M&D - Chapter 18 - This Incompletely Recogniz'd man

[Johnny Marr]

If Pope Joan is a parlour game then it might be a sexually adventurous one
involving gender swapping - not one that any of the four characters seem
instinctively suited to ...

On Thursday, March 26, 2015, Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for the addendum
>
> I've seen Top Girls and know who Pope Joan was meant to be, but I'm still
> uncertain what her name signifies in the chapter, where 'Pope Joan'
> seems casually inserted without further comment amidst a litany of gambling
> terms.
>
> On Thursday, March 26, 2015, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','mark.kohut at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>
>> Pope Joan: See wikipedia, a long article, a supposed Medieval
>> Pope.....but here is the section on literary uses:
>>
>> In fiction[edit]
>>
>> Pope Joan has remained a popular subject for fictional works. Plays
>> include Ludwig Achim von Arnim's Päpstin Johanna (1813), a fragment by
>> Bertolt Brecht (in Werke. Bd. 10), and a monodrama, Pausin Johanna by
>> Cees van der Pluijm (1996). Pope Joan also appears as a character in
>> Caryl Churchill's 1982 play Top Girls.
>>
>> The Greek author Emmanuel Rhoides' 1866 novel The Papess Joanne was
>> admired by Mark Twain and Alfred Jarry, and freely translated by
>> Lawrence Durrell as The Curious History of Pope Joan (1954). The
>> American Donna Woolfolk Cross's 1996 historical romance Pope Joan was
>> recently made into a German musical as well as the movie described
>> below. Other novels include Wilhelm Smets's Das Mährchen von der
>> Päpstin Johanna auf's Neue erörtert (1829), Marjorie Bowen's Black
>> Magic (1909), Ludwig Gorm's Päpstin Johanna (1912), and Yves Bichet's
>> La Papesse Jeanne (2005).
>>
>> There have been two films based on the story of Pope Joan. Pope Joan
>> (1972), directed by Michael Anderson, was titled The Devil's Imposter
>> in the USA. In 2009 it was recut to include more of John Briley's
>> original script and released as She... who would be Pope. In the same
>> year another film with the title Pope Joan was released, this one a
>> German, British, Italian and Spanish production directed by Sönke
>> Wortmann and produced by Bernd Eichinger, based on Cross's novel.
>>
>>
>> I actually read Durrell's 'free translation" which had wit and a dated
>> subversiveness in my humble opinion.
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 12:02 AM, Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Mason returns to the family bosom, to find his own sisters hostile and
>> his
>> > own sons indifferent to him - they barely recognise who he is. Mason
>> buys
>> > their peace, and their partial goodwill, with a pair of Toy Ships bought
>> > last minute in Tenerife, affording him the opportunity to play with them
>> > down by the Stream, "leaving the Women to discuss his character".
>> >
>> > William is now five years old, Doctor Isaac is three. William has taken
>> the
>> > role of the watchful elder brother, with Isaac "closer to agreeable
>> > laughter". They're old enough to detect the differences in the Toy
>> Boats to
>> > the British ones they've seen in the flesh - they can spot the
>> difference in
>> > the rigging, the carvings and the number of Guns they carried. Mason
>> seizes
>> > upon this as an opportunity to tell an entertaining story of how the
>> blue
>> > Spanish ships, camouflaged against the sea, can sneak attack the French
>> > boats - only for this sons to shrug out of range when he shapes to
>> tickle
>> > them at the end of the anecdote.
>> >
>> > Shocking news at the start of July, as Bradley dies after a short
>> illness.
>> > We learn that Susannah has predeceased him (five years earlier, it later
>> > transpires), as Bradley is to be buried alongside her at Minchinhampton.
>> >
>> > This sudden news would be devestating to any close friend, and a man of
>> > Mason feels particularly guilty because he senses that Bradley knew
>> about
>> > his prior relationship with Susannah and that he still found her
>> "impossible
>> > not to gaze at", yet never properly addressed the matter, even when he
>> and
>> > Susannah lived next door to and regularly socialised with Mason and
>> Rebekah.
>> > The card references continue as Mason recalls how the four of them
>> played
>> > plenty of "Cards upon Nights of Cloud or Storm", as well as Piquet and
>> > various Parlour games (and a reference to the possibly apocryphal Pope
>> Joan
>> > that I can't quite contextualise at close to 3 in the morning ...)
>> >
>> > "Was he always fated for these terrible unending four-door Farces? They
>> do
>> > not always end luckily, as at the Cape, with ev'ryone's Blood
>> unspill'd".
>> > TRP will refer to four-door farces again in ATD - the classic farce set
>> up
>> > of people moving in and out through rooms and doors and narrowly
>> missing one
>> > another. In this situation, it reminds us that Mason is the only
>> surivivor
>> > of the foursome, and that he is happy to be back home, closer to his
>> > children, thawing out the relationship with his Sisters and able to
>> channel
>> > Rebekah's spirit in a more manageable environment. His desire to travel
>> > abroad for any length of time must now be severely diminished.
>> >
>> > Mason is embarassed when he turns up for Bradley's funeral only to be
>> told
>> > that "Bradley wish'd only the Family near. Any further word will be in
>> the
>> > newspapers". A harsh judgement for a close friend who wanted to pay his
>> > respects - having been in demand by all of London's intellectual circles
>> > just a few months before, Maso now finds himself as "Incompletely
>> > Recogniz'd" by polite society as by his own progeny. He is back to the
>> > position of the lone unappreciated maverick.
>> > "some of us are Outlaws, and some Trespassers upon the very World.
>> > Everywhere stand Monitors advising Mason, that he may not proceed. He
>> is a
>> > Warrior who has just lost his Lord".
>>
>
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