SAMUEL BUTLER AND THE MEANING OF CHIASMUS

Transcription

1 SAMUEL BUTLER AND THE MEANING OF CHIASMUS

2 By the same author TECHNIQUES OF AMBIGUITY IN THE FICTION OF HENRY JAMES NATURE AND LANGUAGE (with Jon Haarberg) THE INSECURE WORLD OF HENRY JAMES'S FICTION

3 SAMUEL BUTLER AND THE MEANING OF CHIASMUS Ralf Norrman Palgrave Macmillan

4 ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Ralf Nomnan 1986 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 1986 All rights reserved. For information, write: St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Published in the United Kingdom by The Macmillan Press Ltd. First published in the United States of America in 1986 ISBN Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Nomnan, Ralf. Samuel Butler and the meaning of chiasmus. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Butler, Samuel, Criticism and interpretation. 2. Butler, Samuel, Technique. 3. Symmetry in literature. I. Title. II. Title: Chiasmus. PR4349.B7Z ' ISBN

5 Contents Preface Acknowledgements vii ix 1 Chiasmus and Samuel Butler: an Introductory Sketch 1 2 The Psychomorphology of Chiasticism 35 I Inversion 35 (a) Why did Butler invert proverbs? 35 (b) Inversion serves the principle of complementariness 45 (c) 'Toppling-over': unidirectionalism causes a growing strain until it triggers a catastrophic reversal 47 (d) Butler's mind like the amphisbaena: goes with equal ease in either of two opposite directions 56 (e) Can an inversion be made permanent? 68 (f) Butler and Buridan's ass: paralysis resulting from vacillation 74 (g) Butler and mundus inversus phenomena: the safety-valve aspect of temporary inversion 83 (h) Butler and Lot's wife: turning, non-turning, obligatory turning and ban on turning 87 II Dualism 100 (a) 'Having things both ways' 100 v

6 vi Contents III Reciprocity 108 (a) The Way of All Flesh and Erewhon Revisited compared 108 (b) Chiastic reciprocity in The Way of All Flesh: the reciprocity of hate 110 (c) Chiastic reciprocity in Erewhon Revisited: the reciprocity of love Chiasticism in Some of Butler's Works 149 I Juvenilia, A First Year in Canterbury Settlement and Early Essays 149 (a) Cambridge writings 149 (b) A First Year 155 (c) Early articles and essays 166 u Erewhon 171 III The Way of All Flesh Chiasmus and Butler's Life 239 Conclusion 275 Notes and References 276 List of Works Cited 308 Index 312

7 Preface The subject of this study is symmetry, and in particular those of its manifestations in language and literature which are connected with the rhetorical figure of chiasmus. Certain uses of chiasmus may signal - on the part of the user or users - a state of mind which will here be called ambilateralism. 'Ambilateralism' means an unwillingness or inability to distinguish between left and right (hence also between beginning and end, before and after, subject and object, active and passive) and a general preference for symmetry over asymmetry. Ambilateralism, and especially its manifestations in language and literature, is an important and neglected topic. Very little has been published on chiasmus, and nothing, so far as I am aware, on those implications which will be the theme here. My own interest in chiasmus, symmetry and ambilateralism grew out of my studies of Henry James. I put some of my ideas into the fifth chapter of The Insecure World of Henry lames's Fiction (London: Macmillan, 1982). I very much recommend that chapter as a companion-piece to the present work. During my attempts to get a clear view of James's mentality I became convinced that one cannot properly understand the 'psychomorphology' of James's thought unless one becomes aware of the existence, in some individuals, of an excessive, or even obsessive, love of symmetry. It seemed obvious that a book-length study of ambilateralism (as revealed through the use of the figure chiasmus) was called for. After one has been alerted to the importance of ambilateralism the question still remains how the phenomenon can most profitably be approached. Should it be studied in relation to individuals? Are there, in other words, persons particularly addicted to this pattern of thought? Or should it perhaps be studied in relation to periods of history, geographical areas, genres, levels of style, and so on? While realizing that several, perhaps all, of these alternatives could legitimately claim some attention, I nevertheless decided that for the vii

8 viii Preface present the most rewarding approach would be to deal with a particular individual - an author. I also decided that it would be desirable to choose an author whose obsession with symmetry is as extreme as possible. That way the mental mechanisms of ambilateralism would be revealed with maximum clarity and simplicity. The nineteenth-century Samuel Butler - author of Erewhon - seemed an ideal choice. He is extremely obsessed with symmetry, and this can easily be proved. It would be wise, I felt, to begin the investigation of ambilateralism with a study of a clear-cut and obvious case. Choosing Samuel Butler, however, created what one might call a marketing-problem. A study of symmetry in a particular author may be expected to attract on the one hand readers interested in symmetry, and, on the other, readers interested in that author. But is anyone interested in Samuel Butler today? Butler is usually regarded as a minor classic, but it seems that many people think the emphasis should be on 'minor' rather than on 'classic'. Most people have read The Way of All Flesh, and perhaps Erewhon, but few people today are interested in Butler's other works, which are in many respects more typical of him than The Way of All Flesh. These works also, unfortunately, reveal Butler's ambilateralism far more clearly than The Way of All Flesh. As a compromise I have decided to stick to Butler as my source of examples, even though a choice of a more popular author could have ensured a larger audience. But for the convenience of my readers I shall, in this study, concentrate on those of Butler's works which are most likely to be read today, i.e. Erewhon, The Way of All Flesh and Erewhon Revisited. In addition I shall devote one section of a chapter to Butler's early works, since this may give some indication of whether his obsessive love of symmetry was a lifelong affair or not. I hope to be able to give some attention to Butler's remaining works elsewhere, in a separate publication. It must be emphasized that the subject of the following chapters is symmetry in Butler's works, and that the two main elements (symmetry and Butler) are equally important and inseparably linked. Thus - emphatically - this is neither just another book on Butler (one in which such terms as 'symmetry' have been introduced without sufficient justification), nor merely a book on symmetry (in which Butler happens to be the randomly chosen source of examples). The connection is organic, and the book is an attempt to describe the mind of a person to whom the love of symmetry had become an obsession and to whom symmetric patterns of thought had become compulsive.

9 Acknowledgements I wish to thank Ruth Gounelas for comments on an early version of the manuscript and for permission to quote from her dissertation. It was also she who brought Butler to my attention at a time when I had not yet decided which author to choose for this study. To my friends at Linacre College, particularly John Bamborough, I am grateful for stimulating discussions and generous encouragement. I am indebted to Linacre College, Oxford, and to Harvard University for academic hospitality; and to the Finnish Academy and the H. W. Donner fund for financial assistance. Except for the final draft, this book was written in the winter of while I was at Linacre. Now, in the autumn of 1983, I have been able to resume my investigations of symmetry, and to extend them to the works of some American authors. For this opportunity I am very grateful to the American Council of Learned Societies, the United States Educational Foundation in Finland, the Ford Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Finally I wish to thank my wife, Eva-Liisa, whose help has, as usual, been invaluable. Cambridge, Massachusetts Ralf Norrman ix