Tyranny of the contemporary: A Paper Revisited “It is a - TopicsExpress

Tyranny of the contemporary: A Paper Revisited “It is a terrible misfortune…to the Republic of Letters; … that this self-same vile pruriency for fresh adventures in all things, has got so strongly into our habit and humours, - and so wholly intent are we upon satisfying the impatience of our concupiscence that way – that nothing but the gross and more carnal parts of a composition will go down: - the subtle hints and sly communications of science fly off, like spirits, upwards; - the heavy moral escapes downwards; and both the one and the other are as much lost to the world, as if they were still left in the bottom of the ink-horn.” Recently I undertook to restructure and reassess my book collection and in this course I encountered for the first time in many years one of my favourite books, the comic masterpiece The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, which I had last read almost 40 years ago. I had first heard of the novel during lectures by Peter Connolly on James Joyce while at University in Maynooth. Connolly had described it as the ‘first great experimental novel’ and interestingly he had also recommended, for anyone seeking to understand Joyce and Portrait of the Artist, a serious perusal of Stephen Hero. I immediately decided to reread Tristram Shandy and just as I began I was contacted by a librarian who was not a little depressed. During the course of that day she had visited a reputable second level Irish school at the request of its Principal. He was disposing of many books as the school library accommodation was required for ‘more productive use’ and in addition his students ‘didn’t read much anymore.’ These views, allied to the quality of the collection (as confirmed by the librarian), which had obviously been collected over many years and with significant care, and the apparent lack of interest by other teachers in the school, was indeed cause for depression. I recalled later that while carrying out some research on Maria Edgeworth I had encountered a statement that ‘much of her output has now dated’ which had greatly shocked and disheartened me particularly as it was apparently scripted by a librarian and now appears on the website Ask About Ireland which is specifically crafted by librarians. Following on from this confluence of ‘shocks,’ I felt compelled to issue this short Polemic in favour of the essential need for reading and the value of classical, and indeed seemingly forgotten relatively modern literature. It largely represents a reworking of the points made in a paper I had delivered in 2010 on the important Irish author, Regina Maria Roche. Firstly, I would like to address the issue of the ‘dating’ of literature, a concept which I cannot in any way understand or accept. Factual material can undoubtedly be considered as ‘dated’ almost before the ink has dried on the paper of its first edition. However, literature which is the product of an individual writer’s creative impressions at a specific juncture in time becomes, if anything, more valid and more important with the passage of time. Equally, as literature deals with: who, what, where, when, why and finally what were the consequences, its themes are as universal and unchanging as the human condition. Literature is an essential aspect of our shared human heritage. Delineation and definition of who and what we are requires contextualisation and this is best done through exploration and study of our heritage. Great art provides not just a reflection of society, it offers us a distillation and insight into times events and people. Joyce has suggested that he wanted to create a picture of Dublin “so complete that if the city suddenly disappeared from the earth it could be reconstructed out of” Ulysses. Insights should have validity beyond the time in which the work was written and placed. All great art has a universality of appeal; the work of Michelangelo, Shakespeare and Bach transcends its physical and temporal dimension – it can as Joyce has suggested serve as an epiphany of the artistic experience portrayed. It can, perhaps more accurately, serve as an episteme for the period in which the work was executed. Placed against such a standard only a fraction of output over time can be considered great. But there are also standards by which a work can be considered to have Regional National and International importance. In preparing my paper on Regina Maria Roche and indeed my subsequent work on Mary Anne Sadlier I was forcibly struck by the major insights that their work can provide into the times and societies in which they lived. Preoccupation with the contemporary together with an allied, askance and infuriating tendency to view the past, even the relatively recent past, through modern glasses has all too frequently reduced history and historiography to comic-book quality. Good literature need not be complex nor labyrinthine but over time layers which were apparent to the contemporary reader can become less clear and necessitate guided assistance. However, these depths of meaning were present to begin with: “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressing gown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned: Intribo ad altere Dei, Halted, he peered down the dark winding stairs and called up coarsely: Come up, Kinch, Come up, you fearful Jesuit.” This extract is from the very first page of Ulysses and is absolutely critical in establishing the nature of the work. Juxtaposing the act of shaving with cut-throat razor, brush, and bowl with a quotation from the introductory to the Latin Mass wherein the chalice was brought to the altar and adding a description of Buck Mulligan dressed in “vestment” like attire not only prepares the reader for the importance of ritual throughout the book but also echoes Joyce’s scholastic preoccupations and suggests the need for knowledge of Homer’s text. The following extract from my paper, delivered in 2010, has equal if not increased validity today: ‘A recent Easons survey of “Favourite 50 books since 2000” indicates the fleeting and ephemeral nature of public taste. The top 10 titles chosen features no less than seven titles which have movie tie-ins; another is related to one of these seven and finally The Road by Cormac McCarthy in addition to having a movie tie-in won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the 2006 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction and was an inevitable entry. The Oprah Winfrey Book Club is one of the best known “Reading Clubs” in the world. Between 1996 and 2009 some 67 titles have been featured. Almost all are current titles but there are a few notable exceptions including work by William Faulkner. However, the most notable and only classic featured is Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina which was chosen in 2004. On the announcement of its selection the novel immediately went to Number 1 in the New York Bestseller list, this occurred even before discussion had taken place, and the book was subsequently named in the top 10 books chosen by American Writers. What this confirms is the absolute ability and power of the media to determine consumption and taste. Tramore Reading Group is one of the most successful such Irish groups. Since 2002 it has featured and studied some 131 critically acclaimed and popular International and Irish titles. While Dubliners and Tarry Flynn were read, no “classic title;” either Irish or International features. The Leaving Certificate English Course is, for most students, their final formal exploration of our literary heritage. The current curriculum has as main texts nine works. Six of these were written after 1900; the 17th century is represented by Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the 19th Century is represented by Ibsen’s A Doll’s house and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Irish Literature is represented by two plays and two novels, all are relatively contemporary.’ As I prepared this piece I encountered further evidence of the tenuous nature of our commitment to our literary heritage: I have tried unsuccessfully to locate for purchase a new copy of Blackcock’s Feather a wonderful novel by Maurice Walsh; Only one (paperback) edition of Stephen Hero appears to be available and the great Irish historical trilogy by Walter Macken does not appear to be available in a unified contemporary edition. In conclusion, the future of our enormous and essential literary legacy, so dependent on Irish education, is in serious jeopardy from a tyranny of the contemporary. Donald Brady 19th January 2014