PS2: LESS THAN ANGELS - Journal #2

From pp. 76-148 of Less Than Angels

This novel has a broader canvas than Excellent Women. Where the latter work was narrated by Mildred and focused on her dealings with two other couples, the former has an omniscient third person narrator and jumps from character to character. The common thread seems to be pairing them all off or observing different pairs' interactions. Settings are mostly limited to academic social gatherings, dinner parties, teas, libraries/reading rooms, small city flats and suburban homes. Interestingly, stately country homes and fieldwork in Africa are two settings often referred to but never visited firsthand. They are the most misunderstood or misrepresented locales as a result; either characters romanticize them or find them tedious and dreary. Of the aforementioned social gatherings, many take place in or near a garden. Gardens are most frequently mentioned when Deirdre is around and seem to be used for their connection to a false paradise. All of this talk of settings makes me think of the small world that Pym creates. This world has an interconnectedness (among the many characters) that feels at once authentic and fictional. With Pym's many allusions (to Russian playwrights and novelists, to Romantic poets, to Shakespeare, etc.), it's hard not to wonder which - if any - provide models for the characters and plot. I mentioned Romeo and Juliet in my first post and am thinking more about Shakespearean comedies in this post (minor character Mark is at times Puckish). Pym has a reverence for these other writers, but she doesn't simply accept their vision and is able to subvert it at times.

"The small things in life were often so much bigger than the great things, she decided, wondering how many writers and philosophers had said this before her, the trivial pleasures like cooking, one's home, little poems especially sad ones, solitary walks, funny things seen and overheard. Tom's long absence abroad had turned her in upon herself and her own resources which had always been considerable." (Pym 85)

This paradox emphasizing the greatness of small things is in keeping with Pym's outlook in both novels. The interesting turn in this passage is that to appreciate these seemingly minor things, one must be able to self-reflect. Catherine's ability to turn "in upon herself" helps her make this realization and even admit to its already being widely known.

"'Aren't you still fond of me? No, I suppose I can't expect that now - and you said I'd never really understood you.'

'Oh, that doesn't really matter - people make a lot too much of it. Who understands anybody, if it comes to that?'" (Pym 107)

Catherine's response to Tom suggests that we know little of others and even, perhaps, of ourselves. The subtext here is that in a romantic relationship, people aren't really looking to understand their partner. This notion is perhaps ironic. It certainly goes against convention.

"'Yes, of course women do think the worst of each other, perhaps because only they can know what they are capable of. Men are regarded as being not quite responsible for their actions. Besides, they have other and more important things on their minds. Did you know that Tom was writing a thesis, for his Ph.D.?'" (Pym 113)

Catherine is talking to Tom's well-to-do and disapproving aunt. There's irony in the observation about men in general and Tom in particular. There's a link here between classism and sexism, suggesting that the conventions of one play into those of another.

"She had imagined that the presence of what she thought of as clever people would bring about some subtle change in the usual small talk. The sentences would be like bright jugglers' balls, spinning through the air and being deftly caught and thrown up again. But she saw now that conversation could also be compared to a series of incongruous objects, scrubbing-brushes, dish-cloths, knives, being flung or hurtling rather than spinning, which were sometimes not caught at all but fell to the ground with resounding thuds." (Pym 124)

Aunt Rhoda's realization here underscores the discrepancy between imagination and reality that Pym has addressed throughout the novel. The analogies for lively and dull conversation are in keeping with Catherine's voice as a writer; she is fond of such comparisons. The switch from colorful entertainment to drab domesticity gives further insight into Rhoda's desires and actual life. I wonder if Pym intentionally makes her narrator so similar to her protagonist for some reason?

"I think it's just the love of his work, though, of course, the women there are very attractive. I don't think we can ever hope to know all that goes on in a man's life or even to follow him with our loving thoughts, and perhaps that's just as well. You know how you say to yourself sometimes, 'I wonder what he's doing now?' You can't always know that." (Pym 148)

Catherine's advice to Deirdre begins as consoling but ends up existential. The subtext is in keeping with Catherine's self-reliant character. She suggests that the pining over a man and wondering what he's doing during an absence are detrimental activities.

PS2: LESS THAN ANGELS - Journal #1

From pp. 1-75 of Less Than Angels

Pym's Less Than Angels begins with a great opening sentence introducing Catherine Oliphant (M-W defines the last name as "a hunter's horn made from an elephant tusk") and a good set-piece introducing an ensemble of other characters. Catherine - like Mildred in Excellent Women - is set apart from the other characters. Although she is not the narrator, she is literary. The aforementioned first sentence establishes her ability to be in both real and imagined worlds, so that the cafe where she drinks tea momentarily becomes a "church in Ravenna." The England vs. Italy dynamic comes up in the earlier Pym novel and is used as a shorthand (according to Long and in the tradition of writers such as E.M. Forster) way to contrast the influences of reason and passion. Mildred seems to be of the former but intrigued by the latter, and Catherine is also established in this way. This theme is continued in a number of allusions to Romeo and Juliet. Catherine's live-in boyfriend Tom has just returned for two years in the field (he's an anthropologist, another connection to EW) and becomes the object of affection for Deirdre, a young anthropology student. She gives Tom "starry-eyed looks" and falls for him at a party (like I.v in R&J!), the end of which corresponds to her discovery that he and Catherine are a couple (similar to R&J where the two lovers discover they come from feuding families). Interestingly, the earlier party that kicks off the novel subtly inverts conventional power dynamics of 1950s England. Although it seems like the pompous Felix Byron Mainwaring (what a name!) is in charge of the festivities, the reality is that Minnie Foresight (again, names) has provided the money for the venue and Miss Esther Clovis (a repeat character from Excellent Women) organizes the gathering. Men are only seemingly in charge.

"Catherine often wondered whether anthropologists became so absorbed in studying the ways of strange societies that they forgot what was the usual thing in their own. Yet some of them, she had observed, were so highly respectable and conventional, that it seemed to work the other way too, as if they realized the importance of conforming to the 'norm,' or whatever they would have called it in their jargon." (Pym 18)

Like Mildred, Catherine is a great observer of human behavior. The irony in this excerpt (i.e., that experts on social behavior don't recognize their own social behavior) gets to a point more universal than anthropologists: people are often so wrapped up in one area of their lives that they lose awareness of themselves.

"And so it came about that, like many other well-meaning people, they worried not so much about the dreadful things themselves as about their own inability to worry about them." (Pym 30)

This irony (worrying about not worrying rather than a true subject of worry) lightly admonishes the minor characters. Pym is great at such critiques of human nature. The idea that "well-meaning" people are uninvolved and insular is part of the subtext here and perhaps is more damning than it seems. It's hard to tell.

“How restful social intercourse would be if the face did not have to assume any expression - the strained look of interest, the simulated delight or surprise, the anxious concern one didn’t really feel. Alaric often avoided looking into people’s eyes when he spoke to them, fearful of what he might see there, for life was very terrible whatever sort of front we might put on it, and only the eyes of the very young or the very old and wise could look out on it with a clear untroubled gaze.” (Pym 43)

Just as Pope’s lines that lend the novel its title are reminiscent of Hamlet, so too is this passage. Alaric would rather wear a mask than have to perform in social interactions. His view of life is bleak. The point about only the “very young or the very old and wise” being able to face this truth is known only to Alaric and the narrator, making this passage similar to a soliloquy. allusion

“Conversation at real life parties is not usually very witty or worth recording, and where members of the same profession are gathered together it is likely to be incomprehensible to all but themselves.” (Pym 57)

This passage has a tone that is at once comic, humbling, and acute: Pym’s unique tone. The attitude manages to convey a care for and scorn for her subjects. It also grounds the work as realist. We are observing a "real life" party, even though it is truly fictional. There's an ironic wink here.

“No, perhaps not. [Life’s] comic and sad and indefinite - dull, sometimes, but seldom really tragic or deliriously happy, except when one’s very young.” (Pym 72)

While Catherine’s response to Deirdre’s mother might seem like a summation of Pym’s worldview, it also functions as commentary on Deirdre’s burgeoning relationship with Tom. Deirdre finds herself “deliriously happy” in Tom’s company. Will Catherine live by what she claims when she discovers Tom and Deirdre are seeing one another? characterization

SS#2: "Very Barbara Pym" by Alexander McCall Smith

Smith, Alexander McCall. “Very Barbara Pym.” The Guardian 4 April 2008 19.15 EDT. Web.

Summary: Novelist Alexander McCall Smith makes a case for the timelessness of Barbara Pym’s work, in particular Excellent Women. He focuses on Pym’s ability to observe how the small things in our lives can take on a great influence.

Quotation #1: “And yet although Pym's novels are about as far away as possible from engagement with the great political and social issues, they are powerful reminders that one of the great and proper concerns of literature is that motley cluster of small concerns that makes up our day-to-day lives. This is what gives her novels their permanent appeal.” (Smith par. 2)

Paraphrase #1: Even though Pym does not directly address events falling under broad political or social categories, her novels serve as reminders that much of literature deals with the quotidian. This focus on the everyday is why her novels remain relevant.

Evaluation #1: I agree with Smith’s claim that “one of the great and proper concerns of literature” is the small stuff and that Pym is a master of such stuff. I wonder if I could somehow connect this idea to something having to do with keen observation. Since Mildred is such a keen observer herself, she is able to witness and reflect upon “small concerns” and is - arguably - more fulfilled by it.

Quotation #2: “To say that a moment is ‘very Barbara Pym’ is to say that it is a self-observed, poignant acceptance of the modesty of one's circumstances, of one's peripheral position. Such a moment also occurs when one realises that for those whom one is observing, one will never be an object of love. Tolerant affection, perhaps, but never deep, passionate love. Indeed, one is not really entitled to expect such an emotion, although it is ennobling, some say, to observe it in others.” (Smith par. 7)

Paraphrase #2: Something described as “very Barbara Pym” meets the criteria of demonstrating self-awareness and self-acceptance (especially of a humble situation). It also has to do with detachment from a situation that one might have hoped for but now only witnesses (without envy or ill-will or regret) in the lives of other people.

Evaluation #2: I think it is significant that Smith describes the use of Pym’s name as an adjective for “a moment” (he notes how Graham Greene’s is used for settings or situations). It is in keeping with her work and emphasizes how one of her great strength is capturing such moments that mix wisdom and humility and a bit of sadness.

Quotation #3: “We fill our lives with small things, and they become immensely important to us. Barbara Pym understands that, and in celebrating these little things so vividly, she helps us, I think, to be more sympathetic to others. If it is a mark of a great novel that it should help us to feel for others, that it should touch our human capacity for sympathy in an important way, then Excellent Women, a novel that on one level is about very little, is a great novel about a great deal.” (Smith par. 11)

Paraphrase #3: Barbara Pym knows how significant the little details are to so many people, and through this understanding she compels her readers to be more considerate of others. Important fiction should improve our capacity for sympathy, and although Excellent Women seems to be about small things, it does so.

Evaluation #3: I agree with Smith’s take on Pym’s work. While reading Excellent Women, I was most drawn to Mildred’s keen observations about the seemingly trivial matters that truly mean so much to us. I like how work that appears so attached to a particular time and place can really contain such a wise understanding of the human condition.

SS#1: "A World of Spinsters" by Robert Emmet Long

Citation: Long, Robert Emmet. “A World of Spinsters.” Barbara Pym. New York: Ungar, 1986. 25-59. Print.

Summary: In the chapter "A World of Spinsters" from his overview of Barbara Pym's work, Long focuses on the early novels Some Tame Gazelle and Excellent Women. He notes the highly allusive nature of the works and the reliance on classical form (e.g., "strict symmetries of her character relationships and her plot"). Long claims that Excellent Women is on a short list of the great 20th century British comic novels.

Quotation #1: "The ambiguousness of the portrait casts a doubt on the authority of the patriarch; and Father Busby, Father Malory, and Father Greatorex form a line of descent in which the upholders of the church are implied to be very much less than heroic." (Long 43)

Paraphrase #1: Father Busby's portrait may show him blessing the congregation or just admiring his own beard. The uncertainty of the portrait extends to the uncertain status of Busby's successors as worthy church leaders and the dubious value of patriarchies.

Evaluation #1: I like Long's inference from this humorous image. Many of the men in the novel are ineffectual and self-absorbed to the point of helplessness. Perhaps this comic treatment of male characters establishes Pym's ambivalent stance on the institution of marriage.

Quotation #2: "Ironically, her 'conversion' to the Learned Society will give her no more 'full' a life than her earlier immersion in the church. Her marriage to Everard will involve the suppression of her personality just as she had been held down earlier in her churchgoing self-denial." (Long 55)

Paraphrase #2: In agreeing to help Everard with his work, Mildred is merely replacing one regimented life with another. In both contexts, her sense of self is overpowered by the institution to which she devotes herself.

Evaluation #2: I'm not so sure I entirely agree with Long's conclusion here. I think one of Mildred's strengths is a genuine personality that cannot be entirely overpowered by the institutions or individuals around her. I do, however, agree with the point that the two contexts (religious and academic) are set up as parallels that offer limited opportunities for individual expression.

Quotation #3: "Does its emphasis fall on loneliness and bleakness? Or does Mildred's decency, ability to cope, and acceptance of life's absurdities work against such an envisioning of darkness, making the novel a testament to the power of survival of unembittered ordinary humanity? Its vision, which seems to me to be finally ambivalent, gives the work its tension and complexity and is typical of the poise with which Pym has treated her characters." (Long 59)

Paraphrase #3: Is the novel more about life's despairing emptiness or about the common decency of many ordinary people? The view is ambiguous enough to encompass both sides, and the conflict between the two is what gives the novel its energy.

Evaluation #3: These are important questions that I too wonder about. I lean towards the latter notion of a celebration of "ordinary humanity," but is that because I'm a bit of an optimist myself? The idea that Mildred is able to accept "life's absurdities" makes me wonder about connections to existentialism. I don't think Pym was an existentialist (too devoted to church life), but would be interested in pursuing her sympathies with that philosophy.

PS1: EXCELLENT WOMEN - Journal #3

From pp. 172-256 of Excellent Women

The ending is somewhat unconventional for a comedy (no weddings!), but it does leave things open. The question about whether or not Mildred does or will lead a "full life" is raised and perhaps answered - in a typically oblique way - in the closing passage. The fact that Mildred is referring to Helena's concept of a “full life” and puts the expression in quotation marks suggests that she already knows her life is full and needn't conform to Helena's or society-at-large's view of the full life. If a full life means getting married, then Mildred isn't there, but Pym leaves that possibility open with the calling off of Julian and Allegra's engagement and the work that Mildred agrees to do for Everard. Taken further than a conventional view, a full life might mean one that combines male and female attributes in one person. In this respect, Mildred does seem to adopt qualities that are both stereotypically female (all of those teas she prepares for those unburdening themselves to her) and male (speaking more frankly towards the end of the novel, e.g., during the planning of the Christmas bazaar). Nearly all of the novel covers have blurbs comparing Pym to Jane Austen, a subtly subversive social critic. What is Pym holding up for questioning? Is it simply that marriage/full life question? I don’t think so. In her memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi examines “blindness and empathy” in Austen’s work. I think this contrast is also at the heart of Excellent Women. Mildred witnesses characters who possess many noble and ignoble qualities; she admits to many of the latter in herself. But throughout the book she does prove to exhibit empathy. It is a quality that requires self-awareness, courage and effort. It might be the most excellent thing to gain and share.

"'Oh, respect and esteem - such dry bones! I suppose one can really have feelings for somebody but I should have thought one would almost dislike a person who inspired them." (Pym 190)

Mildred considers that when one has "respect and esteem" for a woman, the words are euphemisms for someone who's dull and reliable. The "dry bones" metaphor connects with Everard nicely. His last name is Bones and he does invite Mildred for dinner to have meat.

"'This may sound a cynical thing to say, but don't you think men sometimes leave difficulties to be solved by other people or to solve themselves?" (Pym 206)

Although Mildred qualifies her observation, most of the men in the novel do leave the solving of problems to others or to fate. Ironically, however, Winifred (to whom this comment is voiced) is doing the same thing in hoping that Mildred will solve her own problem (as do Helena Napier and Allegra Gray).

"If he had gone into a shop and chosen them...I pulled myself up and told myself to stop these ridiculous thoughts, wondering why it is that we can never stop trying to analyse the motives of people who have no personal interest in us, in the vain hope of finding that perhaps they may have just a little after all." (Pym 221)

Rocky brings flowers to Mildred, but they are snatched - almost as an afterthought - from his garden. The idea of choosing them from a shop as being more meaningful gets at the idea that love - or romantic feelings of love for someone - has more to do with choice and deliberation than impulsivity. Mildred uses "we" here, but is clearly speaking for herself. characterization

"Did we really need a cup of tea? I even said as much to Miss Statham and she looked at me with a hurt, almost angry look, 'Do we need tea?' she echoed. 'But Miss Lathbury...' She sounded puzzled and distressed and I began to realise that my question had struck at something deep and fundamental. It was the kind of question that starts a landslide in the mind." (Pym 227)

This seemingly innocuous question is about conventions or rituals upon which we rely for comfort and seldom think about. The metaphor at the end perfectly captures the feelings one has when facing such a large why question. The trivial becomes existential here and suggests Mildred is coming to a realization about what conventions she’ll accept.

"I promised that I would cook the meat and I felt better for having done so, for it seemed like a kind of atonement, a burden in a way and yet perhaps because of being a burden, a pleasure." (Pym 241)

The paradox of a pleasurable burden connects to a number of other contradictions at the heart of the novel. Many of Mildred’s interactions with other people could fall under this description. The idea of finding some joy out of suffering is present here and seems like an important part of Pym’s worldview.

PS1: EXCELLENT WOMEN - Journal #2

From pp. 86-171 of Excellent Women

Mildred gets wrapped up in the lives of others. On the surface, she is viewed as a potential romantic interest of Rocky, Julian, and Everard. She doesn’t see any of them as wholly suitable because Rocky is married, Julian strikes her as someone who will never marry, and Everard is standoffish. Of the three “prospects,” Rocky is most interesting to Mildred, for he’s charming. Yikes! On the surface, the story sounds so frivolous. If it is, then so is much of ordinary life. This is a social novel and explores what it’s like to navigate the social spheres of a certain place and time (1950s middle-class London) and determine where one fits. It’s hard to escape the labels and limits such a world uses to define its inhabitants. I think that is why Pym chose a title that might initially seem positive (Excellent!), but upon further consideration evokes negative connotations (is it so great to be deemed an "excellent woman"? What is that?). Why can’t something that seems so light actually explore serious matters? So much of what people argue about seems silly but can escalate into conflict. I think that’s why there’s so much paradox in this novel. Pym is taking a very small, contained and apparently nice world and exposing its connections to bigger things and crueler truths. (That’s why I think the Alice in Wonderland allusion is so great. Alice finds herself in a world that’s just as hard to successfully navigate as Mildred’s.) The set-pieces for important clashes among characters are of a particular world and seem stereotypically post-war British: the church jumble sale; a talk at the "Learned Society"; Evensong in a half-bombed out church; the dedication of a stained glass window at a childhood school. I make it all sound so terribly boring here, but the novel is engaging. Partly, it holds my attention because it is so well written, but it also provides the experience of eavesdropping as so second nature to most people that the reader gets wrapped up in it. I can't help but think of Hitchcock's Rear Window and its take on voyeurism. The viewer of that film becomes an accomplice in the protagonist's spying on his neighbors. In a similar way, Mildred allows the reader to experience this feeling. It's an odd way to get involved, but it feels true to life.

"'Yes, of course,' that is what I do,' I agreed, but somehow it seemed so inadequate; it described such a very little part of my life. 'Of course,' I went on, 'some people do write more details about themselves, don't they, so that one gets more of a picture of their lives.'" (Pym 109)

The gap between what we do and who we are is felt throughout the novel. Mildred is much more than an excellent woman who does part-time work. Part of what we are is narrative or an amassing of details that create "a picture" of a life. What we do is too narrow, while the "picture" we create might be too embellished to get at who we are. irony

As Mildred reads an obituary of an older alumna of her old school, she observes how "all these details and obscure personal references moved me deeply so that I hardly knew whether to laugh or cry." (Pym 113)

Mildred sees both the comic and tragic sides of life. Pym collapses these two views by writing of an obituary notice with an embarrassingly bad piece of poetry attempted by the eulogizer. characterization

"Inside it was a sobering sight indeed and one to put us all in mind of the futility of material things and of our own mortality. All flesh is but as grass... I thought, watching the women working at their faces with savage concentration, opening their mouths wide, biting and licking their lips, stabbing at their noses and chins with powder puffs. Some, who had abandoned the struggle to keep up, sat in chairs, their bodies slumped down, their hands resting on their parcels." (Pym 131)

At the department store ladies room, Mildred presents a grotesquely humorous vision of women tending to their appearances. By describing the application of make up with words like "savage," "biting and licking," and "stabbing" Pym suggests - ironically - that rather than undergoing a beautifying process, the women are mutilating themselves. violent diction, irony

"I'm afraid women take their pleasures very sadly. Few of them know how to run light-hearted flirtations - the nice ones, that is. They cling on to these little bits of romance that may have happened years ago." (Pym 137)

The paradox of taking "pleasures very sadly" seems to be at the heart of the novel and Pym's worldview. Unwittingly, Rocky describes a trait of Mildred's here, for she admits to looking back with a mix of fondness and sadness to a "little bit of romance" in her own life.

"A few more people had come in now and were drinking very quietly and soberly, almost sadly, sitting on a black horsehair bench or at one of the little tables. I stared into the fireless grate, filled now with teazles and pampas grass, and wondered why I should be sitting here with Everard Bone." (Pym 141)

Pym deftly establishes the atmosphere of the pub where Mildred and Everard sit together yet apart or alone with the people "drinking very quietly and soberly." The paradox of drinking soberly matches the paradoxical situation of being with someone and feeling alone. It's a scenario that's underscored by the visual image of a fireplace with no fire.