Friday, December 10, 2010

A tiny note of contempt

The Season of Brideshead
Et in Arcadia Ego, chapter three
I'm off on a pastoral visit all morning and then meeting with a contractor this afternoon so posting will be light today. There is a Venus Day special drawing on Brideshead coming up and that will be it.

I leave you with a question. Here is a little excerpt from when Julia picks up Charles at the station. Reading it, I wonder just how aware Charles is?
Everyone else has gone. He tried to make me stay back with him. Well, I expect you know how maddeningly pathetic he can be. I almost gave in, and then I said: “Surely there must be someone you can get hold of,” and he said everybody was away or busy and, anyway, no one else would do. But at last he agreed to try you, and I promised I’d stay if you failed him, so you can imagine how popular you are with me. I must say it’s noble of you to come all this way at a moment’s notice.’ But as she said it, I heard, or thought I heard, a tiny note of contempt in her voice that I should be so readily available.
What jumps out at me here is the thing that doesn't seem to bother Charles but, it seems to me, ought to bother him.

"[A]nd he said everybody was away or busy ... at last he agreed to try you."

As the recent cliché would have it, "He's just not that into you." Charles is mad about Sebastian but Sebastian can't even be bothered to notice this just as he can't be bothered to notice or care about Charles' drawings. He doesn't much seem to notice Charles at all. This relationship is a little like Echo and Narcissus.

There is also something very Platonic about this relationship. Not in our modern sense of non-sexual love but in the sense Plato meant it; that is that Charles sees some intimation of God's glory in Sebastian. An intimation of the divine that Sebastian himself cannot see or is actively denying.

And we get a pretty powerful hint that Sebastian cannot see it in himself or hates himself for not wanting to see it just a few pages later. Charles says that Julia does much care for him, Sebastian replies:
‘I don’t think she cares for anyone much. I love her. She’s so like me.’
‘Do you? Is she?’
‘In looks I mean and the way she talks. I wouldn’t love anyone with a character like mine.’
And here there has to be some faint contempt whether anyone can hear it or not because Charles does love someone with a character like Sebastian's. It's not possible to have a loving relationship with some without some self love.

Later, when Charles and Sebastian are discussing his faith Sebastian will insist on his wickedness. We might think he doesn't mean it but he does.

A final self awareness question, Charles, riding on the train to meet Sebastian, imagines so easily that Sebastian will die. But he never asks himself why this should be so easy to imagine. His father is not nearly concerned enough about Sebastian but Charles is the exact opposite. Everywhere he sees death. 

And it makes sense doesn't it? Sebastian has an aura of death right from the beginning. I'll revisit that on Monday.

Have a grand weekend everyone. Gaudete Sunday this weekend.

The first post in the Brideshead series is here.

The next post will be here.

3 comments:

  1. "But at last he agreed to try you..." Yes, I caught that. Charles is only an ally of convenience for Sebastian.

    In my youth, I used to pay court to people who never returned the favor. Do you think that Anthony Blanche is actually a better friend to Charles? He knows that Charles is wasting himself on Sebastian.

    I am so glad that you suggested reading BR for Advent. Finally reading the book has been a powerful experience.

    I'd love to see you blog something from Dance sometime; perhaps At Lady Molly's.

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  2. You know it's been something pretty special for me too and I had not anticipated that.

    Charles is definitely in pursuit of a lover who is not giving back. Whether he is wasting himself in doing so is another question.

    Loss. That's the thing I keep thinking about as I read it this time. It's very much a book about loss. That's why it's so popular, everyone can identify with loss, especially with lost love. And yet, Charles is getting something from this relationship.

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  3. Of course you're right, what was I thinking?

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