[ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 103, Issue 14

[mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org]

Durrell as a misogynist: 
I believe that misogyny - which we normally understand as "dislking" or even "maltreating" women comes from fear. Men who fear women become misogynists in that they conduct a love-hate realtionship both with the gender as a whole and with specific women, starting with the mother. If (to be very cautious) we acknowledge that most (and I mean most) men are, indeed, fearful of woman as "the Other", and if we go even further and accept that love and fear are co-habitants of the marriage bed, we cannot paint any particular man, or writer-man, in dishonourable colours SIMPLY on account of their behaviour in or out of bed, the kitchen, or the novel.
It's a hugely complex question in LD - partly because of the way he wrote about women, but also due to the facts and imagined facts of his life: Start with the birth scene in Pied Pipers, and D's own assertion that he remembered the moment of his birth (highly unlikely but there have been instances of others which have been well documented). Move on to the characterisations of women in Dark Labyrinth. Then the HUGE issue of what JUSTINE means as a person - a sin-cushion? a sexual turnstile? and the general description of Alexandria as a city where women cry out to be abused; MELISSA as a whore-with-a-heart-of-gold, and her statement (twice, in variants) "I no longer defend myself". CLEA as hetero- and homo-sexual. LIVIA ditto. The character of BENEDICTA, seen from Felix's perspective. The complexity of women in the QUINTET - where they amy or may not be part of one another (as many of the men certainly are). The central icon of CONSTANCE, whom I believe to have been D's idealisation of CLAUDE.
When I gave a copy of JUDITH to a non-D-reader, her immediate reaction was "I enjoyed the storyline, especially the tension over the Jewish-Arab conflict, but D treated women very badly, didn't he?" (a common complaint by women about D's writing generally about women, and maybe one reason why there are far fewer women critics of D than there are men).
Some of the poems celebrate female beauty, especially in the abstract, but there are instances when he addressed poems to specific women that are, at the least, ambivalent. 
And the plays... And the unpublished novel Placebo, and the unfinished novel version of Sappho, and the "Magnetic island",,,, And "Chantal de Legumes"...
The women in D's life: stories (some corroborated, others not) of his treatment of, and attitude towards 1) Nancy (e.g. his disregard for her as an artist, his neglect of her on their long visit to Paris), 2) Eve, with whose psychiatric problems he was unable to (or refused to) cope 3 ) Claude (especially the occasions, witnessed, when he physically attacked her) but who, if anyone, captured his admiration AS A WRITER and whom I think he genuinely mourned, 4) his ambivalence about Ghislaine, 5) his love of (and dependence on) Francoise, but whom (to my certain knowledge becaue I was there) he could be painfully offensive, 6) Margaret McCall (again, I was witness to his disdain for her except in professional terms).
One woman who was his lover said to me "He was a very big part of my life, but I was only a very small part of his, and I can accept that" - maybe she got off lightly!
Is that enough to be going on with? 
I would very much like to see a balanced, bisexual discussion - maybe a conference, however much I dislike and distrust such events, to explore these issues. Yes, there have been notable attempts to address them: Jim Nichols' "The Stronger Sex" is a valuable contribution to the topic - his exegesis of the poem "nemea" is very important. And, as I said in that review, the essay on "harems" and the unpublished "Gynococracy" are important, even if they are unknown.
RP
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From: ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca [mailto:ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca]
Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2015 03:00 PM
To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca
Subject: ILDS Digest, Vol 103, Issue 14

Send ILDS mailing list submissions to	ilds at lists.uvic.caTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit	https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ildsor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to	ilds-request at lists.uvic.caYou can reach the person managing the list at	ilds-owner at lists.uvic.caWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Lost Alexandria (Bruce Redwine) 2. Indian Mertaphysics (Bruce Redwine) 3. Re: Angst (G. R. Taneja) 4. Review by Richard Pine of "From the Elephant's Back" (mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org) 5. Re: Review by Richard Pine of "From the Elephant's Back" (Bruce Redwine)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2015 09:26:33 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford , Ken Gammage	Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: [ilds] Lost AlexandriaMessage-ID: <238F4134-2D9C-485B-A35C-E119690600DB at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Ken,We?ve discussed the Ambron Villa in Alex. I think it?s still around but probably not for long. Dunno about Karm Abu Girg, south of the City. In 2007 I traveled to Wadi Natrun, on the southwestern fringes of the desert, maybe fifty miles away. It?s a Coptic monastery and holy site. It?s mentioned in the Quintet as a place for hermits and the secluded life. Durrell may have visited the remote location in the 40s, but when I saw it the road was well-developed with shops, reminding me of another Los Angeles on the make. So things and places in Egypt are radically changing, obviously.Bruce> On Nov 19, 2015, at 6:18 PM, Kennedy Gammage  wrote:> > Could we entertain a question about Egypt? We know Durrell's Alexandria is largely gone (though maybe not along the waterfront?) - but what about Karm Abu Girg, the Hosnani family place out in the desert? Are places like that still extant?> > Thanks - Ken> -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 2Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2015 12:11:53 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: James Gifford Cc: Bruce Redwine Subject: [ilds] Indian MertaphysicsMessage-ID: <5C8804EA-CE97-4594-A51B-65C2368288A3 at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"No, I haven?t read it. But I seem to recall this book was being sold at the Vancouver meeting in 2014. My sense is that the study is a positive take on Durrell?s Indian ?metaphysics.? Sex seems to be a big part of this. Nambiar?s article, ?The Spirit of Tantric Maithuna in The Avignon Quintet,? appeared in Deus Loci, NS10 (2006-2007): 167-76, where he concludes: ?I look upon Durrell as a liberator even of Indians from the puritanical tradition which they have inherited.?Bruce> On Nov 18, 2015, at 12:45 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > Gulshan's article echoes the full-length study by Ravindran (Ravi) Nambiar, "Indian Metaphysics in Lawrence Durrell's Novels" (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014) - anyone read it?> RP -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 3Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2015 23:46:05 +0530From: "G. R. Taneja" To: "ilds at lists.uvic.ca" Subject: Re: [ilds] AngstMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"I think Richard offers a very reasonable summing up when he says: By "angst" I meant literally that LD did not like to return to places where he had been happy. How many of us have returned and found the place a disappointment, or one where old ghosts are less than welcoming? So it was a mixture of (a) knowing that he COULDN't go "home" (because if it had ever existed, it could no longer offer him the succour he needed all his life, and (b) simply the fear of disillusion,...". Durrell not ever returning to India was similarly just that it didn't happen on account of some of these reason....!G R TanejaIn-between Website: G. R. Taneja / EditorIn-between: Essays & Studies in Literary CriticismDepartment of English, R. L. A. College, University of DelhiAnand Niketan Colony, Benito Juarez Marg,New Delhi-110 021, India Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2015 18:18:05 -0800From: gammage.kennedy at gmail.comTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] AngstCould we entertain a question about Egypt? We know Durrell's Alexandria is largely gone (though maybe not along the waterfront?) - but what about Karm Abu Girg, the Hosnani family place out in the desert? Are places like that still extant?Thanks - KenOn Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 5:08 PM, Bruce Redwine  wrote:Richard,Interesting. You describe a degree of alienation which I was unaware of. I guess you?re saying that Durrell had no home and was never ?at home,? anywhere, even though he lived in Provence for over thirty years. For all his gregariousness and conviviality, he had his work and little else: ?For those of use who stand upon the margins of the world, as yet unsolicited by any God, the only truth is that work itself is Love.? Mountolive?s father says that, and he living in a remote monastery in India translating Pali texts! So we return to Durrell?s India.Bruce On Nov 19, 2015, at 1:42 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:Angst: no, that isn't what I meant. There never was a "home" for Durrell - anywhere, after the Indian childhood, and, as we know, what he told us about that was partly fabricated and partly mistaken - but who does not mis-remember childhood and who does not imagine a childhood that was more golden than it really was. By "angst" I meant literally that LD did not like to return to places where he had been happy. How many of us have returned and found the place a disappointment, or one where old ghosts are less than welcoming? So it was a mixture of (a) knowing that he COULDN't go "home" (because if it had ever existed, it could no longer offer him the succour he needed all his life, and (b) simply the fear of disillusion, which, as I said, he certainly felt not merely on his return to Kalami (on which he wrote, including the essay "Oil for the Saint" but on several other subsequent visits, some (but not all) of which are recorded by MacNiven. (The unrecorded involved a few we! eks,on 2 occasions, on the dry, while he was working hard on the QUINTET, on both of which I have personal evidence from people he met and who are still living in Corfu)BTW, has anyone seen the DVD film "The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway" (BDV 018 made by a company named 'Beckmann', 80 minutes)) which has evocative shots of Kurseong. And there's another, a BBC series, 3x60 minute programmes, "Indian Hill Railways" which includes the Darjeeling line and 2 others (EIE10718)And I repeat my reference to Ravi Nambiar's book - after we met him in San Diego, Jay Brigham went to stay with him in Kerala and I think this book is the fruit of Ravi's long contemplation of LD's "India" and was boosted by his conversations with Jay. RP_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 4Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2015 07:30:38 +0000From: mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.orgTo: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: [ilds] Review by Richard Pine of "From the Elephant's Back"Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"This review of "Elephant's Back" appears in The Irish Times, Saturday 21 November. RP>From the Elephant?s Back: Collected Essays & Travel Writings, by Lawrence Durrell, edited by James GiffordThe writer turns a baroque pen to topics from his childhood in India to Moore StreetRichard PineSat, Nov 21, 2015, 00:58First published:Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 00:58BUY NOWKenny's BookstoreBook Title:>From the Elephant?s Back: collected essays and travel writingsISBN-13:978-1772120516Author:Lawrence DurrellPublisher:University of Alberta PressGuideline Price:?33.5I am writing this in Corfu, the island that was Lawrence Durrell?s first European home, a compensation for his lost childhood in India. In Corfu, where he lived from 1935 to 1939, Durrell said, ?Greece offers you the discovery of yourself.? It was here that he completed The Black Book (1937) and conceived the blueprint for his entire life?s work: The Alexandria Quartet (1957-59), Tunc and Nunquam (1968-70) and The Avignon Quintet (1974-85). The Quartet is the work by which his reputation as an experimental novelist will live or die.Corfu provided him with the elements of a Greek drama: agon(Black Book), pathos (the Quartet), sparagmos (Tunc and Nunquam) and anagnorisis (the Quintet). He married the Greek idea with Indian and Chinese philosophies in his determination to fuse the western narrative tradition with the eastern spirit, but his roots were always in Greece, where East meets West.The title essay ? perhaps the most important in this collection ? celebrates Durrell?s Indian childhood. One of his lifelong motifs was that ?whoever sees the world from the back of an elephant learns the secrets of the jungle, and becomes a seer?. Rudyard Kipling?s Kim was his bedside book, from which he learned that the twin narrative techniques are ?the game? and ?the quest?, whether in love story, political thriller or verse drama: a mixture of ?boy meets girl? and the secret service that achieves a compelling storyline.1916: The Mornings After review - Tim Pat Coogan?s puffed up travesty of Irish historyEurope?s Orphan: The Future of the Euro and the Politics of Debt, by Martin SandbuA Ghost?s Story review: haunted historyBook review: Keeping Faith with Human Rights by Linda HoganDurrell was also a very accomplished travel writer, and his short pieces here on Corfu, Rhodes, Dublin and Egypt demonstrate his ability to create atmosphere in a few words that immediately bring the reader into the context, as in his sniffing the air on Moore Street in Dublin, where ?fruit and vegetables are sold to a background of scabrous backchat worthy of Aristophanes?. We relish Durrell in all genres because of this capacity to turn a baroque pen to even the most trivial subject. You can taste the writing.The gems in this volume are the title essay, his highly personal interpretation of Wordsworth, his two essays on Shakespeare, and the introduction to the psychoanalyst Georg Groddeck.Durrell was a misogynist in private life, but even though it sometimes shows in his fiction he created the memorable characters of Justine, Clea and Melissa in the Quartet and the central figure of The Avignon Quintet, Constance, who he told me was his ideal woman. This collection would have benefitted from the inclusion of his essays on Harems, and the unpublished Gynococracy: they would have made a fine copula.There are several essays on modern literature (Henry Miller, Cavafy, Dylan Thomas, TS Eliot), but where is the introduction to Lady Chatterley?s Lover, published eight years after he had expressed his willingness to give evidence in the 1960 trial of the novel in Britain?But the greatest missed opportunity is Minor Mythologies, in which Durrell argued against literary snobbery and insisted that the heroes of popular literature (such as Sherlock Holmes, Bulldog Drummond or Jeeves) represent mythic archetypes as relevant as their counterparts in the canon of ?major? or ?highbrow? novels.There are many other pieces ? forewords, essays, film scripts and unpublished fiction ? that cry out for a second elephant, but it would be foolish to entrust it to an academic as dull as the present editor.Anyone who gives credence to James Gifford?s apparent fixation with proving (in his introduction and copious endnotes) that Durrell was an ?anarchist? would do well to consider Durrell?s self-description as a ?Selfist? ? not a surrealist but a ?Durrealist?. As a colonial functionary for much of his life he was too aware of the inevitability of an ordered society to ever espouse anarchism. One might as well humour an earnest scholar who believes that Queen Elizabeth I wrote Shakespeare.This insistence on Gifford?s part is indicative of his lack of humour: how can one write about Durrell without relishing his humour? At one point Gifford believes that a sheaf of hoax ?letters to the author?, that Durrell left lying around are genuine. To appreciate Durrell one needs a sense of humour, a taste for the bizarre and the joy of literary sprezzatura. Gifford lacks all three. One could never tire of reading Durrell. One tires immediately on encountering Gifford.And anyone who thinks that we need endnotes to explain who Huxley, Woolf, Gauguin, Sartre, Einstein, DH Lawrence and Nelson were must be immune to the intelligence of the general reader. There are also many errors of both fact and judgment: the geography of Dublin and Corfu, the statement that Durrell spoke ?fluent Greek? (he did not), the belief that two quite different essays on Shakespeare are one and the same.I am glad I belong to the Durrell school of ?necessary uncertainty?, the delicious ambiguity that no amount of critical apparatus can diminish. Gifford?s editorial comments are heavy handed and inelegant, often unnecessary or irrelevant, sometimes blatantly incorrect and always tedious. But buy the book for Durrell?s wit, elegance, philosophy, joie de vivre and flaming intelligence.Richard Pine is the author of Lawrence Durrell: The Mindscape; his new book isGreece Through Irish Eyes (Liffey Press)-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Message: 5Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2015 10:30:42 -0800From: Bruce Redwine To: ilds at lists.uvic.caSubject: Re: [ilds] Review by Richard Pine of "From the Elephant's	Back"Message-ID: <6F2F3478-2C0C-4293-9F6B-03C97503B730 at earthlink.net>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"Perhaps Richard can explain what he means by saying Durrell was a "misogynist." This needs to be discussed.BruceSent from my iPhone> On Nov 20, 2015, at 11:30 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:> > > This review of "Elephant's Back" appears in The Irish Times, Saturday 21 November. RP> > From the Elephant?s Back: Collected Essays & Travel Writings, by Lawrence Durrell, edited by James Gifford> The writer turns a baroque pen to topics from his childhood in India to Moore Street> > > Richard Pine> Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 00:58> First published:> Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 00:58> > > > BUY NOW> > > Book Title:> From the Elephant?s Back: collected essays and travel writings> ISBN-13:> 978-1772120516> Author:> Lawrence Durrell> Publisher:> University of Alberta Press> Guideline Price:> ?33.5> I am writing this in Corfu, the island that was Lawrence Durrell?s first European home, a compensation for his lost childhood in India. In Corfu, where he lived from 1935 to 1939, Durrell said, ?Greece offers you the discovery of yourself.? It was here that he completed The Black Book (1937) and conceived the blueprint for his entire life?s work: The Alexandria Quartet (1957-59), Tunc and Nunquam (1968-70) and The Avignon Quintet (1974-85). The Quartet is the work by which his reputation as an experimental novelist will live or die.> Corfu provided him with the elements of a Greek drama: agon(Black Book), pathos (the Quartet), sparagmos (Tunc and Nunquam) and anagnorisis (the Quintet). He married the Greek idea with Indian and Chinese philosophies in his determination to fuse the western narrative tradition with the eastern spirit, but his roots were always in Greece, where East meets West.> The title essay ? perhaps the most important in this collection ? celebrates Durrell?s Indian childhood. One of his lifelong motifs was that ?whoever sees the world from the back of an elephant learns the secrets of the jungle, and becomes a seer?. Rudyard Kipling?s Kim was his bedside book, from which he learned that the twin narrative techniques are ?the game? and ?the quest?, whether in love story, political thriller or verse drama: a mixture of ?boy meets girl? and the secret service that achieves a compelling storyline.> 1916: The Mornings After review - Tim Pat Coogan?s puffed up travesty of Irish history> Europe?s Orphan: The Future of the Euro and the Politics of Debt, by Martin Sandbu> A Ghost?s Story review: haunted history> Book review: Keeping Faith with Human Rights by Linda Hogan> Durrell was also a very accomplished travel writer, and his short pieces here on Corfu, Rhodes, Dublin and Egypt demonstrate his ability to create atmosphere in a few words that immediately bring the reader into the context, as in his sniffing the air on Moore Street in Dublin, where ?fruit and vegetables are sold to a background of scabrous backchat worthy of Aristophanes?. We relish Durrell in all genres because of this capacity to turn a baroque pen to even the most trivial subject. You can taste the writing.> The gems in this volume are the title essay, his highly personal interpretation of Wordsworth, his two essays on Shakespeare, and the introduction to the psychoanalyst Georg Groddeck.> Durrell was a misogynist in private life, but even though it sometimes shows in his fiction he created the memorable characters of Justine, Clea and Melissa in the Quartet and the central figure of The Avignon Quintet, Constance, who he told me was his ideal woman. This collection would have benefitted from the inclusion of his essays on Harems, and the unpublished Gynococracy: they would have made a fine copula.> There are several essays on modern literature (Henry Miller, Cavafy, Dylan Thomas, TS Eliot), but where is the introduction to Lady Chatterley?s Lover, published eight years after he had expressed his willingness to give evidence in the 1960 trial of the novel in Britain?> But the greatest missed opportunity is Minor Mythologies, in which Durrell argued against literary snobbery and insisted that the heroes of popular literature (such as Sherlock Holmes, Bulldog Drummond or Jeeves) represent mythic archetypes as relevant as their counterparts in the canon of ?major? or ?highbrow? novels.> There are many other pieces ? forewords, essays, film scripts and unpublished fiction ? that cry out for a second elephant, but it would be foolish to entrust it to an academic as dull as the present editor.> Anyone who gives credence to James Gifford?s apparent fixation with proving (in his introduction and copious endnotes) that Durrell was an ?anarchist? would do well to consider Durrell?s self-description as a ?Selfist? ? not a surrealist but a ?Durrealist?. As a colonial functionary for much of his life he was too aware of the inevitability of an ordered society to ever espouse anarchism. One might as well humour an earnest scholar who believes that Queen Elizabeth I wrote Shakespeare.> This insistence on Gifford?s part is indicative of his lack of humour: how can one write about Durrell without relishing his humour? At one point Gifford believes that a sheaf of hoax ?letters to the author?, that Durrell left lying around are genuine. To appreciate Durrell one needs a sense of humour, a taste for the bizarre and the joy of literary sprezzatura. Gifford lacks all three. One could never tire of reading Durrell. One tires immediately on encountering Gifford.> And anyone who thinks that we need endnotes to explain who Huxley, Woolf, Gauguin, Sartre, Einstein, DH Lawrence and Nelson were must be immune to the intelligence of the general reader. There are also many errors of both fact and judgment: the geography of Dublin and Corfu, the statement that Durrell spoke ?fluent Greek? (he did not), the belief that two quite different essays on Shakespeare are one and the same.> I am glad I belong to the Durrell school of ?necessary uncertainty?, the delicious ambiguity that no amount of critical apparatus can diminish. Gifford?s editorial comments are heavy handed and inelegant, often unnecessary or irrelevant, sometimes blatantly incorrect and always tedious. But buy the book for Durrell?s wit, elegance, philosophy, joie de vivre and flaming intelligence.> Richard Pine is the author of Lawrence Durrell: The Mindscape; his new book isGreece Through Irish Eyes (Liffey Press)> _______________________________________________> ILDS mailing list> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: ------------------------------Subject: Digest Footer_______________________________________________ILDS mailing listILDS at lists.uvic.cahttps://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds------------------------------End of ILDS Digest, Vol 103, Issue 14*************************************
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