat, but rather in need of English influence to overcome their superstitious, backwards religion and their inferior government structures (See Letter 117). As for the natives, although Rivers declares that war is “the business of their lives,” Bell passes an agreeable afternoon with several native women (letter 4 and 16). Anecdotal evidence shows the natives to engage in death dances and drinking the blood of Englishmen (letter 152 and letter 4) leading to the natural conclusion that increased English influence over these “savages” is needed (See letter 152). Thus, the French and the natives alike must be ruled by the English for their own good. 

Nausicaa episode of Ulysses

The narrative arc of this episode corresponds to the Alexandrine school of thought for the composition of dramatic plays. In fact, Stephen Dedalus makes mention of this schema in relation to Shakespeare’s plays (in the Scylla and Charybdis episode). Like Hamlet, "Nausicaa" also starts with an introduction of the scene and protagonist, the “protasis,” followed by a continuation of the main action, the “epitasis,” after which the action meets its climax, the “catastasis,” before attaining its final event, the “catastrophe,” such as a death in a tragedy or a marriage in a comedy. The climax of this episode is obviously the orgasm accompanied by fireworks. The protasis (the introduction of Gerty to the narrative) and epitasis (the flirtation) lead up to this moment from which the catastrophe acts as a refractory period.  An analysis of the structure of Nausicaa’s narrative arc expounds Bloom’s response to Citizen’s assumptions of Irishness as presented in "Cyclops" as well furthering the opinion of the impotence of Irish revivalism as Stephen Dedalus projects in his parable A Pisgah Sight of Palestine or The Parable of the Plums (in the "Aeolus" episode). 

In the epitasis, Gerty is presented as a Nausicaa-figure, a Mary-figure, and a personification of Ireland. Sitting on the shore with the Mary, Star of the Sea cathedral behind her, remark the similarities in her stance to these portrayals of Mary, Star of the Sea.

                     

1.St. Mary Star of the Sea, Houston, TX  

3.Mary, Star of the Sea portrayed on a card from Slovenia

These two latter roles suggest Gerty undermines the three “nets” Stephen Dedalus vows to “fly by”: religion, nationalism, and language (from Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man). Then, as Citizen’s granddaughter (from the "Cyclops" episode), Gerty again subverts the nationalist argument. She is also related to her fictional counterpart Gerty Flint, the heroine of Maria Cummin’s sentimental novel The Lamplighter (of which Gerty makes mention). Lastly, Gerty can be seen as a representative Nora Barnacle, Joyce’s lifelong partner with whom he had his first date on June 16, 1904. The explicit passage from a letter from Joyce to Barnacle on December 3, 1909, adds credence to my position. Because of its explicit nature, read it here if you desire. Like Nora, Gerty “leads the way” near Ringsend. Also Nora's “saintlike eyes” echo Gerty’s association to the Virgin.

            After introducing Gerty to the narrative, the action rises when Bloom becomes aware of Gerty’s presence on the beach. The epitasis begins when the twins, whom Gerty and her two companions are baby-sitting, kick a ball towards Bloom. The adman comes in contact with the consumer. Gerty, as consumer, has been influenced by the beauty standards projected in the London magazines she consults, The Princess’s Novellettes and Lady’s Pictorial, from which she decides to purchase English products such as Beetham’s Larola, Widow Welch’s female pills, and Dolly Dyes. By packaging herself as a feminine woman, Garry Leonard argues that “Gerty has a better understanding of sexuality than Bloom does”. Based on Lacan’s theory of “The Woman,” he contends that Gerty has realized that women must masquerade as what they are not in order to capture the attention of men who want to imagine that they are who they believe themselves to be. Of course, her masquerade hides the fact that she has a limp. Bloom is glad that he didn’t know of this “defect” until after she put herself “on show”. Although Bloom thinks of her as a commodity for whom “[n]o reasonable offer [is] refused”, Gerty voluntarily offers herself to satisfy his sexual appetite. In fact Gerty considers Bloom in terms of the colonizer, her “new conquest”. Both feminist critical theory and political readings of the scene interpret Gerty as a commodity; as a woman, Gerty tries to attain a “male-defined standard” (Leonard) and as Ireland, she is subject to England not by force, but by choice. Neither Gerty nor Ireland are portrayed as “raped” but rather “whoring” themselves. 

            Although the catastasis, the ejaculation, is the climax of the episode, it is in fact an anti-climax. Bloom’s spermatozoid are useless, like the plumstones the “[t]wo Dublin vestals” spit out of their mouths from Nelson’s Pillar in Dedalus’s Parable of the Plums (from the "Aeolus" episode). As an Irishman, as Bloom insists he is, Bloom’s failure to produce a male heir forebodes the downfall of the Irish nationalist movement. Without a new generation to “grasp the baton,” its efforts will also be ineffectual and vain. This national impotence can be seen apart from his ejaculation and may also suggest the irrelevance of the Catholic faith. For example, he notices that his watch has stopped which is immediately linked to his reproductive abilities as Cissy remarks that “his waterworks [are] out of order”. This is followed by a reference to the second verse of the hymn they hear coming from the church. The hymn, the Tantum ergo, finishes with the lyric “omnipotence”, which paired with the imagery of the candles setting fire to the flowers at the altar bring to mind Bloom’s “languid floating flower,” “the limp father of thousands”. In this context then, consider the phrase “the memory of the past”. Of itself the line seems insignificant until reconnected to its origin as a lyric in the song “There is a Flower that Bloometh,” at which time the pun becomes clear. 

            Lastly, the action falls to a catastrophe, which in the Alexandrine use of the term may refer to a tragic ending, but may just as well refer to a joyous occasion. In the case of “Nausicaa” both readings are possible, although I find that the evidence for a tragic conclusion is more compelling. One symbolic example is the bat which flies above both Gerty and Bloom. As archetype, the bat is the primordial enemy and portent of peril or torment. As vampire, it recalls man feeding on woman in sexual frenzy, such as in Dedalus’ poem in which “he comes, pale vampire...his bat sails bloodying the sea, mouth to her mouth’s kiss” (in the "Proteus" episode), then as he develops the poem the mouth heads south. In Finno-Urgic tradition, the bat is one of the forms the soul takes when it leaves the body during sleep. Similarly, “ba,” the expression Bloom repeats in reference to the bat, is “the soul,” pictured by ancient Egyptians as a bird with a human head, which was thought to leave the body at death. Lastly, the nine “cuckoos” which complete the episode could foretell Bloom and Gerty’s marriage in nine years after its traditional connotation, but “nine” in the numerological chart refers to eternity, which would mean Gerty never marries.  As a tragedy, Bloom’s association of the sunset with Home Rule’s “sun setting in the southeast”, as opposed to the northwestern sunrise of Home Rule represented on the headpiece of the Freeman’s Journal  predicts the downfall of the movement. 

My main sources and references for this essay are:

Gifford, Don and Robert J. Seidman. Ulysses Annotated. Berkeley: University of California

Press, 2008. Print.

Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York: Oxford University Press,

2008. Print.

---. Selected Letters of James Joyce. New York: Viking Press, 1976. Print.

---. Ulysses. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.

Leonard, Garry. Advertising and Commodity Culture in Joyce. Gainesville: University Press of

Florida, 1998. Print.

The Crying of Lot 49

         After studying White Noise, I was able to identify similar marks of postmodern thought in Thomas Pyn The Crying of Lot 49. For example in both television is pervasive, as in the homes of many Americans at the time. Like Jack Gladney who tries to “[f]ind the codes and messages” in television, Oedipa Maas tries to unravel the significance of Metzger’s/Baby Igor’s film Cashiered and later that of W.A.S.T.E. and The Tristero. Neither is able to make the necessary connections that would make sense of these perceived codes and messages, a reflection of postmodern thought which insists on the absence of absolutes. If even science is suspect, religion a conspiracy to numb/dumb the population, and government to be feared, only paranoia remains. All authorities, such as historians and sacred texts are shown to have no founding. For instance, the recounting of the skirmish between the Confederate man-of-war “Disgruntled” and Russian cruisers is “not too clear”: “One of them may have fired, if it did then the other responded; but both were out of range”. Here authoritative text is also deemed unreliable: “If you believe an excerpt from the “Bogatir” or “Gaidamak”’s log ... now somewhere in the Krasnyi Arkhiv” the “Disgruntled” vanished during the attack. Similarly Maas is never able to find the definitive version of the Courier’s Tragedy. There is no original, only copies of copies like Metzger’s analysis of an actor playing a lawyer who, in front of a jury, “becomes an actor”. In the bio-pic of Metzger’s life, a one-time lawyer plays “an actor become a lawyer reverting periodically to being an actor”. Although the pilot to the film is in a climate-controlled vault in a Hollywood studio so that it is indestructible, the version they are watching has the reels out of order. Likewise nature is imitated as an “artificial windstorm” blowing a statue’s dress in front of the hotel and the artificial island surrounded by the fake Lake Inverarity.