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

[alice wellintown]

On Douglass and the Irish:

http://douglassoconnellmemorial.org/

On 7/26/13, alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
>>
>