Atdtda38: Our own little republic, 1076-1077 #2

[alice malice]

Throughout his literary career, Henry Adams displayed an insatiable
interest in the nature of woman. In his early essay entitled, the
“Primitive Rights of Woman," Adams attempted to demonstrate the
importance of woman in the earliest foundations of  the family and
society. Adams' Tahiti (1901)demonstrated how primitive woman
utilizing her intuition, protected the society from man-caused
disaster. In his Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres (1904) and Education
of Henry Adams (1905), \ Adams established woman, particularly the
European woman of the twelfth century, as a symbol of natural forceand
instinct.  Adams' "A Letter to American Teachers of History" (1910)
demonstrated what he regarded as scientific proof of the superiority
of instinct, which he depicted as the force underlying woman's great
force in society, over reason, which he regard­ed as the faculty most
used by man. In the Chartres and the Education, Adams offered the
theory that the highest point of unity in man's history had been
reached in the period of time, 1150 to 1250 A.D.  In these works and
in his "A Letter to American Teachers of History" he attempted proof
that mankind had steadily dissipated its energies from the thirteenth
century in accordance with Kelvin's Second Law of Thermo-dynamics thus
arriving at itspresent state of multiplicity in the twentieth century.
The period 1150 to 1250 A.D. was chosen by Adams as the period in
which "man held the highest idea of himself as a unit in a unified
universe" because of the strong cohesive nature of the Christian faith
at that time--a faith which resulted in the crusades and the great
cathedrals.  This period was marked by great feminine influence as
evidenced in the intense worship of the Virgin Mary and the erection
of many of the cathedrals, particularly  Chartres,in her honor.  Also
Adams recorded as proof the great power wielded by the three queens,
Eleanor of Guienne, Mary of Champagne, and Blanche of Castile, all of
whom helped to initiate the cult of courteous love.  As a contrast to
the position of woman in the thirteenth century, Adams noted in the
Education what he perceived as the degraded position of American woman
in the twentieth century.          Both of Adams' novels, Democracy
(1879) and Esther (1884) have as protagonists women unable to accept
suitors because of moral or religious conflicts.  Many critics writing
on these novels see these women as prototypes to Adams' conception of
the twelfth century woman.  While there is a small case for this
position, I believe it may be demonstrated that the two protagonists
resemble the modern American woman described in the Education much
more closely and, furthermore, that they show points of marked
dissimilarity to the Virgin of Chartres, Adams' symbol of twelfth
century womanhood.

http://blue.utb.edu/gibson/Esther.htm

On Fri, Aug 29, 2014 at 7:10 AM, Paul Nightingale <isread at btinternet.com> wrote:
> If the first part of the section describes a particular moment, the second
> part describes the evolution of the Yashmeen/Stray relationship from a
> specific conversation ('Yash said one day', 1076) to any number of different
> occasions (the next line: 'Stray ... would sigh'). The school essay - its
> writing and grading, if not its content - calls upon personal experience,
> Jesse at Ludlow, his teacher in 'the olden days'. However, for the female
> characters here, personal experience is written differently. On 1077 Stray
> is allowed to be introspective, reminiscing about 'a delirious moment or
> two, usually in city hotel rooms considerably to the east of here' and
> therefore in the past, given their progress and current location in 'the
> last corner of the US map'; this introspection is available on one of the
> few occasions when the narrative has not positioned her in relation to the
> male pov. For the most part Stray is seen in relation to Reef and/or Frank,
> even if sexual relations with women are alluded to.
>
> She is introduced on 200 and 'real pregnant' on 201; the narrative has
> already placed her between Reef and Frank, and will frequently, thereafter,
> reintroduce her from Frank's pov (eg 464 and 920, where the presence of male
> companions, 'lover boy' and 'some impossibly good-looking Mexican dude'
> respectively, is emphasised). On 202 there is, from Frank's pov, 'a
> possibility that Stray and Sage [might] just fling up their hands and go
> vamoose town together', a line that might now read differently; and any
> desire to evade male attention is echoed, arguably, in the suggestion that
> 'our own little republic' would be better off without men (1076). On 464,
> again from Frank's pov, Stray is linked to 'some motor outlaw' (perhaps one
> of the 'peach-fuzz desperadoes' of the page before); however, a few lines
> down, 'attractively costumed waiter girls ... [are] throwing her certain
> glances'. This latter observation goes nowhere as Frank's attention fixes on
> 'lover boy himself'. By the top of 465 a male gaze is dominant, even though
> the earlier reference to 'waiter girls' implies an attendant female gaze.
>
> From the outset, and by way of contrast, Yashmeen's relations with women are
> made rather more explicit, undermining any attempt to position her solely in
> relation to a male gaze (surveillance by the TWIT on 496 and Russian spies
> on 595 notwithstanding). Throughout, Stray functions as an object of desire
> for Frank, even when asserting her independence, eg: '. no more little
> dainty .22 beneath some ladylike frock but a serviceable Colt strapped to
> one pair of, he could not help noticing, interesting legs in britches of
> trail-grade whipcord' (920). Reference here to Colt and britches suggests
> admiration for her competence coexisting with admiration for her body.
> However, for Stray, there is nothing similar to the writing of Yashmeen. On
> 224 she is 'gathering appreciative looks from passersby male and female',
> which does, perhaps, recall Stray's 'waiter girls'; but Ratty subsequently
> tells Cyprian that '[s]he, prefers, her, own, sex' (491). Sex with other
> women then takes place on 498 ('the classmate ... slipping naked into
> Yashmeen's own narrow bed') and 502 ('at the mercy of the Silent-Frocked
> corps'), all of which means that her subsequent relations with Cyprian and
> Reef are played out after her bisexuality is established. Consequently, if
> Stray is always an adjunct to the Traverse story, the current section
> suggests that bringing her and Yashmeen together has been one of the
> purposes of the narrative.
>
>
> -
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