WEBVTT 00:01.433 --> 00:05.073 WAI CHEE DIMOCK: I'm going to start right away. 00:05.067 --> 00:09.867 And I know that Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner are 00:09.867 --> 00:13.927 very much iconic figures of American literature and 00:13.933 --> 00:17.433 probably you guys are here because you know something 00:17.433 --> 00:19.573 about those authors already. 00:19.567 --> 00:23.927 So I'm not going to be going over a lot of material that 00:23.933 --> 00:25.873 you guys know already. 00:25.867 --> 00:29.167 Instead, what I'd like to do is to come up with a little 00:29.167 --> 00:34.127 bit of material that might be somewhat surprising to you. 00:34.133 --> 00:39.733 And I'm going to be talking about three analytic scales. 00:39.733 --> 00:44.003 This is kind of a critical paradigm that we'll be using 00:44.000 --> 00:48.470 throughout the semester with the use of three analytic 00:48.467 --> 00:51.027 scales to talk about authors. 00:51.033 --> 00:54.473 So first of all, there's the macro history of the United 00:54.467 --> 00:58.527 States in the world, and two texts come to mind, both 00:58.533 --> 01:01.403 Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls and To 01:01.400 --> 01:03.730 Have and Have Not. 01:03.733 --> 01:07.033 So that's the largest possible level. 01:07.033 --> 01:11.873 And then we'll go down a little bit to the next level, 01:11.867 --> 01:14.427 which is still large. 01:14.433 --> 01:18.433 But it has to do with narrative experiments of 01:18.433 --> 01:21.773 modernism, and the texts that we are reading can all be 01:21.767 --> 01:25.297 called modernist texts in one way or another. 01:25.300 --> 01:28.030 So we'll be looking at The Sound and the Fury 01:28.033 --> 01:35.003 specifically for that analytic register of experimentation. 01:35.000 --> 01:38.700 And finally, we'll be looking at the smallest possible 01:38.700 --> 01:41.900 scale, micro level. 01:41.900 --> 01:46.770 And it has to do with sensory details, and all three of them 01:46.767 --> 01:50.697 are wonderful on sensory details, but today we will 01:50.700 --> 01:54.230 just be talking about one text, The Great Gatsby, and 01:54.233 --> 01:57.803 one particular moment when the registering of the sensory 01:57.800 --> 02:00.830 world is very important. 02:00.833 --> 02:08.203 Let me go to Hemingway and talk a little bit about him in 02:08.200 --> 02:14.600 many ways as a kind of gateway or a guide to a global vision 02:14.600 --> 02:17.300 of American literature. 02:17.300 --> 02:18.730 Hemingway was very much a world traveler. 02:21.433 --> 02:23.933 Basically, you can get a map of the world by just looking 02:23.933 --> 02:27.333 at his writings, but he had a special love 02:27.333 --> 02:29.773 of the Spanish language. 02:29.767 --> 02:32.067 So For Whom The Bell Tolls-- 02:32.067 --> 02:34.567 we'll be reading this in class --is about the 02:34.567 --> 02:36.467 Spanish Civil War. 02:36.467 --> 02:41.967 And Hemingway was there as a war correspondent, but we can 02:41.967 --> 02:46.197 see that he actually got into combat situations right here. 02:46.200 --> 02:51.570 So it's really interesting to think about Hemingway as both 02:51.567 --> 02:57.197 a journalist and also a novelist. 02:57.200 --> 03:01.630 So the global dimension of Hemingway but also the global 03:01.633 --> 03:04.203 dimension of the Spanish Civil War itself. 03:04.200 --> 03:08.670 It was a civil war, it was between two sides fighting in 03:08.667 --> 03:13.527 Spain, but it was also very much an international war in 03:13.533 --> 03:17.603 the sense that Russia was a part of it, Germany was a part 03:17.600 --> 03:20.430 of it, Italy was a part of it. 03:20.433 --> 03:26.373 So it very much was a gathering of a lot of nations 03:26.367 --> 03:32.267 converging on the soil of Spain and fighting a war that 03:32.267 --> 03:36.427 in name was the Spanish Civil War but actually in action, in 03:36.433 --> 03:39.003 terms of its cast of players, was very much an 03:39.000 --> 03:41.370 international war. 03:41.367 --> 03:46.397 So this is one level at which we can understand Hemingway, 03:46.400 --> 03:49.870 is that he really was a player in a very large 03:49.867 --> 03:52.567 scale map of the world. 03:52.567 --> 03:56.767 And because he was such a player on a large scale map, 03:56.767 --> 03:59.727 we shouldn't be surprised that he would be going to other 03:59.733 --> 04:00.803 countries as well. 04:00.800 --> 04:02.970 And his love of the Spanish language 04:02.967 --> 04:05.397 would take him to Cuba. 04:05.400 --> 04:08.130 So we'll be reading To Have and Have Not, 04:08.133 --> 04:10.033 which is about Cuba. 04:10.033 --> 04:14.773 And this is a very unforgettable image of 04:14.767 --> 04:17.267 Hemingway and Castro. 04:17.267 --> 04:22.697 We might not know that they were actually good friends, so 04:22.700 --> 04:24.770 this is just something that we should keep in 04:24.767 --> 04:26.097 mind as we read Hemingway. 04:28.967 --> 04:35.297 The Spanish Civil War ended in 1939, and from 1939 to 1960, 04:35.300 --> 04:37.670 he actually lived in Cuba. 04:37.667 --> 04:41.067 He wrote a lot of his important novels there. 04:41.067 --> 04:44.827 The Old Man and the Sea was written when he was living in 04:44.833 --> 04:47.033 Cuba, so again a very important 04:47.033 --> 04:49.403 fact to bear in mind. 04:49.400 --> 04:56.000 And this is the interior of his house in Cuba, and I'll 04:56.000 --> 04:59.500 put all this PowerPoint on our website so you'll be able to 04:59.500 --> 05:00.670 see the detail. 05:00.667 --> 05:04.827 But this is a cigar box that was given to Hemingway, and on 05:04.833 --> 05:10.233 the cigar box is says, "Gran amigo de Cuba," 05:10.233 --> 05:12.403 great friend of Cuba. 05:12.400 --> 05:19.300 So Hemingway right now is not just an American author but 05:19.300 --> 05:23.800 very much a Cuban author in Cuba. 05:23.800 --> 05:28.030 So we won't actually be talking about Castro's Cuba. 05:28.033 --> 05:31.173 To Have and Have Not actually took place earlier, but this 05:31.167 --> 05:35.367 is just kind of a continuing relation that Hemingway has to 05:35.367 --> 05:38.367 that country. 05:38.367 --> 05:43.867 We'll move on now to the next scale of analysis, and this is 05:43.867 --> 05:50.997 the narrative experiment, the very striking narrative styles 05:51.000 --> 05:57.470 that we see in this body of writing and no more so than in 05:57.467 --> 05:59.267 The Sound and the Fury. 05:59.267 --> 06:01.927 I think that if we've read that novel, we know that it's 06:01.933 --> 06:05.203 impossible just to read it once and understand all of it. 06:05.200 --> 06:08.200 This is the kind of novel that really compels us to go back 06:08.200 --> 06:11.270 to read several times because of the level of 06:11.267 --> 06:14.467 experimentation in that novel. 06:14.467 --> 06:19.027 This is from the opening of The Sound and the Fury, and 06:19.033 --> 06:21.503 you guys probably know that there are four sections to The 06:21.500 --> 06:25.900 Sound and the Fury, and the first section is told by 06:25.900 --> 06:28.470 Benjy, who is clinically retarded. 06:28.467 --> 06:33.667 So all the action is unfolding in the mind of someone who's 06:33.667 --> 06:38.027 not really registering the world most of us do. 06:38.033 --> 06:42.573 So let's just see how Benjy understands the world, how he 06:42.567 --> 06:44.397 takes in the world. 06:44.400 --> 06:48.200 "'Did you come to meet Caddy,' she said rubbing my hands. 06:48.200 --> 06:49.070 'What is it? 06:49.067 --> 06:51.867 What are you trying to tell Caddy?' Caddy 06:51.867 --> 06:53.167 smelled like trees. 06:53.167 --> 06:57.627 I like when she says we were asleep. 06:57.633 --> 06:59.333 "What are you moaning about? 06:59.333 --> 07:00.133 Luster said. 07:00.133 --> 07:03.333 You can watch again when we get to the branch. 07:03.333 --> 07:03.533 Here. 07:03.533 --> 07:05.133 Here's you a jimson weed. 07:05.133 --> 07:08.973 He gave me the flower." It makes no sense right? 07:08.967 --> 07:10.397 Right now it doesn't make any sense. 07:10.400 --> 07:14.600 OK, so I'm sorry, but I have to tell you that this is 07:14.600 --> 07:18.200 actually a conflation of two moments in time. 07:18.200 --> 07:21.700 The first moment takes place when Benjy was 07:21.700 --> 07:22.530 just a young boy. 07:22.533 --> 07:28.633 The second, in italics, takes place when Benjy is actually 07:28.633 --> 07:30.773 33 years old. 07:30.767 --> 07:34.297 So we don't usually tell the story that way, jumping across 07:34.300 --> 07:39.270 such a vast space of time, but that's exactly the kind of 07:39.267 --> 07:42.397 narrative technique that Faulkner uses in The Sound and 07:42.400 --> 07:47.070 the Fury, and the numerous advantages and challenges to 07:47.067 --> 07:48.927 that kind of writing. 07:48.933 --> 07:55.173 But one interesting fact that emerges from this little 07:55.167 --> 08:01.397 moment is that a young white girl Caddy is Benjy's sister. 08:01.400 --> 08:07.500 A young white girl is seen in intimate parallel with a young 08:07.500 --> 08:11.630 black boy who's Luster, the black servant who's taking 08:11.633 --> 08:13.473 care of Benjy. 08:13.467 --> 08:16.527 So what could be the connection between a young 08:16.533 --> 08:19.903 white girl and young black boy? 08:19.900 --> 08:23.030 It turns out it really has everything to do with smell. 08:23.033 --> 08:28.173 Benjy loves Caddy, and she smells like trees to him. 08:28.167 --> 08:29.567 I don't think that Benjy actually 08:29.567 --> 08:31.897 registers Caddy as a person. 08:31.900 --> 08:34.630 She's really just a smell to him. 08:34.633 --> 08:38.503 And I think that most of us actually register people in 08:38.500 --> 08:40.500 that way, taking one very specific 08:40.500 --> 08:42.530 aspect of other people. 08:42.533 --> 08:45.073 But I think that Benjy especially does that. 08:45.067 --> 08:50.167 So it is Caddy's smell that means everything in the world, 08:50.167 --> 08:52.067 really, to Benjy. 08:52.067 --> 08:57.497 And when Luster gives him the jimson weed, it is not exactly 08:57.500 --> 09:02.830 the smell of Caddy, but it's close enough so that Luster is 09:02.833 --> 09:07.533 actually the closest that Benjy can get to in the very 09:07.533 --> 09:11.673 sad times when he is 33, when he's really lost everything 09:11.667 --> 09:12.927 that he loves in the world. 09:12.933 --> 09:16.373 Luster and the jimson weed is the closest that he can get 09:16.367 --> 09:17.427 back to Caddy. 09:17.433 --> 09:20.903 So this is the linkage, the way that Faulkner is telling 09:20.900 --> 09:25.570 the story is not based on linear chronology, it is based 09:25.567 --> 09:29.327 on the logic of association in our minds. 09:29.333 --> 09:31.773 And different people have different logics of 09:31.767 --> 09:37.097 association, and Benjy's logic of association is completely 09:37.100 --> 09:38.830 based on the sense of smell. 09:38.833 --> 09:41.573 Based on sound as well, but in this moment especially. 09:41.567 --> 09:47.967 So we can say that in some sense, Hemingway has taken us 09:47.967 --> 09:52.367 to a foreign country, taken us to Spain and to Cuba. 09:52.367 --> 09:56.397 And Faulkner has also taken us to a foreign country in the 09:56.400 --> 09:59.800 sense that the mind of a retarded person is a sort of 09:59.800 --> 10:03.600 foreign country to those of us who are not retarded. 10:03.600 --> 10:08.500 And this is a very interesting type of foreign country to go 10:08.500 --> 10:11.730 to and to steep ourselves in. 10:11.733 --> 10:16.973 So finally, we'll move on to the smallest possible scale, 10:16.967 --> 10:20.227 which is actually related to what we've 10:20.233 --> 10:22.003 just seen in Faulkner. 10:22.000 --> 10:26.170 But this is an early moment in The Great Gatsby, and it is 10:26.167 --> 10:28.867 about Daisy, one of the most famous characters in American 10:28.867 --> 10:30.227 literature. 10:30.233 --> 10:34.403 And this is Nick Carraway, the narrator, talking about Daisy, 10:34.400 --> 10:36.100 his cousin. 10:36.100 --> 10:41.070 So Nick is not retarded, he is highly intelligent, but his 10:41.067 --> 10:46.867 take on Daisy is interesting in that it is not necessarily 10:46.867 --> 10:51.567 the take that we would have to our cousins We think about our 10:51.567 --> 10:53.427 cousins probably nothing like this. 10:53.433 --> 10:56.773 So, "Her voice compelled me forward 10:56.767 --> 10:59.197 breathlessly as I listened. 10:59.200 --> 11:04.030 Then the glow faded, each light deserting her with 11:04.033 --> 11:08.103 lingering regret like children leaving a pleasant street at 11:08.100 --> 11:12.970 dusk." 11:12.967 --> 11:15.267 It's highly idiosyncratic, the idiosyncrasy of a highly 11:15.267 --> 11:19.367 intelligent person, but in many ways as unusual as 11:19.367 --> 11:20.997 Benjy's mind. 11:21.000 --> 11:26.300 So Nick tends to conflate different senses. 11:26.300 --> 11:30.730 He's talking about the quality of sound of Daisy, but he's 11:30.733 --> 11:35.033 using visual images to talk about that quality of sound. 11:35.033 --> 11:41.803 So Daisy's voice fading out is like children leaving the 11:41.800 --> 11:42.970 street at dusk. 11:42.967 --> 11:46.967 It's a very interesting visual image to talk about a certain 11:46.967 --> 11:48.197 quality of sound. 11:48.200 --> 11:49.830 Why does he want to do that? 11:49.833 --> 11:52.773 Why does Fitzgerald want to write in that way? 11:52.767 --> 11:56.697 Why is it that the visual register is being invoked in 11:56.700 --> 11:58.530 order to talk about the quality of sound. 11:58.533 --> 12:00.873 That's one of the questions that we'll be thinking about 12:00.867 --> 12:05.327 as we move on in our class. 12:05.333 --> 12:11.233 So far, you've noticed that I've associated one scale of 12:11.233 --> 12:13.803 analysis with one author. 12:13.800 --> 12:17.670 So Hemingway is associated with the largest possible 12:17.667 --> 12:23.827 scale, Faulkner with kind of a middle scale, and Fitzgerald 12:23.833 --> 12:27.133 with a micro level. 12:27.133 --> 12:30.973 We could do it that way, but I don't really want you to get 12:30.967 --> 12:36.267 the impression that one author is to be associated only with 12:36.267 --> 12:38.327 that one particular scale. 12:38.333 --> 12:42.403 So in the rest of the lecture, what I'd like to do, is to 12:42.400 --> 12:46.800 talk about one phenomenon that is a cross-scale phenomenon, 12:46.800 --> 12:51.370 that is something that invites experience on all three 12:51.367 --> 12:54.367 levels, on the largest possible scale, on the 12:54.367 --> 12:57.727 mid-level, and small scale as well. 12:57.733 --> 13:01.133 That all three authors talk about to some extent. 13:01.133 --> 13:04.673 Maybe they don't talk about it in a kind of frontal way, but 13:04.667 --> 13:06.467 they engage it in some fashion. 13:06.467 --> 13:10.727 So it's an important event for them. 13:10.733 --> 13:13.473 And it's not surprising that war should be an important 13:13.467 --> 13:17.227 event to all three authors because the body of writings 13:17.233 --> 13:20.903 that we are looking at really all come right after World War 13:20.900 --> 13:24.870 I. So World War I is in some sense the unspoken horizon 13:24.867 --> 13:27.767 right behind all of these writings. 13:27.767 --> 13:32.797 And we'll be talking about war today, talk about war 13:32.800 --> 13:38.870 generally, as the most obvious level, which is large-scale 13:38.867 --> 13:40.467 geopolitics. 13:40.467 --> 13:43.897 And to some extent, when you have action happening on that 13:43.900 --> 13:48.130 scale there is a kind of a loss of individual agency and 13:48.133 --> 13:50.773 the narrative problem that comes with that. 13:50.767 --> 13:54.597 There's also the problem of the deformation of language, 13:54.600 --> 14:00.070 the way that words get used as euphemisms under conditions of 14:00.067 --> 14:04.327 war and what that does to language in general. 14:04.333 --> 14:07.473 And then we'll talk about war as a psychic phenomenon, 14:07.467 --> 14:12.367 combat trauma, and the psychology of homecoming. 14:12.367 --> 14:14.097 All these are familiar, all these are just things that 14:14.100 --> 14:16.770 happen when we go to war. 14:16.767 --> 14:23.967 But World War I is especially important to think in terms of 14:23.967 --> 14:31.667 those lines because this is in many ways the first war that 14:31.667 --> 14:36.197 was not only fought on this scale that was unprecedented, 14:36.200 --> 14:38.130 but also different war strategies 14:38.133 --> 14:39.673 were being tried out. 14:39.667 --> 14:43.197 So one of the very important features of World War I was 14:43.200 --> 14:44.470 trench warfare. 14:44.467 --> 14:47.427 This is really what we see here, people digging 14:47.433 --> 14:51.973 themselves in and staying in those trenches for months and 14:51.967 --> 14:56.227 years, really, and to experience war as no more than 14:56.233 --> 15:00.833 people firing at you and then being sunk in mud. 15:00.833 --> 15:06.073 Mud is the most important sensory material that people 15:06.067 --> 15:09.267 actually remember about the war. 15:09.267 --> 15:14.067 World War I is also important because chemical warfare was 15:14.067 --> 15:15.767 introduced. 15:15.767 --> 15:21.397 And so in this image, we see actually British soldiers who 15:21.400 --> 15:26.430 suffer from poison gas in World War I. Just looking at 15:26.433 --> 15:29.903 these images, we can see that this is really 15:29.900 --> 15:31.700 not a glorious war. 15:31.700 --> 15:33.570 It is not a heroic war. 15:33.567 --> 15:37.767 Is it a war that is impossible to romanticize when you're 15:37.767 --> 15:39.467 stuck in those conditions. 15:39.467 --> 15:41.497 There's almost no way you can prove that 15:41.500 --> 15:43.400 you're a brave person. 15:43.400 --> 15:46.770 Personal bravery doesn't really come into play under 15:46.767 --> 15:48.427 those conditions of war. 15:48.433 --> 15:52.803 So it is a war that is impossible to feel good about. 15:52.800 --> 15:55.970 No matter how brave you are, you can't get a satisfaction 15:55.967 --> 15:59.497 that comes from that kind of bravery. 15:59.500 --> 16:06.070 And so there are a number of consequences of that 16:06.067 --> 16:10.767 impossibility of feeling heroic, impossibility of 16:10.767 --> 16:14.667 getting any kind of emotional satisfaction from fighting. 16:14.667 --> 16:19.497 Paul Fussell, who's a very insightful and important 16:19.500 --> 16:20.700 critic, wrote a book called, The Great 16:20.700 --> 16:21.970 War and Modern Memory. 16:24.700 --> 16:29.830 And this is kind of a celebrated classic on war and 16:29.833 --> 16:33.503 narration and this is what he says. 16:33.500 --> 16:38.900 Well, he claims, "The primal scene is undeniably horrible, 16:38.900 --> 16:44.330 but its irony, its dynamics of hopes abridged, is what haunts 16:44.333 --> 16:46.103 the memory. 16:46.100 --> 16:50.530 I'm saying that there seems to be one dominating form of 16:50.533 --> 16:56.203 modern understanding that it is essentially ironic, that it 16:56.200 --> 17:00.830 originates in the application of mind and memory to the 17:00.833 --> 17:04.703 events of the Great War." And the Great War is World War I. 17:04.700 --> 17:10.200 So Paul Fussell claims that the war structures human 17:10.200 --> 17:14.170 experience, both those who were actually fighting and 17:14.167 --> 17:16.727 civilians back at home or people who come back to 17:16.733 --> 17:21.733 civilian life as basically an ironic structure through which 17:21.733 --> 17:23.273 we experience the world. 17:23.267 --> 17:23.927 What does that mean? 17:23.933 --> 17:27.733 We'll be looking more to think about what it means to 17:27.733 --> 17:31.273 experience the world through the lens of irony. 17:31.267 --> 17:35.297 But right now, we can also get a little bit of what Fussell 17:35.300 --> 17:37.570 means just from this one passage. 17:37.567 --> 17:41.567 It has to do with the dynamics of hopes abridged. 17:41.567 --> 17:45.127 What does it mean to live without any kind of hope for 17:45.133 --> 17:47.533 yourself or for the outcomes of war? 17:47.533 --> 17:51.033 And sometimes hope is not even linked to victory, which is a 17:51.033 --> 17:52.373 really radical claim. 17:52.367 --> 17:55.967 That it doesn't really matter if you're on the winning side. 17:55.967 --> 17:58.967 That doesn't really give you grounds for hope. why would 17:58.967 --> 18:00.297 that be the case? 18:02.833 --> 18:07.103 And then the other claim that Fussell is making is that 18:07.100 --> 18:11.670 irony is basically a mental structure, the structures of 18:11.667 --> 18:13.067 memory as well. 18:13.067 --> 18:16.267 It's not just our immediate reaction to war when you're 18:16.267 --> 18:18.697 going through it, that you can make ironic comments about 18:18.700 --> 18:20.230 things that are happening. 18:20.233 --> 18:23.233 But when you think about it, when you bring it back to your 18:23.233 --> 18:27.533 mind afterwards, the irony is the structure by which you 18:27.533 --> 18:31.003 recall something and live that event over again. 18:31.000 --> 18:34.630 What does it mean to have an ironic recall in relation to 18:34.633 --> 18:36.603 your own experience? 18:36.600 --> 18:41.670 So let's look at Paul Fussell's claim through three 18:41.667 --> 18:46.267 authors who have written very memorable 18:46.267 --> 18:48.227 things about those phenomena. 18:48.233 --> 18:50.673 And I'm very glad to be able to talk a little bit about 18:50.667 --> 18:54.267 Farewell to Arms. We're not reading Farewell to Arms in 18:54.267 --> 18:55.267 this class. 18:55.267 --> 18:57.227 Some of you might have read it on your own. 18:57.233 --> 19:02.403 But this is a celebrated moment in Farewell to Arms 19:02.400 --> 19:07.030 talking about the effect of war on language and how it 19:07.033 --> 19:12.133 makes it impossible for us to use certain words. 19:12.133 --> 19:14.933 This is the protagonist Frederic Henry, "I was always 19:14.933 --> 19:18.933 embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and 19:18.933 --> 19:22.703 sacrifice, and the expression in vain. 19:22.700 --> 19:25.930 We had heard them sometimes standing in the rain almost 19:25.933 --> 19:29.373 all out of earshot so that only the shouted words came 19:29.367 --> 19:32.597 through and had read them on proclamations 19:32.600 --> 19:34.370 now for a long time. 19:34.367 --> 19:37.497 And I have seen nothing sacred, and the things that 19:37.500 --> 19:42.270 were glorious had no glory, and the sacrifices were like 19:42.267 --> 19:47.727 stockyards in Chicago if nothing was done with the meat 19:47.733 --> 19:49.773 except to bury it. 19:49.767 --> 19:54.997 Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were 19:55.000 --> 19:59.200 obscene beside the concrete names of villagers, the number 19:59.200 --> 20:01.570 of regiments and the taste. " 20:01.567 --> 20:06.267 This is Hemingway writing in Farewell to Arms, but in some 20:06.267 --> 20:08.967 sense this really describes the whole Hemingway that we 20:08.967 --> 20:14.797 know, the importance of days, the importance of places, the 20:14.800 --> 20:17.200 importance of numbers. 20:17.200 --> 20:21.600 This is a lifelong habit for Hemingway, and here we in some 20:21.600 --> 20:26.830 sense see the origins of that way of writing, very clean, 20:26.833 --> 20:33.703 very economical, very not thrilling kind of writing is 20:33.700 --> 20:37.570 in some sense a response to the circumstances of war. 20:37.567 --> 20:41.597 It's almost as if war makes it impossible to do a romantic 20:41.600 --> 20:42.800 kind of writing. 20:42.800 --> 20:47.330 And Hemingway's writing is kind of the counterpoint to a 20:47.333 --> 20:51.733 flowery, to a heroic, to a romantic kind of writing. 20:51.733 --> 20:55.173 So on the level of use of words, certain words just 20:55.167 --> 20:56.897 become impossible to use. 20:56.900 --> 21:01.730 But I think that irony also extends to a larger scale, 21:01.733 --> 21:05.733 which has to do really with the way we tell a story, 21:05.733 --> 21:08.003 whether or not we can tell a story in a 21:08.000 --> 21:10.070 straightforward fashion. 21:10.067 --> 21:13.667 And Paul Fussell also suggests and I'd like to test this with 21:13.667 --> 21:18.097 Hemingway, is whether or not after World War I, it is still 21:18.100 --> 21:23.270 possible to tell a story in a completely linear, 21:23.267 --> 21:25.527 straightforward fashion. 21:25.533 --> 21:30.673 Is there something about war that makes it almost necessary 21:30.667 --> 21:36.327 in order to tell a story from the side, tell it in a 21:36.333 --> 21:39.773 truncated version, tell it in a jumbled version as we've 21:39.767 --> 21:44.597 seen in Benjy, or tell it in some way that is mixed up? 21:44.600 --> 21:47.530 All those things that we recognize in all three 21:47.533 --> 21:49.833 authors, maybe it has to do with war. 21:49.833 --> 21:54.733 So right now, I just outlined some things to look for as we 21:54.733 --> 21:55.433 are reading these authors. 21:55.433 --> 22:01.133 One is the twisted logic of events and that things are 22:01.133 --> 22:05.173 just not working out, not landing where we would expect 22:05.167 --> 22:06.327 them to land. 22:06.333 --> 22:10.333 The possibility of symmetry of blame, which seems a logical 22:10.333 --> 22:13.573 consequence when we have no heroes. 22:13.567 --> 22:18.867 And I will focus retelling of the past, not looking at the 22:18.867 --> 22:23.027 events frontally, but looking at it in a blurry fashion. 22:23.033 --> 22:25.433 And that there could be some point in being blurry. 22:25.433 --> 22:29.003 Usually being blurry is not a narrative advantage, but it 22:29.000 --> 22:32.700 could be that under some circumstances, blurriness is 22:32.700 --> 22:35.200 actually a cultivated effect and is 22:35.200 --> 22:37.730 designed to do something. 22:37.733 --> 22:41.473 So there's work that is being done by being blurry. 22:41.467 --> 22:43.467 Understated emotions we know something about. 22:43.467 --> 22:50.097 Hemingway was famous for that, just giving us the minimal 22:50.100 --> 22:52.900 expression, understated emotions. 22:52.900 --> 22:55.370 And then the possibility of counterintuitive outcome. 22:55.367 --> 22:57.467 So this just a kind of schematic way of laying out 22:57.467 --> 23:01.197 some of the things that we're looking for that we'll test 23:01.200 --> 23:05.530 once again by looking at specific passages. 23:05.533 --> 23:09.703 So I just said that Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner all 23:09.700 --> 23:12.700 engage World War I in some fashion, but I should qualify 23:12.700 --> 23:14.870 that by saying that the engagement is 23:14.867 --> 23:16.767 sometimes quite oblique. 23:16.767 --> 23:20.567 So Hemingway actually fought in World War I. He was an 23:20.567 --> 23:26.497 ambulance driver, and so he was actually in the war. 23:26.500 --> 23:29.030 But he got wounded very quickly. 23:29.033 --> 23:30.273 He got wounded after a few months. 23:30.267 --> 23:32.527 He was out of commission for the rest of the war. 23:32.533 --> 23:34.773 So he didn't actually experience World War 23:34.767 --> 23:38.027 I in any deep way. 23:38.033 --> 23:41.133 And even though he talks about World War I in A Farewell to 23:41.133 --> 23:45.373 Arms, really his deepest experience with war is 23:45.367 --> 23:47.667 actually a war that came a little later, which is the 23:47.667 --> 23:51.627 Greco-Turkish War, a horrendous event. 23:51.633 --> 23:56.303 I think it's safe to say that there really are no good guys 23:56.300 --> 23:57.730 in that war. 23:57.733 --> 24:01.873 Both the Turks and the Greeks were equally reprehensible. 24:01.867 --> 24:07.497 This is an image of the burning of Smyrna in 1922, and 24:07.500 --> 24:11.530 the first story that we'll be reading in In Our Time is "On 24:11.533 --> 24:15.173 The Quai of Smyrna." So this is the background to that 24:15.167 --> 24:17.127 Hemingway story. 24:17.133 --> 24:22.773 And I'll be reading you two passages by Hemingway to think 24:22.767 --> 24:26.397 about what irony means for Hemingway. 24:26.400 --> 24:30.130 First this is the image of the leader on the Turkish side, 24:30.133 --> 24:34.673 and Ataturk is actually the founder of Turkey, of 24:34.667 --> 24:35.927 present-day Turkey. 24:35.933 --> 24:38.733 So a very important historical figure that also actually 24:38.733 --> 24:42.633 figures in Hemingway's account of that war. 24:42.633 --> 24:51.303 So this passage is Hemingway once again going to cover the 24:51.300 --> 24:53.630 Greco-Turkish War as a war correspondent. 24:53.633 --> 24:58.773 He was writing for The Toronto Star, and this is the news 24:58.767 --> 25:02.867 article that he sent to the Toronto Star. 25:02.867 --> 25:04.097 "It is oil that Kemal"-- 25:04.100 --> 25:10.500 Ataturk --"and company want Mesopotamia for, and it is oil 25:10.500 --> 25:14.970 that Great Britain wants to keep Mesopotamia for, so the 25:14.967 --> 25:19.297 East that is disappointed in Kemal the Saladin because he 25:19.300 --> 25:24.970 shows no indication to plunge into a fanatical holy war, may 25:24.967 --> 25:29.867 yet get the war from Kemal the businessman." 25:29.867 --> 25:33.927 So this actually has kind of a current resonance. 25:33.933 --> 25:40.273 It's about oil in the Middle East. And what's frustrating 25:40.267 --> 25:47.797 about Ataturk to the religious side, Islamic side, is that he 25:47.800 --> 25:50.430 turns out not to be a fanatic at all. 25:50.433 --> 25:54.773 He's totally cool and completely deliberate and 25:54.767 --> 25:55.897 deliberative in his moves. 25:55.900 --> 25:59.070 He was not going to plunge into any unwise war. 25:59.067 --> 26:02.827 So you're not going to get someone fighting a fanatical 26:02.833 --> 26:03.733 religious war. 26:03.733 --> 26:06.603 War is not going to happen because of religious 26:06.600 --> 26:08.230 fanaticism. 26:08.233 --> 26:11.533 Instead, war is going to happen because of a very 26:11.533 --> 26:12.973 familiar kind of economic rationality. 26:16.567 --> 26:19.967 That is really the irony that Hemingway as a war 26:19.967 --> 26:23.227 correspondent is pointing to is that some 26:23.233 --> 26:25.533 wars are highly rational. 26:25.533 --> 26:28.003 We can't really say it is an irrational war. 26:28.000 --> 26:31.070 We can't really say that the war is bad because it's 26:31.067 --> 26:33.397 irrational because some wars are highly rational. 26:33.400 --> 26:37.070 And this is supremely ironical. 26:37.067 --> 26:38.667 Hemingway is not pro-war. 26:38.667 --> 26:41.927 All he is saying is that this is a war that is driven by 26:41.933 --> 26:44.333 economic rationality. 26:44.333 --> 26:47.473 So this is one side of irony is that things 26:47.467 --> 26:48.667 are not lining up. 26:48.667 --> 26:51.867 The good guys don't look like good guys, and the bad guys 26:51.867 --> 26:54.727 are bad guys not because they look like the bad guy that we 26:54.733 --> 26:57.803 would expect bad guys to look like. 26:57.800 --> 27:01.630 So it happens on the largest possible scale. 27:01.633 --> 27:04.033 It's really the global geopolitics of war that's 27:04.033 --> 27:10.003 creating this monster that is Ataturk but who's also a model 27:10.000 --> 27:12.470 of economic rationality. 27:12.467 --> 27:17.527 So the other bit of irony of war is actually what we'll be 27:17.533 --> 27:20.133 reading is the first story in In Our Time "On The Quai of 27:20.133 --> 27:24.673 Smyrna" And this is the concluding 27:24.667 --> 27:27.797 paragraph of that story. 27:27.800 --> 27:30.500 "The Greeks were nice chaps, too"-- 27:30.500 --> 27:33.800 the losing side --"The Greeks were nice chaps, too. 27:33.800 --> 27:37.600 When they evacuated, they had all the baggage animals they 27:37.600 --> 27:41.100 couldn't take off with them, so they just broke the four 27:41.100 --> 27:45.470 legs and dumped them into the shallow water. 27:45.467 --> 27:50.027 All those mules with the four legs broken pushed over into 27:50.033 --> 27:51.373 shallow water. 27:51.367 --> 27:53.127 It was all a pleasant business. 27:53.133 --> 27:58.103 My work, yes, a most pleasant business." 27:58.100 --> 28:02.330 So much for the brutality of the Turks, and so much for the 28:02.333 --> 28:05.503 victimhood of the Greeks. 28:05.500 --> 28:09.500 Victimhood is something that actually expands from those 28:09.500 --> 28:14.530 who experience it into a condition that they then 28:14.533 --> 28:16.703 confer on other people. 28:16.700 --> 28:20.500 There's no glory, there's no moral advantage to being a 28:20.500 --> 28:24.030 victim in a war because the victims are just as 28:24.033 --> 28:26.373 reprehensible as the victors. 28:26.367 --> 28:29.967 So this is really, I think, what Paul Fussell means by 28:29.967 --> 28:35.467 saying that there's really an abridgement of hope in a war 28:35.467 --> 28:39.197 like this is that we can't really go and fight for the 28:39.200 --> 28:43.100 Greeks because they are victims of the Turkish 28:43.100 --> 28:43.930 aggressors. 28:43.933 --> 28:46.303 You can't really say that because the Greeks are 28:46.300 --> 28:49.430 aggressors, too, on their own mules on their own animals of 28:49.433 --> 28:51.073 transportation. 28:51.067 --> 28:56.867 So it is a world that is in some sense has been empty of 28:56.867 --> 29:00.667 moral meaning, empty of moral virtue. 29:00.667 --> 29:03.897 And to the extent that that makes it impossible to take 29:03.900 --> 29:06.500 sides with any satisfaction. 29:06.500 --> 29:09.930 It is a very, very desolate landscape, emotional as well 29:09.933 --> 29:12.233 as moral landscape. 29:12.233 --> 29:17.203 So this is really what irony means for Hemingway is that it 29:17.200 --> 29:20.930 is an impossible place to inhabit. 29:20.933 --> 29:25.573 It is unbearable to talk about it directly or 29:25.567 --> 29:26.967 straightforwardly. 29:26.967 --> 29:30.797 And the only way you can talk about it is being ironic and 29:30.800 --> 29:33.370 talking about it in a particular tone of voice. 29:33.367 --> 29:37.467 So a very important component of irony is the tone of voice, 29:37.467 --> 29:40.497 and in that sense, our senses are important to use. 29:40.500 --> 29:43.630 Use our ears to listen to Hemingway as we read his words 29:43.633 --> 29:45.773 on the page. 29:45.767 --> 29:49.967 So let's move on now to Fitzgerald 29:49.967 --> 29:51.467 and The Great Gatsby. 29:51.467 --> 29:57.597 Fitzgerald actually did not have a very extensive 29:57.600 --> 29:59.830 experience of World War I either. 29:59.833 --> 30:05.033 He actually enlisted, but he didn't actually get to fight 30:05.033 --> 30:08.733 in World War I. So this is a really interesting reaction of 30:08.733 --> 30:12.733 someone who wants to talk about a war as in some sense 30:12.733 --> 30:15.933 the central event of his generation but who didn't 30:15.933 --> 30:18.773 actually have a personal acquaintance with 30:18.767 --> 30:20.167 that central event. 30:20.167 --> 30:21.427 So this is from The Great Gatsby. 30:25.100 --> 30:28.200 At this point, we haven't been introduced to Gatsby, right, 30:28.200 --> 30:30.370 because you guys know that Nick Carraway is the one who's 30:30.367 --> 30:33.897 been telling the story for a good part of the time as The 30:33.900 --> 30:35.270 Great Gatsby begins. 30:35.267 --> 30:38.097 And he's just meeting this fellow that he's making 30:38.100 --> 30:40.370 conversation with. 30:40.367 --> 30:43.667 "'Your face is familiar, ' he said politely. 30:43.667 --> 30:46.727 'Weren't you in the First Division in the war?' 'Why 30:46.733 --> 30:52.303 yes, I was in the 28th Infantry.' 'I was in the 16th 30:52.300 --> 30:58.000 until June 1918.' 'I knew I've seen you somewhere before.' We 30:58.000 --> 31:01.400 talked for a moment about some wet, gray little villages in 31:01.400 --> 31:02.570 France.'" 31:02.567 --> 31:03.427 OK. 31:03.433 --> 31:06.433 I can tell you we can go to the Gatsby and see that this 31:06.433 --> 31:09.903 is taken from The Great Gatsby but they could've been written 31:09.900 --> 31:11.000 by Hemingway, right? 31:11.000 --> 31:14.970 Exactly all those points that he makes in A Farewell to Arms 31:14.967 --> 31:21.197 about the importance of the number of your division, 31:21.200 --> 31:24.370 dates, places. 31:24.367 --> 31:28.767 Fitzgerald writes exactly as Hemingway says people would 31:28.767 --> 31:31.227 write under conditions of war. 31:31.233 --> 31:34.233 Because those are the only details, completely 31:34.233 --> 31:38.533 unemotional, factual, plain numbers, plain 31:38.533 --> 31:40.033 geographical facts. 31:40.033 --> 31:43.733 Those are the only things you can bear to name because to 31:43.733 --> 31:47.733 name anything else is in some sense an insult to your own 31:47.733 --> 31:51.973 experience and an insult to the English language. 31:51.967 --> 31:56.727 So I don't think that most of us actually think about The 31:56.733 --> 32:00.533 Great Gatsby as a war novel, and it is not. 32:00.533 --> 32:04.933 So don't think that I'm trying to create a reading of The 32:04.933 --> 32:07.933 Great Gatsby based on the importance of World War I. No. 32:07.933 --> 32:12.333 It's not a war novel, but it is significant that this 32:12.333 --> 32:16.203 person that Nick is talking to is Gatsby, of course, and that 32:16.200 --> 32:20.430 they do have World War I in common, that they both 32:20.433 --> 32:25.703 actually were combat soldiers in World War I. And that's 32:25.700 --> 32:29.530 part of the bond between Nick and Gatsby, what it means for 32:29.533 --> 32:32.973 that to be the beginning of the relationship between the 32:32.967 --> 32:34.727 two of them. 32:34.733 --> 32:38.033 In that sense, The Great Gatsby is shadowed by World 32:38.033 --> 32:42.373 War I, and we can think of various ways in which war or 32:42.367 --> 32:45.867 the phenomenon of war functions as a shadow, an 32:45.867 --> 32:49.297 unspoken, barely alluded to but nonetheless not 32:49.300 --> 32:54.400 inconsequential, not trivial event that we should bear in 32:54.400 --> 32:57.800 mind as we read on about Gatsby and about Nick. 33:02.633 --> 33:04.403 You shouldn't be surprised that we'll be 33:04.400 --> 33:07.570 moving on to Faulkner. 33:07.567 --> 33:12.367 And I should tell you something about Faulkner which 33:12.367 --> 33:15.867 is really very unheroic. 33:15.867 --> 33:20.467 We've been talking about World War I as a very unheroic war, 33:20.467 --> 33:26.127 but Faulkner's own conduct is especially unheroic. 33:26.133 --> 33:31.733 Faulkner actually went to Canada in 1918 to enlist in 33:31.733 --> 33:34.103 the Royal Air Force. 33:34.100 --> 33:38.200 So he enlisted, never saw action. 33:38.200 --> 33:41.330 His brother actually was seriously wounded in World War 33:41.333 --> 33:46.133 I. But for the rest of his life, Faulkner actually 33:46.133 --> 33:52.003 claimed that he actually fought in World War I. 33:52.000 --> 33:55.730 This is not something that he claimed for awhile, not like 33:55.733 --> 33:58.703 1919 or 1920. 33:58.700 --> 34:00.900 1943. 34:00.900 --> 34:04.830 He's still claiming to his nephew that he was in action 34:04.833 --> 34:06.133 in World War I. This is kind of a 34:06.133 --> 34:07.373 shocking fact about Faulkner. 34:07.367 --> 34:10.127 I don't know what to do with that except that it's just 34:10.133 --> 34:12.203 there in his biography. 34:12.200 --> 34:17.430 So Faulkner writes to his nephew, Jimmy Faulkner, "I 34:17.433 --> 34:21.273 would have liked for you to have had my dog tag, Royal Air 34:21.267 --> 34:24.897 Force, but I lost it in Europe, in Germany. 34:24.900 --> 34:26.900 I think the Gestapo has it. 34:26.900 --> 34:31.470 I'm very likely on the records right now as a dead British 34:31.467 --> 34:40.597 flying officer spy." So that's just a fact, and we can do 34:40.600 --> 34:42.170 what we want with that. 34:42.167 --> 34:46.067 Faulkner did write a novel called Soldier's Home. 34:52.167 --> 34:53.427 I'll give you the reference. 34:53.433 --> 34:59.273 His first novel is actually about a veteran coming back. 34:59.267 --> 35:04.167 So I will put that on the website. 35:04.167 --> 35:09.867 So he actually does write about World War I, but for the 35:09.867 --> 35:12.367 most part he's not known as someone who writes about World 35:12.367 --> 35:19.327 War I. And instead, we can say that there's shadows of World 35:19.333 --> 35:25.033 War I in all his writings about the American Civil War, 35:25.033 --> 35:29.303 which is obviously what is appropriate to Faulkner to 35:29.300 --> 35:30.500 write about. 35:30.500 --> 35:34.030 And he's not making anything up when he's writing about the 35:34.033 --> 35:35.973 American Civil War. 35:35.967 --> 35:39.697 What is interesting about Faulkner's writing about the 35:39.700 --> 35:48.630 American Civil War is that of the three authors, Faulkner is 35:48.633 --> 35:56.573 actually the only author that gives us a heroic, idealistic, 35:56.567 --> 35:59.967 possibly romantic image of war. 35:59.967 --> 36:05.167 Someone who did not fight in World War I can actually give 36:05.167 --> 36:10.467 us a utopian account of war. 36:10.467 --> 36:13.427 I think that it's interesting that Hemingway would not be 36:13.433 --> 36:16.473 capable of writing anything like this even about a Civil 36:16.467 --> 36:21.827 War though he's idealistic about the Civil War, as well. 36:21.833 --> 36:24.873 Faulkner is the only person because of his complicated 36:24.867 --> 36:28.167 relation to World War I. That for him, the Civil War is 36:28.167 --> 36:32.327 actually an affirmative moment in a kind of twisted, 36:32.333 --> 36:33.973 counterintuitive way. 36:33.967 --> 36:37.767 So this is a novel that we won't be reading, but it's a 36:37.767 --> 36:41.027 great novel, so I encourage you to read this on your own 36:41.033 --> 36:44.573 if you have a chance after this class. 36:44.567 --> 36:49.567 But it's really about a Civil War as the background to the 36:49.567 --> 36:53.967 novel in the sense that it doesn't really appear in it. 36:53.967 --> 36:55.867 But a good part of it-- 36:55.867 --> 36:56.927 some of it-- 36:56.933 --> 37:00.473 is about the women left behind. 37:00.467 --> 37:03.267 And I'll just read you this moment, and then we 37:03.267 --> 37:04.367 can talk about it. 37:04.367 --> 37:09.867 "Not as two white women and a negress, not as three negroes 37:09.867 --> 37:10.197 or three 37:10.200 --> 37:15.000 whites, not even as three women, but merely as three 37:15.000 --> 37:19.230 creatures who still possessed the need to eat but took no 37:19.233 --> 37:23.573 pleasure in it, the need to sleep but from no joy in 37:23.567 --> 37:27.727 weariness or regeneration." "We grew and tended and 37:27.733 --> 37:31.973 harvested with our own hands the food we ate, made and 37:31.967 --> 37:36.097 worked that garden just as we cooked and ate the food which 37:36.100 --> 37:39.430 came out of it: with no distinction among the three of 37:39.433 --> 37:45.033 us of age or color." "It was as though we were one being, 37:45.033 --> 37:49.333 interchangeable and indiscriminate." 37:49.333 --> 37:53.133 We already have seen in The Sound and Fury that for the 37:53.133 --> 37:56.973 races to be interchangeable and indiscriminate between 37:56.967 --> 38:01.867 Caddy and Luster is a good thing for Faulkner. 38:01.867 --> 38:08.667 And here, the Civil War is what enables that breakdown of 38:08.667 --> 38:11.267 racial distinction to take place. 38:11.267 --> 38:15.027 Usually, being interchangeable is not really a 38:15.033 --> 38:18.033 good quality for us. 38:18.033 --> 38:21.473 It's an insult to our individuality. 38:21.467 --> 38:26.327 But here, it is under the circumstances of deprivation, 38:26.333 --> 38:32.203 when all you can do is just to keep your body afloat, just to 38:32.200 --> 38:35.800 make sure that you can put something into your belly. 38:35.800 --> 38:40.870 When that is the basic condition of life and when 38:40.867 --> 38:44.697 everyone has to work towards the fulfillment of that 38:44.700 --> 38:48.930 condition, then race really doesn't matter. 38:48.933 --> 38:51.433 So this is a really-- 38:51.433 --> 38:55.573 for Faulkner-- really emblematic moment when whites 38:55.567 --> 38:59.297 as well as blacks have to work just as hard, that labor is 38:59.300 --> 39:03.400 just a given for the mistress as for the slaves. 39:03.400 --> 39:09.130 And when there's just a complete commingling of lives 39:09.133 --> 39:12.973 in every aspect of daily life. 39:12.967 --> 39:16.527 For Faulkner, that is one of the consequences of the Civil 39:16.533 --> 39:22.033 War is that even though there is a battle going on and 39:22.033 --> 39:26.003 deadly consequences of the battle that are dividing the 39:26.000 --> 39:28.330 nation in one sense. 39:28.333 --> 39:31.273 Nothing can be more divisive than a Civil War. 39:31.267 --> 39:36.267 Even though the nation is being torn apart by war, there 39:36.267 --> 39:42.697 is a strange kind of healing, a strange kind of unity that's 39:42.700 --> 39:48.430 coming from that division, which is the very local, very 39:48.433 --> 39:53.933 personal, everyday unity between those who were left 39:53.933 --> 39:57.533 behind to tend for themselves and the necessity 39:57.533 --> 39:58.903 of acting as one. 39:58.900 --> 40:02.730 So it's three people, blacks and whites, acting as one and 40:02.733 --> 40:06.703 war as the necessary conditions, really the genetic 40:06.700 --> 40:11.430 wrong for that kind of configuration of three people 40:11.433 --> 40:14.473 acting as if they were of one mind and of one body. 40:14.467 --> 40:19.267 It is a supremely utopian vision of war. 40:19.267 --> 40:23.497 And ironically, both for good and ill, it is Faulkner, who 40:23.500 --> 40:26.530 never fought in World War I, who is capable of imagining 40:26.533 --> 40:29.373 that Utopian possibility. 40:29.367 --> 40:33.127 So I would say that this is a kind of irony that Paul 40:33.133 --> 40:35.173 Fussell wasn't really thinking about. 40:35.167 --> 40:38.127 For him, irony is basically is kind of a negative phenomenon. 40:38.133 --> 40:41.173 But I would argue that we can actually also extend Paul 40:41.167 --> 40:47.627 Fussell's insight to say that the irony of war is such that 40:47.633 --> 40:51.233 one of the counterintuitive outcomes would actually 40:51.233 --> 40:55.773 include an affirmative understanding of war. 40:55.767 --> 40:59.027 And actually, we see this all the time, the bond among 40:59.033 --> 41:02.933 comrades, GI's bonding. 41:02.933 --> 41:06.003 That's just the phenomenon that we know about. 41:06.000 --> 41:09.270 And what Faulkner is really talking about in some sense is 41:09.267 --> 41:14.267 the similar bond among the women, parallel to this kind 41:14.267 --> 41:18.467 of important emotional and social bond under conditions 41:18.467 --> 41:20.867 of great divisiveness. 41:20.867 --> 41:23.997 All of which is to show that there's actually no good 41:24.000 --> 41:25.630 resting place. 41:25.633 --> 41:28.503 And this is really what I would say about all three 41:28.500 --> 41:33.370 authors is that I think that all of us want to bring them 41:33.367 --> 41:36.367 to rest at some point and they do come to 41:36.367 --> 41:38.627 rest in our own minds. 41:38.633 --> 41:41.803 But I think that it's always possible to give yet another 41:41.800 --> 41:45.830 twist to interpretation of what is going on and the range 41:45.833 --> 41:49.833 of possibilities that emerge from any one event. 41:49.833 --> 41:53.333 So this is really what's wonderful and challenging 41:53.333 --> 41:56.433 about those authors is that something that seems to come 41:56.433 --> 41:59.503 to an end at one level, actually if we just look at 41:59.500 --> 42:03.730 the largest possible level and the divisiveness on the level 42:03.733 --> 42:06.833 of geopolitics, it turns out that this actually 42:06.833 --> 42:07.403 [? unifying ?] 42:07.400 --> 42:09.530 level on a much smaller scale. 42:09.533 --> 42:14.973 So what seems a tragedy on one level can turn into a kind of 42:14.967 --> 42:16.367 a comedy of sorts. 42:16.367 --> 42:19.297 Not straightforward comedy either, but comedy in the 42:19.300 --> 42:22.570 sense that allowing some hope to emerge. 42:22.567 --> 42:26.797 So I would amend Paul Fussell's argument about the 42:26.800 --> 42:30.170 abridgement of hope in some way as well. 42:30.167 --> 42:33.627 It's that yes, there is an abridgement of hope, but 42:33.633 --> 42:38.503 there's also the possible reconstitution of hope. 42:38.500 --> 42:41.430 And what we are seeing in Absalom, Absalom! 42:41.433 --> 42:44.173 is in some sense the reconstitution of hope. 42:44.167 --> 42:46.867 So I'm going to stop right here. 42:46.867 --> 42:52.597 And once again, for those of you who came in late, let me 42:52.600 --> 42:56.400 just say that I'll be talking a little bit about writing in 42:56.400 --> 42:56.900 this class. 42:56.900 --> 42:59.770 This class fulfills the writing requirement. 42:59.767 --> 43:04.267 And also I'll ask all of you to sign both the sign-up sheet 43:04.267 --> 43:06.527 and also put down on the index cards your 43:06.533 --> 43:07.803 preferences for sections.