Sections 10, 11, 12 Ready for spot PL!
Well, I think I was too hasty to say its not about the painting, because he still has it! And the review suggests we should keep an eye on the content of the picture - they did agree it was a symbol of some kind...
I only took an interest in stream of consciousness when I started to record Couperus, so I don't know much about it at all. Ulysses was published in 1922, in Paris, but it seems that it was read in England as well. I haven't read it, but my impression is that the style is a bit different. I believe that Joyce said that he borrowed from Edouard Dujardin's, Les lauriers sont coupés, which I have read and it is similar to Mr. M. in the sense that it follows one person, but different in that Dujardin doesn't really have much of a plot. What I meant by the technique, though, is the way that he jumps around among the different things that Mr. M. is thinking about as well as how he tends to think one thing and say another. I can't think of anything earlier that is such a close study of how people think. But as you say, there could have been no end of people of doing that who have been forgotten about now. I was surprised that L.P. Hartley didn't comment on it, but perhaps that was because it was not so unusual.
Newgatenovelist wrote: ↑November 23rd, 2023, 2:12 pm
This isn't an 'I told you so', but I did think before reading the review that the named character was going to die (keeping it vague, it's an open forum!). I didn't want to say that because it could have been a spoiler! I guess the review has taken care of that, though. As for the book being about the painting, my guess at this stage is that it's a MacGuffin. Mr. Moffatt thought it was a nuisance but only really valued it when he thought he could get something for it and someone else looked at it approvingly. The painting might end up being the means, but it's not the main part of it. I suspect that honour will go to Mr. Moffatt's personal transformation, assuming he has one.
I'm definitely not a world-renowned expert on the literary use of stream of consciousness. Am I right in thinking that this postdates Ulysses, though? And for all I know there may be other novels or short stories that were a bit earlier in the 20s. Just throwing it out there, because once I start digging even a little I realise how many more questions I've thrown up and how much I don't know!
