The Rachel Papers: The Novel in Music

My film version of The Rachel Papers would be a British version of a John Hughes film; a coming of age, teen comedy. I am thinking some combination of Igby Goes Down and The Girl Next Door. The film would be set in the late eighties, an interesting time during the British music scene, adding to character of the film. The film would ultimately feel youthful, free, yet intensely reflective.
The film would develop two distinct patterns set to music; contemplative and extroverted. I would focus on Charles Highway’s existential development by showing him on the train, perhaps with a pensive song playing or by filming him walking through London with long, panning shots. Furthermore, I would feature scenes of London nightlife, an atmosphere essential to the novel. The characters would reflect the clothes of the eighties and the social class of the novel, very brat-packish. In terms of the soundtrack, it would feature mostly eighties songs, with a couple of sixties songs to emphasize youthful rebellion.

The Rachel Papers

1. I Want Your Sex – George Michael
This song is a frank, honest expression of sexual longing and desire. George Michael’s lyrics almost echo Charles Highway’s own opinion. Michael singing, “sex is best when it’s one on one” is very similar to “I grant you, must see it largely as a matter of obligation, too: but obligation to the partner, not to oneself, like us” (Amis 18). Sex is primarily a matter of self-satisfaction. Just like Charles, George Michael tells his audience honestly what he wants.
2. Forever Young – Alphaville
This song reflects Charles’ feelings about youth and encapsulating a moment in his youth. Charles knows his youth is over but wishes for it to last forever. The song is contemplative like Charles in some moments of his self- assessment. The overall tone of the song is lighthearted and youthful, indicative of eighties teen pop. This song reflects one of the biggest themes of The Rachel Papers
3. Head Over Heels – Tears For Fears
This song reflects The Rachel Papers both thematically and structurally. The lyrics are written as a kind of analysis of a girl, just like the novel. In addition, the mood of the song is dreamlike, the opening feels poised yet highly expressive; I imagine Charles and Rachel walking together to this song. The song also speaks the emotional side of longing, verging obsession. Ultimately this song reminds me of a calculated crush on a girl, much like Charles has cultivated for Rachel.
4. This Charming Man – The Smiths
This song represents The Rachel Papers syntactically as well as thematically. This song focuses on self-analysis of the sharpest kind. The lyrics are witty and full of British jargon that is reminiscent of Amis’ writing. The song takes us through an evening of getting ready to go out, just as the novel does. Overall, This Charming Man is meant to be an ironic title, which would also fit Charles Highway.
5. I Touch Myself – The Divinyls
This song reflects the honest long of some for another person, yet focused on self-satisfaction; which like Charles says, is the best kind. Both the sound of the song and the lyrics reflect Charles’ mental state. He is obsessed with sex; the song repeats the same lyrics over and over again, creating the image of obsession or at least, dedication. Charles thinks much in the same way that the singer does, focusing on herself, using the other person. This view of sex is almost identical to Charles’.
6. There is a Light That Never Goes Out – The Smiths
This is reflects the prose style of Amis and a youthful night out on the town. The singer is commiserating about his desire to be young and in love. The message of the song is to savor youth while you are young because it is fleeting. This is also a theme of The Rachel Papers, being open to the world around you, soaking in the social life as a means of contemplating society.
7. Friday: I’m in Love – The Cure
This song reflects the theme and structure of The Rachel Papers. The song recounts a week of time during a relationship. The novel recounts a night in a relationship. The episodic structure allows the listener/reader to directly follow the thoughts of the singer/writer. Overall this song creates a realistic portrayal of the modern relationship, something Amis also does in a way.
8. Time of the Season – The Zombies
This song reflects the spirit of The Rachel Papers. The song represents freedom, love, and taking advantage of youth. This song is about celebrating each other through sex. This aspect particularly connects to Charles and his views. But for Charles, it also represents celebrating himself, which seemingly is his ultimate goal.
9. Leaves That Are Green – Simon & Garfunkel
This song represents the fading relationship of Charles and Rachel and youth in general. Just like the song says, the youth that Charles enjoys now will wither away. This song also contains allusions to a “poem I want to write” making a connection to writing at form of self – expression. This is significant because Charles plans on becoming a writer, his final words are “I refilled my pen.” Again, pointing to the significance of writing.
10. Happy Birthday – New Kids On The Block
This version of the birthday classic is especially pertinent to the novel because the novel takes place on Charles birthday and it is from the eighties (it is also hilarious). The novel revolves around the twentieth birthday of Charles Highway, celebrating his self- proclaimed departure from youth. Charles also plots the seduction of a young lady named Rachel on this very night, a type of birthday present. Overall, this song sums up the literal setting of the novel.

Iris Murdoch’s Philosophy of Love

Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of reality.  – Iris Murdoch

         In her novel The Bell, Iris Murdoch explores the moral lives of different members of a religious community. The novel opens with the perspective of Dora Greenfield, an unhappy wife returning to her husband, Paul, in London.  When she gets to London, she realizes he Paul isn’t there and meets him where he is working, a small religious community called Imber Court. At this point, Murdoch introduces the perspectives of a young boy, Toby, also a visitor to Imber Court, and to the community’s leader, Michael. As the story of the bell progresses, Murdoch introduces her moral philosophy through the journey of her characters: each of them ultimately seeking the concept of good and accept a moral change. The transformation of these characters represents an exercise of Murdoch’s philosophy. Ultimately, the novel as a whole represents an extension of her moral outlook.

            In addition to The Bell, Murdoch wrote many philosophical works and articles about philosophers. Murdoch’s research and knowledge of philosophy leads to a cultivated moral standard.

In her article, “Iris Murdoch and the Nature of Good,” Elizabeth Burns writes;

The prevalent model of the moral life has tended to support the assumption that there is only one way to be moral. Iris Murdoch’s concept of Good is a central feature of her moral theory; in Murdoch’s thought, attention to the Good is the primary means of improving our moral conduct. (Burns, 303)

The author expresses that Murdoch replaces God with good and makes the search for “good” central to moral truth. Burns further explains that, “According to Murdoch, our moral task is to defeat our ‘natural’ egoism. She suggests that the techniques of Plato can help us to achieve this” (Burns, 303). The author explains that according to Murdoch’s philosophy in order to love we have to overcome our innate Freudian ego and see through the eyes of another. As readers, we see examples of this in The Bell, specifically through the relationships of the characters.

            Furthermore, the theme of love as the key to moral happiness is explored in The Bell. There are many instances of spiritual and physical love in the novel, culminating in the symbol of the bell itself.Again according to Burns;

The force which, in Miss Murdoch’s opinion, most powerfully combats convention by provoking a sympathetic understanding of another individual is love; for, as she defines it, love is ‘the imaginative recognition of, that is respect for,’ the otherness of another person. (556)

The author explains that Murdoch bases most of her moral philosophy on love and the exploration of the world through the desire to do good things. We also see this aspect of Murdoch’s philosophy in the relationships in The Bell, as we see different manifestations of love that are equally fulfilling; we simultaneously see the consequences of denying love.

            Overall, Murdoch was in her own sense a philosopher; she wrote extensively about philosophy and incorporated many aspects of this into her other works. In The Bell, Murdoch illustrates her philosophy through her characters. Dora, Toby, and Michael all go through a spiritual change or awakening, their changes affect each other and the world around them. Ultimately, Murdoch seeks to merge love and morality into one attainable object, her work represents the search for fulfillment through love.

Works Cited

Burns, Elizabeth. “Iris Murdoch and the Nature of Good.” Religious Studies 3rd ser. 33 (1997): 303-13. Print.

Hauerwas, Stanley. “The Self as Story: Religion and Morality from the Agent’s Perspective.”JSTOR. The Journal of Religious Ethics, Fall 1973. Web. 4 Aug. 2013.

Kaehele, Sharon, and Howard German. “The Discovery of Reality in Iris Murdoch’s The Bell.”Modern Language Association 7th ser. 82 (1967): 554-63. The Discovery of Reality in Iris Murdoch’s The Bell. Web. 4 Aug. 2013.

Art for Art’s Sake: Modern Art in Mrs. Dalloway

Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863) Édouard Manet

The Luncheon in the Grass by Edouard Manet is one of the best examples of modernist art.  The juxtaposition of the naked women with completely dressed men provokes questions about what Manet is saying about society. The two men appear unimpressed by the woman’s nudity as they enjoy their picnic. They are further oblivious to the other woman bathing in the background. The nude woman’s pose, twisting her body to confront the viewer with her gaze, is suggestive of an assertion of power.

This painting reflects aspects of Mrs. Dalloway in several ways. If we view Manet’s painting as an illustration of how society views women, we can infer that Manet believes that society keeps women in place through “stripping down” or limiting their freedom. Manet seems to be saying that women need only assert themselves to be recognized. These themes are similar to Woolf’s in Mrs. Dalloway, in her opinion women were treated like second- class citizens by society. In Mrs. Dalloway, the female characters find some way to express their freedom within the constraints of their gender roles; they forge joy in parties, motherhood (the extent to which it is convenient), shopping, romance and other superficial endeavors. Both Woolf and Manet seem to critiquing the idea of “feminine” and “masculine,” suggesting that a society that limits one sex manufactures their identity.

Time (Las Viejas) (1810 – 12) Francisco de Goya

In his painting, “Time” Francisco de Goya creates an image of the living dead. Goya depicts two old women dressed in pretty clothes – though they themselves are skeletal – and one winged man looks down at a book that reads “Que Tal?” – Spanish for “How are Things?” or “What’s up?” One woman is dressed in red and black with a veil, suggesting mourning. The other woman is dressed in white and wearing jewelry.  Father time appears to be approaching the women undetected only partially revealing his intent.

Goya is critiquing the vanity of trying to cover up or hide your age. The painter asks us to consider the point in denying the passage of time by placing him directly behind the two corpse-like women clearly oblivious to him. This painting reminds me of the vanity of the elderly women in Mrs. Dalloway, the importance placed on beauty during Victorian society. Woolf makes the passage of time integral to the understanding of her novel while Goya symbolizes the ridiculous nature of denying age.

The Visage of War (1940) Salvador Dali

 In his painting “The Visage of War” Salvador Dali comments on the nature of war. Dali created the painting amidst the Spanish Civil War and World War II. The painting shows the face of war similar to a skull. The eyes are filled with infinitely receding skulls. The background is brown and barren, with Dali’s handprint in the lower right corner.   

This painting serves as a reminder of the true cost of war. Dali makes the statement that death is endless because war repeats itself. The Visage of War can also be seen as a comment on the living face of war or the survivors. This image is reminiscent of Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway. As a veteran of World War I, Septimus carries with him memories of all the atrocities he has witnessed. Septimus is the face of war because he lives with the constant reminders of his past. 

Tenure and Lucky Jim: Satirizing a Professor’s Life

    

  Tenure and Lucky Jim: Satirizing a Professor’s Life

In this 2008 comic film, Luke Wilson stars as Charlie Thurber, an associate English professor at a Pennsylvania university struggling to compete for tenure in the English department. As the film opens, Charlie attends the tenure meeting for his friend and colleague Jay Hadley (played by David Koechner) in the anthropology department. Hadley is snubbed for tenure, the two get drunk and toilet paper the home of one of the members of the tenure committee who voted against Hadley. The next morning Charlie drives past the home and the audience is able to see the Professor is very elderly and in a wheelchair.

That evening Hadley and Thurber attend a campus party, where Hadley (a Sasquatch expert) consumes ecstasy and spends the night hunting for Sasquatch. Charlie dodges the advances of a flirtatious student, returning home to edit his article. The following evening, Charlie attends a faculty party at the Dean’s house, bringing with him a bottle of wine marked with a “discount price: $6.99” sticker on it; this snafu seems to be the precursor to an evening of bad luck. Thurber subsequently spills wine on the Dean’s antique table cloth after learning that the university hired a new professor from Yale, Elaine Grasso (played by Gretchen Mol) a talented young woman poised to be his rival for tenure. Adding to the satirically absurd tone of the film, Thurber sees Bigfoot on his way home.

As the film progresses, Thurber and Hadley orchestrate a series of pranks designed to embarrass Grasso and get her fired. Thurber’s articles are rejected by a series of journals and he worries his career is in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Grasso opens up Thurber asking him for help with classroom lectures. Thurber realizes Grasso is not a threat and the two become friendly. The film closes with Thurber’s tenure review where the Dean casts a tiebreaking vote, offering him tenure based on Thurber’s popularity with his students. However, one condition of the Dean’s offer is fewer courses in order for Thurber to focus on publishing more articles. Thurber decides to quit the university and teach high school so he can focus on his students.

   

The Comic Novel: Lucky Jim and Tenure

            There are several similar aspects of the movie Tenure and the structure of the comic novel Lucky Jim. While the actual plot may differ, many elements essential to the development of the comic novel exist in Tenure and thus parallel Lucky Jim.

The first element that Lucky Jim and Tenure have in common is Resolutions. According to Dr. Bender’s Slideshare, in a comic novel “the guy gets the girl and/or achieves object of desire – hero’s rise – social order restored in some way – hero’s epiphany – avoids catastrophe” (Bender, 8). This is exactly what happens in Tenure, at the end of the film Charlie Thurber achieves his goal of tenure and begins dating Elaine Grasso. In terms of resolution, Tenure and the comic novel are very similar.

Another aspect that Tenure and Lucky Jim have in common is satire. In both works, the institution of higher education is satirized. In Lucky Jim, the goals and presences of higher education are satirized – what is established and proper v. what is new and unknown. According to Dr. Bender’s Slideshare about the comic novel, “The world’s hypocrisies and deceptions are targets that must be attacked, comedy the literary weapon of choice” (Bender, 9). This is the purpose of both Lucky Jim and Tenure; to satirize pretentious academic life.

In addition to this, Tenure and Lucky Jim share an absurd, lighthearted tone. In Tenure, Charlie sees a Sasquatch, it is accepted as reality that there is a “squatch” in the woods. This type of absurd event serves to remind the viewer of the alternate reality being created by the satire. Again according to Dr. Bender, characteristics we may find in a comic novel are “critiques/criticisms of people, ideas, society, & culture” (Bender, 10). Tenure satirizes several elements of university life; the irony of the pressure to publish versus teaching well, the ridiculous nature of some academic pursuits, and university politics. In this way, Tenure and Lucky Jim are especially similar because they both satirize university politics and professor’s personalities.

 

Works Cited

Bender, Ashley. Comedy, Satire & the English Novel. N.p.: Slideshare, 11 July 2013. Slideshare.

Blindness and Hands in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

fabulous analysis of a major symbol in P o A, Joyce uses a modernist technique in mixing senses to create unique sensory language.

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In her short essay “Interpreting Poetry: The Literary Habitus,” Judith Stewart Shank reflects that “[a literary work of art] is understood through contemplation of its images and their interrelation—the way in which the individual images come together to form a single thing, a unity” (1). If Dr. Shank is right, one of the most profitable methods of analyzing any literary work of art is to examine the imagery being used in the work and, perhaps more importantly, to trace the individual uses of that imagery in an attempt to discern how they come to form an harmonious and organic symbolic system across the work as a whole. In James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, one could pick up on any number of images which appear and reappear throughout the novel, for example: birds and flying; gardens, roses, flowers; heat and cold; light and darkness…

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Elements of Modernism in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

 

Modernism is a literary movement that shaped James Joyce’s writing extensively. In particular, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man reflects many of the ideals of modernist writing. The aspects of modernism within the novel influenced the development of the modernist movement and made Joyce a prominent modernist writer. In this semi-autobiographical novel, the modernist techniques connect the character of Stephen to Joyce; the artist himself. There are many examples of modernist techniques within Portrait of the Artist but the most prevalent are the “stream of consciousness” style, künstlerroman plot, individual v. universal themes, and unique language.

– Stream of Consciousness technique
In Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce creates an uninhibited free-flowing style, reminiscent of Stephen’s unrestrained conscious thought. This technique is an essential aspect of modernism in the novel because it creates a psychic reality, not a true reality.

What did that mean, to kiss? You put your face up like that to say goodnight and then his mother put her face down. That was to kiss. His mother put her lips on his cheek; her lips were soft and they wetted his cheek; and they made a tiny little noise: kiss. Why did people do that with their two faces? (113)

In this passage, Stephen reflects on what a kiss is, freely expressing his own innocent curiosity. The style is similar to an interior monologue; mixing second and third person, questioning reality and creating a personal reality.

– Künstlerroman Autobiography
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is semi-autobiographical. Stephen Dedalus is Joyce’s mythical representation of himself. The story details the process of Stephen maturing and cultivating an artistic aesthetic.

I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself my home, my fatherland or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defense the only arms I allow myself to use, silence, exile, and cunning. (3308)

The use of first person in the fifth chapter cements the connection between the writer Joyce and the narrator Stephen. Once Stephen becomes aware enough to adopt his artistic identity, he becomes united with the artist of the work, Joyce.

– Focus on the Individual
Joyce’s use of modernist techniques extends to the themes he includes in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. He focuses on universal themes like freedom, humanity, individualism and exile from society. These themes reflect the modern focus on the development of the individual apart from the general problems of society.

I do not fear to be alone or to be spurned for another or to leave whatever I have to leave. And I am not afraid to make a mistake, even a great mistake, a lifelong mistake and perhaps as long as eternity too. (3315)

In this section, Stephen declares himself as an individual separate from everything, an artist who requires exile to create. As Stephen becomes an artist he sheds his connections to the reality of his youthful past.

– Modern Language Technique
Joyce integrated his intellectualism to form a combination of mythology, history and literature to create innovative symbols and narrative techniques. Joyce uses symbols to reflect his themes. For example, Stephen is represented by a rose; the color reflects his conscious awareness.

White roses and red roses: those were beautiful colours to think of. And the cards for the first and second place and third place were beautiful colours too: pink and cream and lavender. Lavender and cream and pink roses were beautiful to think of. Perhaps a wild rose might be like those colours and he remembered the song about the wild rose blossoms on the little green place. But you could not have a green rose. But perhaps somewhere in the world you could. (80)

Joyce chooses the rose the symbolize Stephen on different levels, Stephen blooms into an artist, referencing his growth and maturity throughout the novel. Stephen discusses white and red roses, indicating the desire for a green rose. These colors seem to indicate purity, passion, and his love of Ireland.

Another symbol in the novel is flight and birds. This symbol reflects the theme of freedom, and the myth of Daedalus. For example, “His heart trembled in ecstasy of fear and his soul was in flight. His soul was soaring in an air beyond the world and the body he knew” (2247). Joyce uses flight to represent the freedom of his soul representing himself as a bird. In addition to flight, water is another symbol replete in the novel. For example, “Now at the name of the fabulous artificer, he seemed to hear the noise of dim waves and to see a winged form flying above the waves and slowly climbing the air. What did it mean” (2242)? Here Joyce combines the water symbol and flight to allude to the Daedalus myth.

Course Assigned Reading

Titles we will be reading