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Rasselas (Johnson: V)
Escape! Continued from this.
Ch 15
Rasselas, Nekayah and her lady's maid (who will turn out to be called Pekuah), and Imlac sneak out of the Happy Valley with a ton of jewels hidden in the royals' clothes. (Per Imlac's instructions. Someone has to think of these things!) Nekayah and Pekuah freak out a bit as they see the vastness of the world beyond the valley, and the possibility of being approached by strange men; Rasselas has the same fears, apart from the men, but "thought it more manly to conceal them." 'Kay.
Imlac has his hands full with Rasselas and Nekayah, because they're 1) poor oblivious kids and 2) obnoxious privileged royals, all at once. Rasselas expects everyone he meets to obey him, and Nekayah is nervous because people come near her without grovelling on the floor. So Imlac is constantly watching to make sure they don't betay themselves, and stops in a village to teach them Socialization 101, aka forget your rank, you're going to get what generosity and politeness gets you, and nothing else. He gets them prepared to endure the tumults of a ~~~port~~~, then takes them done. To their credit, Rasselas and Nekayah are thrilled by the port and happy to stay there, and Imlac thinks it's a good idea to keep there until they're ready to face a foreign country. Eventually he decides they should head out to Cairo, and they go along with whatever he suggests, though Nekayah is very leery of the ship.
Ch 16
Off to Cairo! They sell the jewels and get a super fancy house and everything nice, though Nekayah is so uncomfortable around commoners that she hides in her room with her maid.
(No misogyny here!)
Thankfully, only Imlac speaks the language, so the others can't accidentally betray themselves. Useful, since Nekayah and Pekuah are completely bewildered by the existence of money. They spend two years studying the language and social mores, and Rasselas starts accompanying Imlac to interesting places. He's thrilled because everyone seems laughing and happy, so obviously everyone in the world has everything they need and everyone is good-hearted. Imlac lets him believe this for awhile, until Rasselas gets troubled by the fact that these people can all be happy, but he can't. Imlac tells him that everyone puts on a show, and for at least a time is convinced that other people are really happy, which keeps alive the false hope of becoming happy. He says that all the cheerful people they spent the evening with seemed happy, but "believe me, prince, there was not one who did not dread the moment when solitude should deliver him to the tyranny of reflection."
Bolded because this was a HUGE deal with Johnson. He hated solitude and would stay as late as humanly possible with his friends and intellectual circles and whatnot just to avoid being alone with his thoughts. This is not my way (I'd be exhausted tbh), but I've definitely stuffed my head full of stories to avoid the brain weasels, so I ... do wonder about him. Not that I think his ideas (er, the philosophical ones) are illegitimate, but given that his two great fears were solitude and insanity, it's hard not to wonder what was going on in his head.
I do think this is overgeneralizing even for him—plenty of people are unafraid of solitude even if they don't like it, but I suspect it was so intense and pervasive for him that he couldn't think of it as anything but basic human nature.
The prince is like... well, ok, but at least there should be a clear Less Evil path, but even that's too optimistic for Imlac, who points out that it's so hard to distinguish good from evil that you can reach the end of your life without having figured it out. Rasselas thinks that wise men must have chosen the lives they thought would make them happy, and Imlac patiently explains that it's not all down to choice. Actually, I like this enough to quote directly:
Very few [...]live by choice. Every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did not always willingly cooperate
No lies detected tbh.
Rasselas is just grateful that his rank and birth give him the chance to make his choice without any of the troubles that other people have to deal with. Well... baby steps!
Ch 17
He decides he's going to go hang out with young men his own age. Though, hm, if he's 26 to start with, and then wasted ten months in imagining, and another four in blaming himself, and then there was the time spent carving their way out, and then the time spent at the first village and then the port and then the two years at Cairo... he's at least 30 by now. Which suggests that Johnson, and likely society in general at the time, saw late twenties/early thirties as young.
In your face, Tumblr.
But the young men's jokes are stupid, their enjoyments are sordid and mindless, their behaviour is mean-spirited and wild, and they're impressed by power but contemptuous of law (and embarrassed by wisdom). Rasselas decides he certainly couldn't be happy living like that, and specifically that it's not suitable for your happiness to depend entirely on chance; he thinks it should be "something solid and permanent."
Hilariously, he decides to monologue at his fratboy friends in the most pretentious way possible ("Let us consider that youth is of no long duration..."), and they just laugh at him. Only his conviction and his general good will keeps him from being humiliated, but he gets a hold of himself and figures he'll try another way.
Ch 18
Rasselas notices that a bunch of people are going to a hall to listen to a brilliant philosopher speak, and listens. The philosopher speaks eloquently of how happiness can be found by choosing reason over emotion, so that you're no longer subject to fear, hope, envy, anger, tenderness, or grief, but can face everything with patient, rational fortitude, with the conclusion that only this state is happiness, and that everyone can do it.
Rasselas is extremely impressed, and asks if he can visit this master of wisdom and hear his great thoughts. The philosopher is pretty much "..." until Rasselas dumps a sack of gold in his hand, which is his general approach to problem-solving at this point. The philosopher agrees, and he excitedly tells Imlac that he has found THE ONE, he can imitate the philosopher and voilà! happiness. Imlac is skeptical, with the sound remark that moralizing men "discourse like angels, but they live like men."
Rasselas doesn't understand how anyone could argue so brilliantly without having convinced themselves. So he goes to see the philosopher, isn't allowed in, bribes his way as usual, and finds the philosopher in utter misery. It turns out that his only daughter has died.
Rasselas doesn't get this, because obviously, everyone dies, so it's not like it's a surprise to such a rational person. Right?
Sweetie, no. No, no, no, no.
The philosopher's reply is genuinely heartbreaking:
What comfort ... can truth and reason afford me? Of what effect are they now, but to tell me that my daughter will not be restored?
Rasselas is still confused, but too soft-hearted to press him further, and goes home, realizing that rhetoric and eloquence can be "empty sound."
Important life lesson, I guess.
Ch 15
Rasselas, Nekayah and her lady's maid (who will turn out to be called Pekuah), and Imlac sneak out of the Happy Valley with a ton of jewels hidden in the royals' clothes. (Per Imlac's instructions. Someone has to think of these things!) Nekayah and Pekuah freak out a bit as they see the vastness of the world beyond the valley, and the possibility of being approached by strange men; Rasselas has the same fears, apart from the men, but "thought it more manly to conceal them." 'Kay.
Imlac has his hands full with Rasselas and Nekayah, because they're 1) poor oblivious kids and 2) obnoxious privileged royals, all at once. Rasselas expects everyone he meets to obey him, and Nekayah is nervous because people come near her without grovelling on the floor. So Imlac is constantly watching to make sure they don't betay themselves, and stops in a village to teach them Socialization 101, aka forget your rank, you're going to get what generosity and politeness gets you, and nothing else. He gets them prepared to endure the tumults of a ~~~port~~~, then takes them done. To their credit, Rasselas and Nekayah are thrilled by the port and happy to stay there, and Imlac thinks it's a good idea to keep there until they're ready to face a foreign country. Eventually he decides they should head out to Cairo, and they go along with whatever he suggests, though Nekayah is very leery of the ship.
Ch 16
Off to Cairo! They sell the jewels and get a super fancy house and everything nice, though Nekayah is so uncomfortable around commoners that she hides in her room with her maid.
(No misogyny here!)
Thankfully, only Imlac speaks the language, so the others can't accidentally betray themselves. Useful, since Nekayah and Pekuah are completely bewildered by the existence of money. They spend two years studying the language and social mores, and Rasselas starts accompanying Imlac to interesting places. He's thrilled because everyone seems laughing and happy, so obviously everyone in the world has everything they need and everyone is good-hearted. Imlac lets him believe this for awhile, until Rasselas gets troubled by the fact that these people can all be happy, but he can't. Imlac tells him that everyone puts on a show, and for at least a time is convinced that other people are really happy, which keeps alive the false hope of becoming happy. He says that all the cheerful people they spent the evening with seemed happy, but "believe me, prince, there was not one who did not dread the moment when solitude should deliver him to the tyranny of reflection."
Bolded because this was a HUGE deal with Johnson. He hated solitude and would stay as late as humanly possible with his friends and intellectual circles and whatnot just to avoid being alone with his thoughts. This is not my way (I'd be exhausted tbh), but I've definitely stuffed my head full of stories to avoid the brain weasels, so I ... do wonder about him. Not that I think his ideas (er, the philosophical ones) are illegitimate, but given that his two great fears were solitude and insanity, it's hard not to wonder what was going on in his head.
I do think this is overgeneralizing even for him—plenty of people are unafraid of solitude even if they don't like it, but I suspect it was so intense and pervasive for him that he couldn't think of it as anything but basic human nature.
The prince is like... well, ok, but at least there should be a clear Less Evil path, but even that's too optimistic for Imlac, who points out that it's so hard to distinguish good from evil that you can reach the end of your life without having figured it out. Rasselas thinks that wise men must have chosen the lives they thought would make them happy, and Imlac patiently explains that it's not all down to choice. Actually, I like this enough to quote directly:
Very few [...]live by choice. Every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did not always willingly cooperate
No lies detected tbh.
Rasselas is just grateful that his rank and birth give him the chance to make his choice without any of the troubles that other people have to deal with. Well... baby steps!
Ch 17
He decides he's going to go hang out with young men his own age. Though, hm, if he's 26 to start with, and then wasted ten months in imagining, and another four in blaming himself, and then there was the time spent carving their way out, and then the time spent at the first village and then the port and then the two years at Cairo... he's at least 30 by now. Which suggests that Johnson, and likely society in general at the time, saw late twenties/early thirties as young.
In your face, Tumblr.
But the young men's jokes are stupid, their enjoyments are sordid and mindless, their behaviour is mean-spirited and wild, and they're impressed by power but contemptuous of law (and embarrassed by wisdom). Rasselas decides he certainly couldn't be happy living like that, and specifically that it's not suitable for your happiness to depend entirely on chance; he thinks it should be "something solid and permanent."
Hilariously, he decides to monologue at his fratboy friends in the most pretentious way possible ("Let us consider that youth is of no long duration..."), and they just laugh at him. Only his conviction and his general good will keeps him from being humiliated, but he gets a hold of himself and figures he'll try another way.
Ch 18
Rasselas notices that a bunch of people are going to a hall to listen to a brilliant philosopher speak, and listens. The philosopher speaks eloquently of how happiness can be found by choosing reason over emotion, so that you're no longer subject to fear, hope, envy, anger, tenderness, or grief, but can face everything with patient, rational fortitude, with the conclusion that only this state is happiness, and that everyone can do it.
Rasselas is extremely impressed, and asks if he can visit this master of wisdom and hear his great thoughts. The philosopher is pretty much "..." until Rasselas dumps a sack of gold in his hand, which is his general approach to problem-solving at this point. The philosopher agrees, and he excitedly tells Imlac that he has found THE ONE, he can imitate the philosopher and voilà! happiness. Imlac is skeptical, with the sound remark that moralizing men "discourse like angels, but they live like men."
Rasselas doesn't understand how anyone could argue so brilliantly without having convinced themselves. So he goes to see the philosopher, isn't allowed in, bribes his way as usual, and finds the philosopher in utter misery. It turns out that his only daughter has died.
Rasselas doesn't get this, because obviously, everyone dies, so it's not like it's a surprise to such a rational person. Right?
Sweetie, no. No, no, no, no.
The philosopher's reply is genuinely heartbreaking:
What comfort ... can truth and reason afford me? Of what effect are they now, but to tell me that my daughter will not be restored?
Rasselas is still confused, but too soft-hearted to press him further, and goes home, realizing that rhetoric and eloquence can be "empty sound."
Important life lesson, I guess.