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18:43 Two Book Reviews 

Wil McCarthy's Bloom (1998)

• Wil McCarthy's website
• Wil McCarthy's Bloom pages
• Random House's Bloom Pages

Summary

The inner solar system has been taken over by a "mycosystem" of runaway nanotech which devours everything it comes in contact with. Refugees from Earth have camped out in the asteroid belt and the Jovian moons where the sun is dim enough that the fast-living, high energy "mycora" can't live. And yet, spores from the inner system, carried by the solar wind still threaten the human habitats with calamity whereever they can penetrate to warmth enough to "bloom."

Not even a generation since the outbreak has past. The society of humans on Callisto, stricken with survivor-syndrome, has developed aggressive counter-mycora and general anti-biotic technology called Immunity. They live in underground cities, powered by a nuclear Fusion-Fission loop called Ladderdown. They've developed a ship with a surface designed to fool the mycora and are sending seven people into the mycosystem to scout out the situation and drop of some probes. The main character is a blogger/journalist who's along to document the trip.

On the eve of the launch the ship is attacked by a mycora infected saboteur from a quasi-religious sect which believes the mycosystem intelligent and benevolent. A notion is floated that the ladderdown powered probes are actually powerful bombs and the mission is a covert counter-strike against the mycosystem. The main character and most of the crew (there is, as always, an operative for the other side) believe their mission benign, the mycosystem hostile.

The adventure proceeds apace.

What I liked about it

Here's a book that puts some science into it's science fiction. It's clear from the outset the McCarthy has put considerable thought and imagination into the technology and setting. The fact that McCarthy is actually something of a rocket scientist gives him considerable edge verisimilitude department. This is probably where the Arthur C Clarke comparisons come from.

The story is framed as the memoir of the journalist character, John Strasheim, as he his recruited to this mission and chronicles it. He inserts quotes from his original articles and related writings, to help provide context and "as you know, Bob" type information. Having just read a Jack Vance's Demon Princes novels, in which such information is likewise conveyed, I well appreciated this device.

John and his narration work out several neat tricks for doing this. As a memoir of his journalism we see him struggle to to translate the technical aspects of the mission to the audience back-home. Over the course of the story his character works out to be a perfect blend of knowledge and ignorance, real and pretended. He's a nice guy and it's fun to read his story, even when he's having a conversation about the economic implications of Ladderdown technology.

The supporting cast of characters are well drawn and individual enough to stand out in John's continuous POV. These characters are also used to imply a society suffering from collective post-traumatic stress disorder. Each individual must struggle with the destruction of everything they knew, and sporadic disasters since then.

What I disliked about it

Maybe I just good at reading into these things, but the self reflective nature of the frame story gives away the plot—this is a story in which the main character's worldview is completely transformed. It's hard for me to put this down as a dislike, since, if it wasn't, the story wouldn't work, or would have to be about something else, probably a less interesting something else.

But this creates expectations about how the moment-of-truth will arrive. Unfortunately McCarthy brings us to this moment in the midst of a great spectacle, and, for me anyway, this didn't work. It's entertaining in the way a techno action thriller is, it's convincing in the nuts-and-bolts "hard sf" way that Bloom is all along, but but the climatic realization didn't satisfy me in a human sense.

Overall

Very good. I recognize a difficult juggling act. It makes me excited about reading other books of his to see if he can pull it off in another one.

In the acknowledgments sections, McCarthy thanks "...Kathleen Ann Goonan and Linda Nagata for not pulling punches..." I don't know who Kathleen Ann Goonan is, but I happened to have a novel by Linda Nagata...

Linda Nagata's Deception Well (1997)

• Linda Nagata's website
• Linda Nagata's Deception Well Page

Summary

A distant future, with a distant past; the human race has spread out from Earth into a galaxy littered with weapons of titanic power leftover from an ancient alien war. The long-lost aliens, their weapons and artifacts, are known as the Chenzeme and whenever humans and Chenzeme intersect, misery and death follow.

Jupiter Apolinario is a charismatic cult leader with some adaptations which allows him to perceive and manipulate the moods of his followers. Lot is Jupiter's son/clone with the same adaptions. The two of them with an army of Jupiter's devoted followers have come 80 light-years to a planetary system in the middle of a mysterious nebula where Jupiter is convinced salvation and lasting protection from the Chenzeme can be found.

They aren't the first to attempt to settle here. The nebula is rife with nanotech organisms (here known as "Makers"). The planet's surface seems friendly but is likewise plagued. These systems are so powerful, that a long time ago a Chenzeme weapon called a "Swan Burster" showed up and was neutralized and now gently orbits the planet. The first humans came here some time ago too. They built a giant space elevator and a huge city on the elevator. The city is called Silk, and these pioneers are called Old Silkens, but the Old Silkens died off in some mysterious disaster, believed to have arisen from some offense they gave to the planet's powerful nanotech systems. The planet has been henceforth known as "Deception Well."

The humans currently in Silk are refugees from a Chenzeme attack on their home system. They stick to the city on the elevator far above the planet's surface. So far Deception Well has tolerated their presence. But then Jupiter and his followers show up. The Silkens try to stop them. They manage to capture most including eight year old Lot, but Jupiter and many others manage to get through and mysteriously disappear.

Ten years later, Lot has grown up in the society of Silkens and remainders of Jupiter's followers. The Silkens have explained that the disappearance of Jupiter's with his armed contingent is proof that Deception Well is dangerous. The faithful believe Jupiter as achieved communion with the system. And uneasy peace exists between the Silkens and Jupiter's people. Silken society is also rift between "Ados" and "Real People." It seems the Silkens enforce a century long adolescence before full citizenship can be conferred on an individual. Many Ados feel a hundred years is too long a time to wait for voting rights.

Among the Silkens, the real people debate whether Lot is a threat or menace, frequently having their doctors go over his altered physiology and psychology. They've assigned a little robot to follow him around. His best friend is Urban, immune to Lot's native powers, and politically opportunistic in his own way. Urban urges Lot to use them to fight for the cause of Ado voting rights. Gent is one of Jupiter's Lieutenants, who urges Lot to follow Jupiter down to Deception Well. Alta is a young woman Lot has a crush on, but she is still devoted to Jupiter.

Lot is a young man of conflicting certainties. He resents the hold Jupiter still has on all the rest of his people, since he naturally wants it for himself. He resents the Silken authorities who poke and prod him and try to keep him from exercising his powers. He believes that Deception Well is benevolent, but he doesn't really want to find out what happened to Jupiter, because it would cost him what leverage he has (he doesn't like to think about this consciously).

Does this sound complicated and confusing? I've been trying to simplify, but it's tough. I've really only described what's revealed in the first few chapters. It gets more complicated further in.

What I liked about it

Overwrought. The set pieces, the characters, the situations, the back-story, the plot, the themes. This is an intricate story, with all kinds of complicated backstory elements hanging around like Swords of Damocles.

I really like the set pieces: The city of Silk, the giant beanstalk, the Swan Burster, the Nebula, the verdant jungles of Deception Well. There's a lot of visually appealing scenes.

I like the convoluted history which puts such pressures on everyone. This element is what makes me admire the character of Urban. The plot is moved along by various discoveries about the past. Each discovery propels the characters forward with their various agendas. I like of a series of waves coming ashore. The other characters are, one-by-one are knocked around, wiped out, pulled under, and crushed; only Urban is able to surf them all. Of all the characters, he arrives at the end of the story the strongest.

I doubt this is coincidence. Everyone seems to be groping about in the dark for some saving grace. The Real People of Silk trust only their accumulated experience and wisdom to guide them. Jupiter's followers trust only the vision of their prophet. Lot tries to trust his blossoming powers as a prophet himself, but what he discovers about the nature of Deception Well and himself painfully reveals to him that he cannot do this. Even Deception Well has, not an idea so much, but a protocol, or algorithm about what to do to maintain itself against the destroying Chenzeme.

But of all these elements and more I haven't mentioned, Urban, his brash ignorance, his principled opportunism, his feral civility, his primitive progressivism, his cynical optimism is what carries the day. Although Lot is the main character and sole POV, it's Urban who steals the show.

What I disliked about it

Overwrought. I kept having to check back to chapters one and two to remind myself of what the heck was going on in the backstory.

Easy to put down; difficult to pick up. Something about the prose, or storytelling, or something made this one a struggle for me to get through.

The Real People keep secrets they have no good reason to keep. Furthermore they're willfully ignorant of things they shouldn't be. How the heck did they get to live so long? It's really a wonder the Ado's weren't in open revolt long before someone like Lot could come along and stir them up. At the same time, I feel like I have to give Kona a lot of credit for, I'm not sure exactly, being honest when his back was against the wall?

There are many, many dislikable aspects to Lot's character. This is actually a good thing, generally, in that Lot, for all his superhuman qualities otherwise seems like any other screwed up kid. It good characterization. Still it doesn't mean I enjoyed following him around as much as I had to reading this book. I would have loved to have spent some time looking through this situation through one or more of the other characters' eyes: Urban, Alta, Kona, Yulissa, heck even Ord.

The climatic scene of this book is spectacular enough but annoying. It's flat-out stated that even Lot doesn't know why this had to happen, but Lot just sort of blankly accepts the destruction of one of his allies. It's explained, but I guess I just don't get it.

Overall

Very Good. I approve of the ambition of this novel. I enjoyed imagining all the different scenes, even the ones which were rather grim. I like all the different places this book took me. I wish I weren't so glad that I'm done with it now. I understand it has a sequel, and I'm curious about what happens next with the characters left, but on the other hand, I've got a lot of other books to read.

Similiarities

I noticed some interesting (if superficial) similiarities between Bloom and Deception Well. There's some spoilers here, I guess, but nothing I didn't figure out early on. Caveat lector.

Both books feature refugee societies crippled by their own sense of betrayal and mistrust, and correspondingly they have an over-dependence on their own "self-reliance" or something like that.

Both books feature an apparently implacable devourer (and Deception Well has two!) whose ominous shadow influence the course of the tale. The plot of both stories requires that the main characters get closer to the Devourer in order to understand it.

Both books feature a society which believes the devourer hostile, and a subculture which beleives it benevolent. In Bloom the main character is of the society and believes it hostile. As his story is told he comes to realize differently. In Deception Well the main character is of the subculture and beleives it benevolent or at least nuetral in a way that can be exploited. He learns otherwise.

Posted to: /Dickens,_Charles/Great_Expectations

10:40 Chapters 49-54 

Actually I finished this book a couple of weeks back but I figure I better finish this the way I started.

"'Tis noble in you to tell me you have other causes of unhappiness. Is it true?"

Summary

Pip goes to Satis House, to Havisham and finds her grieving about the life she's lived and the cruel things she's done to him. She's eager to help Pip help Herbert and earn forgiveness. Pip is obliging. He goes for a walk and when he comes back to say goodbye when just then Miss Havisham, sitting too close to the fire, in her old rotting wedding dress is set ablaze. Pip puts out the fire but his arms get badly burned.

Pip returns to London to recover from his wounds. He tells Herbert about his suspicion about Jaggers' housekeeper being Estella's mother. He further speculates that Magwitch is Estella's father.

Pip goes to see Jaggers and Wemmick about the money Havisham signed over to him for use in helping Herbert get established. Pip confronts Jaggers about his suspicions about Estella and her parents. Jaggers does the deniability dance, but basically confirms Pip in his suspicions.

Pip makes arraignments to get establish Herbert. Some time later he gets word from Wemmick of an escape opportunity. He also gets a note from someone with information concerning "Uncle Provis" and that he is to meet this person out in the marshes. He leaves an note for Herbert and returns to the village and stays in the Inn, this time in commoner circumstances.

He goes to the marshes to an old cabin and is promptly captured by Orlick. Orlick means to kill him just as soon as he can drink himself up to the deed. Orlick says a lot of stuff, about how he didn't care to be fired from Havisham's, how he is now in league with Compeyson, and that he was the one who assaulted his sister. Anyway, before Orlick can kill him Herbert breaks in. There is a struggle, Orlick runs away and is seen no more. Herbert tells Pip how he followed him here and how he managed to find him. They resolve to escape with Magwitch the next day.

They row down the river a while and stop at a place for another while where they learn that their movements are being anticipated by others. Back on the river they are intercepted by another, bigger boat. There is a struggle, our heroes' boat is destroyed, Compeyson and Magwitch go overboard, Compeyson drowns but Magwitch is rescued and arrested.

Musings

I don't know how I feel about Havisham's reformation. I'm not convinced, I don't feel particularly sorry for her. I cheered when she caught on fire. But everything about it is so strange and surreal to me that I don't mind it either. I sort of figured her part would end in tears and flames and it did, although both she and Satis House are preserved.

The scene when Pip goes to Jaggers and Wemmick is funny in both senses of the word. Jaggers comes out saying that he is a beater, not a cringer. This means the marriage of Estella and Drummle parallels the service of Molly to Jaggers. This gave me shivers. In this way Drummle is going to be allowed to be the instrument of Estella's reform. I really, really, really don't know how to feel about this. On the one hand, I feel a modern revulsion toward battery and abuse. On the other hand, it couldn't happen to a nicer person. Also, Drummle should watch his back. I feel my sympathies limited by the characters involved.

The other funny thing (this is the "ha-ha" funny) is at the end of the chapter as Wemmick and Jaggers regain their equilibrium and upbraid some Mike guy for having feelings. Wemmick says "Say that again!" and I immediately thought of Samuel L. Jackson and Jules in Pulp Fiction saying exactly the same thing.

I'm so disappointed in Orlick's return. Honestly I thought he was destined for better things. His confession about assaulting Pip's sister is disturbing. Was there another verbal confrontation first? Did he have to drink himself up to that one too? It also occurs to me that he may have falsely confessed to the deed to put the fear into Pip.

Early in the book Estella criticizes Pip for calling 'Knaves,' 'Jacks.' At the inn where they realize that they're being shadowed by Compeyson and crew, there's a knavish character named Jack who is the instrument of warning. I wonder if this was on purpose.

Lastly, although I was rooting for Magwitch's escape, somehow I knew he would be the subject of one of the funerals not one of the weddings. At this point we are set up for this.

Posted to: /Dickens,_Charles/Great_Expectations

10:40 Chapters 43-48 

"Look here, you sir. You quite understand that the young lady don't ride today, and that I dine at the young lady's?"

Summary

Pip decides to go see Havisham and Estella. At the Blue Boar he finds Bentley Drummle, who is clearly here to see Estella. They have an amusing confrontation by the fire.

Pip goes to Satis and confronts Havisham and Estella. He had been under the impression that Havisham was his benefactor and patron, and resents that Havisham used the secrecy of his patron against him. He asks that Havisham take over his own secret patronage of Herbert. He tries to tell Estella that Drummle is not the man for her, but she tells him that they are to be married. He gives a speech and leaves. As he is returning to his lodgings, the watchmen gives him a note that says "Don't go home."

Pip heeds the warning finds a place to stay for the night. The next day he goes to Wemmick's and Wemmick tells him that there's been rumors of Magwitch's return. Wemmick placed the warning because he believed the place was watched. Wemmick also made arrangements with Herbert to have Magwitch stay with Herbert's girlfriend's landlady which is by the river. Wemmick thinks a good plan would be to lay low for a while until they can get out of the country.

Pip goes to the place and meets Herbert's girlfriend Clara and hears of her infirmed father the place and meets Herbert's girlfriend Clara and hears of her infirmed father. Pip and Herbert get up a plan to row a boat up and down the river at night often, for no reason. In this way people get used them and not be suspicious when they make their break.

Pip goes to a series of short plays starring Wopsle. After the show Wopsle tells Pip that he saw one of the convicts they helped track through the marshes many years ago in the audience sitting near Pip.

Pip is accosted by Jaggers and dines with Wemmick at Jaggers' place. Jaggers has a message from Havisham, requesting a visit from Pip. Jaggers talks about Drummle and his impending Marriage to Estella. Jaggers thinks that it is likely Drummle will be a wife-beater. Also, during dinner Pip becomes convinced that the maid is Estella's mother. After dinner he asks Wemmick about her. Wemmick says that Jaggers defended her in a murder trial. She killed another woman and Jaggers convinced the jury that the scratches on her arms were not from the fingernails of her victim, but from brambles, or possible that of her child which she may have murdered. The body of the child not being found, she was never arrested for that murder.

Musings

More revelations. Pip's confrontation with Drummle is hilarious. His confrontation with Estella and Havisham is embarrassing and painful. I half-expected Estella to say something like: "But Pip, I can't love you, you're gay."

I was expecting something to happen with Jaggers' housekeeper, but I didn't expect that. This changes things.

I haven't forgotten Jaggers strange interest in Drummle from back in chapter 26. Now there's this and his suggestion to Pip that Drummle will be a wife beater. "A fellow like our friend the Spider either beats or cringes. He may cringe and growl, or cringe and not growl; but he either beats or cringes." What is going on?

It seems to me that between Jaggers and Pip the social web is complexly knit.

Update: After I read these chapters I began a long rambling essay about what I thought was going to happen. Now that I have finished the book, I am happy to report that I was completely wrong. The only thing of note that came from that was a couple of lists about who was going to get married and who was going to die (someone once told me that stories always end with weddings and/or funerals). About these I was correct, but I was so tentative and uncertain of my prediction that I seriously considered many other possibilities too: it was like a many worlds interpretation of literature.

Posted to: /Dickens,_Charles/Great_Expectations

07:37 Chapters 37-42 

"So I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together, make me."

Summary

Pip goes to Wemmick's house/fortress where he proposes his plan to covertly help Herbert get on with his life. Wemmick receives the plan well this time, and thinks he has some people they could arrange Herbert contact or be contacted by. They carry this out and Herbert's life is improved.

Pip goes to Richmond to pick up Estella and escort her to Satis, to visit Miss Havisham. Again, Estella tries to warn him that she's not cut out for love. Pip doesn't listen. The visit is mostly uneventful, but Pip witnesses Estella and Miss Havisham have a bit of a fight about how Estella is treated Miss Havisham. Pip also tells of an incident in which he learns that Bentley Drummle is one of Estella's courters. At a dance at Richmond he confronts Estella about Drummle, and expresses his disapproval about him. Estella gets angry at him.

One evening, a man comes to visit Pip. It's Pip's convict from chapter one, who reveals that he has been Pip's benefactor. While banished from England he has been working and freed himself, and become rich. He sent all his money to Pip, to return the favor of the file and the food Pip did him many years before. He has returned at the risk of his own life if caught to see Pip brought up as the gentleman.

(Part two ends at this point.)

That morning Pip gets up early to begin the ruse of disguising his visitor. While stumbling about he comes across another man who runs away. He goes to talk to the watchman about it, but the watchman isn't too helpful. Pip later asks his convict (Abel Magwitch is his name but he's going by "Provis") how much danger of recognition or discovery he might be in. Provis can hardly say, but he doesn't care, he means to stay. Pip introduces Provis to Herbert.

Pip has to let Herbert in on the secret. They discuss it. Pip goes to Jaggers, but Jaggers has arranged that he have deniability about anything that has happened. Still Pip learns a thing or two. Pip and Herbert decide they should hear Provis' history until now. Provis agrees to tell them.

Abel Magwitch doesn't remember much of a childhood, not even how he knows what his name is. He fell into his criminal life for not having even as much opportunity for civilization as Pip. He falls in with a con-man named Compeyson. Compeyson sets him up to take the fall for their various schemes, and he takes the fall. He has vowed to kill Compeyson if he ever sees him again, indeed when Compeyson is finally sent to prison with him they escape independently and Magwitch was fighting him in the swamps when he was arrested. Herbert informs Pip that Compeyson is the name of the man who ruined Miss Havisham.

Musings

I don't think I've ever read a book I've anticipated more of the plot than this one. This is not really a bad thing. I'm pleased that I'm aware enough of story conventions to be able to read Dickens' intimations more-or-less accurately.

The return to Wemmick's house is as delightful and the previous occasion. It's cool how Wemmick is so soft, and so hard at the same time. There's really, good characterization there.

The revelation that Estella's powers of disdain have begun to affect even Miss Havisham suggests that Estella could be the instrument of Havisham's destruction (which suggests that Havisham might possibly destroy Estella on her way out). This thought pleases me no end. Particularly since I don't think that's where this story is actually headed. Also, that Estella feels enough for Pip that she does not use her powers on him, is an intriguing weakness.

Actually the whole concept that Estella has any power over the men she attracts is intriguing. What the hell is that really? There's some unexamined assumptions here about men and women, and attractiveness, and social roles. I feel like I should know what these are, but when I think about it, I don't. Pip's love is irrational, that Estella has the power to inspire love, suggests some rational (if magical) process she can manipulate at will. But really, Pip's just deluded.

The return of Pip's convict and the revelations he brought with him was thrilling. I've known people like Abel Magwitch, men and women who have a fierce inner fire only vaguely tempered by civilization. They might do anything. There is an attractive-repulsive quality to them, which Dickens draws very well here. Pip who has desired and pursued civil, gentle society is repulsed by Magwitch, but immediately entangled into his situation. He cannot accept him, he cannot refuse him.

In these chapters the elements of destiny are brought before Pip: Havisham, Estella, Jaggers, and Magwitch. How will he try to use them? How will they try to use him? The climax is not far away now. If this were a Comedy, life would be restored to Pip, but to what life? Not his sham life as a gentleman, besides that is not what he started with. He must be return to his humble roots in the forge. As a Tragedy Pip must fall from his heights which are a sham. These two are in magnificent conjunction, Pip can both fall and be restored.

Posted to: /Dickens,_Charles/Great_Expectations

11:07 Chapters 31-36 

"Choose your bridge Mr. Pip and take a walk upon your bridge, and pitch your money into the Thames over the centre arch, and you will know the end of it. Serve a friend with it and you may know the end of it, too—but it's a less pleasant and profitable end."

Summary

Pip and Herbert go to a production of Hamlet which is pretty wretched but features Wopsle, a man of theatrical ambition from Pip's village.

The next day Pip gets a letter from Estella saying that she is coming by and that he is to meet her. Pip arrives at the station very early and Wemmick finds him and Pip agrees to go with Wemmick to a prison to visit somebody there. Wemmick and the prisoner have some kind of exchange.

Estella comes by and she and Pip have tea together before she leaves for Richmond. Pip intimates how much he loves her, she tells him they are puppets with no will of their own. She's only following orders. They go to Richmond. Pip says he'll come visit her.

Back at Barnard's Inn, Pip and Herbert go over their finances and determine that they are debt and sinking fast. They remain stupidly optimistic about it. Pip gets word that his sister has died.

Pip goes back to the village and observes the burial. He hangs out with Joe, and has another argument with Biddy before returning to London.

Pip twenty-first birthday arrives. Jaggers gives him five-hundred pounds. Pip thinks about giving some of it to Herbert to help him get on his feet, and broaches the idea with Wemmick who disapproves officially, but might feel otherwise, out of Jaggers' office.

Musings

The description of the play is cuttingly funny. I thought immediately of Mark Twain whom I have surmised to be an admirer of Dickens' work.

The prison sequence is strange and touching. Again it suggests to me an outsider society. Pip and Wemmick meet a man about to be executed who gives Pip a looking-over as if he knows him. Again, Jaggers is positioned as a man between worlds, a bridge between which criminals are conducted from civilized society, into the society of outlaws.

Estella's return comes with the revelation that she was brought up at the Pocket household and that she detests them. This makes the earlier description of the Pocket family suddenly relevant. She also seems to be rationalizing her position in Pip's psychodrama as simply carrying out orders. She's Havisham's tool and she knows it.

I was glad to see Pip falling into debt. I keep thinking that being cast into debtors prison would be good for him. He would be conducted into the society of outlaws. I grew more into this opinion as he and Herbert "look into their affairs." Their feeble attempts to review and plan their expenses encourage their ruin, and the Pip who narrates this story is aware of this and points out all the fallacies in their thinking.

Still more, I think Pip is headed for prison, when he goes to the funeral. He has been made and made himself an outsider of the humble laboring society of his origins, and, although I don't think he knows it, he is not really a member of the gentle society his "great expectations" pretend to him to be. He must join the outlaw society.

Jaggers has the power to save him from this fate, but it will cost Pip his property, or what's left of it. Jaggers can refuse his case too if it seems to desperate.

Posted to: /Dickens,_Charles/Great_Expectations

11:23 Chapters 25-30 

"Why, of course he is not the right sort of man, Pip, because the man who fills the post of trust never is the right sort of man."

Summary

Pip introduces us to the fellows Mr. Pocket is also tutoring. One, Bently Drummel is a big and sulky guy. The other, Startop, is a mama's boy. Pop gets along with Startop, but looks down on Drummel. Pip also goes to dinner with Wemmick.

Pip and his mates (Drummel, Startop, and Herbert) have dinner with Jaggers. Drummel makes an impression on Jaggers. They get a little drunk and say things about each other they really shouldn't.

Pip receives a letter from Joe (dictated to Biddy who contains her own message in it) that Joe is coming over to visit. Pip frantically prepares because of the mail Joe is basically coming on the heels of it's arrival. Joe shows up and meets Herbert. He's dressed up and tries to be an gentlemen around them but fails embarrassingly. Joe brings a message from Miss Havisham: Estella is back from Paris, they want to see him again.

Pip returns to the village, to be admired and feared by the grown-ups, but mocked by a child.

He goes to Havisham's where he is met by their new doorman Orlick. He meets the grown-up Estella and falls head over heels for her. He walks with Estella a bit and she warns him "I have no heart." Later Havisham tells Pip to "Love her, love her, love her." They have dinner, the three of them and Jaggers. Pip asks Jaggers if Estella's last name is Havisham. Jaggers says that it is.

The next day Pip tells Jaggers that Orlick should be fired from his post at Satis House for not being the right sort of man. After some explaining, Jaggers makes some arrangements. Pip returns to London, but not before being mocked again by the tailor's boy. He talks to Herbert about Estella and Herbert tries to suggest that courting Estella is a bad idea.

Musings

Wemmick's house is the coolest. He has taken the saying "a man's home is his castle" to heart. His place is a little fortress. He has a small cannon he fires every night. Wemmick keeps his elderly father in his fortress and takes care of him. Pip first has the impression that Wemmick is a very hard sort of man, and this is true. But Wemmick reveals a very divided person. His fortress house is representative. He doesn't bring work home with him. Behind his walls he humane and caring.

Wemmick made several intimations about the dinner with Jaggers. Something about the housekeeper. The dinner scene hung on that for a bit but I didn't catch the significance of the scars on her arm when they were revealed. I did catch that Jaggers thinks of Drummel as a future client. Drummel is the sort of character who is inclined to doing something rash. He reminds me of Orlick, but I like Orlick and don't think so highly as Drummel. But the parallel between the two is clear.

Joe's appearance is bright spot, but is a awkward moment, hilarious and tragic. Neither Joe's nor Pip's ostentation is convincing. At the end of the dinner Joe recognizes his own failure, but Pip never sees his own. Joe invites Pip to come visit him at the forge, and put away his gentlemanly trappings at least for a little while, but Pip never does this.

I tell you, this is really a horror novel. Stephen King must have taken notes here. Every situation in every chapter is a warning of some kind. "Don't go into that old house! Don't go up the stairs! Don't go into the attic! Please, don't open that old trunk!" But the characters do it anyway. Havisham is creepy and demonic. Jaggers is cool to the whole game. But Estella herself, using the last of her humanity like a pinprick of light in the darkness, warns Pip. But Pip isn't hearing it.

I see Pip's arranging to have Orlick fired as being the lynchpin of undoing here. Of course, everything seems like the lynchpin of Pip's undoing now, so I'm probably wrong. Maybe Orlick is the first Domino in a long row.

I really want this to become apocalyptically bad.

Posted to: /Dickens,_Charles/Great_Expectations

20:41 Chapters 19-24 

"If you have the heart to think so, say so. Say so over and over again, if you have the heart to think so."

Summary

Pip leaves for London but not before making an ass of himself. He has a conversation with Biddy which he thinks is about trying to get Joe to read and learn more, but it's really about where he's going and what it means, but he doesn't get it.

Pip goes to have clothes made and word has got around that he's come into property is going to be made a gentlemen and people treat him differently. He has dinner with his usually overbearing uncle who now can't seem to shake his hand enough.

(part one ends at chapter 19)

Pip comes to London and has to wait in the office of Jaggers. Jaggers is a famous lawyer in London. He meets one of the clerk's, Wemmick, some of the clients, all people in desperate straits. While waiting, he goes for a walk around the neighborhood and doesn't like it much. When Jaggers shows up he has to dismiss some clients and wannabe clients, before talking to Pip. Jaggers is his guardian and sees to Pips finances. He sends Pip off with Wemmick to see his new Lodgings.

Pip and Wemmick walk to "Barnard's Inn" which is run down set of buildings. Pip's place is rickety and dangerous. There arrives at his new place, Herbert Pocket the son of his tutor. It turns out this isn't the first time they've meet. Herbert is the "pale young gentlemen" Pip fought in Havisham's yard years ago.

Herbert and Pip let go of the past and become friends. Herbert knows something about Estella and Miss Havisham. He explains Estella's purpose as the instrument of Havisham's revenge. He also explains the history (as he knows it) of Miss Havisham and how she came to be so miserable. She was left a lot of money and property of her father. But she fell in love with a con artist. Herbert's father tried to warn her, but she put him off so sternly that he's never spoken directly to her and will not come visit her either. Herbert educates Pip on how to eat in polite society.

Later, Pip spends a day with the Pockets. After that he visits Jaggers to get some money and talks a bit with Wemmick. Wemmick invites Pip to come eat at his place sometime.

Musings

Once again Biddy proves herself wiser and more true that Pip has the fortune to know. Her line, which I quote above is heartbreaking. The context exposes Pip's foolishness so clearly.

Jaggers is an alpha wolf. The scenes of his negotiations with his clients display his professional brutality well.

The return of the "pale young gentlemen" is excellent. I was hoping he would be back. His first confrontation with Pip was so dreamlike I wondered if Havisham was putting something in Pip's drinks. I thought it interesting that Herbert renames Pip Handel after a piece of music he likes called "the harmonious blacksmith." Pip objects to his origins being known but Herbert and he have become confidants.

I wonder if Pip's convict was Havisham's lover? It would be too much of a coincidence for me. I would prefer an unrelated character—another client of Jaggers who would be able to exonerate himself and be able to set Pip up as a gentleman. But connecting him to Miss Havisham makes a certain kind of sense. It would make sense that the conman who duped Miss Havisham would go to Jaggers for representation when he got into enough trouble. Jaggers is predatory enough to work for both. It's doubtful Havisham would find out, but it seems less doubtful that Mr. Pocket wouldn't know. It would make Pip's first coming to Miss Havisham's attention the coincidence.

The introduction and dinner at the Pockets is hilarious. Really, all of the scenes where people are eating together are great.

Posted to: /Dickens,_Charles/Great_Expectations

11:01 Chapters 13-18 

"You're a foul shrew Mother Gargery. If that makes you a judge of rogues, you ought to be a good 'un."

Summary

Pip and Joe are called to Havisham's where Joe is interrogated about Pip's obligations and apprenticeship to to him. Joe isn't able to talk to her but eventually accepts some money from her as payment for Pip's time with her.

Pip is apprenticed to Joe and is unhappy about it. Once he would have thought a lot of it, but Estella has successfully poisoned this well. He makes further attempts to educate himself and become a gentlemen. Pip has a talk with Joe about going to see Havisham and Estella again to thank them. Joe tells him he can take a half day to do so.

This grant gets Joe at odds with the other apprentice, a brute named Dolge "The Hammer" Orlick. Mrs. Gargery steps into the verbal fray and gets insulted by Orlick. Joe and Orlick fight and make amends. Pip goes to see Havisham who has sent Estella off to school and wants to hear if Pip misses her at all. On his way back Pip runs into Orlick and some other people. They get word of a prison break and that Mrs Joe has been attacked.

Nothing was stolen or anything. The weapon—a convict's leg iron long filed— is left behind. Pip suspects it's the same leg iron of his convict from long ago, resurrected from the swamps and now used against his sister. Physically, Mrs. Gargery doesn't recover very well, she can't see, hear, speak, or move very well. But Pip observes a change in her character. She's a much nicer person. Pip suspects Orlick, but his sister has become very kind to Orlick.

A young woman, Biddy, comes to stay at the house to look after Mrs. Gargery. Pip knows her from the schoolroom. Pip has observed her as being very smart and he goes for a walk with her to confide his unhappiness and desire to rise in life. Pip talks candidly about his feelings for Estella and Biddy asks him about whether he wishes to rise in life so as to win Estella or to spite her. He mentions that he wishes that he could be in love with her, but Biddy puts him off on this. They are followed home on their walk by Orlick who likes Biddy but Biddy doesn't care for him.

Later, Pip is at a bar with Joe and the others talking about a trial going on and a Lawyer, Jaggers, whom Pip met at Havisham's once arrives to talk to Pip and Joe. Pip has a secret benefactor, who is leaving Pip some money and property. He is to go live in London and learn to be a gentleman.

Musings

I find it telling that Joe can't talk to Havisham directly and must use Pip as a medium. The appearance is that Havisham is wealthy and eccentric and well above Joe and his humility can't make himself talk to her. However, as I read it, Joe is a good and innocent spirit and simply can't talk directly to the foul specter of Havisham.

I'm at a loss as to whether to suspect Orlick of the assault on Pip's sister or not. It sure seems the likeliest suspect. But Mrs. Joe has forgiven him. I sort of admire him too. A brute sure, but a true one. My hope is that it was done by one of the convicts, from a rival gang as Pip's convict, come to take a revenge on those who aided their enemy.

More of Pip's foolishness is revealed in the conversation with Biddy. Pip doesn't seem to know his own motives, but I suspect the Biddy saw them clearly, which is why she put him off so. She sees his character clearly when he confesses that he should not dwell on Estella but continues to do so. She is being shrewd. At the moment, Orlick is only slightly less desirable than Pip.

As to the identity of Pip's benefactor, I'm guessing it's probably not Miss Havisham, although it looks like it now. I think it might be the convict from chapter 1 somehow. Unfortunately this doesn't spoil Havisham's plans though. Pip's quest for Estella's affections is quite hopeless. She doesn't have much affection, and such that she has involves hurting people.

Posted to: /Dickens,_Charles/Great_Expectations

09:45 Chapters 7-12 

"Your sister is given to government."

Summary

Pip and Joe have a talk during which Joe reveals much of his character and history. Pip's sister returns home with word that Pip is to go visit Miss Havisham's. Pip goes with his Uncle to "Satis House," an old brewery which has fallen into disuse and disrepair. They are met by a young girl who lets Pip in but sends the uncle away.

Miss Havisham is a broken old woman who wears a yellowed wedding dress, one shoe, and has stopped all of the clocks and all of her life to live in bitterness, resentment and darkness. It's clear that she was stood up or something on her wedding day. The young lady is Estella who is clearly being trained by Havisham to be her instrument of revenge on men. Pip is clearly meant to be her first prey.

During Pip's first visit he plays cards with Estella who belittles him as being common, of the laboring class, with rough hands, and heavy boots, who is so poorly educated as to call "knaves," "jacks." Pip absorbs these humiliations into himself. Later, before Pip is sent away he is given something to eat and cries about his lowly lot in life. When he is being let out, Estella mocks him about it.

Another evening. Pip and Joe are at a bar and they have an encounter with a shifty, criminal fellow who inquires about them closely and leaves some money for Pip.

Pip is asked to return to Havisham's. The second episode at Satis House is too surreal to be brief about. However important characters are introduced.

Pip describes visiting Havisham and Estella several other times, the latest time Havisham inquires about Pip's future apprenticeship to Joe.

Musings

I'm beginning to think that Pip is a bit of a twerp. His recollection of all this is so full of irony and malice that I now suspect him of suffering from the same ailment he describes his sister of having so acutely. I think I should take a more charitable reading of the characters in the first six chapters on account of this. They're so garishly cruel, Pip must be exaggerating so as to inspire our pity on him.

The convict, Joe, and the "pale young gentlemen" Pip beats up are the only characters who seem to have any honor. Pip is suffering from the family disease of malicious self-pity, and Estella, while suffering from an intergenerational burden of her own, probably sees him more clearly than he sees himself. Her contempt is somewhat justified.

Miss Havisham has to be one of the most repulsive characters I've ever read about. I thought Pip's sister was bad, but Havisham trumps her. Whoever left her on her wedding day must have had some understanding of what a vile person she could be given the opportunity and spared himself while fulfilling her opportunity and in such a manner as to isolate her, severely limiting the damage she could cause the rest of humanity. This ingenious man is the true hero of this book.

Havisham is so disgusting as to be cartoonish. The descriptions of her house, the implications of her state of mind and history make her seem demonic to me. I wouldn't mind seeing a scene where one of the criminals comes in and puts the file right through her putrid heart.

Estella is a budding psychopath. I feel vaguely sorry for her, but she is Havisham's tool, so it can only go so far. I want to get into the story and tell Pip, "Kill them both and burn down the house. Join the confederacy of the criminals, rebel against the corruption, overthrow the oppressors." Somehow, I don't think that's going to happen.

I really like the surreality of this book. It's pretty heavy handed about how it implies things going on just outside of Pip's present understanding but it's good anyway. There's something absurd and fantastical about everything. It seems very modern to me. There's something like Jonathan Lethem, or like Jonathan Carroll about it. There's also something like Pink Floyd's The Wall in the psycho-dynamic of it. I'm repelled but I can't wait to see what will happen.

Posted to: /Dickens,_Charles/Great_Expectations

09:09 Chapters 1-6 

"There's a young man hid with me, in comparison with which young man I am an angel. That young man hears the words I speak. That young man has a secret way pecooliar to himself of getting at a boy, and at his heart, and at his liver...."

Summary

The orphan Pip introduces himself to us. One day, when the young Pip is in the cemetery meditating on his dead family, he is accosted by an escaped convict. The convict impresses on Pip to bring him a file and some food which Pip does, earning the convicts gratitude.

Pip is being raised by his sister and her blacksmith husband Joe Gargery. His sister takes great pride in the misery and hard work the raising of her little brother has caused her. She has cajoled the praise of some other relatives and friends living in the village with them.

We get to meet the other hypocrites of her association at a dinner at the Gargery household. During the dinner, much is made of her victimization. They are interrupted though when the police show up and the men and Pip all go off with them to help search the marshes for two escaped convicts.

The convicts are found in the swamp fighting. Pip's convict has some cryptic accusation of the other and doesn't seem to mind being caught. He sees Pip in the company and removes Pip from suspicion of having aided him by claiming to have stolen the file and food from the Gargery house himself.

Musings

The writing of this seems very familiar to me. The voice, the turns of perspective, the mix of humor with horror. A word about the horror: although the scenes with the convict are scary, the real horror is in the Gargery household. Joe is a good egg and Pip's only ally, but Pip's sister is a monster of self-pity, hypocrisy, spite, and frustrated ambition. The dinner party scene is a social horror. Suspense is cleverly built around Pip's fear of being revealed as having stolen some wine and a meat pie intended for the dinner, for the convict. In the meantime he is surrounded, and outnumbered and the target of his sister's miserable glory. To praise her is to make him the scapegoat of all her troubles.

Pip bears this well because he has always borne it, and also because he is terrified of exposure. There is a sublime conjunction of comic relief and suspense when one of particularly obnoxious guests drinks caster oil Pip substituted for wine.

Posted to: /Spenser,_Edmund/Faerie_Queene,_The/Book_1

11:06 Canto 12 

Summary

The dragon slain, the people come out to gawk at it. Una's father offers Una to Redcross in marriage. Redcross begs off saying that he must finish a service of six years in the army of the Fairy Queen. Duessa sends a letter to lay her claim of Redcross's devotion. But the claim is cast out. Una exposes the messenger as one Archimago, who is arrested and thrown in a dungeon. Redcross and Una are betrothed.

Musings

And what about the couple that were turned into trees by Duessa? Is that forgotten? I am so disappointed. There is Redcross in Eden, where living wells abound, and he has apparently forgotten to try to restore to humanity the two who first warned him about the true nature of Duessa. Perhaps this is resolved later. Perhaps not. The work is unfinished after all.

When I think of great unfinished works like this I also think if the Borges story, Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote, in which the ambitious and egoless Pierre Menard attempts to reproduce (not merely copy) Don Quixote. I think that at some time in future someone might undertake a similar project to finished the great unfinished works of humanity: The Faerie Queene and Canterbury Tales come immediately to mind.

I like to imagine that even among the most transcendent of the post-human entities that follow us, these will take several tries before being generally satisfying, and will never be considered conclusively finished by experts. Imagine how they might do that. Someone would have to be steeped in the life, language and culture of Spenser in order to produce it. I imagine a cruel raising of geniuses, (like John Stuart Mill) to be applied to the task. In a post-human future the rising of such may be considered of no more consequence than the building and application of any other tool. (Can you tell I'm tired of thinking about this?)

Anyway, Redcross has six years or so more to remember this quest (and the fickle temporality of fairyland might not act in his favor). He might fulfill it in the course of the other books already written. But, if not, if ever these humble webpages are archived and reviewed by those who will come after us, let this message, and this challenge be read.

The endnotes describe the mechanism of the allegory in an interesting way.

26-1 Una's father is Adam in the sense that Redcross's victory over the Dragon reaffirms Christ's victory over death and redemption of mankind. The victory of any Christian is a defeat of evil and a repudiation of the curse of Adam.

26-8 Duessa's letter reveals her fully. Her claim is merely legal. It is based on the Old Law of justice and not on the New Law of Mercy, achieved by Christ and re-enacted in Redcross's defeat of the dragon.

(The Faerie Queene, Penguin Classics, 1987, pg 1108)

This makes it clear that the story is in imitation of a person on the road of redemption. I never thought about it quite like that. The word 'imitation' (which I derived from the use of 're-enacted' in that second note) is a key one that connects all the concepts of Aristotle's Poetics to all of my thinking about the allegory of this poem.

Lastly, I like the last stanza so much I'm going to quote it in full here:

Now strike your sailes ye iolly Mariners,
For we be come vnto a quiet rode,
Where we must land some of our passengers,
And light this wearie vessell of her lode.
Here she a while may make her safe abode,
Till she repaired haue her tackles spent,
And wants supplide. And then againe abroad
On the long voyage whereto she is bent:
Well may she speede and fairely finish her intent.

(Canto 12, Stanza 42)

Posted to: /Spenser,_Edmund/Faerie_Queene,_The/Book_1

09:17 Canto 11 

Summary

Redcross fights the dragon for three days.

Day 1

Redcross and Una show up. Una gives a short speech. The dragon objects. Redcross has Una retreat to a safe spot. Spenser invokes the muse.

The dragon and knight charge each other. On the next pass the dragon picks up Redcross and his horse and carries them off a bit. Knight and horse struggle and the dragon has to put them down. Back on the ground Redcross wounds the dragon's wing so he can't fly. The dragon trips up and immobilizes the horse which throws Redcross. Redcross smacks the dragon about. The dragon flames him and the flames get through his armor and set him on fire. On fire, in great pain, the Knight stumbles into a well.

Fortunately for Redcross, the well is "The well of life" and it will heal Redcross. The sun sets. The dragon thinks it's won so it retires. The sun sets. Una spends the night praying.

Day 2

After an anxious night, Una sees Redcross rise from the well, refreshed and ready for more fight. The dragon objects.

Knight and dragon smack each other around a bit more. The dragon manages to get the sting in his tail into Redcross's shoulder. Redcross cuts the tail into five pieces trying to get it out. The dragon grabs Redcross's shield and won't let go. Redcross lays sword onto him a bit, gets one dragon foot off and then gets a lucky strike which cuts off the other. The dragon flames Redcross who gets uncomfortable and stumbles into a spring near the Tree of Life which will heal him. The dragon can't do anything because the stream is life-giving and therefore bad for dragons.

The sun sets. Una spends another night praying.

Day 3

Una and Redcross awake the next morning. Redcross, again is renewed for battle. The dragon is waiting for him, it charges, mouth open wide to devour him. Redcross has but to hold out his sword and the dragon's softer parts are run through.

The dragon dies. Una rejoices.

Musings

The dragon was stupid. First I noticed a tactical error on the dragon's part: why he didn't he just drop Redcross from a height when he had the chance? Possibly because Redcross might fall into the "well of life," or the "stream of balm," or some other healing liquid about which the area abounds in. This reveals a larger, strategic error on the dragon's part. Really, it's a wonder he was able to take and keep this territory at all.

And what of this homeland of Una's? The "tree of life" stanza did not slip by me unnoticed—they're in Eden!? The endnotes explain the relation of the "well of life" in Revelation (22:1-2) with the "tree of life" in Genesis. No doubt the dragon is a relation to another famous serpent known from those parts. (It can't be the same one, that one was cursed and doesn't have any limbs. So how did this dragon get by the cherubim and their flaming swords? Probably best not to ask.)

Again the conflation of time, here from the Fall of Adam to the Last Judgment (the dragon has been ravaging Una's homeland for "four years") is a clue to the larger allegorical picture. Una represents a remnant of innocence from "before the fall" or from a person's childhood. Redcross represents an adolescent discovery of the world, it's delights and deceptions—definitely "after the fall." I'll write more on this later.

The endnotes explain a reference I wish I had been keen enough to catch. In Spenser's invocation to the muse he says:

Faire Goddesse lay that furious fit aside,
Till I of warres and bloudy Mars do sing,
And Briton fields with Sarazin bloud bedyde,
Twixt that great faery Queene and Paynim king,
That with their horrour heauen and earth did ring,
A worke of labour long, and endlesse prayse:
But now a while let downe that haughtie string,
And to my tunes thy second tenor rayse,
That I this man of God his godly armes may blaze.

(Canto 11, Stanza 7)

The endnotes say that this is possibly in reference to Plato's Republic (which I have recently finished), specifically to book 3 in which there is a discussion of the two kinds of music useful to the state: Phrygian or warlike, and Dorian or reserved.

It sounds to me like Spenser is telling the muse not to let him get too carried away in the Phrygian mode because he wants to save that for the climatic battle between the Fairy Queen and the Pagan King. The end notes suggest that this final battle was possibly to be in book 12 but possibly in a book 24 in a second serious of political virtues to parallel the private virtues. Spenser never got to these. Apparently I should have read the letter to Raleigh more closely.

In any case, it's amusing to me that there should be considered this distinction between private and public virtues, in light of The Republic since Socrates effectively makes the case that the two are one: that the virtues of a individual man correspond to those of a state and vice versa. In this light, we can allegorize this first book as either that of the spiritual state of a single man, or that of the political/cultural state of an entire nation. Plato has pointed the way for us. This is something I wouldn't have appreciated if I hadn't been reading The Republic this year too.