Reading Notes on Phineas Finn

Reading Notes: Anthony Trollope, Phineas Finn
December 24-31, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter

Lady Laura Standish is the real politician, but as a woman she must operate through men -- in this case the impulsive, improvident Phineas. 11:02 AM Dec 24th, 2008 from txt

Lady Laura finds Finn a seat in the House and advises him how to make use of those he despises: "I mean you to be very intimate with Mr Kennedy, to shoot his grouse and to stalk his deer and to be helpful to his progress as a Liberal member of Parliament." 11:08 AM Dec 24th, 2008 from txt

Laura's friend Violet Effingham also drawn to male activity: sports. "It is strange what a propensity I have for the wrong side of the post" 12:11 PM Dec 24th, 2008 from txt

Laura arranges men's lives: urges her father into Cabinet and Phineas into a PM; tries to arrange her "beastly" brother's marriage to Violet 1:17 PM Dec 24th, 2008 from txt

Chiltern's ill reputation: "We all know how the man well spoken of may steal a horse, while he of evil repute may not look over a hedge." 1:40 PM Dec 24th, 2008 from txt

Phineas's political (and romantic) talent is being agreeable and, at least in early stage of his career, he is all ambition, no substance. 9:34 AM Dec 25th, 2008 from txt

Of radical MP's, Monk is modest, self-doubting while Turnbull is "leveler of forests" without care for how to cultivate the land so cleared. 9:41 AM Dec 25th, 2008 from txt

The "pleasant" Phineas occupies a safe middle ground between the absolute dullness of Laura's Kennedy and the wildness of Violet's Chiltern. 5:25 PM Dec 25th, 2008 from txt

Trollope lauds mediocrity (common sense) in romance as well as politics. Laura tallies that for "999 of 1000" life is business not romance 5:27 PM Dec 25th, 2008 from txt

Chiltern calls Kennedy "a log of wood ... such men drive me out of the pale of decent life. If that is decency, I'd sooner be indecent" 5:41 PM Dec 25th, 2008 from txt

Bunce deflates prestiege of Phineas's going into the government: "a man gets so thick in the muck that he don't know if he's dirty or clean" 12:10 PM Dec 27th, 2008 from txt

Not suprisingly, Violet chooses Chiltern, and so Phineas rejected first for a dull prig and then a wildman -- each, however, men of status. 8:33 PM Dec 27th, 2008 from txt

For all the talk of romance, the clear priority of suitors, both male and female, is social status: "grasping the top brick of the chimney" 8:38 PM Dec 27th, 2008 from txt

Appearance of the "European" Madame Max Goesler who flirts with Phineas but then trains her sights on the unreachably regal Lord Omnium. 10:12 AM Dec 28th, 2008 from txt

Seeing a threat to the coronet she intends for her "blond, bold faced son," Glencora challenges Madame Goesler to "duel" of reputation. 10:19 AM Dec 28th, 2008 from txt

Glencora's liberal mask slips as she seethes at the "black browed, yellow skinned, half monkey baby" of a liaison of Mdm Goesler with Omnium 10:29 AM Dec 28th, 2008 from txt

Glencora seethes further: "it might be that Madam Goesler would win the coronet; but she would find there were sharp thorns in the lining" 10:47 AM Dec 28th, 2008 from txt

Reconciliation of Madame Goesler and Glencora after their "duel" similar to mutual respect of Chiltern and Phineas following their exchange. 8:14 PM Dec 28th, 2008 from txt

Mdm Goesler sees Phineas as a rushing train that may jump the tracks; Omnium as a majestic snowy peak vulnerable only to a major earthquake. 8:20 PM Dec 29th, 2008 from txt

Mdm Goesler: "you see me in society and look upon me as a member of a gregarious herd, but I am an animal that feeds alone and lives alone." 8:23 PM Dec 29th, 2008 from txt

Phineas now in position of choosing "suitor" between Mary, the romantic love of his childhood, and the wealth and status of Madame Goesler. 4:16 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from txt

Laura advises Phineas to wed Madame Goesler for her money: "You have had your romance and must now put up with reality." 4:30 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from txt

At end of story, Phineas has acted principled in both love and politics -- meaning, for Trollope, that he has conformed to his social status 12:24 PM Dec 31st, 2008 from web

Reading Notes on The Beetle

Reading Notes: Richard Marsh, The Beetle
December 20-21, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter

Up a bit before dawn. Very snowy landscape with sky a cold blue. Got fire going. Reading Richard Marsh's Edwardian thriller "The Beetle." 7:27 AM Dec 20th, 2008 from txt

The Beetle's victim Robert Holt dehumanized on several registers: becoming an "automaton," an "invertibrate" and without will or volition. 8:11 AM Dec 20th, 2008 from txt

Holt also a sex object as The Beetle forces him to strip naked, admires his white skin, and implants a "blubbery" kiss that steals his soul 8:12 AM Dec 20th, 2008 from txt

Modern society represented by Lessingham, smooth politician with a secret in his past, and Atherton, blithe inventor of chemical weapons. 11:56 AM Dec 20th, 2008 from txt

Atherton displaces his murderousness from humans, killing his rival's cat and planning large scale test of nerve gas on Amazonian fauna. 12:50 PM Dec 20th, 2008 from txt

Rivalry of two kinds of magic: the Beetle's "survivor" arts of transmigration and mesmerism against Atherton's electrochemical science. 12:56 PM Dec 20th, 2008 from txt

Lessingham's cloudy past: "the man's a mushroom, a toadstool sprung up in the course of a single night, apparently out of some dirty ditch" 1:22 PM Dec 20th, 2008 from txt

"The Beetle": Faced with overwhelming evidence of the ineffible, it is so much the British way to densely cling to common sense. 9:33 AM Dec 21st, 2008 from txt

Debate in "The Beetle" on how much of his past a man must reveal; Atherton does not argue Lessingham's statement that "in all our lives there are episodes which we keep to ourselves." Both Holt and Lessingham pay for indiscretion of looking in a window. 11:08 AM Dec 21st, 2008 from txt

Detective as confessor. Lessingham opens up his sexual misadventure in Cairo: "I am altogether incapable of even hinting to you the nauseating nature of that woman's kisses ... I lay there like a log. She did with me as she would and in dumb agony I endured." 11:26 AM Dec 21st, 2008 from txt

Lessingham defines a Confidential Agent (Detective): "an experienced man of the world who has been endowed by nature with phenomenal perceptive abilities and in whose capacity and honor I can place the completest confidence." 12:39 PM Dec 21st, 2008 from txt

On ride-in from Hayward, H suggests Beetle's messy end in railway accident can be read as fate of ancient magic in face of modern technology 10:57 AM Dec 22nd, 2008 from web

At end of "The Beetle," Lessingham + Marjorie suffering from kind of proto-PTSD; strangely like the contemporary symptoms of child sex abuse 10:33 AM Dec 22nd, 2008 from web

Remarkably overt sexual tone of "The Beetle"; Marsh lacivious in insistence on nakedness and sadism as opposed to more allusive Stoker. 10:45 AM Dec 22nd, 2008 from web

In summing-up, suggestion that Egyptian den of the perversion cult is wiped out in British military raid; so Atherton's violence triumphs. 10:51 AM Dec 22nd, 2008 from web

"The Beetle" presages Anglo-American tendency to see sexuality as threatening and harmful (even evil) while violence is fun and patriotic 10:54 AM Dec 22nd, 2008 from web

Reading Notes on Driftless

Reading Notes: David Rhodes, Driftless
December 7-10, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter

Rhodes' metaphor of WI's unglaciated "Driftless Zone" reveals lives resistant, through will or inertia, to flows of hypercapitalist America 10:25 AM Dec 7th, 2008 from web

Olivia on need to be skeptical: "In this age of profiteering, all a person had to do was watch a half hour of television to understand how life's most treasured moments could be ransomed to sell underwear." 10:31 AM Dec 7th, 2008 from web

"But those are old and this is new" complained Winnie. "Foolishness," said Olivia. "New is only old rearranged." 10:46 AM Dec 7th, 2008 from web

Graham: "We shouldn't need a lawyer. We've done nothing wrong. This is the United States." July: "No country is immune to human nature" 12:12 PM Dec 7th, 2008 from web

Rusty: "Everyone had money now and sitting around, loitering, had become a way of life. His grandchildren were being methodically instructed in how to enjoy living while doing nothing." 2:13 PM Dec 7th, 2008 from web

Horror of Rusty and Maxine's family that they still live in farmhouse w/ long flight of stairs, no microwave. Relief farm animals are gone. 2:16 PM Dec 7th, 2008 from web

"Driftless" has wonderful chapter on the natural and social experience of snow in Wisc. Turns scary when Rhodes picks-up narrative again. 2:18 PM Dec 7th, 2008 from web

Gail thinks her dutiful brother has always been in a "voluntary prison" but can't imagine him in a real, physical one: "built to hold those who refused to accept the voluntary one." 11:10 AM Dec 9th, 2008 from txt

Jacob trepidatious about love: "he had stood on the bottom rung of this ladder before and understood the implications of climbing higher." 11:15 AM Dec 9th, 2008 from txt

Finished "Driftless." As if every character has small piece of revelation. In joining them - in community - they merge into understanding. 10:53 AM Dec 10th, 2008 from txt

The "drifter" July at center of community. Winifred's Whitmanesque sermon at funeral subconsciously reflects July's redefinition of family. 11:51 AM Dec 10th, 2008 from txt

Reading Notes on The Monk

Reading Notes: Matthew Lewis, The Monk
Nov 27-30, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter

Began M.G. Lewis's relentlessly sacreligious "The Monk," set in Spain which is to the British mind the site of religious excess in same way that France stands for the excess of irreligion. Difficult to say which the British fear and abhor more. 11:28 AM Nov 27th, 2008 from txt

The spurned Baroness: "my love is become hatred and my wounded pride shall not be unatoned. Go where you will, my vengeance will follow." 11:46 AM Nov 28th, 2008 from txt

Denoument of Nun with the Bleeding Hands episode has Melmothian figure, revealed to be the Wandering Jew (fiery cross on forehead and all). 9:01 AM Nov 29th, 2008 from txt

Lewis places age of sexual urgency at 30 rather than adolescence; in some ways, the travail of the monk Ambrosio is a midlife crisis. 9:11 AM Nov 29th, 2008 from txt

Forgiving sister's rape: "strict honor would oblige me to wash off in your blood the stain thrown upon my family; but the (cont'd) "circumstances of your case forbid me to consider you an enemy." The honorable solution is a Papal Bull and, of course, marriage. 9:34 AM Nov 29th, 2008 from txt

In cases of both Ambrosio and "bleeding hands" nun (Beatrice) artificiality of convent system accentuates licentiousness. 9:46 AM Nov 29th, 2008 from txt

Matilda/Rosario's seduction of Ambrosio involves secret gift: a painting of the Madonna with her own features for him to adore in his cell. 11:44 AM Nov 29th, 2008 from txt

Matilda to Ambrosio post-coitis: "unnatural were your vows of celibacy; man was not created for such a state; were love a crime God would not have made it so sweet, so irresistible!" Her tempting of Ambrosio comes after she sucks poison from his blood. 11:53 AM Nov 29th, 2008 from txt

Elvira, mother of virginal Antonia, edits the bible used by her daughter, sees clearly the snares used by both noble and clerical seducers. 2:04 PM Nov 29th, 2008 from txt

Bible a reference book of sin: "every thing called by its name . . . the annals of a brothel would scarcely furnish a greater choice of indecency" 2:10 PM Nov 29th, 2008 from txt

Elvira warning Antonia of the monk's urges is careful "lest in removing the bandage of ignorance, the veil of innocence should rent away" 2:19 PM Nov 29th, 2008 from txt

Matilda, adept of natural philosophy, advocate of unrestrained passion. The image she conjures of Antonia shows a playful bird at her breast 2:36 PM Nov 29th, 2008 from txt

His attempts to seduce Antonia with religion foiled by Elvira, Ambrosio, with temptress Matilda's aid, tries again with Satanic methods. 2:52 PM Nov 29th, 2008 from txt

Ambrosio precursor of Raskolnikov: "The murdered Elvira was constantly before his eyes, his guilt already punished by agonies of conscience" 3:54 PM Nov 29th, 2008 from txt

Ambrosio is only character drawn in 3 dimensions, so for all his perfidy he demands sympathy for his quick descent from virtue and status. 9:18 AM Nov 30th, 2008 from txt

Satan appears first to Ambrosio as naked youth then, at time for surrender of soul, as snake-crowned, sable-winged monster, iron pen in hand 10:06 AM Nov 30th, 2008 from txt

Satan gloats over Ambrosio: "Know vain man that I have long marked you for my prey: I watched the movements of your heart; I saw you were virtuous from vanity not principle, and I seized the fit moment of seduction." S thus reveals he plotted A's doom from outset 11:11 AM Nov 30th, 2008 from txt

Lewis ends "The Monk" in moral fashion, but without abandoning his critique of convent system or of nobility's relative insularity. 11:48 AM Nov 30th, 2008 from txt

Reading Notes on The Antiquary

Reading Notes: Walter Scott, The Antiquary
November 22-25, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter.

Scott's "The Antiquary" begins as lampoon of reverance for the past: Oldbuck's false Roman ruins and Sir Arthur's exaggerated family heroism 10:21 AM Nov 22nd, 2008 from txt

King Alphonso of Castile quoted as life needful of: "old wood to burn, old books to read, old wine to drink, old friends to converse with" 10:26 AM Nov 22nd, 2008 from txt

Oldbuck on the parasitic professions: "the clergy live by our sins, the medical faculty by our diseases, the law gentry by our misfortunes." 9:10 AM Nov 23rd, 2008 from txt

At ruined Abbey: Oldbuck, Sir Arthur, Dousterswivel each see a different lost paradise in Monkish past: scholarly, orthodox, alchemical. 9:18 AM Nov 23rd, 2008 from txt

The mendicant/beggar and former poacher Edie Ochiltree wanders homeless by choice, witnessing that which others gossip or speculate over 2:56 PM Nov 23rd, 2008 from txt

Edie on the once formidable, now demented Elspeth: the remaining areas of her mind are all the more majestic for being surrounded by ruins 6:15 PM Nov 23rd, 2008 from txt

Oldbuck on Edie's role in community: "the oracle of the district ... genealogist, newsman, master of revels, doctor in a pinch, or divine" 7:28 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web

More of Oldbuck on the wise vagrant Edie: "he is so far a true philosopher as to be a contemmer of all ordinary rules of hours and times." 7:31 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web

Sir Arthur, ruined, sees himself "a fallen lamb" who will not lie on the heather for ten minutes before ravens and crows pick out his eyes" 9:12 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web

Sir Arthur undervalues Oldbuck as too penurious to lend money and thus likely to give only "scraps of misanthropy and quaint ends of Latin" 9:36 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web

To work with just 20 pp. left of The Antiquary" Maddening, even as it is clear how it will end: love and virtue rewarded; fortune assured 9:48 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web

"The Antiquary" opposes the Monkish/Peaceful ideology of Oldbuck and Edie with the Martial/Aristocratic ideology of Sir Arthur and Hector. 5:39 PM Nov 25th, 2008 from web

Scott's de-centered hero, Lovell, unites both ideologies in that he is both studious and brave (and also, as revealed, a legitimate heir). 5:44 PM Nov 25th, 2008 from web

Reading Notes on Private Confessions and Memoirs of a Justified Sinner

Reading Notes: James Hogg, Private Confessions and Memoirs of a Justified Sinner
November 8-9, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter

Cold drizzle. Made first fire of the year: slow to start but roaring now. Starting Hogg's "Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" 8:44 AM Nov 8th from txt

"The ways of heaven are altogether inscrutable and soar as far above and beyond the works and comprehension of man as the sun flaming in majesty, is above the tiny boy's evening rocket" 10:00 AM Nov 8th

Rife w/ doubles, specters. Book's dilemma: "we have nothing on earth but our senses to depend on; if these deceive us, what are we to do?" 12:38 PM Nov 8th from txt

Mrs Logan on Robert Wringham: "I believe he sees every one of his actions justified before God, and instead of having stings of conscience for these, he takes great merit to himself in having effected them" Calvinst belief in predestination becomes demonic. 1:25 PM Nov 8th from txt

In Confessions, Robert addresses readers as "wicked of the world." Non elect's names "written on the red letter side of the book of life" 2:33 PM Nov 8th from txt

Robert's demon similar to Dostoevsky's "Double" in his antic capering and his visibility to others. But also intimate, like Twain's No. 44 8:45 AM Nov 9th from txt

Robert warned: "There is not an error into which man can fall, which he may not press Scripture into his service as proof of the probity of" 9:09 AM Nov 9th from txt

The devil Gil-Martin places veil of mist betw Robert + heaven, similar to demonic fog George sees vying with the rainbow atop Arthur's Seat 10:05 AM Nov 9th from txt

Link to "Jeckyl and Hyde" clear in how Robert sleeps while other does mayhem. Duality in several registers: theology, psych, social, folk. 2:32 PM Nov 9th from txt

In story of ultra-godly town of Auchtermuchty, only the unbeliever -- who knows the language of crows -- can see the new Minister is a devil 2:46 PM Nov 9th from txt

Robert Wringhim also somewhat recalls Frederic's Theron Ware in that he takes spiritual doctrine as applicable to real life. 7:33 PM Nov 9th from txt

Scene shifts to a printing office (presaging Twain's #44). Robert intends to publish his Confessions in the guise of a Bunyanesque allegory. 10:01 PM Nov 9th from txt

Confessions ends with no clear determination of what truly occurred: epic of delusion? supernatural visit? or hypocritical "justification"? 8:42 AM yesterday from web

Also interesting in Confessions to think of the religiously "justified" sinning (+ murder) in relation to the dubious concept of "just" war about 22 hours ago from web

Reading Notes on Can You Forgive Her?

Reading Notes: Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her?
October 25-November 6, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter.

In "CYFH?," Alice Vavasor's choice between the "worthy" "milk-and-honey" John Grey and the "brandy" of her "wild man" cousin George Vavasor 2:25 PM Oct 25th, 2008 from txt

Plantangenet Palliser an avatar of dullness; proud to be dull. "If he was dull as a statesman, he was even more dull in private life." 12:48 PM Oct 26th, 2008 from txt

Trollope creates no win situations for Alice and Glencora: the worthy men are dull and gray, the romantic men are schemers or wastrels. 8:24 PM Oct 31st, 2008 from txt

"Can You Forgive Her" shifts from genteel parlour drama to near-Gothic as George Vavasor's rage spills over, his threats barely contained. 1:35 AM Nov 2nd, 2008 from txt

George Vavasor's thoughts increasingly turn to murder, but he doesn't plot murder (and suicide) so much as he dreams it. 7:46 AM Nov 2nd, 2008 from txt

George Vavasor's campaign manager, the lawyer Scruby: "the man was like a rat, and knew a falling house by the instinct that was in him." 8:05 AM Nov 2nd, 2008 from txt

Stymied in raising funds:"George Vavasor cursed the City and made his calculation about murdering it. Might not a river of strychnine ..." 8:20 AM Nov 2nd, 2008 from txt

Back to "Can You Forgive Her?" George Vavasor so disruptive a presence in the Trollope universe that he has to be despatched to America. 7:59 PM Nov 5th, 2008 from web

In Dickens, George's fate would have been part of the cresendo. In Balzac, the plot would have centered on such a remarkable villain. 8:02 PM Nov 5th, 2008 from web

Trollope always trying to be fair to characters. George is such a monster, he needs to be sent offstage, spoken about only in hushed tones. 8:05 PM Nov 5th, 2008 from web

Up early to finish Trollope; per his stultifying conservative vision dullness, social order must prevail over even the most trivial revolts 8:52 AM Nov 6th, 2008 from web

Reading Notes on Piping Hot

Reading Notes: Emile Zola, Piping Hot
October 19, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter

Zola's "Piping Hot" has his usual asst. of pathologies: misogyny, greed, rape, incest, lesbianism, frigidity, pedophilia, impotence, rage. 5:27 PM Oct 19th, 2008 from txt

Weird diningroom table rape scene between Octave and Marie. They're most concerned about a bent corner on the book that falls to the floor. 5:34 PM Oct 19th, 2008 from txt

The listless and easily-seduced Marie prefers Georges Sand to Balzac because Balzac's novels "are too much like reality." 5:37 PM Oct 19th, 2008 from txt

Respectable Apt house in "Piping Hot" a stewpot of illicit amours, perversion, and hypocrasy. As always, Zola both moralist and voyeur. 5:48 PM Oct 19th, 2008 from txt

Reading up on "Piping Hot" on the web. Seems the 1951 version I read was expurgated; so as deviant as that version read, there's worse . . . 9:03 AM Oct 22nd, 2008 from web

Reading Notes on A Laodicean

Reading Notes: Thomas Hardy, A Laodicean
September 27-28, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter.

Hardy's "A Laodicean" sends one immediately to a dictionary. Laodicean, from "Revelations," is one who is lukewarm and thus to be "spat out" 6:11 PM Sep 27th, 2008 from txt

In "A Laodicean": strange character of the prankster and sneak Dare, whose age, nationality, profession, and gender are indeterminate, n ... 8:35 PM Sep 27th, 2008 from txt

Dare in "A Laodicean" first appears as a photographer and is said by another character to be "undeveloped." 8:38 PM Sep 27th, 2008 from txt

Undercurrents: Dare hears rumor of lesbian relations of Paula + Charlotte. Later states: "the woman that interests my heart has yet to ... 8:54 PM Sep 27th, 2008 from txt

Dare comments on DeStancy's spying on Paula: "a fermentation is beginning in him; a purely chemical process." 10:51 PM Sep 27th, 2008 from txt

Opposition of faith and chance in "A Laodicean": Dare's book of chances and Woodwell's bible and the alternate congregations at the casino ... 12:36 PM Sep 28th, 2008 from txt

Will Dare as prototype of Steerpike, a resemblance all the more pronounced with his casual, almost comic arson of Destancy Castle. 10:21 PM Sep 28th, 2008 from txt

Reading Notes on Guy Mannering

Reading Notes: Walter Scott, Guy Mannering
September 13-16, 2008. Transcribed from Twitter.

Rainy morning, reading Walter Scott, "Guy Mannering." Advice: "fools should not have chapping sticks." 10:34 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

"Guy Mannering": remarkable character of the lawyer Mr. Pleydell, intimate of the. E'burgh elite (Hume, J. S. Mill), devotee of High Jinks ... 9:26 PM Sep 14th, 2008 from txt

More Pleydell: Law's like laudenum; it's much more easy to use it as a quack does, than learn to apply it like a physician. 8:12 AM Sep 16th, 2008 from web

In "Guy Mannering," describing the scheming Gossin: "his mind teeming with schemes of future deceit to cover former villany." 8:15 AM Sep 16th, 2008 from web

The gypsy sibyl Meg Merrilees to Mannering: "you are a good seeker, but a bad finder." 8:34 AM Sep 16th, 2008 from web