[Vwoolf] Woolf, Conrad, and bosse

Wed Apr 22 07:47:30 EDT 2020

This has turned out to be a much more interesting and rewarding discussion than I anticipated.

On a personal note, I would disagree with Conrad that “the main show [in ‘Lord Jim’] is not particularly interesting – or engaging”.  The first half is a tremendous plot, even though it is based on a true story.  The non-sinking of the boat, I mean.  (For the second half, see below.)  While I don’t think plots are important, there are some plots I take to; a wonderful plot is “Washington Square”.  On the other hand, as a child I disliked “Huckleberry Finn” – the idea of running away from home seemed ridiculous – not because my home was so happy -  because it seemed impractical to a ludicrous extent.  A particular bête noire of mine is the isolated protagonist – increasingly difficult to achieve in these days of social media and smartphones.  The dramatist is, of course, compelled to deal with this up to a point.  Until recently, films often moved people abroad to do this (“The Piano”, “Don’t Look Now”, “Belly of an Architect”, and the extremely tedious “Lost in Translation” – in fact, they were all tediously irritating to me).

Anyway, here’s another couple of “Lord Jim” –> VW:

“’. . . how the time passes!’ Nothing could have been more commonplace than this remark; but its utterance coincided for me with a moment of vision.” (ch. xiii)  Quoted in VW’s “Joseph Conrad” essay, E4 230).
Cf. “To the Lighthouse”

“You couldn’t distinguish the sea from the sky ...” (ch. x)
Cf. “The Waves”, 2nd sentence

I may find others – if I ever manage to finish reading “Lord Jim” (this is my entry for “Humiliation”).

Stuart 

From: Jeremy Hawthorn via Vwoolf 
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 9:43 AM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu 
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Woolf, Conrad, and bosse

Stuart -

Yes, This could very well be the "bosse" referred to in the French saying. Apart from anything else, the examples you show are round, and thus could be rolled. (I had wondered if a long cord of knots was to be rolled up, but this makes much better sense.) 

Because of the lockdown I don't have access to specialist French dictionaries of idioms, but I will pester my French friends on this.

Going back to Woolf, there was a discussion on the list a bit back in which I suggested that Woolf's writing of a novel in which the central character is of less interest than the characters with whom s/he interacts (Jacob's Room) might have been partly inspired by her reading of Conrad. I found a couple of comments in Conrad's letters in which he suggests that the title characters in both Lord Jim and Nostromo are of limited interest compared to their interaction with others. There is that passage in Mrs Dalloway presenting Clarissa's thoughts that begins: "to know her, or any one, one must seek out the people who completed them; even the places," and goes on in Pirandello-like fashion to suggest that thus parts of a person might survive "attached to this person or that, or even haunting certain places, after death." Compare that to these comments by Conrad in letters about the characters Jim and Nostromo.

  And this brings me naturally to Jim. Perfectly right! Your criticism is just and wise but the whole story is made up of such side shows just because the main show is not particularly interesting – or engaging I should rather say. I want to put into that sketch a good many people I've met – or at least seen for a moment – and several things overheard about the world. It is going to be a hash of episodes, little thumbnail sketches of fellows one has rubbed shoulders with and so on. I crave your indulgence; and I think that read in the lump it will be less of a patchwork than it seems now. (13 December, 1899 to Hugh Clifford)

  But truly N[ostromo] is nothing at all – a fiction – embodied vanity of the sailor kind – a romantic mouthpiece of "the people" which (I mean "the people") frequently experience the very feelings to which he gives utterance. I do not defend him as a creation. (To R.B. Cunninghame Graham, 31 October, 1904.)

Both letters can be found in the 9-volume Cambridge edition of Conrad's letters.

Jeremy H

On 21.04.2020 23:02, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf wrote:

  This “corde à noeuds”, could it be what we call a turk’s head knot?:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turk%27s_head_knot

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