WEBVTT 00:01.167 --> 00:03.497 WAI CHEE DIMOCK: So we're just going to move on 00:03.500 --> 00:06.400 now and follow up on what we 00:06.400 --> 00:11.200 talked about last time, which is the sevenfold permutation. 00:11.200 --> 00:13.170 It sounds kind of intimidating. 00:13.167 --> 00:15.567 But it's actually what we'll be talking about in the four 00:15.567 --> 00:19.267 classes devoted to For Whom the Bell Tolls. 00:19.267 --> 00:23.727 And last time we talked a lot about voluntary versus 00:23.733 --> 00:27.533 involuntary association, including the idea of the 00:27.533 --> 00:32.173 involuntary foreigners, that both Americans and the Spanish 00:32.167 --> 00:35.597 actually can be involuntary foreigners. 00:35.600 --> 00:39.170 The Americans in the simple fact that they don't have 00:39.167 --> 00:41.797 perfect command of the language, and also that they 00:41.800 --> 00:44.570 are recognizable as foreigners, as outsiders in 00:44.567 --> 00:45.967 their community. 00:45.967 --> 00:48.567 But the Spanish can also be outsiders in their own 00:48.567 --> 00:51.997 community because of two things, Because of the print 00:52.000 --> 00:56.830 illiteracy, and because of the technological illiteracy. 00:56.833 --> 01:00.603 So in those two ways they are both stuck with a kind of 01:00.600 --> 01:03.800 involuntary association. 01:03.800 --> 01:10.400 Today we'll move on to the next way to configure the 01:10.400 --> 01:12.870 contents of For Whom the Bell Tolls. 01:12.867 --> 01:16.897 And I'D like to think of it as a very sustained structure. 01:16.900 --> 01:24.500 Hemingway is a writer who actually not only starts out 01:24.500 --> 01:27.700 with a pattern, but keeps elaborating on that pattern. 01:27.700 --> 01:30.800 So in many ways, it really is a kind of a musical structure, 01:30.800 --> 01:32.870 theme and variation. 01:32.867 --> 01:36.027 And the paradigm of distant home versus on-site 01:36.033 --> 01:39.503 environment, that actually is a theme and variation almost 01:39.500 --> 01:43.400 throughout the entire For Whom the Bell Tolls. 01:43.400 --> 01:48.630 And plugged into that is a kind of play between the comic 01:48.633 --> 01:49.833 and the tragic. 01:49.833 --> 01:52.873 But really the main, the dominant theme today, would be 01:52.867 --> 01:57.527 the relation between distant homes and on-site environment. 01:57.533 --> 02:01.033 So I've seven candidates for distant homes. 02:01.033 --> 02:05.933 One is in Paris, which is very odd, because already we're in 02:05.933 --> 02:09.633 a foreign countries, to American readers, Spain. 02:09.633 --> 02:13.603 But there's yet another foreign country, France and 02:13.600 --> 02:17.600 especially Paris, which makes a cameo appearance. 02:17.600 --> 02:19.930 And then there are five locations, both spatial 02:19.933 --> 02:23.203 locations and temporal locations in the United States 02:23.200 --> 02:26.100 that are the distant homes for Robert Jordan. 02:26.100 --> 02:29.870 So we'll talk about why each of them is involved, and the 02:29.867 --> 02:32.867 relation between that distant home and the 02:32.867 --> 02:34.697 immediate Spanish setting. 02:34.700 --> 02:37.070 But first of all, Paris. 02:37.067 --> 02:41.327 Paris comes up in the context of Robert drinking the 02:41.333 --> 02:44.203 absinthe that he carries with him. 02:44.200 --> 02:47.470 And right before that, he has actually asked for wine and 02:47.467 --> 02:48.867 there's not a lot of wine left. 02:48.867 --> 02:51.167 So Maria want to give him wine, but Pablo says there's 02:51.167 --> 02:52.327 not much left. 02:52.333 --> 02:58.903 So he doesn't get to have the wine from the locals. 02:58.900 --> 03:02.800 And instead he pulls out this bottle of absinthe. 03:02.800 --> 03:07.430 And nobody there has seen this, so he tells us them that 03:07.433 --> 03:09.203 this is medicine. 03:09.200 --> 03:10.830 And the gypsy wants to taste what this 03:10.833 --> 03:13.403 medicine tastes like. 03:13.400 --> 03:16.500 "Robert Jordan pushed the cup toward him. 03:16.500 --> 03:20.530 It was a milky yellow now with the water and he hoped the 03:20.533 --> 03:23.903 gypsy would not take more than a swallow. 03:23.900 --> 03:27.200 There was very little of it left and one cup of it took 03:27.200 --> 03:31.430 the place of the evening papers, of all the old 03:31.433 --> 03:35.673 evenings in cafes, of all the chestnut trees that would be 03:35.667 --> 03:40.097 in bloom now in this month, of the great slow horses of the 03:40.100 --> 03:44.730 outer boulevards, of bookshops, of kiosks, and of 03:44.733 --> 03:48.633 galleries, of the Parc Montsouris, of the Stade 03:48.633 --> 03:52.503 Buffalo, of the Butte Chaumont, of the Guarantee 03:52.500 --> 03:57.400 Trust Company and the Il de la Cite, of Foyot's old hotel, 03:57.400 --> 04:01.370 and of being able to read and relax in the evening; of all 04:01.367 --> 04:04.927 the things he had enjoyed and forgotten and that came back 04:04.933 --> 04:08.973 to him when he tasted that opaque, bitter, 04:08.967 --> 04:14.897 tongue-numbing, brain-warming, stomach-warming, idea changing 04:14.900 --> 04:16.530 liquid alchemy." 04:16.533 --> 04:24.803 This is as beautiful a praise song to Paris as I've seen. 04:24.800 --> 04:29.970 But what is odd about this praise song of Paris is that 04:29.967 --> 04:35.697 it actually is not pointing to all the monumental tourist 04:35.700 --> 04:39.530 attractions of Paris, no Eiffel Tower in there, no Arc 04:39.533 --> 04:40.433 de Triomphe. 04:40.433 --> 04:43.303 Instead it is the chestnut trees-- 04:43.300 --> 04:47.130 actually they're horse chestnuts in this picture. 04:47.133 --> 04:52.473 But chestnut trees, all over Paris, very common sight. 04:52.467 --> 04:55.827 Kiosks, very, very common site. 04:55.833 --> 05:01.333 Parc Montsouris is actually kind of out of the way, and 05:01.333 --> 05:02.633 it's not very spectacular. 05:02.633 --> 05:04.573 it's just a park. 05:04.567 --> 05:07.697 And then this Stade Buffalo, actually I've never-- 05:07.700 --> 05:10.730 I have to look it up, it might not even be there. 05:10.733 --> 05:13.303 It's a cycling track. 05:13.300 --> 05:17.800 And then the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, it's also not-- 05:17.800 --> 05:21.030 I mean it's a nice park, but I don't think it's that famous. 05:21.033 --> 05:23.733 It's more of a kind of a neighborhood park. 05:23.733 --> 05:24.533 It's on a hill. 05:24.533 --> 05:26.903 So there's kind of this hilly structure. 05:26.900 --> 05:30.100 This is the butte that gives the park the name. 05:30.100 --> 05:33.000 And the Ile de la Cite is the island in the 05:33.000 --> 05:34.800 middle of the Seine. 05:34.800 --> 05:35.930 It's a very beautiful place. 05:35.933 --> 05:38.403 But once again, it is a neighborhood, rather than a 05:38.400 --> 05:40.730 kind of major tourist attraction. 05:40.733 --> 05:45.503 Although the Notre Dame cathedral is there. 05:45.500 --> 05:51.130 And finally, the Hotel Foyot, once again, it's a legend. 05:51.133 --> 05:55.403 But it's also a place that you would just walk by every day 05:55.400 --> 05:57.170 without noticing it. 05:57.167 --> 06:00.127 And that's really the main point, is that 06:00.133 --> 06:02.633 all those names -- 06:02.633 --> 06:06.233 I don't even think it is Hemingway name-dropping 06:06.233 --> 06:08.333 because those names actually are not 06:08.333 --> 06:10.473 recognizable to most of us. 06:10.467 --> 06:14.397 Those are just the neighborhood features, the 06:14.400 --> 06:19.030 local features, of various Paris neighborhoods. 06:19.033 --> 06:23.903 And those are the things that people would walk by every day 06:23.900 --> 06:25.870 and just take them for granted. 06:25.867 --> 06:31.027 And that is really what Paris means for Hemingway. 06:31.033 --> 06:32.573 He did spend-- 06:32.567 --> 06:34.967 well, for Hemingway and also for Robert Jordan-- 06:34.967 --> 06:38.667 Hemingway did spend several years in Paris. 06:38.667 --> 06:42.367 He wrote about it in A Moveable Feast. 06:42.367 --> 06:44.767 And he wrote very well in Paris. 06:44.767 --> 06:48.397 He said that he could actually write about Michigan best when 06:48.400 --> 06:49.700 he was in Paris. 06:49.700 --> 06:54.730 He said that in A Moveable Feast. So it was Hemingway's 06:54.733 --> 06:58.773 home in a sense that it's a place where a 06:58.767 --> 06:59.927 writer could write. 06:59.933 --> 07:01.533 And I think that there really is no better 07:01.533 --> 07:03.573 definition of home. 07:03.567 --> 07:06.927 Home is a place where you can work without 07:06.933 --> 07:10.233 self-consciousness, where you have a work routine. 07:10.233 --> 07:13.373 And you can count on being able to produce 07:13.367 --> 07:14.567 something every day. 07:14.567 --> 07:18.427 For me, that's also actually my own definition of home. 07:18.433 --> 07:23.673 So it's kind of a minor variation on Hemingway's kind 07:23.667 --> 07:25.567 of total obsession with writing. 07:28.233 --> 07:29.873 You don't have to think about it. 07:29.867 --> 07:32.027 It's just there every day, and you can just do the 07:32.033 --> 07:34.673 same thing every day. 07:34.667 --> 07:41.327 So that is the security and the everyday-ness of Paris 07:41.333 --> 07:47.703 that is contrasted with the on-site environment, which is 07:47.700 --> 07:49.930 very violent and unpredictable where he's 07:49.933 --> 07:51.403 so obviously a foreigner. 07:51.400 --> 07:54.370 Even though Hemingway was a foreigner in Paris, the fact 07:54.367 --> 07:57.027 that he was able to write so well in Paris 07:57.033 --> 07:59.303 meant that that actually-- 07:59.300 --> 08:04.070 the foreignness was sort of bracketed by his very 08:04.067 --> 08:07.427 productive relation to his own craft. 08:07.433 --> 08:11.273 Here in Spain, it's a totally different relation. 08:11.267 --> 08:17.267 So we'll look at what comes after that invocation in his 08:17.267 --> 08:21.367 own mind of Paris that is brought on by the absinthe. 08:21.367 --> 08:26.467 "The gypsy made a face and handed the cup back. 08:26.467 --> 08:30.267 'It smells of anis but it is bitter as gall,' he said. 08:30.267 --> 08:35.327 'It is better to be sick than have that medicine.' 'That's 08:35.333 --> 08:38.673 the wormwood,' Robert Jordan told them. 'In this, the real 08:38.667 --> 08:41.067 absinthe, there is wormwood. 08:41.067 --> 08:43.127 It's supposed to rot your brain out but I 08:43.133 --> 08:44.303 don't believe it. 08:44.300 --> 08:46.770 It only changes the ideas. 08:46.767 --> 08:50.027 You should pour water into it very slowly, a few 08:50.033 --> 08:51.173 drops at the time. 08:51.167 --> 08:55.397 But I poured it into the water.' 'What are you saying?' 08:55.400 --> 08:58.770 Pablo said angrily, feeling the mockery. 08:58.767 --> 09:01.197 'Explaining the medicine,' Robert Jordan 09:01.200 --> 09:02.730 told him and grinned. 09:02.733 --> 09:05.203 'I bought it in Madrid. 09:05.200 --> 09:09.770 It was the last bottle and it's lasted me three weeks.' 09:09.767 --> 09:13.467 He took a big swallow of it and felt it coasting over his 09:13.467 --> 09:16.197 tongue in delicate anesthesia. 09:16.200 --> 09:19.570 He looked at Pablo and grinned again." 09:19.567 --> 09:23.427 So we've seen how aggressive the locals can be when it 09:23.433 --> 09:25.773 comes to hopping on Kashkin. 09:25.767 --> 09:32.927 And there's a foreigner just like Robert, rare name, dead, 09:32.933 --> 09:34.673 who works the explosives. 09:34.667 --> 09:39.967 The questions from the locals is very well matched by what I 09:39.967 --> 09:43.367 would say is sort of the good-natured aggression, but 09:43.367 --> 09:48.427 nonetheless aggression on the part of Robert. 09:48.433 --> 09:50.403 These people know nothing about Paris. 09:50.400 --> 09:53.370 They've never been outside of Spain. 09:53.367 --> 09:56.997 They've never been outside of the local community. 09:57.000 --> 10:01.470 So it seems that some of them, many of them, have never been 10:01.467 --> 10:05.467 to Madrid even because these are the local guerrillas. 10:05.467 --> 10:07.497 They are very much-- 10:07.500 --> 10:11.400 they stay put in their own small community. 10:11.400 --> 10:16.030 So even Madrid is in many ways a foreign country to them. 10:16.033 --> 10:19.233 And Robert Jordan, the American, knows Paris, he 10:19.233 --> 10:23.633 knows the capital of Spain, he knows this liquor that they've 10:23.633 --> 10:25.203 never tasted. 10:25.200 --> 10:29.270 And he's fooling them into thinking that it's medicine. 10:29.267 --> 10:35.267 And he's drunk the last bottle of absinthe in Madrid. 10:35.267 --> 10:40.567 So a lot of this, just like the print illiteracy that he 10:40.567 --> 10:45.067 comes upon, that he just discovers without meaning to, 10:45.067 --> 10:49.827 this is his actively highlighting the fact that he 10:49.833 --> 10:54.033 is much more a man of the world than they are, and 10:54.033 --> 10:54.803 there's no competition. 10:54.800 --> 10:59.730 This is a very well traveled man just by the nature of what 10:59.733 --> 11:02.433 he's doing, he's well traveled. 11:02.433 --> 11:05.473 And these people are completely rooted in their own 11:05.467 --> 11:05.997 environment. 11:06.000 --> 11:10.270 Although I should say that it is an entirely open question 11:10.267 --> 11:14.197 by the end of the novel, which is the better fate? 11:14.200 --> 11:17.600 Whether it's the well traveled person who has a better 11:17.600 --> 11:20.400 future, or whether it's actually people who are rooted 11:20.400 --> 11:21.870 in their environments who have a better future. 11:21.867 --> 11:24.427 I think it's very much an open question by 11:24.433 --> 11:26.003 the end of the novel. 11:26.000 --> 11:29.470 At this moment though, this is the moment when Robert has his 11:29.467 --> 11:32.127 little victory over the locals. 11:32.133 --> 11:35.003 He's just able to show them all the things -- 11:35.000 --> 11:37.900 highlight, dramatize to them -- all the things that he 11:37.900 --> 11:40.500 knows that they don't know. 11:40.500 --> 11:46.870 So the first invocation of a distant home has the effect 11:46.867 --> 11:51.467 actually of bringing out an edge to say the least. And 11:51.467 --> 11:54.967 Pablo certainly recognizes that -- 11:54.967 --> 11:59.667 an edge, a tension between Robert and the locals who are 11:59.667 --> 12:01.197 otherwise his comrades. 12:01.200 --> 12:04.000 They're on the same side of the war. 12:04.000 --> 12:06.730 It has a funny effect on both sides. 12:06.733 --> 12:08.803 It does something to Robert. 12:08.800 --> 12:11.600 It does something to the locals. 12:11.600 --> 12:16.400 And that's not even America, Paris really doesn't have any 12:16.400 --> 12:20.930 kind of special connotation I don't think to the locals in 12:20.933 --> 12:25.073 the sense that Robert is not really never 12:25.067 --> 12:27.667 considered a Frenchman. 12:27.667 --> 12:30.097 But when it comes to invocation of the United 12:30.100 --> 12:31.730 States, it's a different story. 12:31.733 --> 12:34.073 They all know that that's something that he has a 12:34.067 --> 12:36.067 relation to. 12:36.067 --> 12:41.867 And in the progression, we're starting out with the most 12:41.867 --> 12:47.967 benign, at least not completely not innocuous 12:47.967 --> 12:49.427 invocation of the United States. 12:49.433 --> 12:53.603 And this is Missoula, Montana, where Robert Jordan is from, 12:53.600 --> 12:57.630 and where he's thinking that he will go back to after war 12:57.633 --> 13:01.473 and that maybe he'll take Maria with him. 13:01.467 --> 13:03.897 And this is actually a good moment to think about exactly 13:03.900 --> 13:06.270 the nature of that romance between 13:06.267 --> 13:08.127 Robert Jordan and Maria. 13:08.133 --> 13:09.203 "Why not marry her? 13:09.200 --> 13:10.300 Sure, he thought. 13:10.300 --> 13:11.570 I will marry her. 13:11.567 --> 13:13.597 Then we'll be Mr. and Mrs. Robert Jordan 13:13.600 --> 13:15.570 of Sun Valley, Idaho. 13:15.567 --> 13:19.527 Or Corpus Christi, Texas, or Butte, Montana. 13:19.533 --> 13:21.403 Spanish girls make wonderful wives. 13:21.400 --> 13:24.100 I've never had one so I know. 13:24.100 --> 13:27.470 And when I get my job back at the university she can be an 13:27.467 --> 13:30.727 instructor's wife and when undergraduates who take 13:30.733 --> 13:34.233 Spanish IV come in to smoke pipes in the evening and have 13:34.233 --> 13:38.473 those so valuable informal discussions about Quevedo, 13:38.467 --> 13:43.427 Lope de Vega, Galdos and the other always admirable dead, 13:43.433 --> 13:46.973 Maria can tell them about how some of the blue-shirted 13:46.967 --> 13:51.667 crusaders for the true faith sat on her head while others 13:51.667 --> 13:56.627 twisted her arms and pulled her skirts up and stuffed them 13:56.633 --> 14:00.103 in her mouth." 14:00.100 --> 14:04.270 I began by saying that this is relatively benign, but in fact 14:04.267 --> 14:07.697 there's no such thing as the benign invocation of the 14:07.700 --> 14:10.670 distant home in Hemingway. 14:10.667 --> 14:14.567 Even from beginning to end, there's something very funny 14:14.567 --> 14:17.727 about the tone of that invocation. 14:17.733 --> 14:22.103 The first part of it is-- 14:22.100 --> 14:25.530 the first little bit of it about going back to all the 14:25.533 --> 14:29.873 cities that were kind of the heartland of America, and then 14:29.867 --> 14:32.197 the particular job that he had. 14:32.200 --> 14:38.700 He was a professor at the university teaching Spanish. 14:38.700 --> 14:41.470 And kind of the joke about people coming in, informal 14:41.467 --> 14:45.327 discussions, I would say that actually is kind of a benign 14:45.333 --> 14:49.333 irony in the sense that we all tend to be ironic about things 14:49.333 --> 14:50.933 actually that we are quite attached to. 14:50.933 --> 14:52.533 I noticed yesterday. 14:52.533 --> 14:55.533 I was talking about a writer that I love who 14:55.533 --> 14:56.433 writes about food. 14:56.433 --> 14:58.833 And I said, she's cornered-- she has two books out on 14:58.833 --> 15:00.473 food-- and I said she's cornered the 15:00.467 --> 15:02.227 market on food writing. 15:02.233 --> 15:03.103 And the person who I was talking to 15:03.100 --> 15:04.700 really looked at me. 15:04.700 --> 15:07.270 But I actually love this author. 15:07.267 --> 15:13.227 But that's just my way of not being too attached, showing 15:13.233 --> 15:15.373 some critical distance. 15:15.367 --> 15:21.097 So the first part of that is just the kinds of the typical 15:21.100 --> 15:25.330 professional irony towards something that you really 15:25.333 --> 15:31.573 actually do want to go back to and have some yearning for. 15:31.567 --> 15:42.467 But in the midst of that, Robert just can't stop himself 15:42.467 --> 15:48.427 from importing something else to that otherwise benign 15:48.433 --> 15:48.933 environment. 15:48.933 --> 15:51.703 And so we sort of know ahead of time that 15:51.700 --> 15:53.330 Maria was once raped. 15:53.333 --> 15:56.833 We have no idea when that happened. 15:59.333 --> 16:04.673 This is Hemingway's way of telling the story, giving bits 16:04.667 --> 16:08.997 and pieces of the story one at a time. 16:09.000 --> 16:15.170 So this particular importation of something that happens in 16:15.167 --> 16:20.327 Spain into an otherwise innocent American environment 16:20.333 --> 16:24.733 has the weight not only of darkening the textures of that 16:24.733 --> 16:30.303 otherwise innocent college town, but also completely 16:30.300 --> 16:34.470 changes his relation to the local setting. 16:34.467 --> 16:37.067 It's not even just a place where he's having 16:37.067 --> 16:38.027 trouble with Pablo. 16:38.033 --> 16:41.133 That's the least of the problem. 16:41.133 --> 16:45.003 They're much more deeply rooted problems. 16:45.000 --> 16:48.900 So this is another spin on the idea of being 16:48.900 --> 16:51.130 rooted in your community. 16:51.133 --> 16:55.203 Usually when we think of being rooted in our community, we 16:55.200 --> 16:57.930 just think of having stayed there for a long time, maybe 16:57.933 --> 17:02.233 having been there for generations or at least within 17:02.233 --> 17:04.633 the life of a person, many, many years. 17:04.633 --> 17:06.473 And usually it's a good thing. 17:06.467 --> 17:09.267 But there's another way in which being rooted in your 17:09.267 --> 17:13.967 environment means that all the dark episodes from the past 17:13.967 --> 17:18.727 are visited upon you, or all the feuds, or the old angers, 17:18.733 --> 17:23.773 old hatreds, are constantly being reactivated. 17:23.767 --> 17:27.727 Sometimes just in memory, and sometimes reenacted in the 17:27.733 --> 17:30.573 bodies of people who are otherwise young. 17:30.567 --> 17:32.597 Maria is a very young girl. 17:32.600 --> 17:37.000 But what is being visited upon her is not personal. 17:37.000 --> 17:40.830 It really has nothing to do with her. 17:40.833 --> 17:43.533 They don't mean to rape Maria. 17:43.533 --> 17:47.033 They make raping her as a symbol of something else. 17:47.033 --> 17:52.073 So this is the other-- this is the hazard of spending all 17:52.067 --> 17:55.467 your life and being rooted in one particular community. 17:55.467 --> 18:02.927 It's that ancient angers can be inherited by people who are 18:02.933 --> 18:04.403 relatively young. 18:04.400 --> 18:09.970 So I would say this is the basic dynamics of the relation 18:09.967 --> 18:12.427 between the United States and Spain. 18:12.433 --> 18:16.273 It's that there's a kind of a spill over in both directions, 18:16.267 --> 18:19.197 something very violent spilling over into the 18:19.200 --> 18:20.830 American context. 18:20.833 --> 18:24.433 And then we'll see another way in which the violence of the 18:24.433 --> 18:29.433 American context will spill over into the Spanish setting. 18:29.433 --> 18:35.373 And this is still a relatively benign instance. 18:35.367 --> 18:40.467 But again something just not quite right. 18:40.467 --> 18:40.967 "Yes"-- 18:40.967 --> 18:42.567 and talking about gypsies. 18:42.567 --> 18:49.867 And I should say that Hemingway actually is 18:49.867 --> 18:54.497 surprisingly far-sighted about the problem of the gypsies. 18:54.500 --> 18:57.630 They're now called Roma, and it's a huge problem in the 18:57.633 --> 19:01.603 sense that the European Union is recognizing the fact that 19:01.600 --> 19:05.100 the Romas actually have always been oppressed by various 19:05.100 --> 19:06.170 national governments. 19:06.167 --> 19:09.367 So it's quite a big issue in Europe. 19:09.367 --> 19:12.967 And Hemingway back when he was writing about Spanish Civil 19:12.967 --> 19:16.567 War already seemed to have caught on. 19:16.567 --> 19:17.797 "'Yes,' Anselmo said. 19:17.800 --> 19:22.300 'The gypsies believe the bear to be a brother of man.' 'So 19:22.300 --> 19:26.700 also believe the Indians in America,' Robert Jordan said. 19:26.700 --> 19:30.930 'And when they kill a bear, they apologize to him and ask 19:30.933 --> 19:34.303 his pardon...' 'Do you have any gypsy blood?' 'No. 19:34.300 --> 19:37.370 But I have seen much of them and clearly, since the 19:37.367 --> 19:38.927 movement, more. 19:38.933 --> 19:41.073 There are many in the hills. 19:41.067 --> 19:46.027 To them it is not a sin to kill outside the tribe. 19:46.033 --> 19:51.173 They deny this but it is true.' 'Like the Moors.'" 19:51.167 --> 19:54.797 So it is not a sin to kill outside a tribe. 19:54.800 --> 19:58.700 Usually, I mean for most of us, the injunction is against 19:58.700 --> 20:00.170 killing, period. 20:00.167 --> 20:03.767 So there's just no qualifying after that. 20:03.767 --> 20:09.397 But according to Anselmo, it is completely OK for the 20:09.400 --> 20:12.870 gypsies to kill anyone outside of the immediate tribe. 20:12.867 --> 20:16.427 So it's a straight ethnic divide. 20:16.433 --> 20:19.633 Within your own tribe, you don't kill anyone, or you 20:19.633 --> 20:22.173 don't kill anyone unless you're under serious 20:22.167 --> 20:23.267 provocation. 20:23.267 --> 20:25.827 Outside of your tribe, you're free to kill anyone. 20:25.833 --> 20:32.333 So that's a incredible charge to level against the gypsies. 20:32.333 --> 20:36.303 But what is weird is that Robert then comes 20:36.300 --> 20:38.500 up with this analogy. 20:38.500 --> 20:41.830 It's that the gypsies are just like the Moors. 20:41.833 --> 20:44.803 So this might not make any sense to us right now. 20:44.800 --> 20:48.370 But it turns out that this is actually one of the aspects of 20:48.367 --> 20:52.427 the deep cultural roots in Spain. 20:52.433 --> 20:57.003 This is a beautiful instance of the Moorish 20:57.000 --> 20:58.670 architecture in Spain. 20:58.667 --> 21:03.797 You guys know that the Moors from Africa, from North 21:03.800 --> 21:09.570 Africa, actually were the rulers in Spain for 800 years. 21:09.567 --> 21:14.527 It was in 1492, the same year that Columbus discovered the 21:14.533 --> 21:17.803 New World, it was the same year that the Moors were 21:17.800 --> 21:20.200 expelled from Spain along with Jews. 21:20.200 --> 21:24.330 The Moors and the Jews were the two persecuted ethnic 21:24.333 --> 21:26.403 groups in Spain. 21:26.400 --> 21:34.300 And so when Isabella of Castile expelled the Moors 21:34.300 --> 21:42.700 from Grenada, there was this policy throughout Spain to try 21:42.700 --> 21:47.500 to erase Islamic book learning. 21:47.500 --> 21:51.700 Cordoba was a huge center of learning 21:51.700 --> 21:53.700 throughout the Middle Ages. 21:53.700 --> 21:57.100 And people from all over Europe would go to Cordoba to 21:57.100 --> 22:01.000 study, Arabic science was very, very advanced. 22:01.000 --> 22:04.400 Arabic Moorish architecture was beautiful. 22:04.400 --> 22:07.500 Cordoba had bath houses, more public baths than any other 22:07.500 --> 22:08.570 city in Europe. 22:08.567 --> 22:10.927 It was basically a beacon of enlightenment in 22:10.933 --> 22:13.603 Spain, in all of Europe. 22:13.600 --> 22:20.030 And when they were destroyed by the Catholic forces, by the 22:20.033 --> 22:25.973 Catholic monarchs, there was much of an attempt to try to 22:25.967 --> 22:27.267 erase all of that. 22:27.267 --> 22:28.197 It wasn't successful. 22:28.200 --> 22:32.000 So we still today, if we were to go to Cordoba or Toledo, we 22:32.000 --> 22:34.600 would still see lots of Moorish architecture. 22:34.600 --> 22:40.200 So there's one kind of sore point in Spanish history. 22:40.200 --> 22:43.070 It's that they really have done this to a very glorious 22:43.067 --> 22:44.897 civilization. 22:44.900 --> 22:48.200 But there's another sore point that is more immediate to the 22:48.200 --> 22:49.570 Spanish Civil War. 22:49.567 --> 22:53.367 And this is reported by the American poet Langston Hughes 22:53.367 --> 22:56.797 who was there along with Hemingway. 22:56.800 --> 23:00.930 And Langston Hughes was really struck by the presence of the 23:00.933 --> 23:03.803 Moors in the Spanish Civil War. 23:03.800 --> 23:08.070 So he wrote several pieces about the Moors, after 23:08.067 --> 23:12.427 sometimes seeing them in the hospitals and actually having 23:12.433 --> 23:16.673 this very uneasy kinship between himself and the Moors. 23:16.667 --> 23:20.897 So this is from his essay General Franco's Moors. 23:20.900 --> 23:24.130 "The Moorish troops were colonial conscripts, or men 23:24.133 --> 23:28.173 from the Moroccan villages enticed into the army by 23:28.167 --> 23:31.297 offers of what seemed to them very good pay. 23:31.300 --> 23:35.400 Franco's personal body guard consisted of Moorish soldiers, 23:35.400 --> 23:37.530 tall picturesque fellows in flowing 23:37.533 --> 23:40.103 robes and winding turbans. 23:40.100 --> 23:42.630 Before I left home, American papers that carried 23:42.633 --> 23:47.073 photographs of turbaned, Mohammadan troops marching in 23:47.067 --> 23:50.267 the streets of Burgos, Seville, and Malaga. 23:50.267 --> 23:53.527 And the United Press dispatch from Gibraltar that summer 23:53.533 --> 23:58.533 said "Arabs had been crossing the Straits of Gibraltar from 23:58.533 --> 24:04.133 Spanish Morocco to Algeciras and Malaga at the rate of 300 24:04.133 --> 24:06.533 to 400 a day... 24:06.533 --> 24:12.603 General Franco intends to mass 50,000 new Arab troops in 24:12.600 --> 24:13.200 Spain." 24:13.200 --> 24:17.100 So given the past history, given the uneasy relation 24:17.100 --> 24:23.430 between the Spanish and Moorish population of North 24:23.433 --> 24:28.273 Africa, for General Franco actually to use the Moorish 24:28.267 --> 24:35.367 troops as very active combat units against the Spanish 24:35.367 --> 24:39.597 Republican side, that is about the worst he could have done. 24:39.600 --> 24:40.870 It was successful actually. 24:40.867 --> 24:42.767 He won the war. 24:42.767 --> 24:46.997 But it was about the worst in terms of being tone-deaf. 24:47.000 --> 24:49.830 He was probably about as tone-deaf as anyone could be 24:49.833 --> 24:51.903 who won at the end. 24:51.900 --> 24:54.000 But that's what happened. 24:54.000 --> 24:59.930 And so there were indeed lots and lots of pictures of the 24:59.933 --> 25:04.303 Moors crossing over from Africa just paid to fight the 25:04.300 --> 25:05.600 Spanish Republic. 25:05.600 --> 25:12.470 Here are his Moorish body guards, and they're engaged in 25:12.467 --> 25:15.167 more active combat. 25:15.167 --> 25:20.267 So to bring up the Moors, I don't even know what motivates 25:20.267 --> 25:24.897 Robert to make that analogy between the 25:24.900 --> 25:26.200 gypsies and the Moors. 25:26.200 --> 25:32.330 It couldn't really be just blindness or just callousness. 25:32.333 --> 25:35.773 I think there's some intentionality in there. 25:35.767 --> 25:38.767 But it's sort of hard to know why he would want to bring up 25:38.767 --> 25:43.697 this very, very sensitive issue for the Spanish. 25:43.700 --> 25:49.800 So I think that all we can say is that it seems that it's 25:49.800 --> 25:55.470 very easy for an involuntary foreigner to say something 25:55.467 --> 26:00.427 that is wounding to the locals, maybe without 26:00.433 --> 26:05.833 intending it to have the extent of the insult, the 26:05.833 --> 26:10.733 extent of the injury that is actually the actual outcome of 26:10.733 --> 26:12.103 saying something like that. 26:12.100 --> 26:15.770 Robert probably had no idea that mentioning the Moors 26:15.767 --> 26:21.567 would create those kinds of connotations, those kind of 26:21.567 --> 26:24.467 just edginess on the part of the Spanish here is, but 26:24.467 --> 26:26.597 that's what he's doing. 26:26.600 --> 26:29.470 So once again, the kind of a spilling over, thinking about 26:29.467 --> 26:33.167 Native Americans with their own very uneasy history in the 26:33.167 --> 26:33.797 United States. 26:33.800 --> 26:35.970 Think about Native Americans, thinking about gypsies in 26:35.967 --> 26:38.367 Europe, and thinking about the Moors. 26:38.367 --> 26:43.967 Three ethnic groups all with uneasy histories behind them. 26:43.967 --> 26:47.797 And it is the invocation of all three of them in the same 26:47.800 --> 26:52.430 breath that makes that particular exchange especially 26:52.433 --> 26:56.073 uncomfortable, if not downright hurtful. 26:56.067 --> 27:01.767 But let's just look at a more serious instance of this kind 27:01.767 --> 27:06.597 of distant home being a kind of irritation to the immediate 27:06.600 --> 27:07.630 environment. 27:07.633 --> 27:10.173 So all of a sudden out of nowhere, Robert Jordan 27:10.167 --> 27:15.367 suddenly starts talking about lynching in Ohio. 27:15.367 --> 27:18.167 This is completely uncalled for. 27:18.167 --> 27:24.327 This is in the context of talking about the execution of 27:24.333 --> 27:25.673 the fascists. 27:25.667 --> 27:31.227 And out of the blue, Robert just mentions this lynching 27:31.233 --> 27:36.103 that he was a witness to, and about the effect of 27:36.100 --> 27:38.600 drunkenness on people in general. 27:38.600 --> 27:40.670 "'It is so,' Robert Jordan said. 27:40.667 --> 27:44.497 'When I was seven years old and going with my mother to 27:44.500 --> 27:48.030 attend a wedding in the state of Ohio at which I was to be 27:48.033 --> 27:52.673 the boy of a pair of boy and girl who carry flowers.' 'Did 27:52.667 --> 27:53.897 you do that?' Said Maria. 27:53.900 --> 27:57.670 'How nice.' 'In this town a Negro was hanged to a lamp 27:57.667 --> 28:00.267 post and later burned. 28:00.267 --> 28:01.767 It was an arc light. 28:01.767 --> 28:05.897 A light which lowered from the post to the pavement. 28:05.900 --> 28:09.600 And he was hoisted, first by the mechanism which was used 28:09.600 --> 28:12.770 to hoist the arc light but this broke.' 28:12.767 --> 28:18.527 This is a bizarre description of lynching to say the least. 28:18.533 --> 28:23.273 It's stuck in the middle of this long story about 28:23.267 --> 28:26.197 execution of the fascists. 28:26.200 --> 28:30.830 And not only that, but it seems that much of the focus 28:30.833 --> 28:35.403 is on the mechanism of hoisting this person up who's 28:35.400 --> 28:39.570 about to be lynched, and on how unreliable 28:39.567 --> 28:42.997 this mechanism is. 28:43.000 --> 28:46.370 It breaks once and then he has to be done over again. 28:46.367 --> 28:51.727 So what we can say is that there's a slightly out of 28:51.733 --> 28:59.803 focus nature to the invocation of the United States. 28:59.800 --> 29:02.500 The proper focus really ought to be on the 29:02.500 --> 29:03.670 act of lynching itself. 29:03.667 --> 29:05.127 Anyone telling the story-- 29:05.133 --> 29:06.833 it would have been on the act of lynching. 29:06.833 --> 29:10.873 And instead, it is out of focus so that it somehow is 29:10.867 --> 29:15.267 just focused on the mechanism of hoisting the person up. 29:15.267 --> 29:19.497 And I think as a kind of deliberate blurriness that 29:19.500 --> 29:23.170 suggests that this is really how the United States looks to 29:23.167 --> 29:27.027 the Spanish locals, that they can't get the focus right. 29:27.033 --> 29:28.703 It's somehow off. 29:28.700 --> 29:32.670 And that off focus is dramatized by Maria's response 29:32.667 --> 29:35.897 which is completely inappropriate, shows the 29:35.900 --> 29:38.470 highest degree of ignorance. 29:38.467 --> 29:39.867 Well, she doesn't know what's coming. 29:39.867 --> 29:42.597 But just to say "how nice." She has no idea. 29:42.600 --> 29:44.030 She's completely out of it. 29:44.033 --> 29:45.873 She doesn't get any of it. 29:45.867 --> 29:51.767 So the reference to the lynching might seem out of the 29:51.767 --> 29:55.627 blue to us reading For Whom the Bell Tolls right now. 29:55.633 --> 29:59.203 But lynching actually was a big issue 29:59.200 --> 30:02.100 all through the 1930s. 30:02.100 --> 30:06.400 Even though the actual number of lynching had declined at 30:06.400 --> 30:07.600 that point. 30:07.600 --> 30:11.000 It was highlighted, it was brought to the public 30:11.000 --> 30:13.870 consciousness for a number of reasons. 30:13.867 --> 30:18.567 One is this very famous song that I think that you guys 30:18.567 --> 30:23.697 probably have heard, Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit, 1939. 30:23.700 --> 30:29.130 It's a great collaboration between a black singer and 30:29.133 --> 30:35.603 actually the songwriter was Jewish, Abel Meeropol. 30:35.600 --> 30:39.400 So this is one of the first instances of a black-Jewish 30:39.400 --> 30:45.170 collaboration resulting in this classic song in the jazz 30:45.167 --> 30:45.927 repertoire. 30:45.933 --> 30:49.203 But these are the lyrics of Strange Fruit. 30:49.200 --> 30:55.300 And you can see why that image would lead to those lyrics. 30:55.300 --> 30:58.570 "Southern trees bear a strange fruit. 30:58.567 --> 31:01.467 Blood on the leaves, blood at the root. 31:01.467 --> 31:04.197 Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze. 31:04.200 --> 31:07.530 Strange fruit hanging from the tops of the trees. 31:07.533 --> 31:12.703 Pastoral scene of the gallant South, the bulging eyes and 31:12.700 --> 31:14.230 the twisted mouth. 31:14.233 --> 31:17.303 The scent of magnolia, sweet and fresh. 31:17.300 --> 31:20.500 Then the sudden smell of burning flesh. 31:20.500 --> 31:24.530 Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck, for the rain to 31:24.533 --> 31:26.533 gather, for the wind to suck. 31:26.533 --> 31:30.303 For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop. 31:30.300 --> 31:33.670 Here is a strange and bitter crop." 31:33.667 --> 31:35.497 The lyrics-- 31:35.500 --> 31:39.470 and Billie Holiday is the one who made the song famous, but 31:39.467 --> 31:46.127 really it was Abel Meeropol that made the song such a 31:46.133 --> 31:47.773 great song. 31:47.767 --> 31:50.127 And I think the power of the song really just comes from 31:50.133 --> 31:53.603 the contrast, the alternate rhythm, between the kind of 31:53.600 --> 31:57.170 cliche image of the South, you know the pastoral South, the 31:57.167 --> 31:59.867 magnolia, the smell of magnolia, and then the smell 31:59.867 --> 32:00.767 of the burning flesh. 32:00.767 --> 32:04.027 It's that alternate rhythm that generates the peculiar 32:04.033 --> 32:06.133 power of this song. 32:06.133 --> 32:11.303 So that's partly why lynching was such an issue on 32:11.300 --> 32:14.600 everyone's consciousness in the '30s. 32:14.600 --> 32:16.230 But there were also other issues. 32:16.233 --> 32:20.473 And in fact, the song is a great song, but it's also 32:20.467 --> 32:25.097 slightly misleading in a sense that it's suggesting that 32:25.100 --> 32:29.100 lynching was strictly a Southern phenomenon, which 32:29.100 --> 32:31.430 actually wasn't the case. 32:31.433 --> 32:35.833 And so all we have to do is to look at this New Yorker cover 32:35.833 --> 32:39.133 on March 19, 1938. 32:39.133 --> 32:43.203 Very late, really very, very late for this to be on the New 32:43.200 --> 32:46.170 Yorker's cover, this racist-- 32:46.167 --> 32:49.367 just the Northern population being flabbergasted at how 32:49.367 --> 32:54.867 lazy and drunken blacks are, because they were migrating in 32:54.867 --> 32:56.527 large numbers to the North. 32:56.533 --> 33:00.973 So a relatively new phenomenon in the twentieth century 33:00.967 --> 33:06.827 actually was the substantial number of lynchings both in 33:06.833 --> 33:11.103 the Northeast and also in the Midwest. So this is a kind of 33:11.100 --> 33:17.470 very famous double lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith 33:17.467 --> 33:20.427 in Indiana in 1930. 33:20.433 --> 33:23.673 So once again, very, very late for that. 33:23.667 --> 33:28.297 And it's because of these very sensational lynchings in the 33:28.300 --> 33:37.770 North that the NAACP actually had this regular practice of 33:37.767 --> 33:41.727 just hanging out a flag in the New York City office 33:41.733 --> 33:45.003 announcing that a man was lynched yesterday. 33:45.000 --> 33:47.670 And that was also in the 1930s. 33:47.667 --> 33:53.227 So it was something that was an ongoing problem and very 33:53.233 --> 33:58.503 much kind of a hot button issue in the 1930s. 33:58.500 --> 34:02.100 So as a consequence of that, there was an anti-lynching 34:02.100 --> 34:06.570 bill that was trying to make its way through Congress and 34:06.567 --> 34:07.097 the Senate. 34:07.100 --> 34:12.070 And it passed in the House, but because of a filibuster in 34:12.067 --> 34:15.667 the Senate, it led to the withdrawal of the bill in 34:15.667 --> 34:18.667 February of 1938. 34:18.667 --> 34:25.397 So it was just something that just never went away. 34:25.400 --> 34:30.370 It was an unresolved issue all the way through the 1930s. 34:30.367 --> 34:33.867 And so Hemingway actually was very much plugged into the 34:33.867 --> 34:36.827 politics of the United States when all of a sudden he would 34:36.833 --> 34:40.103 make Robert Jordan suddenly make a reference to lynching. 34:40.100 --> 34:45.030 But just to move away from that history of lynching in 34:45.033 --> 34:49.833 the United States, back to its impact on the Spanish 34:49.833 --> 34:51.403 environment. 34:51.400 --> 34:57.300 The response of Maria and Pilar to lynching in the 34:57.300 --> 35:00.670 United States is once again very odd. 35:00.667 --> 35:03.727 "'As I said, when they lifted the Negro up for the second 35:03.733 --> 35:07.933 time, my mother pulled me away from the window, so I saw no 35:07.933 --> 35:11.403 more,' Robert Jordan said. 'But since I have had 35:11.400 --> 35:14.730 experiences which demonstrate that drunkenness is the same 35:14.733 --> 35:15.773 in my country. 35:15.767 --> 35:20.097 It is ugly and brutal.' 'You were too young at seven,' 35:20.100 --> 35:22.670 Maria said. 'You were too young for such things. 35:22.667 --> 35:25.527 I have never seen a Negro except in a circus. 35:25.533 --> 35:29.603 Unless the Moors are Negroes.' 'Some are Negroes and some are 35:29.600 --> 35:33.670 not," Pilar said. 'I can talk to you of the Moors.'" 35:33.667 --> 35:40.427 So this is mind-boggling, that this should be the response to 35:40.433 --> 35:43.473 lynching in the United States. 35:43.467 --> 35:47.397 We can't even say that-- it would be reassuring to say 35:47.400 --> 35:51.500 that it's just cultural ignorance or the impossibility 35:51.500 --> 35:54.330 of cross-cultural understanding that is 35:54.333 --> 35:58.933 resulting in the responses from Maria and Pilar. 35:58.933 --> 36:01.973 It would be nice to be able just to say, it's because they 36:01.967 --> 36:04.127 don't know anything about the United States. 36:04.133 --> 36:06.773 But I really don't think that that is the case. 36:06.767 --> 36:09.467 So I would invite you, actually, this is something to 36:09.467 --> 36:10.497 think about. 36:10.500 --> 36:13.870 Why do Spanish always have such weird -- 36:13.867 --> 36:18.767 and that's putting it mildly -- weird responses to violence 36:18.767 --> 36:20.767 in the United States, period? 36:20.767 --> 36:23.927 The response is never the right response. 36:23.933 --> 36:27.603 It's always so off-focus that it's not 36:27.600 --> 36:29.770 even the wrong response. 36:29.767 --> 36:31.697 It's just hard to believe that anyone would 36:31.700 --> 36:34.170 respond like that. 36:34.167 --> 36:40.467 But what we see right there is that this once again weird 36:40.467 --> 36:44.697 invocation of the Moors in conjunction with violence in 36:44.700 --> 36:45.370 the United States. 36:45.367 --> 36:49.227 So all we know is that when they try to make sense of 36:49.233 --> 36:51.133 something they don't understand, when the Spanish 36:51.133 --> 36:53.303 try to make sense of something they don't understand, the 36:53.300 --> 36:58.100 Moors are the people who come to their minds. 36:58.100 --> 37:03.030 But it's a moment where any kind of communion between 37:03.033 --> 37:07.973 Robert and Maria and Pilar, any previous communion between 37:07.967 --> 37:10.467 them is completely breaking down. 37:10.467 --> 37:15.927 So I just wanted to talk about another episode that has 37:15.933 --> 37:17.533 exactly the same kind of construction of 37:17.533 --> 37:21.373 incomprehension, ignorance, and incomprehension on the 37:21.367 --> 37:22.667 part of the Spanish. 37:22.667 --> 37:24.967 And this has to do with the Republican party. 37:24.967 --> 37:28.797 You guys remember that the leftists in Spain were the 37:28.800 --> 37:30.000 Republicans. 37:30.000 --> 37:32.270 They are defending the Spanish Republic. 37:32.267 --> 37:35.567 So to be a Republican in Spain means that 37:35.567 --> 37:37.097 you are on the left. 37:37.100 --> 37:40.600 And this is the context for that conversation. 37:40.600 --> 37:43.930 "'My father was a Republican all his life,' Maria said. 37:43.933 --> 37:47.033 'It was for that that they shot him.' 'My father was also 37:47.033 --> 37:48.273 a Republican all his life. 37:48.267 --> 37:50.627 Also my grandfather,' Robert Jordan said. 'In what 37:50.633 --> 37:54.503 country?' 'The United States.' 'Did they shoot them?' the 37:54.500 --> 37:55.730 woman asked. 37:55.733 --> 37:57.333 'Que va,' Maria said. 37:57.333 --> 37:59.533 'The United States is a country of Republicans. 37:59.533 --> 38:02.633 They don't shoot you for being a Republican there.' 'All the 38:02.633 --> 38:05.403 same, it is a good thing to have a grandfather who was a 38:05.400 --> 38:09.270 Republican,' the woman said. 'It shows a good blood.' 'My 38:09.267 --> 38:12.097 grandfather was on the Republican national 38:12.100 --> 38:14.130 committee,' Robert Jordan said. 38:14.133 --> 38:16.803 That impressed even Maria. 38:16.800 --> 38:18.630 'And is thy father still active in the 38:18.633 --> 38:20.703 Republic?' Pilar asked. 38:20.700 --> 38:21.230 'No. 38:21.233 --> 38:26.603 He is dead.' 'Can one ask how he died?' 'He shot himself.' 38:26.600 --> 38:29.470 'For avoiding being tortured?' The woman asked. 38:29.467 --> 38:32.027 'Yes,' Robert Jordan said. 38:32.033 --> 38:35.173 'To avoid being tortured.'" 38:35.167 --> 38:38.097 So this is where we get that mix of the 38:38.100 --> 38:39.970 comic and the tragic. 38:39.967 --> 38:42.827 It is a comedy of errors so far. 38:42.833 --> 38:46.503 For a good part of that passage, it is a comedy of 38:46.500 --> 38:48.870 cross-cultural error. 38:48.867 --> 38:53.067 Just not being able to wrap your mind around the fact that 38:53.067 --> 38:55.197 to be a Republican in the United States is a very 38:55.200 --> 38:58.170 different thing than being a Republican in Spain. 38:58.167 --> 39:00.527 So just not being able to-- 39:00.533 --> 39:05.433 this is just kind of permanent blinders in the minds 39:05.433 --> 39:07.873 of Maria and Pilar. 39:07.867 --> 39:15.967 So if that were just the case, it would go no further. 39:15.967 --> 39:22.567 That would just be a moment of comic relief in For Whom the 39:22.567 --> 39:24.327 Bell Tolls. 39:24.333 --> 39:28.833 But as is always the case with Hemingway in this particular 39:28.833 --> 39:34.473 novel, the comic suddenly morphs into something else 39:34.467 --> 39:36.627 without any warning. 39:36.633 --> 39:40.403 So all of a sudden we get the detail about Robert Jordan's 39:40.400 --> 39:43.670 father shooting himself to avoid being tortured. 39:43.667 --> 39:47.067 And that can have only one meaning for the Spanish. 39:47.067 --> 39:50.597 It fits completely into the personal history of Maria. 39:50.600 --> 39:53.470 It fits completely into Pilar's understanding of 39:53.467 --> 39:55.497 political history in Spain. 39:55.500 --> 40:00.000 But right now we don't know why his father killed himself 40:00.000 --> 40:02.900 and what kind of torture he is talking about. 40:02.900 --> 40:06.870 So we have to wait a little longer to have that mystery 40:06.867 --> 40:08.997 cleared up for us. 40:09.000 --> 40:12.630 And to have that mystery cleared up, we actually have 40:12.633 --> 40:18.103 to go further into the past. So I've been talking about 40:18.100 --> 40:22.230 distant homes in times just of spatial locations. 40:22.233 --> 40:26.303 But there's also a distant temporal home. 40:26.300 --> 40:29.330 In turns out that the nineteenth century is also a 40:29.333 --> 40:31.633 necessary home for Robert Jordan, 40:31.633 --> 40:33.573 especially the Civil War. 40:33.567 --> 40:36.827 It's almost the equivalent of Paris in terms of 40:36.833 --> 40:40.573 psychological need for that home. 40:40.567 --> 40:44.067 And it's not just any Civil War, but his 40:44.067 --> 40:44.597 grandfather's Civil War. 40:44.600 --> 40:46.870 And this is his moment of homecoming. 40:46.867 --> 40:50.527 This is the home that will receive him and shelter him. 40:50.533 --> 40:53.403 "Remember something concrete and practical. 40:53.400 --> 40:57.070 Remember Grandfather's saber, bright and well oiled in its 40:57.067 --> 41:00.167 dented scabbard and Grandfather showed you how the 41:00.167 --> 41:03.627 blade had been thinned from the many times it had been to 41:03.633 --> 41:04.933 the grinder's. 41:04.933 --> 41:06.973 Remember Grandfather's Smith and Wesson. 41:06.967 --> 41:12.027 It was a single action, officer's model .32 caliber 41:12.033 --> 41:13.933 and there was no trigger guard. 41:13.933 --> 41:17.933 It had the softest, sweetest trigger pull you had ever felt 41:17.933 --> 41:21.473 and it was always well oiled and the bore was clean 41:21.467 --> 41:25.467 although the finish was all worn off and the brown metal 41:25.467 --> 41:28.567 of the barrel and the cylinder was worn smooth from the 41:28.567 --> 41:30.997 leather of the holster." 41:31.000 --> 41:33.970 So this is, like Hemingway's description of the trout 41:33.967 --> 41:36.027 fishing in In Our Time. 41:36.033 --> 41:38.333 Very, very clean, the smoothness, 41:38.333 --> 41:41.033 cleanness of their operation. 41:41.033 --> 41:45.433 But in this particular context the smoothness and the 41:45.433 --> 41:49.233 cleanness and the worn-out-ness of that pistol 41:49.233 --> 41:52.403 suggests that this is a well-used weapon. 41:52.400 --> 41:56.730 Robert Johnson's grandfather was a hero of the Civil War. 41:56.733 --> 41:59.503 His saber had been to the grinder's numerous times 41:59.500 --> 42:03.630 because the blade had been so well used. 42:03.633 --> 42:07.433 So without saying anything, without using the word "glory" 42:07.433 --> 42:13.303 or "heroic" or any comparable adjective, Hemingway gives us 42:13.300 --> 42:18.870 the sense that the Civil War was the heroic moment, was the 42:18.867 --> 42:23.297 high point, in the history of Robert's family. 42:23.300 --> 42:26.400 And it was very much vested in his grandfather. 42:26.400 --> 42:28.670 And at that point, it has receded. 42:28.667 --> 42:31.967 It has to recede, it has to be receded into the past. It 42:31.967 --> 42:33.567 belongs to the nineteenth century. 42:33.567 --> 42:36.127 But Robert Jordan wants to activate it over and over 42:36.133 --> 42:39.233 again, bring it up to the twentieth century because he 42:39.233 --> 42:40.303 needs that. 42:40.300 --> 42:46.900 And we know why he needs to bring the nineteenth century 42:46.900 --> 42:50.930 back on the next page when we know what 42:50.933 --> 42:53.333 happens to that pistol. 42:53.333 --> 42:57.233 "Then after you father had shot himself with the pistol, 42:57.233 --> 43:00.103 and you had come home from school and they'd had the 43:00.100 --> 43:03.970 funeral, the coroner had returned it after the inquest 43:03.967 --> 43:10.097 saying, "Bob, I guess you might want to keep the gun." 43:10.100 --> 43:12.230 OK, I should just stop and clarify that this is something 43:12.233 --> 43:15.003 we'll be talking about, actually the narrative 43:15.000 --> 43:17.670 switches from second person pronoun, Robert Jordan 43:17.667 --> 43:19.197 addressing himself as you. 43:19.200 --> 43:22.000 So that you is Robert Jordan, and then it switches back to 43:22.000 --> 43:23.670 the third person. 43:23.667 --> 43:27.797 "He climbed out on a rock and leaned over and saw his face 43:27.800 --> 43:32.000 in the still water, and saw himself holding the gun, and 43:32.000 --> 43:36.570 then he dropped it, holding it by the muzzle and saw it go 43:36.567 --> 43:39.697 down making bubbles until it was just as big as a watch 43:39.700 --> 43:45.500 charm in the clear water and then it was out of sight." So 43:45.500 --> 43:51.430 this passage that comes just on the opposite page from the 43:51.433 --> 43:55.603 previous invocation of the Civil War weapons of the 43:55.600 --> 44:00.730 grandfather tell us exactly why the nineteenth century and 44:00.733 --> 44:05.833 the Civil War is a necessary emotional shelter for Robert. 44:05.833 --> 44:09.403 He's just so ashamed of his father. 44:09.400 --> 44:13.700 He wants to clean up that entire episode, drop it into 44:13.700 --> 44:16.130 the clear water so that it will be 44:16.133 --> 44:18.773 completely out of sight. 44:18.767 --> 44:20.697 He can do that to the pistol. 44:20.700 --> 44:24.730 He can't do it to the actual history itself, but that's as 44:24.733 --> 44:30.003 close as he can get to wiping out that history. 44:30.000 --> 44:35.930 And so in this moment actually, there is no Spanish 44:35.933 --> 44:38.903 environment that is invoked. 44:38.900 --> 44:42.570 This is no mention of the immediate Spanish setting. 44:42.567 --> 44:47.397 And I think that that is suggestive as well, in a sense 44:47.400 --> 44:52.630 that really the home is for Robert, I think, and it's a 44:52.633 --> 44:55.873 very pessimistic reading of the novel. 44:55.867 --> 44:58.227 There are basically just two homes for Robert. 44:58.233 --> 45:04.233 One is the Paris of the evening papers and the 45:04.233 --> 45:05.633 chestnut trees. 45:05.633 --> 45:10.203 And the other home for him is a home that never was a home 45:10.200 --> 45:14.170 that was in his lifetime, but a home that he can inherit 45:14.167 --> 45:16.727 vicariously through his grandfather. 45:16.733 --> 45:21.203 And that is the American Civil War as his spiritual home. 45:21.200 --> 45:25.270 Because this is the one place where he has affirmation of 45:25.267 --> 45:28.397 himself, that he's not ashamed of himself, not ashamed of his 45:28.400 --> 45:30.070 family history. 45:30.067 --> 45:32.497 And so those are impossible homes for him at this point.