Wolf Hall – Book Review
Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (London: Fourth Estate, 2009)
The term ‘historical novel’ covers a broad range of writing. If it is not actually an oxymoron, it nevertheless contains a certain amount of tension between fidelity to the historical context on the one hand, and the demands of pure fiction on the other. This tension leaves open the possibility for varying degrees of truthfulness in both historiographical and fictional narratives (as previously discussed in this blog).
Mantel resolves this potential problem by opting for character, dialogue, and atmosphere, rather than plot. Character, because her story is told entirely from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell; dialogue, in a variety of registers from the familiar to the formal (and occasionally in smatterings of French, German, Spanish, Latin, and Italian – as befits the context); and from atmospheric intrigues at court to light-hearted situations at home. The tone of these scenes varies from the cynical to the comical, and from the heart-warming to the gut-wrenching.
Given the nature of her subject, Henry VIII and his ‘great matter’, the plot is involved and always changing. Yet due to its relative familiarity and recent treatment on the stage, screen, and page (not least in the HBO television series ‘The Tudors’), it holds few surprises. The more familiar the reader is with the English Reformation, the more characters, quotations, and allusions he or she will recognise. Mantel’s hints and Cromwell’s premonitions grow clearer and more blatant as the tale progresses. The book ends, deftly but predictibly, with a chapter entitled ‘To Wolf Hall’.
So it is character that carries this novel, and Mantel has chosen an interesting and unusual one. Her account of Cromwell is analysed very capably in Colin Burrow’s article, ‘How to Twist a Knife’ (London Review of Books, Vol. 31 No. 8 (30 April 2009), pp. 3-5). Burrow suggests that Wolf Hall is ‘less a historical novel than an alternative history novel. It constructs a story about the inner life of Cromwell which runs in parallel to scenes and pictures that we thought we knew’.
And so it does. Cromwell comes across as a well-rounded character with desires, ambitions, memories, and a conscience. He is capable of political ruthlessness, but also of compassion. Mantel offers imaginative insights into the inner workings of the mind of a powerful man, whether of the sixteenth or of the twenty-first century. The only criticism I would raise is that Cromwell’s cynicism – especially about religious questions – occasionally seems closer to the twenty-first than to the sixteenth century. The greatest pitfall in both history and historical fiction is anachronism.
Filed under Books, English, History, Narrative | Comment (0)Scarcity or plenty? – Book Review
Lewis Hyde, The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2007; first publ. 1983)
Like Marcel Hénaff’s Le Prix de la Vérité (see forthcoming review), Hyde’s book is a reworking of the concept of gift, as analysed by Mauss (‘Essai sur le don’, 1923-24), Lévi-Strauss (Les Structures élémentaires de la parenté, 1949), and others.
In this case, Hyde focuses on the arts, making characteristically bold claims for the scope of his work. To give him his dues, The Gift is a a wide-ranging treatment of the topic. Beginning from the classic starting point in social anthropology, Hyde goes on to offer a detailed analysis of usury in the Christian West, including some good points with regard to Calvin and Luther. The latter, for example affirms ‘a scarcity of grace and gift’. Scarcity becomes a dirty word when Hyde contrasts it with plenty in this section. Furthermore, he identifies that in a gift-based system any surplus is passed forward to the recipient, while in usury the surplus is retained by the creditor.
There are also fascinating chapters on Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound, and insights into the workings of political and business economics in 1970s and 80s Capitalism.
Certain themes recur throughout Hyde’s study. The most prominent of these is the grouping of money, Logos, and commerce over and against gift, Eros, and imagination. It is easy to see which grouping Hyde finds most attractive, and only in the final chapter does he begin to ask how the two groups can interact. It is here that more thinking is required, to see how the arts – and society at large – can reincorporate the idea of plenty into our scarcity-driven thinking.
Filed under Arts, Books, English, History, Society | Comment (0)To be a Pilgrim: An experiment in inclusive language
Let’s take the text of a favourite hymn, and subject it to a grammatical/linguistic experiment.
In the original version, the first verse of Bunyan’s ‘To Be a Pilgrim’ goes:
‘He who would valiant be ’gainst all disaster,
Let him in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.’
Of course, the words ‘he’, ‘him’, and ‘his’ are problematic, as the pilgrim could just as easily be a woman:
‘She who would valiant be ’gainst all disaster,
Let her in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make her once relent
Her first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.’
But this is just as exclusive as the first version. So we try a version that does not specify gender:
‘They who would valiant be ’gainst all disaster,
Let them in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make them once relent
Their first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.’
Or, in what I am told is the emerging feminist consensus:
‘Zie who would valiant be ’gainst all disaster,
Let hir in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make hir once relent
Hir first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.’
On balance, the slightly dodgy grammar of the third option wins over the sheer strangeness of the fourth. So the third person plural comes to be treated as if it were a gender-inclusive form of the second person singular.
A fifth and final option:
‘If one would valiant be ’gainst all disaster,
Let one in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make one once relent
One’s first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.’
While it has the virtue of being grammatically consistent, this version has little warmth or vigour!
To you to decide…
Filed under English, Society, Spirituality | Comments (2)Stereotypes quote
“The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” (from Chimamanda Adichie’s TED Talk YouTube video)
Filed under English, Society | Comment (0)Twin Narratives – for discussion/reflection
“History and fiction each concretize their respective intentionalities only by borrowing from the intentionality of the other [...] This concretization is obtained only insofar as, on the one hand, history in some way makes use of fiction to refigure time and, on the other hand, fiction makes use of history for the same ends.” (Paul Ricoeur, 1988, III, p.181; quoted by Aurelio Ramos Caballero in his unpublished MPhil thesis, 2009)
Filed under English, History, Society | Comment (0)Exploitamus – Film Review
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Dir.: David Yates, 2009)
This disappointing film is another reminder that the books are better than the movies; and the ideas are better than the books themselves!
Nearly all the actors have aged visibly since the last Harry Potter film in 2007, and worse still, they seem to be going through the motions somewhat. Helena Bonham Carter manages to be a disturbing presence, Jim Broadbent was his usual bumbling self, while Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon just seemed tired. Hero Fiennes-Tiffin failed to convince as a young Tom Riddle, in spite of the fact that he shares his uncle’s looks.
But what really interests me in this story are two theological aspects: (1) the symbolic power of words and (2) the assumptions that J. K. Rowling makes about the body and the soul.
Traditonal Western European ideas about magic are built on certain neo-platonic assumptions about the power of words that have much enough in common with medieval and early-modern theology to be considered its flip-side.
Furthermore, at several key points in the story, the film uses symbols and symbolic acts, for example when Hogwarts students and staff raise lighted wands together at the end of the film.
‘Horcruxes’ as vessels for the soul, the possibility of ‘splitting’ or ‘damaging’ the soul; these ideas rest on assumptions about the spiritual consequences of material actions. As such, they fall within the boundaries of popular ‘Christian’ morality. Yet they are profoundly dualistic. To be explored further…
Filed under English, Film | Comment (1)What a Stylist! – John Steinbeck Book Review
John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (London: Mandarin, 1995; first publ. 1937) and John Steinbeck, Murder (London: Penguin, 2005; first publ. 1938)
One novel and one collection of short stories, both books make excellent reading at all kinds of levels. Steinbeck’s stories are as plain as a pine coffin, and he tells them straightforwardly. One mark of his economy of style is the use of repetition, with very little variation. In Of Mice and Men, for example, George and Lennie’s dream of a ranch house (with rabbits) comes back again and again, finally with tragic power.
Characters are likewise defined by a small number of traits, of which we are frequently reminded. These features of Steinbeck’s style create a bleak storyscape and a sense of inevitability, as if the fate of his characters is already determined by their social status and personal history.
Ultimately, each person is condemned by their own simple words.
Filed under Books, English | Comment (0)