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Rasselas (Johnson: VII)
THE AUSTEN CONNECTION AT LAST!
Continued from here.
Ch 23:
Rasselas' current thought process is that ok, geniuses and ignorant people alike have no clue, but I'm young, I have time, I'll figure it out. Imlac is discouraging, so Rasselas is like ... FINE, I'll just talk to Nekayah then, she UNDERSTANDS me.
Nekayah points out that, although they were royalty, they had no actual power and know approximately nothing of how people live at home—maybe that's where happiness is found. (A lot of people have sure said so.) Rasselas should go to the courts to see how the great live among themselves, and she'll go among the middle classes, and they'll see which group has real happiness.
Ch 24:
Rasselas decks himself out Prince Ali-style, with the bonus of actually being a prince and knowing how to act like one, and goes to the court of the Pasha. This man is enormously respected and honoured and powerful, and Rasselas thinks he must be superbly happy to know that good administration is positively affecting the lives of thousands of people. But he quickly finds that the courtiers are constantly jostling for position and all hate each other, are involved in general shenanigans at all times, and the people nearest the Pasha and spying on him.
Then he somehow or another earns the disapproval of the Sultan and is carried off in chains, and Rasselas reports to Nekayah that, well, that's plainly not it. He wonders if perhaps it's only high-up subordinates who are miserable the way the Pasha was, and the Sultan himself is happy... then the second Pasha is deposed, because the Sultan got murdered by the janissaries.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ch 25:
Meanwhile, Nekayah goes among the middle-class types. The girls are cheerful, but also prattling, foolish, artificial, petty, jealous, fickle, and so on. Her affability gets her the confidence of the girls, who share all their secrets, and Nekayah is like... seriously? Are these people for real?
She monologues at the Nile, one-upping Rasselas' monologue at the gate (truly, they are family), asking if it hears a SINGLE HOUSE WHERE PEOPLE AREN'T COMPLAINING, OH MY GOD MAKE IT STOP
Rasselas: ...I get the feeling you weren't any more successful.
Nekayah says that she went into the families that seemed prosperous, because she figured that poor people have reason to be unhappy (fair enough). But it turns out that plenty of middle-class people are also poor behind the conspicuous consumption, scraping by with temporary measures, which just makes them miserable. And Nekayah was like, well, that sucks, but at least it's something I can fix! Lo, struggling people, have my money! I have so much money, you have no idea.
Yeah, this didn't go over well much of the time, particularly by people who are trying to hide their struggles in the first place. Others are so desperate that they had to accept, but resented her. Some actually were grateful, though, and not grovelling or pushy about it.
This is the end of the chapter. *squints suspiciously*
Ch 26:
...but whether rich or poor, families are always fighting. People speak of nations as big families, but it goes the other way around: families are like tiny kingdoms, "torn with factions and exposed to revolutions."
That's kind of a great analogy.
You'd expect parents and children would always love each other as in early childhood, but nope. Children grow up quickly and become envious rivals to their parents; parents and children never agree, the children fight for parental favouritism, and parents use children against each other in their ongoing struggles with each other, the children takes sides, and it's all a nightmare.
This is an amazingly vivid and, well, not particularly dated depiction of family dysfunction tbh.
Even when nobody does anything wrong, older and younger people naturally look at things differently, the old soured by experience, the young hopeful but naive. (...Do you hear yourself, Nekayah?)
Older men, after lives of struggle, trust in incremental change and are concerned with money. Young ones are sure they can change everything by vigour and genius, and concerned with moral purity. (*cough*)
Rasselas thinks that maybe she just chose really awful families. Nekayah says that dysfunction is not inevitable, but is really hard to avoid. The problem is that you're not generally going to get families entirely composed of good people, and the other ones cause problems, or they are good but in different and contradictory ways, "tending to extremes." (*COUGH*) Really good parents tend to be respected, however.
However, there are also other problems, because of course there are. Like, some people have trusted their servants, and are consequently blackmailed or in fear of them. Some are always fretting about rich relatives who can never be pleased, but they don't dare offend. She adds, "Some husbands are imperious, and some wives perverse."
Interesting counterparts there, lol.
And it's just easier to be evil. Clearly, Nekayah is a ray of sunshine.
At this point, Rasselas is like... maybe I just won't ever marry. If people are that shitty, you can make all the right choices, and still be miserable because of your spouse.
Nope, that doesn't work either. Nekayah goes on this kind of hilarious rant about how miserable single people are because they're not getting any. It "fills their minds with rancor, and their tongues with censure. They are peevish at home, and malevolent abroad."
I'd be insulted, but I'm kind of charmed tbh. Also ... they? Does that mean she has a lover? I'd lay odds on Pekuah.
However, she also gets into other parts of marriage they miss out on—companionship, solidarity, exclusion. Honestly, I've felt that. I try not to be bitter at my married friends for whom other people are always a second thought, but y'know. It can be rough. MAYBE I AM MALEVOLENT ABROAD.
She concludes with the famous line that began all this: "Marriage has many pains, but celibacy can have no pleasures."
Honestly kind of amused that Austen, celibate single lady, used this line as her analogy for how Fanny had it rough at Mansfield, but at least she had some good times, whereas Portsmouth is just unrelenting blah. I mean—bless you, Austen, and your cheerful appropriation of this depressing proto-novel thing.
Continued from here.
Ch 23:
Rasselas' current thought process is that ok, geniuses and ignorant people alike have no clue, but I'm young, I have time, I'll figure it out. Imlac is discouraging, so Rasselas is like ... FINE, I'll just talk to Nekayah then, she UNDERSTANDS me.
Nekayah points out that, although they were royalty, they had no actual power and know approximately nothing of how people live at home—maybe that's where happiness is found. (A lot of people have sure said so.) Rasselas should go to the courts to see how the great live among themselves, and she'll go among the middle classes, and they'll see which group has real happiness.
Ch 24:
Rasselas decks himself out Prince Ali-style, with the bonus of actually being a prince and knowing how to act like one, and goes to the court of the Pasha. This man is enormously respected and honoured and powerful, and Rasselas thinks he must be superbly happy to know that good administration is positively affecting the lives of thousands of people. But he quickly finds that the courtiers are constantly jostling for position and all hate each other, are involved in general shenanigans at all times, and the people nearest the Pasha and spying on him.
Then he somehow or another earns the disapproval of the Sultan and is carried off in chains, and Rasselas reports to Nekayah that, well, that's plainly not it. He wonders if perhaps it's only high-up subordinates who are miserable the way the Pasha was, and the Sultan himself is happy... then the second Pasha is deposed, because the Sultan got murdered by the janissaries.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ch 25:
Meanwhile, Nekayah goes among the middle-class types. The girls are cheerful, but also prattling, foolish, artificial, petty, jealous, fickle, and so on. Her affability gets her the confidence of the girls, who share all their secrets, and Nekayah is like... seriously? Are these people for real?
She monologues at the Nile, one-upping Rasselas' monologue at the gate (truly, they are family), asking if it hears a SINGLE HOUSE WHERE PEOPLE AREN'T COMPLAINING, OH MY GOD MAKE IT STOP
Rasselas: ...I get the feeling you weren't any more successful.
Nekayah says that she went into the families that seemed prosperous, because she figured that poor people have reason to be unhappy (fair enough). But it turns out that plenty of middle-class people are also poor behind the conspicuous consumption, scraping by with temporary measures, which just makes them miserable. And Nekayah was like, well, that sucks, but at least it's something I can fix! Lo, struggling people, have my money! I have so much money, you have no idea.
Yeah, this didn't go over well much of the time, particularly by people who are trying to hide their struggles in the first place. Others are so desperate that they had to accept, but resented her. Some actually were grateful, though, and not grovelling or pushy about it.
This is the end of the chapter. *squints suspiciously*
Ch 26:
...but whether rich or poor, families are always fighting. People speak of nations as big families, but it goes the other way around: families are like tiny kingdoms, "torn with factions and exposed to revolutions."
That's kind of a great analogy.
You'd expect parents and children would always love each other as in early childhood, but nope. Children grow up quickly and become envious rivals to their parents; parents and children never agree, the children fight for parental favouritism, and parents use children against each other in their ongoing struggles with each other, the children takes sides, and it's all a nightmare.
This is an amazingly vivid and, well, not particularly dated depiction of family dysfunction tbh.
Even when nobody does anything wrong, older and younger people naturally look at things differently, the old soured by experience, the young hopeful but naive. (...Do you hear yourself, Nekayah?)
Older men, after lives of struggle, trust in incremental change and are concerned with money. Young ones are sure they can change everything by vigour and genius, and concerned with moral purity. (*cough*)
Rasselas thinks that maybe she just chose really awful families. Nekayah says that dysfunction is not inevitable, but is really hard to avoid. The problem is that you're not generally going to get families entirely composed of good people, and the other ones cause problems, or they are good but in different and contradictory ways, "tending to extremes." (*COUGH*) Really good parents tend to be respected, however.
However, there are also other problems, because of course there are. Like, some people have trusted their servants, and are consequently blackmailed or in fear of them. Some are always fretting about rich relatives who can never be pleased, but they don't dare offend. She adds, "Some husbands are imperious, and some wives perverse."
Interesting counterparts there, lol.
And it's just easier to be evil. Clearly, Nekayah is a ray of sunshine.
At this point, Rasselas is like... maybe I just won't ever marry. If people are that shitty, you can make all the right choices, and still be miserable because of your spouse.
Nope, that doesn't work either. Nekayah goes on this kind of hilarious rant about how miserable single people are because they're not getting any. It "fills their minds with rancor, and their tongues with censure. They are peevish at home, and malevolent abroad."
I'd be insulted, but I'm kind of charmed tbh. Also ... they? Does that mean she has a lover? I'd lay odds on Pekuah.
However, she also gets into other parts of marriage they miss out on—companionship, solidarity, exclusion. Honestly, I've felt that. I try not to be bitter at my married friends for whom other people are always a second thought, but y'know. It can be rough. MAYBE I AM MALEVOLENT ABROAD.
She concludes with the famous line that began all this: "Marriage has many pains, but celibacy can have no pleasures."
Honestly kind of amused that Austen, celibate single lady, used this line as her analogy for how Fanny had it rough at Mansfield, but at least she had some good times, whereas Portsmouth is just unrelenting blah. I mean—bless you, Austen, and your cheerful appropriation of this depressing proto-novel thing.