[ilds] Spirits of Place -- the city

[James Gifford]

Hi Bruce,

Not to quibble, but I think you've put your finger on the pulse of our 
point of disagreement.  But, at least this time we seem to have complete 
agreement on the terms of our disagreement!  You note:

> Those three are engaged in another program, 
> which, to my mind, has little to do with the 
> sensuous apprehension of an experience — 
> which is my sense of "evocation" and Durrell's 
> too, I think — hence, Durrell's use of 
> "beloved Alexandria" — rather they're out to 
> paint a rather terrifying vision of the modern 
> industrial city, be it the London of The Secret  
> Agent and Bleak House or the Saint Petersburg 
> of Crime and Punishment.  It's not a big step 
> from them to Kafka's Prague, and from there to 
> Ridley Scott's LA of 2019 in Blade Runner.

I think you're dead right for Dostoevsky and Conrad, though perhaps 
Dickens is distinct here in some ways, though certainly "on the same 
tram" -- I agree as well about this direct line to Kafka and Scott. 
Where I disagree is removing Durrell from that scene.  He's far more 
figurative in his images of the city, but I don't think cityscapes are 
ever purely "lovely" in Durrell and certainly never generously "beloved" 
(though certainly obsessively loved).  After all, in those opening 
epigraphs to /Justine/, I read the rural as the space for "talk" and the 
urban as the space for Sadean jouissance.  The city lives the people 
only to drive them to destruction -- the only people who get better 
flee.  Those who stay become ill, symptomatic, and on a course for 
destruction, blindness, and disfigurement.

That said, "sensuous apprehension" is certainly a point of difference 
between Durrell and those three.  I just don't see "sensuous 
apprehension" as an endorsement.  Flames are certainly lovely but 
equally horrifying, just like Justine, and just like Alexandria... 
Durrell's cities are nightmares, whether Arab or English, yet they are 
beautiful and enchanting as well, and they clearly inspire various forms 
of love.

If we read Durrell via someone like Mumford, who cites Durrell, how do 
we see the urban/rural tension?  People on Darley's island reflect, 
heal, love, and care -- those in the city consume, destroy, and can only 
lead themselves to the harbour scene at the opening of Clea (albeit with 
love still there, but in an obsessive form).  This is also why I quibble 
over Egyptian distaste for Durrell's poor portrait of their city -- he 
paints Alexandria as destructive, but welcome to the club!  He does the 
same for London, Istanbul, and all centres of urban power.  Like Darley, 
Lawrence Lucifer in /The Black Book/ only survives by leaving London for 
Corfu, yet another island escape akin to Darley's.

As for Ridley Scott, I'd be inclined to look to /Tunc/ and /Nunquam/ as 
comparable works, and the city is horrific in both -- the city is where 
humanity dies, and the country is where it heals.  Why else would the 
first version of "Bladerunner" end with the flight to the rural, while 
the others leave us trapped in the nightmarish urban -- no happy ending 
would be possible in the urban...  (Scott's various "authorships" aside)

I might add, what city did Durrell choose to live in?  Where did he find 
fodder for his art?  As near as I can tell, he fled cities as quickly as 
possible throughout his life, choosing to enter them sporadically rather 
than reside in them.

But, this may be a major interpretive difference between us, and I think 
the majority of the past scholarship would be on your side.  Still, I 
can't make that reading sensible as I move through Durrell's texts... 
[Plugs] --> /Panic Spring/ strikes as fairly overt in showing a retreat 
from the urban to the rural, and escape from large-scale human culture 
to the village, a movement from capital to collaboration, etc...  The 
same happens in /Pied Piper of Lovers/ when Walsh is sent from rural 
India to urban London, then fleeing to the country.

But, at heart, I suppose I'm saying I don't buy Durrell as a lover of 
cities, as he's most often portrayed.  Cities are indeed his subject, 
but they have shadows that dominate them, even in the sunny parts of the 
world.  Then again, I also read his works as ironic, and irony resides 
in the reader rather than the text, so...

Best,
James

(self-confessed urbanite)

pa: I've long-considered but never began a comparison of /Revolt of 
Aphrodite/ and "Bladerunner."  The role of the android in that and 
Mordecai Richler's /Crazy Cock/ strike me as ripe for comparison...  Anyone?

Bruce Redwine wrote:
> James,
> 
> I think we largely agree.  We can all admire different writers,  
> styles, outlooks, etc.  My eyebrows raised when Charles wrote that  
> Morris "admires evocations of cityscapes penned by Joseph Conrad,  
> Dickens and Dostoevsky."  The use of "evocations" bothers me, which is  
> probably Charles's word and not Morris's.  For me anyway, Durrell  
> evokes but Conrad, Dickens, and Dostoevsky don't.  Those three are  
> engaged in another program, which, to my mind, has little to do with  
> the sensuous apprehension of an experience — which is my sense of  
> "evocation" and Durrell's too, I think — hence, Durrell's use of  
> "beloved Alexandria" — rather they're out to paint a rather terrifying  
> vision of the modern industrial city, be it the London of The Secret  
> Agent and Bleak House or the Saint Petersburg of Crime and  
> Punishment.  It's not a big step from them to Kafka's Prague, and from  
> there to Ridley Scott's LA of 2019 in Blade Runner.  It may be that  
> Durrell has fallen into disfavor, just as the modern urban environment  
> has, and it seems important to me to mark that difference.
> 
> 
> Bruce