Discussion of Chapters: The Pool of Tears

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Chapter 2: "The Pool of Tears"

In this chapter, Alice has fallen down the rabbit hole and into a corridor that leads to a room adorned solely with a coffee table, a few cakes, a mysterious potion, and a mouse sized door. It is here that she begins to question her grasp on reality; she grows frustrated while improperly reciting her school rhymes; she questions her present self in comparison to the person she was earlier that morning; confused and shocked, Alice even starts to wonder if she is one of her friends, since she is obviously not herself. After trying both the shapeshifting foods, she begins to cry uncontrollably and fills the room with gargantuan tears. She stops to better solve the issue of the door and readjusts her size to more easily fit through. Once she is just under two feet tall, Alice slips off of the table and swims through the brackish water towards a mouse, who, despite her amiable introduction, takes offense at the girl's love for cats. The chapter concludes with Alice mid swim towards shore with numerous other animals, who she talks at length with in the next chapter.

This chapter's importance is due to the initial exposure both the reader and Alice have to the strange, ironic place she has entered. Along with the ability to physically alter her body, Alice's psychological state fluctuates the moment she enters the rabbit hole. Concrete aspects of her past, such as her identity and life experiences, seem like fragmented illusions. Her lessons become incomprehensible groupings of words without intent. The majority of her fundamental characteristics and thoughts change without control, and it is this transformation that peaks our curiosity. Wonderland has a melancholic ambiance that remains unexplained throughout the entirety of the novel, and it is very interesting that Carroll decided on this episode to introduce this milieu.

To introduce our discussion of chapters from the novel, I want to take an in depth look at the importance of Alice's pool of tears and the mouse she commiserates with. Upon first inspection the theme seems obvious, what with the numerous other literary examples of man-to-vermin symbolism we can recite (Steinbeck, Kafka, etc.). While there do exist these texts, however, Carroll's use of metaphor is effective due to his choice in concurrent action in the chapter. I personally believe that Alice's ability to shape shift is indicative of the numerous ways individuals undergo psychological maturation throughout their lives, and there is good cause for this belief.

Though the novel was written before the advent of Freud and the innovation of Psychological sciences, "Alice in Wonderland" has many themeatic elements that pertain to childhood development and philosophical discussion of behavior. People often feel anxious and small throughout their early years, because of the pertinent role of their newly formed social identity. When this anxiety becomes normalized and we are able to consciously adapt to varying situations, our first reaction is to fortify our confidence and ability to effect our environment. For lack of a better identifying noun, the ego grows and organizes its core values to better resemble what it believes to be a formidable, legitimate worldview. In Alice's case, an immediate shift to small stature is indicative of our anxieties, because she is shrinking without control and becomes more helpless as a  consequence. This helplessness prompts her to eat the cake that causes an inverse transformation. It seems only proper that, once she realizes that her choice has exacerbated the situation, Alice breaks down in tears. Her impulsive and half-baked decision to eat the cake has hindered her ability to change to the size of the door, which was the cause of her size experimentation to begin with. When she finally reaches the proper size, Alice has a choice to make: whether to drown in her sorrows or push on towards the shore. It is only proper, then, that she comes into contact with a mouse, a paranoid character whose small stature and tragic personage have resonated throughout the literary world.

At this point, before I go on further with this analysis, I would like to open the topic up to discussion. What symbolic role does the mouse have? Do you feel that it plays into the aforementioned theme? What are your thoughts on the second chapter?

Thanks much for reading and contributing.

As always, happy reading!

Transcending Genre and Comprehension

I am posting an article about a debate that revolves around the subject of Children's Lit. and the difficulties children have interpreting the novella "Alice in Wonderland".

This is the abstract:



"A book such as Alice in Wonderland, written for a girl, but nowadays understandable only by adults, the translation of proper nouns can reveal the audience for which translators have addressed their works. This article looks at the translation of proper nouns. These cultural traits are first names, historical references, place names and names of languages: should these be changed to facilitate comprehension by children? This study is then used to evaluate some aspects of theories proposed by Shavit and Oittinen concerning adaptation and translation."


Enjoy and get learned!

When Children's Literature Transcends Genre

Another Existential Paraphrase: Lewis Carroll

"Be what you would seem to be - or, if you'd like it put more simply - never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.”

The Child as Swain

Here is a link to a wonderful article circa 1971 by William Empson.

In it, Empson discusses the importance of Scientific and Transcendental philosophical motions mid 19th century, and how these innovations were used by Carroll in Alice and Wonderland. The article discusses the genesis of evolutionary theory, normative Victorian lifestyles, Tennyson and Coleridge, and a slew of other interesting subjects.

Feel free to carouse and inform yourself!

The Child as Swain by William Empson

Who are you?

My favorite and arguably the most pertinent topic in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is the feeling of uncontrollable estrangement. Alice's tumble down the rabbit hole is the initial step in a series of transformations that, more often than not, drastically effect her understanding of the world and its creatures. Wonderland is a twisted place filled with snide catapillars, mad tea-partyers, and maniacal, unforgiving tyrants. It is a place devoid of reality and riddled with contradiction, what with the talking animals and incomprehensible social order. Indeed, Wonderland is so devoid of rational grounding that Alice begins to adopt schizophrenic symptoms; insomuch as she has journeyed into the dark and mysterious depths, so too does time stop and a cheshire cat appears out of thin air.

It is because of Alice's displacement that this novel transcends age and time. It offers adults and children alike the chance to indulge in a chaotic place unlike the common world we live in. Carroll was insightful enough to realize that, when stepping away from home/sanity, the pilgrim soon loses their ability to recognize themselves. Their memories and "lessons" become diluted, which in turn directly changes their self-identity.

This quote, like many others in the novel, is a prime example of Alice's estranged introspection during her stay in Wonderland:

"The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.
'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, 'I — I hardly know, sir, just at present — at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.'

'What do you mean by that?' said the Caterpillar sternly. 'Explain yourself!'

'I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir' said Alice, 'because I'm not myself, you see.'

'I don't see,' said the Caterpillar.

'I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly,' Alice replied very politely, 'for I can't understand it myself to begin with."

The Origin of Gonzo

The phrase "Gonzo" has many speculative origins. One explanation is that the term was coined in 1970 by the Boston Globe editor, Bill Carduso, who used South Boston Irish slang in his articles. The noun, "Gonzo", supposedly was used to talk about the last man standing after an all night drinking marathon. Another speculated point of origin for the term "Gonzo" comes from a New Orleans rhythm and blues piece of the same name by James Booker, which in 1960 reached number 43 on the US Billboard Chartand number 3 on the R&B charts.

An Interview With a Librarian: David Wright

First off, can you tell us a little about yourself?

My name is David Wright, and I'm a librarian with the Reader Services Department at The Seattle Public Library.

When was the first time you read Fear and Loathing?

Back in the mid 1980s, when I was a much younger man. I just read it again – thank you so much for the excuse - and was really pleased by how well it held up. I’d been a little worried that it wouldn’t turn out to be as good as I’d remembered it; it was better. Only it didn’t seem to be about Reagan’s America anymore, like it clearly was the first time I read it. As of course it wasn’t.

This novel is a great example of experimental literature, what with the chaotic, drug induced scenes and characters. Upon your first read, did it change your opinion about literature and the way that books are written?

I had already read Naked Lunch at that time, so Fear & Loathing was a little late to that particular party, but it probably would have otherwise. (Actually, come to think of it, when I was just a kid I had tiptoed into my dad’s copies of all sort of things I shouldn’t oughta have been reading – Carlos Castaneda, “Soul on Ice” by Eldridge Cleaver, Tom Robbins when he was brand new, Terry Southern – so I had pretty freaky associations about “grown up literature” by then anyway).  

As a cultural historian/theorist, what seminal authors and texts laid the groundwork for this, the New Journalist era of literature?

Yikes – I’m not a cultural historian – just a librarian and lover of books – but I can tell you what it reminds me of. I almost feel like “Fear & Loathing” doesn’t even really fit w/ New Journalism. “Hell's Angels” (Thompson’s first book) does, and the pieces in “Great Shark Hunt” do, and to that extent I see Thompson as really coming out of Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer’s “Armies of the Night.” (And looking ahead to his heirs, P.J. O’Rourke, or this guy I love named Mark Sundeen...) But “Fear & Loathing” feels like it has turned into a different kind of book altogether – it seems unfair to the book and to journalism to even link them at all. Rather it feels like something that came by way of Kerouac and other Beats, and going further back out of Henry Miller and Andre Gide. And further still, form Rimbaud. These – not just trickster’s tales, but transgressor’s tales. I can’t help but think of “On the Road” and “Fear & Loathing” as bookends to something – the sixties, I guess – and so much better and more compelling than a lot of the stuff that came in between. But what a difference between the two; how that beatific angel has fallen. Glib, but Kerouac is to Thompson as is the ‘67 Monterey Pop Festival to the Stones at Altamont speedway.

Also I think Hemingway gets a piece of the credit – certainly for Thompson’s work, as he was a big fan, and it really shows in the writing, which is a lot cleaner and more direct than it might at first seem. He’s really a very direct, no nonsense writer, and at least some of that rubbed off from Hemingway, who did his own kind of proto-New Journalism, didn’t he? I think a lot of Thompsons forcefulness and gravity is probably Hemingway’s influence. Maybe the guns, too.

This book is often the stepping stone for many readers that have refrained from popular literature up until the point of reading it. What do you think about the cult following that now surrounds Thompson's life and works?

I remember that it made a huge impression on me when I first read it, and I wasn't a stoner or anything. I don’t have anything revelatory to say about the book – it hardly needs explication, being one of the most straightforward pieces of writing I’ve ever read – but it has always struck me as one of those rite-of-passage kinds of books, and I think that is a source of a lot of its power.

For example, you take another cult book like “Catcher in the Rye,” which just absolutely nails that moment that so many of us go through (I hope) where the people and authority that we’ve grown up revering as children suddenly become fallible. Our childish certainties come crashing down, and everything seems like a sham, a betrayal. Salinger nails that part of growing up. Some readers who don’t read that book until later in life wonder what the big deal is, but you just can’t argue with that kind of emotional truth.

Thompson captures like nobody else I know the intense, surreal experience that I’m sure almost everyone has had at one time or another, of getting well and truly high and losing control. Of stepping miraculously, terrifyingly outside the social masks and shackles we wear each day. On whatever – on punch, warm beer, it doesn’t matter what – but that giddy dangerous paranoid wild leap out of our everyday selves into abandon – Thompson just nails that particular rite of passage. And even readers who have never experienced that for themselves read Thompson just for that contact high.

Under that, there’s this disturbing, graduate level version of Holden Caulfield’s disillusionment. Not just that the adult world is seedy and shameful, but that the whole American way of life is lost, is monstrous and insane. It may be that not everyone agrees with the enormity of that vision, but most of us have it, at least in flashes. In the shopping mall. On the freeway. And oh my god, in Las Vegas! I was recently in Las Vegas, and walking the strip (sober) really freaked me out pretty bad. It's a nightmare.

This is also one of those books that you can judge people by. By which I mean to say if I met someone who disapproved of this book, I don’t think I’d want to put a lot of energy into trying to be their friend.

Do you think that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas can be described as a "timeless piece"? Or do you think that it solely has generational appeal? Why?

I suppose it will need some footnotes in a century or two - Spiro Agnew, nitrous oxide - but I really do believe it stands up very well – much better than a lot of other zeitgeist-y writing from back then – The Crying of Lot 49, say. Because the writing, as baroque and mad as it seems, is really forceful and compelling and true. Its damn good writing, to coin a phrase. And has such tremendous momentum – it is a pleasure to read, and very hard to put down, which is pretty good given that it is essentially plotless. Classic status is such a weird, corrupted and subjective concept that I don’t want to get into it, but I would say for anyone who wants to read all the important American books, this had better be on their list. It is a great book, upper or lowercase.

I just bought the Modern Library hardcover, which feels a little weird to read – I guess I always thought of this as a dogeared paperback – though I am tickled to think that Thompson is now that much in The Canon. Fired out of one cannon and into another.

It has been said that modern literature is becoming predominately autobiographical. Do you feel that Thompson's autobiographical works have influenced our recent fixation on estranged and fascinating stories about other people's lives?

You mean, like “misery lit?” I don’t really see it, because the most popular confessional literature is pretty uninflected stuff. Hear my testimony: the hell I've lived. Though there are some inventive confessional folks who seem influenced by Thompson – Nick Flynn’s “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City,” for instance, or Augusten Burroughs. But I don’t know if I even agree with that particular “it has been said,” honestly. We’re in kind of a golden age of fantasy and the surreal right now, with people flocking to stories of vampires and zombies – even serious literary novels about zombies, which, Corson Whitehead’s “Zone One” is awesome. Fabulism, slipstream, steampunk, it is pretty wild out there - so it all balances out.  

Do you believe that Thompson was proselytizing his version of the American Dream in his novels? Do you think his version of freedom has been acclimated into society today? What other literary topics, in your opinion, did Thompson contribute to and help proliferate?

You know I never felt that Thompson was pushing any particular lifestyle or anything, or that his journey is seen as some sort of freedom. I guess that’s a difference I’d draw between him and Kerouac, who does seem to want to win converts to his way of seeing and being. Thompson feels more like Dante to me – here’s the trip I took, it isn’t pretty, it isn't even sane, but it IS the truth of things, so hang on. Less a version than a vision. And also really just an adventure, in the end. Nightmarish, surreal, caustic, but an adventure.

9) If you had any questions for the late Hunter S. Thompson, what would you ask?

“Is that thing loaded?” 

"Fear is just another word for ignorance."

"Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed."

-Hunter S. Thompson

The American Dream

Thompson's version of the American dream is deranged and listless.

His novels are a testament to what is possible during fits of reckless self indulgence. Eloquent disclosure of his experiences define a modern variety of anti-hero that has reshaped world culture, so that genius and drug use are seldom considered mutually exclusive character traits.

Some call Thompson a product of the experimental 60's and 70's, while others feel he was a visionary who paid respect to a dying breed, those disillusioned by the restrictions of contemporary society. In recent times, the definition of "freedom" has spurred on considerable debate. Between the war on drugs, the war on terror, and the war on anti-west sentiment around the globe, the word "freedom" has been a validating point for the majority of international American occupation over the last two decades. Perhaps Thompson's version of freedom has become a timeless cultural asset due to modern society's distrust of nationalism, what with the inevitable economic and cultural trials that challenge our belief structures annually.

But lets not kid ourselves, Thompson's version of freedom is not sustainable and often degenerates the social fabric that protects us from dangerous, unwieldily behaviors. This is a pertinent problem regarding Hunter's cult following, because few take time aside to consider that the core of the novel's thematic purpose is not necessarily about maniacal drug abuse and irresponsible violence. People mimic Thompson's personality with little due respect to his most important cultural contribution: the reinvention of satire by interjecting the status quo with insanity. More often than not, people go insane when faced with unmitigated reality.

The Race

Thompson specialized in semi-autobiographical literature, and took few liberties with the portrayal of personal experiences. Here is a list of facts that help us explore the experience of writing this provocative, and often haunting, novel:

1) Thompson traveled to Las Vegas with a latino attorney, Osca Zeta Acosta, to investigate the unlawful killing of a Vietnam protester in the 70's. His commission, however, was for Sports Illustrated, who planned to publish an article on the annual Mint 400 race. The original article was initially rejected, but later published by Rolling Stone.
2) The novel necessitated two trips to Las Vegas, the first of which was the genesis of the novel. He returned a year later to amass more information, a trip he called "Vegas II". He finished the work during stay at a hotel in Arcadia, California.
3) Thompson said, post-publication, that his portrayal in the novel was intentionally chaotic and unkept. He  hoped that the 'messy' protagonist would allude to the listless and "permanently crippled" seekers of a previous age.
4) The novel was published less than a year after its initial conception.

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
― Hunter S. Thompson

An interview with Russell About "The Sparrow"

Here is an interview with Russell following the release of The Sparrow.

Enjoy!


http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/intmdr.html

Information About the Author

Russell was born to an army Marine father and Navy nurse mother and harkens from the suburbs of Chicago. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a Ph. D. in biological anthropology and has since written four novels. Her first two works, The Sparrow and its sequel Children of God, are an exploration of her experience with faith, having undergone a series of spiritual reformations from Catholocism to Atheism in her teenage years, then from Atheism to Jusaism in adulthood. Her third work, entitled A Thread of Grace, accompanied her study of an Italian renaissance that occured during WW2, and investigates the lives of Jewish refugees in the northern half of the country. Her fourth and latest publication, Dreamers of the Day, revolves around the Cairo Peace Conference of 1921 that is responsible for much of the dissonance between western and middle eastern countries today.

For more on Theodicy in The Sparrow, feel free to access this articulate and enlightened discourse via Google Scholar:

http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/art9-sparrow-print.html

Topics in Literature: Theodicy in "The Sparrow"

One of the many overt themes in the Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow is that of Theodicy, or "the vindication of divine goodness and providence in view of the existence of evil."


The reader is introduced to this topic before they turn the first page; the 'sparrow' is one of Russell's major biblical allegories within the novel, which is drawn from some of the first passages in the book of Matthew: 


"Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matthew 6:26) 


This passage, in particular, calls attention to God's preference for mankind above all other creation. Only human beings can account for the presence of omniscient forces, as we are endowed with consciousness enough to differentiate between right and wrong, and thus differentiate between preferable actions to deplorable ones. Mankind amasses itself to please God and acts within finite, worldly means to glorify his/her name. It is our responsibility to act justly, for God has given man, the sole beneficiary of heaven, the ability to choose right and wrong when faced with hardship. The human capacity of choice, then, deems mankind the favored creature amidst all of God's creation, which is further elaborated upon in this passage:  


"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows" (Matthew 10:29-31).


It is important to note that, though the lives of earthly creatures are plagued with hardship and turmoil, strife is essential for moral growth, and our ability to dwell on both good and bad experiences is what grants humanity God's preference. Only by resisting evil can an individual transcend otherwise primal urges, such as greed or lust, that bind his/her soul to an otherwise undesired judgement. 


Russell's protagonist, Emelio Sandoz, is the foremost embodiment of this struggle. He departs for Alpha Centauri with the utmost confidence regarding the validity and righteousness of his cause, but a string of disastrous occurrences challenge his faith. Sandoz is an archetypal saint; he has traveled between innumerable cultures and peoples to propagate peace and love; his linguistic savvy grants him limitless empathy for all mankind, as he works to alleviate the pains of mankind indiscriminately; he acts with steadfast faith for the prosperity of the world and requests little recognition for his sacrifice. 


His voyage transforms the missionary into an unwilling martyr, however, as he returns with his faith shaken, desperate and mournful of loved ones lost along the way. Sandoz's confrontation with evil redefines his perception of God, as he becomes aware of God's unanswerable logic. Much like Job, Sandoz has devoted his life to the prosperity of God, but is punished all the same.


To conclude this brief discussion of theodicy in the novel, I will call attention to the philosophical implications of this topic. Although Russell is a born again believer, one must not differentiate theology and philosophy for the sake of argument. In either school of thought, Russell seeks to discuss mankind's predilection for moral transcendance. A reviewer at the Library Journal wrote that this book was mistakenly categorized as science fiction, and that it is really "a philosophical novel about the nature of good and evil and what happens when a man tries to do the right thing, for the right reasons and ends up causing incalculable harm".^[2]


The Sparrow is not a purely religious text, but a metaphorical statement about the challenges every person faces in their day to day life. Whether or not valiant actions are rewarded has a inseparable and drastic effect on our moral fiber. More often than not, tragedy follows those that spread benevolence and virtue, and it is only the most righteous of individuals that can overcome this dilemma scarred, but not fully disenchanted.

"I'm used to having big chewy ideas to structure my reading, and I enjoy the research my books have required. But the whole time I'm reading, I'm also thinking about the best way to convey what I'm learning. That's the craft, the artistry -- balancing content with conveyance."


-Mary Doria Russell

Interview with Mary Doria Russell

http://www.bookslut.com/features/2005_09_006573.php

Above is an interview with Russell from 2005. In it, she describes her inspirations, motivations, and objectives as an author, including specific insight into The Sparrow.

Some interesting factoids are:

- Mary Doria Russell first subtracted two dates to determine her novel's historical setting, namely Arthur C. Clark's 1968 novel 2001.


- Russell does not believe that any of her novels fall under a specific genre, as "genre is a tool" and she has never sought out to write with a particular genre in mind. While many critics label The Sparrow as Science Fiction, the author denies having consciously written futurist literature.

- Russell started her academic career in classical anthropology, and has since been acclaimed by her ability to coalesce a variety of disciplines and knowledge into her stories.


-Gratis Bookslut.com-

Mary Doria Russell's "The Sparrow"

Come join the Bushwick Bookclub's showcase of music inspired by "The Sparrow" at the Freemont Abbey on November 18th. Doors are at 6 pm and tickets $8 pre-ordered or $10 at the door. The headliners include: Aaron Zig, James Pitts, David Hillman , Melissa Montalto, Michael Wallenfels, Katrina Kope, Geoff Larson, Renata June, Michael Owcharuk, Man with Hat and Justin Sorensen.

You can find the tickets here at http://www.strangertickets.com/events/4331690/the-bushwick-book-club-seattle-presents-original-music-inspired-by-mary-doria-russells-the-sparrow

For directions and to learn more about the Freemont Abbey, see their website : FremontAbbey.org