tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post3420065730331427296..comments2023-06-21T18:53:11.897+10:00Comments on Pykk: of disorderUmbagollahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-10278151195705332832014-12-04T06:21:29.802+11:002014-12-04T06:21:29.802+11:00Fugitive Anne, oh memory. That book must have been...<i>Fugitive Anne</i>, oh memory. That book must have been less than a quarter the length of <i>Clarissa</i> and still it took me longer to read. A moral fanatic who spends most of her time in a room should not be more exciting than an opera singer pretending to be a magical Aztec in a volcanic tortoise cave but there you go. <br /><br />Though that's sideways-pertinent, since one of the things that fascinates me about the self-ness that I'm thinking of, the one in Peake or Powys, is the way it depends so little on physical escape and so much on staying in rooms, or at least inside a hermetic area of interest. You intensify yourself within that cage. Hence Romantic. The irony of the Titus books, and one that I don't believe Peake knew, is that the best way to transcend Gormenghast, is to stay inside Gormenghast. Pykkhttp://pykk.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-56589193506576435982014-12-03T14:47:58.687+11:002014-12-03T14:47:58.687+11:00Ha ha ha the both of you. I was thinking of Fugiti...Ha ha ha the both of you. I was thinking of <i>Fugitive Anne</i>.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-64907479257782556182014-12-03T11:17:13.072+11:002014-12-03T11:17:13.072+11:00Everybody worships Clarissa. I don't see any r...Everybody worships Clarissa. I don't see any reason why primitive tribes shouldn't get in on the act.Pykkhttp://pykk.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-8311174477425178462014-12-03T11:10:31.022+11:002014-12-03T11:10:31.022+11:00It's the most extreme fictional case study of ...It's the most extreme fictional case study of will I think I've ever read. There's Richardson, building up his obstacles; the will comes out in response and it seems like a reasonable will until he begins to take the obstacles away (great ladies think you're ace, Clarissa, and you don't have to live in a brothel any more; your enemies are despised) and the will remains. Now the will is acting like a vortex in the story: everything is revolving around that central point, everything refers back to it, and everybody's actions are ultimately being tested against this will. Lovelace has to lose because his will is too sensible. If he had been as dedicated to rakeishness as Clarissa is to goodness then he would have seduced the daughter at the farmhouse in the first few volumes. (Or did he? I haven't read the book for months. I can remember that he boasted about <i>not</i> doing it.)<br /><br />Isak is an interesting one. Hamsun's idea for the revitalisation of Norway was a legion of Isaks. Pykkhttp://pykk.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-54508464637322080362014-12-03T06:56:05.869+11:002014-12-03T06:56:05.869+11:00Allegorically, yes, that is who Clarissa is. For ...Allegorically, yes, that is who Clarissa is. For example, the "primitive tribe" is either "18th century readers of novels" or "readers of 18th century novels"; "running away" is some other allegorical substitution that escapes me at the moment. Etc.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-15059791637239656732014-12-03T06:40:11.831+11:002014-12-03T06:40:11.831+11:00Is Clarissa the woman who is always running away, ...Is Clarissa the woman who is always running away, and ends up worshiped as a goddess by a primitive tribe?<br /><br /><i>Escape</i> is a central feature of a lot of fiction, now that I think about it. So is the idea of unearthing that immovable, changeless "self." Are these ideas confined to fiction from the European tradition, I wonder? I have no idea. A lot of the 20th-century Japanese fiction I read seems to contain characters who are trying hard to remain within cultural prisons. Or maybe to maintain the illusion that these cultural roles still function. But nobody seems to be breaking out and finding a hard kernel of self.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-52877188852585345892014-12-02T07:09:05.876+11:002014-12-02T07:09:05.876+11:00Clarissa is something of a case study in will, isn...<i>Clarissa</i> is something of a case study in <i>will</i>, isn't it?<br /><br />I guess I can see how the Isak character you describe is a logical, if absurd, place for the earlier Hamsun to move.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.com