V-2 - Chapter Nine - Fasching/False Time

[alice wellintown]

The simile that compares van Wijk's appearance on the scene with a
"two-dimensional figure jerked suddenly onstage by hidden pulleys" is
worth looking into. The fact that he is half drunk, the fact that he
has not slept, the fact that he is anxious, worried about the coming
of the Messiah, the fact that Mondaugen, like some profane John the
Baptist, has, with his data disturbances, contributed to the Messiah
dangerous mission, and the fact that he has done this with, what to
the Bondelswaartz believe are ghosts, holy or no, and the fact that,
like Grover Snodd's research, and not a few other characters in P's
novels, Mondaugen's research is conducted at night, as he sleeps, and
the fact that he has conditioned himself, again, not unlike several P
characters, including some in this novel, to wake and record
data...these facts, while obvious enough, are worth mentioning, I
suppose.

The vulture that lit in front of the hut and stared at van Wijk is
perhaps too obviously a symbol of his anxiety, of his possible demise.
Or maybe, like a raven, it is tapping at his chamber door. Notice that
Poe inverts the adjective and noun positions of "midnight" and
"dreary" in line one. Unlike "bleak December" in line one of stanza
two, "midnight dreary" functions as the internal exposition. So,
though it is a dreary midnight in December, where this this condition
is, outside the chamber or inside the heart of the speaker's dark
chamber, is a matter worth considering. Is he awake? Is he dreaming?
Both? And the way he nods into and is startled out of this state or
condition, the two seem to mix with that book of lore, much as the
music, the book, the house, usher in to Usher and then out again.
Mondaugan's story has these elements of gothic romance, and of the
stage and Baedecker-land. And the text doesn't give primacy to any of
these possible readings and ambiguity and paradox are evident in every
paragraph. Smells like Romance to me.

 Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,


On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 10:41 PM, alice wellintown
<alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
> Also obvious, I suppose, is that Mondaugen is "related to" Grover Snodd.
>
> On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 10:28 PM, alice wellintown
> <alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Also, obvious I guess, Thomas Mann's _The Magic Mountain_ and Henry
>> Adams's _The Education of Henry Adams_ are parody of the bildungsroman
>> genre.
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 10:10 PM, alice wellintown
>> <alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Maybe this is too obvious to mention, but the direct description of
>>> Kurt is none too flattering. He is voluptuous.  Odd word for a man,
>>> no? He seems a bit like that fat boy in Willy Wonker and the Chocolate
>>> Factory. He has, as do many characters in this novel, a problem with
>>> the sun. The sun, it seems, is late. It's not exactly a train. And it
>>> mocks him. The irony of his situation is acknowledged by Kurt, though
>>> the narrator suggests that the situation may not be ironic. In other
>>> words, there is nothing ironic in the situation that Kurt doesn't make
>>> ironic. We are also told that he fancied a horrid perversity. He
>>> fancied it. Was it real? Did he imagine it? Did he desire it? He
>>> shares something (we are told this is a major trait) with Karl
>>> Baedecker, a basic distrust of the South. He shares this trait with
>>> Henry Adams too; he also shares Adams's itinerary.
>>>
>>
>