[ilds] idiolects

[Bruce Redwine]

Once upon a time, Bill chastised me for saying M. Durrell, author, says this or that.  Rather, the good New Critical position should be to say that the author's persona says this or that.  I'm happy to note that we're now talking about "Durrell's idiolect."  Which I agree with.  M. Durrell does have an "idiolect," a distinctive voice and attitude, and I hear it all the time, even when he speaks through personae.  Charles's comment about Dickensian inventiveness is equally apt and informative.  I would make one distinction, however.  Dickens, like Shakespeare, has the genius to create diverse and idiosyncratic characters, who live independently on their own.  Many of Durrell's creations, on the other hand, seem aspects of his own personality.  I'm saying, Durrell seems to have a much closer and personal relationship with his characters than either Dickens or Shakespeare do.  As to the basis of this relationship, I'd go back to dealing with Durrell's "mindscape."  Do Dickens or Shakespeare have a "mindscape?"  I doubt it.  There's the old cliché that it's futile to try and extract Shakespeare's "philosophy" from his poetry and plays.


Bruce



On Aug 15, 2010, at 10:34 AM, Godshalk, William (godshawl) wrote:

> I know Charlie likes to talk about Durrell's idiolect, and I supposed we could inspect Scobie'e idiolect (imaginatively, that is). Is Scobie's idiolect different from Durrell'; and can we distinguish between them?
> 
> Are there things that Durrell would never say, but Scobie might say at any time?
> 
> Is Clea's idiolect different from Scobie's -- even when she is doing him?
> 
> And yes, I know that Charlie asks the same things using different words.
> 
> Would Charlie ever talk about idiolects? 
> 
> MacDonald Jackson in his book _Defining Shakespeare_ discusses his own idiolect. An interesting performance.
> 
> Bill 
> 
> 
> W. L. Godshalk *
> Department of English    *           *
> University of Cincinnati*   * Stellar Disorder  *
> OH 45221-0069 *  *
> ________________________________________
> From: ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca [ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca] On Behalf Of Charles Sligh [Charles-Sligh at utc.edu]
> Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2010 1:00 PM
> To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca
> Subject: [ilds] 'Taisez-vous, petit babouin. . . .'
> 
> Bruce Redwine wrote:
>> 
>> That's why I find Scobie's character fascinating — in particular,
>> Durrell's deification of /El Scob.  /Scobie is Durrell's mind at its
>> best and most outrageous.
>> 
> I agree, Bruce.  I always find myself looking forward the first Scobie
> episode, which occurs in Part II of /Justine/.  Something shifts there
> in terms of prose style and voicing--perhaps in terms of rhythm,
> sustained presentation of a single character, and (most importantly)
> humor?
> 
> I think that this change in style holds true for me whether I imagine
> Darley reporting the Scobie anecdotes or Lawrence Durrell writing about
> his character Scobie in a novel called /Justine/.  In either case, these
> Scobie paragraphs strike me as somehow different from the previous
> paragraphs in Parts I and II of /Justine/.  If the transatlantic
> criss-crossings of Da Capo's father and Sabina and Kelly had merited a
> sustained treatment extending over several pages, then we might have
> something similar in Part I of /Justine/. . . .
> 
> Linda Rashidi and Aljaz Groselj are linguists interested in Durrell's
> writings, and I think that they would be able to help me chart out the
> sea-change at a micro-level, or else explain to me what continues with a
> difference here.
> 
> Whatever the case, I will observe how 1) for me, the Scobie episodes
> mark a storytelling "voice" or "style" that differs in manner and
> subject from, say, the voices of Darley or Pursewarden--Durrellian, but
> different; 2) apart from Durrell's other characters, Scobie and
> Pursewarden achieved an afterlife, occupying Durrell's imagination after
> the publication of the /Quartet/.
> 
> These two--especially Scobie--were Durrell's "routines" for new sketches
> in notebooks and informal recitals for friends and visitors.  I use
> "routines" in the sense that Charles Dickens did "routines," climbing up
> on a dining room chair or mounting a stage and "doing" the voices of
> Micawber or Skimpole &c.
> 
> I think those two Dickensian characters come to mind for a reason.  In
> /David Copperfield/ and /Bleak House/, Dickens allowed extended
> anecdotes about Micawber and Skimpole (their appearances, mannerisms,
> and characteristic speech) to take over the narrative, giving readers a
> bit of comic relief from the "earnestness" of Esther or David's voices.
> In his own way, Darley is similarly "earnest" about his /ennui/.  As the
> years go by, I am more and more struck about Darley's seriousness about
> being a bankrupt--Darley certainly works earnestly to prove that he does
> not care a great deal about work &c.
> 
> N.B.: Unlike Dickens' corrective treatment of his cartoons Micawber or
> Skimpole, Durrell does not end by showing up or correcting Scobie's
> quirks.  Scobie cannot be contained by those rules.  Even Scobie's
> funeral at the Catholic cemetery ends with Rabelaisian overturn and
> carnival.
> 
> Scobie's appearance in Part II of /Justine/ is good fortune, a Tiresian
> breeze, offering me a bit of relief from the rest of the Alexandrian
> hothouse.  The fact that the old pirate seems so well adapted, such an
> integral part of Durrell's City, makes this character all the more
> wonderful.
> 
> Joshua Samuel Scobie and Old Ron.  Capodistria /père/ and Sabina.
> (Again, there is something Dickensian in having a character with an
> appendage or a sidekick.)  I am grateful for these fellows, two of my
> oldest and fondest friends in the /Quartet/.
> 
> Charles
> 
> --
> ********************************************
> Charles L. Sligh
> Assistant Professor
> Department of English
> University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
> charles-sligh at utc.edu
> ********************************************
> 
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