Hawthorne and Bernard on Human Experimentation

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1813-1878)

This month's two selections are "Rappaccini's Daughter," by the great though, as most would agree, enigmatic American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, and "Vivisection," by French physiologist Claude Bernard. Both pieces concern the use of humans in medical experimentation, although the Hawthorne story is fictional and Bernard's piece is from his book An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine. The New York Public Library Companion to Literature calls "Rappaccini's Daughter" one of Hawthorne's "greatest studies of monomania," defined as a single-minded pursuit of an end. A question for Monday: What is Dr. Rappaccini monomanical about?

George Eliot vs. Oscar Wilde on Art

Next Monday we will compare two pieces with distinct positions on what constitutes good art.  They are a chapter from George Eliot's novel Adam Bede (published in 1859, but set in 1799), "In Which the Story Pauses a Little," and Oscar Wilde's dialogue, "The Decay of Lying." (published in 1889).

Eliot interrupts

George Eliot (1819-1880)

Adam Bede with a reflection on aesthetics as spoken by the novel's narrator.  The reader of this chapter doesn't need to know the details of this novel about a humble young carpenter seeking to establish himself and find love in the English village of Hayslope in order to understand Eliot's arguments.  As she writes:

"All honor and reverence to the divine beauty of form!  Let us cultivate it to the utmost in men, women, and children -- in our gardens and in our houses. But let us love that other beauty too, which lies in no secret of proportion, but in the secret of deep human sympathy." [Emphasis added]

"The Decay of Lying" takes the form of a dialogue between two men named for Wilde's sons, Cyril and Vivian. Vivian's position is summed up by its concluding paragraph:

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

"At twilight nature becomes a wonderfully suggestive effect, and is not without loveliness, though perhaps its chief use is to illustrate quotations from the poets."  A wonderful Wildean epigram.  Is it ironic?  To discuss on Monday.

"An Arundel Tomb" by Philip Larkin and "Love Is Not a Pie," by Amy Bloom

Effigies believed to be of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel (d.1376) and his second wife, Eleanor of Lancaster (d.1372).  They are now located in Chichester Cathedral, and are the inspiration for Philip Larkin's poem "An Arundel Tomb."  A lion lies at the feet of the Earl, a dog at his wife's.

Characters in Daniel Fuchs's "The Golden West"

 

Tonight the second installment of our discussions of selections from "Counterparts" takes place, and the selections are "Facing West from California's Shores," by Walt Whitman and "The Golden West" by Daniel Fuchs.

 As a reader's aid, here's a list of characters in Fuchs's story:

Curtis Spogel: owns a chain of movie houses in Northern California, host of the party

Julie Vencie: movie producer (he/him), partner in Veeandkay productions

Edith: Curtis's wife and sister to Julie Vencie

David: a guest at the party

Mrs. Vencie: Julie's mother

Boris Kittershoy: Julie's partner in Veeandkay

Daisy: Boris's wife

Imogene: Julie's wife

Lissak brothers:  potential white knights to save a Veeandkay movie in production

Ronnie Fitts: another independent producer

Mrs. Aston: A guest at the party

The setting: Spogel's house on Angelo Drive in Beverly Hills

"The Stages of Life." by Carl Jung

C. G. Jung (1875-1961)

Our selection this coming Monday is "The Stages" of Life," by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung.  Originally published under the title "Die seelischen Probleme der menslichen Alterstufssen," ("Mental Problems of People's Ages") on March 14 and 16, 1930 in the Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung, the essay was revised and rewritten for a professional audience, and then republished as "Die Lebenswende" ("Life's Turns") in 1931. The translation we are reading is based on this version.

Veblen's Use of "Invidious"

 A week ago Monday we discussed Veblen's "The Theory of the Leisure Class."  In reading the two chapters from the book, I was struck by his use of the adjective "invidious," in the sense of "causing envy or resentment."  He uses the word ten times in the two chapters alone, and 106 times in the entire book.  I figure the term must have some degree of importance to his argument.  On page 419 of our anthology Great Conversations 1 he says that the distinction between the occupations of men and women in barbarian tribes is of an "invidious" character. 

On pages 424 and 425 he talks about men doing the hunting and fighting ("exploits") and women doing lower-status work such as bringing home the kill. He writes "the distinction between exploit and drudgery is an invidious distinction between employments."  Later on page 425 he writes, "In any community where such an invidious comparison of persons is habitually made, visible success becomes an end sought for its own utility [emphasis added] as a basis of esteem."  Veblen sees the envy of one social group towards another as a key driver of economic life, but I submit that he uses the uncommon word "invidious" in order to avoid plainly expressing what for many might be an unpleasant truth about the social reality in which we live.

Veblen's "The Theory of the Leisure Class"

Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929)

On Monday evening we will talk about two selections from "The Theory of the Leisure Class," first published in 1899 by Thorstein Veblen: the first introductory chapter and the chapter on "Conspicuous Consumption."

The eminent 20th-century economist John Kenneth Galbraith once wrote: "The nearest thing in the United States to an academic legend -- the equivalent of an F. Scott Fitzgerald in fiction or of the Barrymores in the theater -- is the legend of Thorstein Veblen."

Great Books in Year 2 of the Pandemic (2021)

In 2021 our group held discussions of these pieces:

January: "Prometheus Bound," by Aeschylus

February: "Of Friendship" and "Of Solitude" by Michel de Montaigne 

March: "Pensées" by Blaise Pascal

April: "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson 

May: No meeting 

June: "An Enemy of the People," by Henrik Ibsen

July: "The Value of Science," by Henri Poincaré

August: "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" by Walt Whitman 

September: "Democracy in America," by Alexis de Tocqueville 

October: "Thoughts for the Times on War and Death," by Sigmund Freud 

November: "The Secret Sharer," by Joseph Conrad

The meetings were held virtually, via Zoom, until September, when we resumed in-person programming at the library but with a virtual option.