On Monday morning I finished posting my translation of “L’aquoiboniste" (The Whatsthepointist) by Serge Gainsbourg. The next song I work on will be his “Vie, mort et resurrection d’un amour passion” (Life, Death and Resurrection of Passionate Love). I’ve already done a rough translation but I think that needs to be reworked.
I posted my notes on “When I have fears that I may cease to be” by John Keats into a document that will become the paragraph assignment that I’ll hand in on February 7. I started editing the 1800 words of text towards paring it down to 200-300 words, but at noon I felt sleepy and so I took an early siesta.
I got up a little after 13:30 and had oranges, kettle chips, salsa and yogourt for lunch.
Since I was up earlier in the afternoon I took an earlier bike ride. I rode to Bloor and Ossington. The Bloor bike lane was a bit narrow in places because of snowplough deposits from the street but it was better than being crowded by snow into the street while riding along Dundas or College. I went south on Ossington, which was wide and clear for the most part, and followed Queen home.
At 17:00 I went on the Brit Lit 2 website and found this week’s lecture had been posted. The lecture was on Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey but also on how to approach novels. To set the stage for argument about the novel.
He reminded us that our second reading quiz would be available from tonight until tomorrow at noon, but he was mistaken because it’s actually available from tomorrow night until Wednesday at noon.
The novel brings shift in scale from the poem because it is usually bigger with more characters, events and action. But like a poem a novel is imagined and intentionally crafted with every word chosen with care. There is not as much interpretive weight on each word but the same intention and craft. There are added units of analysis, pieces and elements looked at differently than poems. Novels have scenes, characters, moments, conversations, descriptive passages, organizational structure broken up in various ways. There is a relation between these elements to linguistic units of analysis: syntax, lines, words, capital punctuation in poems and novels but additional units to the novel. Novels have narrative units of analysis. There is narrative poetry but it occurs more often in novels and stories. Narrative terms to develop a vocabulary of how the story is told. The story has content but these terms get us thinking how the story is told and the way it is conveyed. The terms are not taxonomically rigorous and not categorical but we are learning different ways of talking about narratives. There are no hard and fast rules. The terms help to clearly and concretely describe what is happening.
Narrative is the largest term we have to describe an expression of connected events (true or false) in a coherent way. A narrative is a set of events (the story) told in a process of narration (intentional structure) in which the events are arranged in a particular order (the plot) to achieve some effect and produce meaning. Narrative is a general term. The expression of connected events is very broad also in poetry.
What a narrative isn’t is a static description or dramatic performance. It is dynamic and expresses change, effect or transformation. A speech is not narrative, a performance is not narrative in itself although it may contain a narrative. A print of a play is narrative but not its performance. The static description of an event is not narrative unless it contains an effect and a dynamic. Something has to happen. The point is not pedantic. There could be problem cases if we describe narrative expression of change.
The three elements of a novel are narrator, story and plot. The narrator is the speaker. The story or fabula is what raw materials, places, characters, events and actions. The plot or syuzhet is the order of the elements being told. The narrator is a vague term for an entity who speaks the story. They may or not be a character in the story or the author. The speaker may be implied, may have a role, may try to be in the background and disappear. Even when the story seems told by an absent, neutral voice from nowhere, there is still a narrator.
There are three types of narrator: There first person narrator is the voice of a person, saying “I”, “my”, “you” and “your”. It can be a character, but is always internal to the world in which the story takes place. It is technically unreliable, things may not have happened as the narrator says because it is only one point of view and they could exaggerate. Examples: Moby Dick, Jane Eyre, The Brothers Karamasov (in which the narrator lives nearby but is not a character in the story but belongs to the world of the story). All first person narrators are unreliable, for example Robinson Crusoe. But Austen in her narration of Northanger Abbey is not unreliable. If she says Catherine wore a blue dress she did.
There is no second person narration. That’s not true, since I’ve written half a novel with second person narration. He says if there were second person narration it would still be single and so in the first person because “you” is internal and unreliable. I don’t agree with that either. I see no reason why a novel couldn’t be written in the second person plural.
The subjective or limited third person narrator is external to the characters. Thoughts, actions and feelings are described from outside. The telling of the narrative is restricted to one character’s perspective, but it might shift, which is common in science fiction and fantasy, like a camera following the character around. The narrator knows the character’s feelings but doesn’t have access to anything not around the character. It is a blend of third and first limits but doesn’t speak from character’s view. Examples are Game of Thrones (which has limited first person narration because the camera changes from chapter to chapter); On Beauty has a subjective first person narrator.
The Omniscient third Person narrator has an overarching perspective that encompasses many characters, backgrounds and events. It is probably the most common style. Examples are Harry Potter, War and Peace, and A Christmas Carol. This narrator is not limited to characters. It is all encompassing and knows everything that is going on. Not to lay it down as law but there are different ways to see how info is conveyed. The omniscient narrator has all of the info but may hold back.
Story and plot are not the same. The fabula consists of the events, characters, places, and happenings that provide the raw material of the narrative. The syuzhet is the “telling” of the story, including the order in which it is recounted by the narrator, descriptions and commentary. The way the story is conveyed. A novel will almost never tell a story in the exact order of real time. There is additional info from other times. Citizen Kane begins with the end and then the story goes back to the beginning to follow chronological order. Think about choices of narration how it affects meaning.
Northanger Abbey is an novel about novels. It is self consciously and conspicuously about reading fiction and its relationship to life. Austen announces this at beginning. She uses irony to expose the differences between the expectations of life in a novel and in reality. It is complicated by fact that it is a novel. It asks if novels are good or bad. It emphasizes the difference while providing frameworks for understanding. The first chapter shows the novel knows it’s a novel. The word “heroine” recalls the language of novels in the first sentence. We would not think so. We are alerted to the fact that the story knows it is a story. The statement that Catherine’s father is not addicted to locking up his daughters plays with our expectations of the novel. In this period of history the heroine would be born differently than Catherine in a bad situation. Austen is saying Catherine is not a conventional novel heroine. We are pointed to the work’s status as a novel. Irony exposes the differences.
In the first chapter Austen knows what we know of novels and changes this. She shows the ridiculous but that is not the novel’s position. She later defends the novel. She speaks in her own voice. The author won’t insult the novel in her novel. If she if thought novels were silly why write them? She makes the opposite of irony the greatest power of the mind. She affirms the novel’s potential of defending the value of the novel. The main characters are always orphans or in bad situations but show human life to world. There is tension between the value of the novel and the world. The emphasis is on a different frame of understanding of the novel and how it talks about the world. The book is also about reading. Reading the world versus reading novels. Things get mixed up. Reading is portrayed as trivial, as a courtship ritual, as sharing thoughts, as preparation for the world, as escape from world. But it also tells about the world; good readers of the novel are usually good readers of life. The novel has the power of escape from the social world. We see human knowledge and relationships, but reading novels and life are not the same skill. They are just similar. Second: experience. What characteristic of Catherine predominates? What is her most defining characteristic.
I say she changes gender specific behaviour as defined by the early 19th Century. She starts out more like a boy but becomes a young lady with the typical interests of the same. She is not exceptional, nor talented, nor particularly intelligent. She is unique because she is less than ordinary.
She is tender hearted, a voracious reader, curious, is leaving family protection with no experience. She is naïve. She is not complicated or sophisticated. She is not given useful advice before leaving other than to avoid getting a chill. The narrator tells us what she should be advised of. The dangers like in a novel of kidnapping and rape. Catherine is going into danger but not gothic danger but dangers of socially selfish people competing for affection, money, fame, and prestige. She has no experience and is not warned. Gothic novels do not help. She needs subtle social instruction. The actual danger is Mrs Allen.
I say Mrs Allen has no children and is more concerned with fashion. She has no opinions about how Catherine should conduct herself for her well being.
Mrs Allen is supposed to take care of Catherine but she only cares about fashion. She is not socially helpful. Catherine’s home was harmonious and so she had no knowledge of the backstabbing of the social world. Mrs. Allen leaves Catherine on her own. Knowledge in the novel is decentred. We typically get characters whose knowledge of their world is sufficient. They may confront mysteries, uncertainty, or may not recognize something about themselves, but overall we can assume they have the ability to navigate their situation. This not the case with Catherine. She and we must rely on others for sufficient information. They know how move in the world and do what is needed. They know how to act in their social world. They may have blind spots like in a good novel but the mystery is not their fault. Characters in War and Peace don’t know how to deal with Napoleon. Catherine can’t trust herself and we can’t trust her. Knowledge is decentred. She is deficient in information. The worlds problems can’t follow social structures. Henry compares dancing to marriage. She’s not following his joke metaphor flirtation. Henry muddles her. She doesn’t know what is expected of a dance partner. She mixes the language of the gothic novel with the world. Catherine thinks of broken promises and broken arches. One is real and one is from novels. The repetition of sound “broken”, “broken”. “phaeton”, “false”. The alliteration emphasizes how mixed up the real and the imaginary are. She is mixed up and does not know the rules.
What do you do if you are in a new situation about which you have little experience?
Ask advice, watch and learn trial and error, throw myself into it. Improvise.
One needs a mentor. But one might also read about it or look it up on YouTube.
This novel is disparaging of that impulse novels give her bad advice. She wants us to think how we get knowledge from novels or mentors. It is not always useful. There are different styles of mentorship. What it means to become a mature reader. Mrs Allen fails Catherine. Isabella is here first mentor. She is older, she has more advantage, she has been around, she knows fashion and she knows people. Her powers inspire awe and affection. They might not be friends otherwise. She is affectionate. How is she a mentor? Through novels she is a literary mentor. Her style direct, teacherly and instructive. She tells Catherine what do, what to think and what not to think. She is direct and controlling.
Henry is also a mentor. She not sure when he is joking. He is performing for Catherine a set of expectations so she won’t make a mistake. His style is playful and he conveys knowledge through games one can’t lose because there is no threat. His mentoring style is flirtation with no clear boundaries but no risk. Uncertainty is like a game in which the stakes are wanting to be liked but with no danger. There is no flattery like from John. Henry is more about the game of give and take. When comparing marriage to dance Henry teaches perspective to understand context. Everything is about sensitivity to context. Be aware of the context of light. Chapter 14 is the most important in first part. It begins reminding us of this novel We expect problems but none occur that we would expect from novel. What is in Catherine’s way is lack of experience. A real landscape reminds her of France, which she has only read about. She thinks men do not read novels but Henry does. Henry teaches that there are no rules and it’s foolish to assume. The novel plays with convention. It show that the world is different from books but they connect. Books are a point of relationship. What is nice? He seems annoyed by the word. But he is teaching that using the word “nice” for everything avoids judgment. It is picturesque at the top of the cliff. Catherine confesses a want of knowledge. He gives instructions on the picturesque. He describes perspectives. He is teaching context, judging all elements, light, shade background and foreground. This is the most clear mentorship. She wants to learn. She learns one gains by admitting they do not know. There is the possibility of failure in this flirtatious style. Henry jokingly insults his sister over the word “riot”. One can fail but it is not the end of the world. Isabella wants no failure. Henry wants failure for learning about world through games. There is no loss.
My lecture notes took me until dinner and then afterwards. I didn’t finish editing them until 23:16.
I marinated four chicken legs with curry paste and roasted them. I had one with a boiled parsnip and gravy while watching Andy Griffith.
This one was better than usual. An FBI agent comes to town and tells the mayor that the bureau’s research has found that Mayberry is the most crime free city of its size in the country. He's come to learn how they've accomplished it. Andy says it has nothing to do with him and Barney but that the people of Mayberry just happen to be law abiding citizens. Barney and the rest of the town however think of Andy and Barney as heroes and a big presentation of a medal is planned. Andy is getting a haircut and telling Floyd a fishing story about a big carp he brought in after a big fight. Halfway through the story a reporter from the state capital walks in. She hears Andy relating how he said, “Mr Carp! I'm bringing you in!" Then she is horrified that when Mr Carp kept on struggling Andy finally killed it with an axe. She storms away saying they'll hear about this brutality in her column. A photographer arrives and takes official pictures but when the agent and the photographer are alone we learn that they are actually crooks distracting the rubes while they plan to rob the bank. The fake agent will give a fifteen minute speech at the presentation, during which time the other guy will crack the safe. Andy sees the photographer leave the presentation. After the photographer cracks the safe and steps inside he finds Andy sitting and waiting for him. Andy thanks him for finally opening the safe because they lost the combination fifteen years ago. The thief asks how Andy got in and he explains that they cut a back door in a long time before. Andy says he knew there was something wrong when an FBI agent wanted to be photographed. That seems odd. It’s not as if FBI agents or even CIA agents are secret agents. This was the 60s when the media was romanticizing the ideas of spies and spy shows would soon replace westerns as the trend.
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