Seafoam by Alex Kiehnau
Author: Alex (Page 2 of 21)
Six Bullets by Alex Kiehnau
I Tried, I Failed by Alex Kiehnau
Allan Nash by Alex Kiehnau
Dictionary of London:
Textual: Richard Carlile, Every Woman’s Book (1838)
(http://www.victorianlondon.org/index-2012.htm)
This excerpt made me think of the “life cycle of a woman” image that we looked at early on in the semester. As the author cites virgin, women becoming “old maids” at 25 years old, it made me think a lot about the importance Victorian society placed on marriage. The only real purpose of women was to get married and to have children, but if you were unmarried by a certain point, society would treat you as “peculiar” and “restless” (as Richard Carlile states). Within all of novels, excluding The Type Writer Girl, there is always a large emphasis on marriage and we see, particularly in Ruth, that being an unmarried woman was seen as a rejection of “modern” society.
Visual: Advert for Electrolysis (1893)
(http://www.victorianlondon.org/index-2012.htm)
This advertisement is specifically geared towards women, primarily because the person who does the procedure is a woman (specifically the “Lady Electrician”, Miss Mostyn). The ad claims that electricity can permanently remove “superfluous” hair, vein-marks, moles, and warts. I was drawn to this for a similar reason stated in the textual example. This reminded me of the “life cycle of a woman” image that we examined at the beginning of the semester. It also makes me a little sad to see that women’s physical appearances and the pressure to eliminate natural features has always been around. Regardless, I thought of how we touched upon the themes of ownership and being “marked” during our unit on Mr. Meeson’s Will. Be it a mole or a tattoo, it seems like women were so fixated on being “physically acceptable” in order to be considered by a potential suitor.
QCQ:
Quotation: “… that women who had never had sexual commerce begin to droop when about twenty-five years of age, that they become pale and languid, that general weakness and irritation, a sort of restlessness, nervous fidgettyness takes possession of them, and an absorbing process goes on, their forms degenerate, their features sink, and the peculiar character of the old maid becomes apparent” (Carlile)
Comment: This quote concerns the sexuality of women and how they “degenerate” later in life. By our standards today, 25 years old isn’t considered to be old at all, and certainly does not mean that women start to “shrivel up”. In terms of connectedness to other works we’ve gone over this semester, I mentioned Mr. Meeson’s Will above. Similar to Augusta’s treatment, Carlile describes women more as objects than as people. By using the word “commerce” at the beginning of the quote, Carlile is essentially saying that women’s worth drops significantly the older they get. This is a prime example of how normalized sexism was during this period, especially within the 1830s-1840s.
Question: As Carlile focuses on the commercial value of women’s sexuality, I was wondering if there were any parallels that we could draw from later feminist movements. Were there similar arguments presented to feminists at the turn of the century? I also wonder just how men, like Carlile, would react to ideas of feminism, literature, and law that were presented by West.
Quotation: “But the second problem is that the stock story obliterates the very different story of all those-men and women-who do not fit the narrative: the working woman, rather than man, who is also a mother, and who does not have a wife at home to raise the children and keep the home running; the worker of either sex who is not married; the gay or lesbian worker with or without children but who does not have a “spouse” or significant other of the opposite sex; the single parent; or for that matter even the married man who shares equally with his working wife the burdens of home maintenance and child raising” (West 211-212).
Comment: West’s discussion of the stock story made me think of the novels we’ve read and how they each had aspects that went against the standard stock story ideals (i.e., male-centric, women as objects/homemakers, etc.). In Bronte’s novel, we see Helen attempting to make a living as a single mother. Ruth focuses on another single mother. Mr. Meeson’s Will and The Type-Writer Girl show us a glimpse of a more “modern” woman by featuring (initially) single women who have their own agency to find jobs, live alone, etc. Augusta even breaks the trope of having a “breadwinner” husband, as her fame as an author and her actions during court led to financial gain for her and Eustace. Juliet’s own agency and confidence within her life and romantic relationships also go against the stock stories of male-dominance/leadership. With each generation and the growing ideals of “modern women”, these novels show the ability to go against stock stories, such as the one pointed out by West.
Question: Although we see examples of women-centric narratives that go against stock stories, they primarily focus on white, heterosexual women (though there are varying social/economic classes). It makes me think of the narratives of minorities (POC, LGBTQ+, etc.) that have been lost or have not gained nearly as much traction or popularity as the works mentioned above. People of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community definitely existed during the Victorian era, and while educational opportunities were defined by economic and social factors, I’m curious if there are any first-person narratives by minority authors that reflect the same ideals posed by the authors we’ve studied this semester.
Quotation: Now, that anyone will aver that the subjects of study in any one University are actually the very best possible subjects for women, or even for men, I do not suppose we shall find. But the point is, Who is to decide what is fit for a woman’s brain save the owner of the brain herself? Who has the right to decree that the curriculum for the goose ought not be the same as that which collegiate wisdom has appointed for the gander?” (Cobbe, 84)
Comment: In this passage, Cobbe is making an argument for an “open” education of women, meaning that women should have the right/power to chose her own path of education. Later in her argument, Cobbe says that just because one woman is not interested in subjects (say the humanities), that doesn’t mean that every woman should be barred from studying them. While Cobbe is generally hopeful about women pursuing higher education, she worries about biased curriculums and women being forced into studies that “suit them” best as women. I feel like we still see biased curriculums today, especially within STEM related fields. If a woman goes into a health program, some people automatically assume she’s training to be a nurse or some type of assistant to a male counterpart. Women who go into computer sciences are also called out and her knowledge and intelligence are often doubted. There are other fields where gender bias is still relevant today, but naming them all would require more space than what I have.
Question: Due to Cobbe’s worries of gender bias forcing women into “traditional” or acceptable routes of education, I wonder what early curriculums or class schedules looked like for women. What was a typical ‘day in the life’ for a woman pursuing a higher education?
“This lasted until the night that the damn thing discharged under my ear. If I’d been sleeping with my head on the other half of the pillow, I would probably not be telling you this story now, but I escaped unharmed. The pillow exploded into a blizzard of feathers and the bullet took out the lamp and buried itself in the closet door…I have, as I told you, reader, the psychic sensitivities of mud” (What Moves the Dead, Kingfisher, 54).
I’ll try my best to analyze some aspects of the above quote, but it’s a little difficult as my source is a work of fiction and is not countering any topics. This work serves as a source for me in two ways. First, it is written in first-person, which is the same point of view that I’m writing my novella in. Secondly, it has aspects of a horror/thriller, and while my work isn’t entirely focused on that genre, it does have some horror imagery. I’ve decided to analyze Kingfisher’s use of first-person narrative, as shown by the paragraph above. Her novel, What Moves the Dead, is a retelling of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. Like in the original story, the narrator in Kingfisher’s retelling speaks directly to the reader, as though he were writing a letter or directly recounting the events in person. While addressing the reader is not uncommon, I feel that it must be done frequently enough to remind the reader of their “participation” in the work, but not frequently enough that it becomes overbearing. I haven’t completely finished Kingfisher’s work, but it seems that the narrator very rarely addresses the reader and when he does, it feels almost jarring, as though you were suddenly reminded that the narrator is aware of you. Although it may work to add tension/mystery into a horror/thriller genre, it feels of little significance in Kingfisher’s work. In my (limited) experience, I’d suggest writers to make a decision early on if he/she/they want to address a reader directly. It’s more common in contemporary works to not address the reader, which tends to be a safer option. If an author decides to address the reader within a first-person narrative, I’d recommend establishing that connection early on, either in the form of a letter or by directly addressing the reader within the first chapter/section to avoid jarring the reader later by their sudden participation.
Quotation: “How light and free I felt! When man first set woman on two wheels with a pair of pedals, did he know, I wonder, that he had rent the veil of the harem in twain? I doubt it, but so it was. A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering. I felt it that brisk May morning as I span down the road with a Tam o’Shanter on my head and my loose hair travelling after me like a Skye terrier.” (Allen, Chapter 5)
Comment: This quote stuck out to me for a few reasons. First, in comparison to the other novels we’ve read, this is the first time a woman has travelled uninhibited and without a man to accompany her. Like Augusta in Mr. Meeson’s Will, Juliet takes agency over her professional and personal life, however unlike Augusta, she has no male intervention whatsoever. Her bicycle is representative of her freedom and agency. It’s shown that she is also aware of her position of a woman in a new era. I feel like this quote really highlights the change of women’s personal agency, especially as we look back on earlier novels read this semester.
Question: Going along with Juliet’s question (“did he know, I wonder…”), I’m wondering how readily available bicycles were. I’m assuming that if a woman could get one at this point in time, it wasn’t rare to see them around. Was there any controversy surrounding women riding bicycles as a result of their availability?
I took UNE’s Citizenship course during the Fall 2022 semester. The course’s main purpose was to direct students to engage in civic contributions and to reflect upon not only their rights as citizens, but their responsibilities as a global citizen. While I was familiar with a lot of the information presented in this course, I believe it was an important step in my transition from a student life to an adult life. The course also touched upon the importance of self-education and being able to formulate your own opinions based on information from multiple sources with different viewpoints. In her first chapter, Nussbaum outlines the main abilities/traits that are synonymous with the humanities. “The ability to think critically; the ability to transcend local loyalties and to approach world problems as a “citizen of the world”; and, finally, the ability to imagine sympathetically the predicament of another person” (Nussbaum, 7) are all abilities that were insisted upon during the Citizenship course. As members of a democracy, we must be able to, as stated above, formulate our own opinions using critical thinking skills and sympathize with others in our nation that have differences in political leanings, gender, religion, etc. The arts and humanities assist in developing these skills. Within my own major and minors, I’ve been expected to use critical thinking skills to approach problems. I’ve also been able to express my own beliefs and ideologies through written and visual works while also being exposed to works that sometimes counter those beliefs. The experiences I’ve had within the humanities have helped me become a conscious citizen, not just within my country, but globally. The curiosity and acceptance fostered by humanities courses have helped me look at issues from multiple viewpoints while also allowing me to have my own opinion based on personal values. This idea of the humanities fostering civic engagement is something Nussbaum discusses in chapter six. The arts, she says, are directly “descended” from our early experiences of playing as children and that “this curiosity contributes toward the development of healthy attitudes in friendship, love, and, later, political life” (Nussbaum, 100).
