Tressell, Ellison, Pynchon: Emulsion & Petrifying Liquids or Painting the Roses Red

[alice wellintown]

I'm quite certain most are familiar with Ellison, his Invisible Man,
the paint factory in that novel and the labor meeting in the factory.
I'm sure most know quite a bit about Ellison and the issues of White
and Black in his work. Same goes for P, so I won't start with Slothrop
in the paint factory in GR, how or why P also uses Black and White,
issue of race, Slothrap as Charlie Chaplin and Hitler the House
painter or the factory and why it is burned down, but will move into
Tressell because most, I guess, know less of him. I'm just digging in
but am fascinated by this Kute Korrespondence.

So the Irish have a long and troubleds history with Blacks. In
Ireland, Frederick Douglass, who was only recently recognized by the
American President with a statue in Washington, is a hero there; his
face, his words are painted on the murals in North and South; he was a
champion of Irish Freedom and Catholic Emancipation; he visited
Ireland; he never forgot what he learned from them and he felt an
affinity from youth to old age. In any event, Frederick Douglass is
known as a great orator and abolitionist, teacher, statemen, so
on...but we should do well to remember that he was, above all else, a
labor organizer. His Narrative is, yes...about work. Anyway, Tressell
goes to south Africa....

A Ragged Trousered Philanthropist and the Empire: Robert Tressell in
South Africa
Jonathan Hyslop

Abstract
Robert Tressell's The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists probably had a
greater impact upon the twentieth century British labour movement than
any other novel. Tressell was the pen name of the Irish-born Robert
Noonan. His book tells of a group of artisans in the southern English
town of ‘Mugsborough’, drawing on Noonan's experience as a painter in
Hastings, from about 1901 to 1910. This paper suggests that previous
analyses of the novel have missed the crucial importance of the
colonial dimension of Noonan's life. From about 1890 to 1901, Noonan
lived in South Africa, first in the British Cape Colony then in the
Boer-controlled Transvaal. The novel's critique of English society, it
is suggested, reflects both Noonan's Irish background and his African
experience. The paper seeks to demonstrate that a major sub-plot of
the novel draws directly on Noonan's experience of, and reflection on,
the break-up of his Cape Town marriage. Noonan's Socialism, it is
contended, originated in the Johannesburg labour movement, and The
Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is also argued to have owed its broad
appeal to Noonan's deliberate avoidance in the book of two issues
which loomed large in his life during his South African years: Irish
nationalism and racial segregationism in the labour movement.



On 7/25/13, alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
> I do like the young scholar's Dis on Film in American Lit, and
> especially, as I said, the read of GR as a novel that, like MASH, is a
> critique of American war in South East Asia, in Vietnam. And, while
> the claim that one can't get GR unless one gets the use of film is a
> bit much, it's only a bit much, and anywayz, worth reading with a
> little charity becuase the rest of the young scholar's work is very
> fine indeed.
>
> In any event,  before we get to painting the roses red (and if you've
> not seen Disney's Alice, the cold war Alice, check it out), and the
> irony of socialist and communist ideas in the authors mentioned, they
> are, again,  Tressell, Ellison, and Pynchon, I want to say that I
> decided to read RTP because a P-Lister said that Frank, a character in
> RTP, seems related ot Frank in AGTD. I must admit that I was a bit
> skeptical at first, but as it is a great work of art, what could be
> the harm in reading it.
>
> I want first to take us to a scene in that novel:
>
> By the end of April nearly all the old hands were back at work, and
> several casual hands had also been taken on, the Semi-drunk being one
> of the number. In addition to these, Misery had taken on a number of
> what he called 'lightweights', men who were not really skilled
> workmen, but had picked up sufficient knowledge of the simpler parts
> of the trade to be able to get over it passably. These were paid
> fivepence or fivepence-halfpenny, and were employed in preference to
> those who had served their time, because the latter wanted more money
> and therefore were only employed when absolutely necessary. Besides
> the lightweights there were a few young fellows called improvers, who
> were also employed because they were cheap.
>
> Crass now acted as colourman, having been appointed possibly because
> he knew absolutely nothing about the laws of colour. As most of the
> work consisted of small jobs, all the paint and distemper was mixed up
> at the shop and sent out ready for use to the various jobs.
>
> Sawkins or some of the other lightweights generally carried the
> heavier lots of colour or scaffolding, but the smaller lots of colour
> or such things as a pair of steps or a painter's plank were usually
> sent by the boy, whose slender legs had become quite bowed since he
> had been engaged helping the other philanthropists to make money for
> Mr Rushton.
>
> Crass's work as colourman was simplified, to a certain extent, by the
> great number of specially prepared paints and distempers in all
> colours, supplied by the manufacturers ready for use. Most of these
> new-fangled concoctions were regarded with an eye of suspicion and
> dislike by the hands, and Philpot voiced the general opinion about
> them one day during a dinner-hour discussion when he said they might
> appear to be all right for a time, but they would probably not last,
> because they was mostly made of kimicles.
>
> One of these new-fashioned paints was called 'Petrifying Liquid', and
> was used for first-coating decaying stone or plaster work. It was also
> supposed to be used for thinning up a certain kind of patent
> distemper, but when Misery found out that it was possible to thin the
> latter with water, the use of 'Petrifying Liquid' for that purpose was
> discontinued. This 'Petrifying Liquid' was a source of much merriment
> to the hands. The name was applied to the tea that they made in
> buckets on some of the jobs, and also to the four-ale that was
> supplied by certain pubs.
>
> One of the new inventions was regarded with a certain amount of
> indignation by the hands: it was a white enamel, and they objected to
> it for two reasons--one was because, as Philpot remarked, it dried so
> quickly that you had to work like greased lightning; you had to be all
> over the door directly you started it.
>
> The other reason was that, because it dried so quickly, it was
> necessary to keep closed the doors and windows of the room where it
> was being used, and the smell was so awful that it brought on fits of
> dizziness and sometimes vomiting. Needless to say, the fact that it
> compelled those who used it to work quickly recommended the stuff to
> Misery.
>
> As for the smell, he did not care about that; he did not have to
> inhale the fumes himself.
>