Gorer's essay "The Erotic Myth of America" (1950) is
extremely provocative. He says that French and English
writers (Boris Vian and Chase are his examples, and so could
Bertold Brecht be) saw the US as a kind of anarchistic no
man's land where all kinds of sensual appetites are given
their head, so to speak. Especially fascinating are those
which conflate sex and money, and idolize the latter in order
to blur the twisted frustrations the former present to
Texas-sized venal and fragile egos. This is a myth, of
course. Nothing since 9/11 could possibly give evidence of
its validity, God knows, but only show the wisdom of our
fearless leaders (from Bush-Cheney to
Lieberman-Kristol)
of just war against "haters" and "terrorists."
That having been piously intoned, I think Gorer has a lot of
value to say about Chase
(a.k.a. Rene Raymond). He writes of his ignorance of American
geography, his female characters "always in heat," his absurd
attempts at American slang, his "paste board characters," his
focus on men torturing each other. He says the popularity of
Chase's novels allow "fulfillment of deeply felt but furtive
wishes. . . . American culture is thought to be the source of
the imaginative sins which the readers of these books commit
during their solitary orgies." As for Chase's models, Gorer
cites Hemingway's To Have and To Have Not, and Chase's own
Twelve Chinks and a Girl, as well as Faulkner.
I believe George Orwell liked No Orchids.
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 02 Jan 2005 EST