THE INDISPENSABLE BOOK
Dear Subscribers and Bus Companions:
In light of the lively and provocative responses given by you in a previous posting involving the wisdom of Random Pages, Lori and I would love it if you would share your thoughts on one (or more) of the following issues and questions.
Lori and I have had a cordial dispute since day one of this substack concerning the word “excess” in regard Miss MacIntosh, My Darling. Lori finds the term too negative while I find that its negativity is crucial to a deeper if somewhat darker understanding of the novel. Lori prefers the word “abundant” which I hesitantly agreed to use because I thought it had a whiff of euphemism about it. Excess, I argued, was the exactly the right word William Blake was searching for when he said that “the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” A neutral observer offered that “abundance” was better because it had the word “dance” embedded in it! Where do you come in on this debate?
As we enter Chapter 72, , we are introduced to Esther Longtree, whose presence is central in all the remaining chapters of the book. Lori in her previous posting has set the scene for a clear eyed view of this complex and troubling character, noting that Esther’s story does not bode well for those of who wish for a redemptive and comforting illusion to save us from the growing darkness. What are your thoughts on Esther Longtree as far as you have read?
Melville said that to produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. If this refers to Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, what is this mighty theme?
I once belonged to a reading group that called itself “The Sparagmos Club” based on the Greek word meaning “the rending or tearing of living flesh,” and mostly associated with figures from classical literature who were literally torn to shreds, such as Pentheus in Euripides’ “Bacchae” or Orpheus after his encounter with with the Maenads. Why would any one in their right mind belong to a club with such a name?
Marguerite Young in an interview said that she tried to include as many different “pathologies” as possible in this novel. In other words, everyone in the book is intentionally drawn as mad, possibly in the same sense that every character in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is. Miss Young offered the word “obsession” to sum up what she meant. What do you think?
Do you have your own special “Everything Book,” that is, a book that, for you, appears to encompass, as far as this is possible, all that is, and for you has become indispensable?
— Michael Sexson
Michael & Lori, As you know (having only recently started reading) I'm far behind, but I've been jumping forward in order to share in some of this real time exchange, so Chapter 72 is tonight's destination. But as I was reading your letter, a few initial answers to your questions popped into my head.
(1) I've used the word "rich" in my earlier comments a few times (not in the pejorative capitalist sense, but in the Cajun cookin' sense of a really good & thick sauce that demands savoring). "Copious" is worth considering to tap into the word's mythological origins and of course yielding an abundance (there we have it!) of fruit. Excess certainly does what you ask it to ... pointing toward the darkness, the abyss ... just how much darkness do we really want? (Ask Leonard Cohen, I guess.) Let's keep all these descriptive words ... let them dance together.
(2) (I'll answer this later.)
(3) Just a guess based on what I read so far ... escape & what the Enlightenment taught us about the world we live in is bunk ... the Enlightenment view is the wishful thinking of people who know nothing of darkness and who don't want to know. (Requires more reading & thought.)
(4) I'm guessing this question is rhetorical.
(5) Maybe this doubles back to how I described Enlightenment thinking ... our society labels anything that doesn't conform to ... let's call it "sanctioned reality" for now ... is somehow aberrant and if you think differently or see the world differently then you are labeled as pathological. I do like the sense of the word madness in the Wonderland sense, but what's clear from Moby-Dick is that madness operates in the realm of the divine. The fool has seen god (not just thinks they have) and that's why the Enlightenment world thinks them the fool.
(6) My Everything Book is The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa.