[ilds] The Dark Labyrinth

[Bruce Redwine]

Durrell deliberately sets up Campion's leap into the Unknown as a disappearing act, which is clearly intended to mystify and provoke speculation.  This is where Charles's quotations from Nabokov and Flaubert come in handy.  That is, the reader should study well Durrell's method in The Dark Labyrinth and see what he's aiming at.  How can a reader not wonder what happens next to Campion, who is the most interesting character in the novel and who is a not-so-subtle disguise for the author himself?  Campion is an artist, as Durrell played around with his paints, and also the name of a minor Renaissance poet, as LGD was at this stage in his literary career.  So what's his fate?


Bruce



On Apr 22, 2011, at 11:14 PM, James Gifford wrote:

> David, you make me think of the Leap section of Durrell's /Panic 
> Spring/.  I've long thought those two scenes need to be set beside each 
> other...  If so, the imagination take the lead rather than worries about 
> "what happened next," or so I like to think.
> 
> Best,
> James
> 
> On 22/04/11 6:33 PM, Denise Tart & David Green wrote:
>> "Rimbaud's solution is always in the air."
>> Bruce, I am imagining Campion leaping into the blue Cretan air above the
>> even bluer Med, an act of vast faith as water from that height is
>> concrete hard. did he die or did he swim to safety...
>> DG
>> 
>> *From:* Bruce Redwine <mailto:bredwine1968 at earthlink.net>
>> *Sent:* Saturday, April 23, 2011 4:35 AM
>> *To:* ilds at lists.uvic.ca <mailto:ilds at lists.uvic.ca>
>> *Cc:* Bruce Redwine <mailto:bredwine1968 at earthlink.net>
>> *Subject:* [ilds] The Dark Labyrinth
>> 
>> Meta,
>> 
>> I'm currently working on an essay dealing with Durrell's use of
>> pastoral, which will include aspects of his peculiar "transcendental
>> dimension." David Green below encapsulates well, as you note, some of
>> those characteristics. I too find /The Dark Labyrinth/ an extraordinary
>> work of fiction. Why did Durrell dismiss it? I'd guess because it didn't
>> fit in which his grandiose plans for making his mark on world literature
>> (hence the need to produce "big works," "man-size piece[s]," i.e.,
>> novels in sets, epic fashion). Yes, that's hard. But, if I may expand on
>> Frank Kermode's observations /(Critical Inquiry /7 (1980), no. 1,
>> 83-101), authors are not always in full control of their material and
>> don't always know when they're succeeding or not. As far as the
>> "transcendental" goes, the escape into some mythological unknown was
>> there at an early age. In a letter to Henry Miller (27 January 1937),
>> Durrell writes, "Rimbaud's solution is always in the air." The statement
>> is problematic, but I take it to mean that young Durrell is
>> romanticizing Arthur Rimbaud's escape into the wilds of Abyssinia, i.e.,
>> seeking out some primitive haven not unlike the Roof of the World in
>> /DL/. Of course, what Durrell was probably unaware of is that Rimbaud
>> was bored stiff with life in remote East Africa. Read his letters to
>> /chères mère et sœur./ No matter. The idea of pastoral is more important
>> than facts.
>> 
>> 
>> Bruce
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Apr 22, 2011, at 2:39 AM, Meta Cerar wrote:
>> 
>>> This is beautifully put, thank you for this post. I am so glad that
>>> other Durrell fans also find the transcendental dimension in the Dark
>>> Labyrinth (which I recently translated into Slovenian). I have always
>>> wondered why Durrell himself was so dismissive of this novel? Referred
>>> to it as a potboiler, written to pay for the divorce from Nancy. And
>>> why was it hardly ever mentioned by his biographers, and not even once
>>> in the interviews which were compiled into a book (I think the author
>>> was Ingersoll or something similar)?
>>> 
>>> Best regards
>>> 
>>> Meta Cerar
>>> 
>>> Ljubljana, Slovenia
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> *From:*ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca <mailto:ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca>
>>> [mailto:ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca] *On Behalf Of *Denise Tart & David
>>> Green
>>> *Sent:* Thursday, April 21, 2011 5:00 AM
>>> *To:* Durrel
>>> *Subject:* [ilds] LGD and the Three Pillars of Happiness
>>> 
>>> LGD was a highly spiritual person and sought enlightenment through a
>>> variety of faiths and beliefs: Gnosticism, the cabbala, Buddhism and
>>> of the transcendental quest for spirit of place . it pervades all his
>>> work and no finer example than that found in Dark Labyrinth and the
>>> metaphoric discovery of the Tibetan upland! My feeling is that LGD
>>> discovered many elements of spiritual upland when, after the bitter
>>> lemons of Cyprus, he went to the Midi with Claude and lived a plain
>>> rustic life at the Mazet, in country side he liked, with the woman he
>>> loved and doing work he enjoyed - writing and pottering about his
>>> farm. The other day Denise said that she heard that the three pillars
>>> of happiness are: someone to love, something to do and something to
>>> look forward to. I only add that the second pillar is stronger when
>>> you like what you do. LGD had all those when with Claude and it was
>>> his best time as a man, lover and writer. Later, he did not have love,
>>> found writing more difficult and had only the bottle to look forward
>>> to ...and female American uni students.
>>> 
>>> David
>>> 
>>> 16 William Street
>>> Marrickville NSW 2204
>>> + 61 2 9564 6165
>>> 0412 707 625
>>> www.denisetart.com.au <http://www.denisetart.com.au/>
>>> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/attachments/20110423/3797396e/attachment.html