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Rasselas (Johnson: XIII)
Please be the last. Please, please, please. (Note from the future: it is!! Thank God.)
Continued from this.
Ch 45
They see an old man, and Rasselas thinks he might be a good person to ask—old enough to be cool-headed, but not crazypants. Maybe it's just youth that's awful, and they can look forward to happy old age :)
Um.
Anyway, they talk to the nice old man, and no, he's not happy either, because everyone he loves is dead, and the people he hated too, and praise means nothing, and there's so much he never got to do that he can't manage now, and work would be awful, and everywhere he looks, he just sees memories. But he has a clear conscience, so he tries to live calmly without wasting energy wishing for things that can never be.
He goes, "leaving his audience not much elated with the hope of long life." Heh. It's pretty much "The Vanity of Human Wishes" all over again.
Rasselas rationalizes that, well, everyone knows old people have it rough, and if you can be reasonably serene in old age, you should be able to find happiness in youth. (Erm.) Nekayah thinks old people are malevolent and enjoy discouraging the young. Pekuah thinks the old man might just be older than he seemed, or had an unusually rough go of it. Imlac just sort of smiles and lets them delude themselves; they'll learn the hard truth soon enough, and there's no point in depressing them now. And he remembers what it was like to be young! They're concerned about the mad astronomer, so they want to see him.
Ch 46
They figure out a way to get the women to the astronomer: Pekuah, with her bit of education in astronomy care of the Arab, can appeal to him as a student, with Nekayah as a companion to her. They go, he's delighted with Pekuah's knowledge, and society generally. They're able to draw him out of himself, though he never talks of his delusion, but to Imlac he's plainly growing saner. They tell him of their whole happiness quest, and he doesn't know the answer, but tells them that it sure as hell isn't his life. He's lost his chance at marriage, friendship, everything in pursuit of science, and isn't sure he's discovered anything valuable anyway. He eventually confides to Imlac that he's losing his certainty about the weather control thing.
Another heart-wrenching description:
I am like a man habitually afraid of spectres, who is set at ease by a lamp, and wonders at the dread which harassed him in the dark, yet, if his lamp be extinguished, feels again the terrors which he knows that when it is light he shall feel no more.
God. Yes.
Ch 47
The astronomer is understandably deeply relieved to be reassured by Imlac that his doubts about weather-controlling powers are quite reasonable, and concludes that he allowed chimeras to prey upon his peace. He hopes that he'll be completely recovered by participating in new and different things. The group considers what new thing they'll do, reflecting on the nature of novelty in the meanwhile. The monks at St Anthony's (the monastery where Pekuah was dropped off) seem calm and cheerful enough with their lives of self-denial and toil. Imlac praises the monks, and Nekayah asks if living virtuously in the world isn't as good, despite not flagellating yourself and having enjoyments.
Imlac thinks that's actually better in the moral sense—a daily choice of right rather than deliberate withdrawal from choice. However, there are people who aren't up to that for various reasons, and making the choice of a cloister is best in those cases.
It turns out that Pekuah has always wanted to go into a cloister. Who knew? Imlac remarks on "harmless pleasures" that yes, they're fine—the trouble is identifying which are harmless.
...Yeah.
They ask the astronomer if he has any ideas for today's novel thing, and he suggests the catacombs. Fun!
Ch 48
Oh, I remember this one. It's, uh. Okay.
They go to the catacombs, and wonder about the purpose of embalming bodies. Imlac's helpful remark is "for what reason did not dictate reason cannot explain." But they end up wondering what the Egyptians thought about the nature of the soul.
(Despite the framing device of this being a story of Ye Ancient Tymes passed down, all evidence is that this is happening in a fantasyland present rather than the past. A lot doesn't even make sense unless it's eighteenth century. There are some references to Europeans that I've kindly skipped over which really have to be right then.)
That takes them into a discussion of the soul itself, and whether it can actually be essentially physical, or must be immaterial. Imlac argues for immateriality based on the immateriality of thought; matter has no properties that can make it the source of abstractions like thought. The astronomer quite reasonably says that matter might have properties than they understand (*cheers*), but Imlac dismisses that. Nekayah and Rasselas are a bit out of their depth in the discussion of eternities and immateriality (Imlac argues that immaterial things are by nature eternal, because something that doesn't have composite parts obviously can't decompose), but Imlac explains patiently. He's wrong, but interestingly so.
Rasselas is like, well, this is depressing. Let's think on the brevity of mortal life and remember not to take too long making our choices. Nekayah: "To me...the choice of life is become less important; I hope hereafter to think only on the choice of eternity."
Sure, sweetie.
Ch 49
This chapter has my favourite title of them all: "The Conclusion, In Which Nothing Is Concluded."
It is exactly what it says on the tin.
So it's Nile flooding time and they're stuck inside, reflecting on their experiences. Pekuah's idea of happiness would be to join a convent with pious maidens and to run it all; she just wants stability. Nekayah wants knowledge; her idea of happiness is mastering the sciences and starting a university for female scholars, whom she could both teach and learn from, raising up a new generation of well-educated women. (I love her!!) Rasselas wants a small kingdom where he can personally govern everything, and keep an eye on everything and keep it just, but it keeps getting bigger as he thinks about it.
And I believe we have our Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherdor.
They know none of their dreams are realistic, and decide to go back to Abyssinia.
The end!
...Yep. "Nothing is concluded," indeed. What happens next? Do they set up somewhere in Abyssinia? Go back (*shudder*) to the Happy Valley? Enter the emperor's court? Have any plans for their actual lives at all?
???????????????
Continued from this.
Ch 45
They see an old man, and Rasselas thinks he might be a good person to ask—old enough to be cool-headed, but not crazypants. Maybe it's just youth that's awful, and they can look forward to happy old age :)
Um.
Anyway, they talk to the nice old man, and no, he's not happy either, because everyone he loves is dead, and the people he hated too, and praise means nothing, and there's so much he never got to do that he can't manage now, and work would be awful, and everywhere he looks, he just sees memories. But he has a clear conscience, so he tries to live calmly without wasting energy wishing for things that can never be.
He goes, "leaving his audience not much elated with the hope of long life." Heh. It's pretty much "The Vanity of Human Wishes" all over again.
Rasselas rationalizes that, well, everyone knows old people have it rough, and if you can be reasonably serene in old age, you should be able to find happiness in youth. (Erm.) Nekayah thinks old people are malevolent and enjoy discouraging the young. Pekuah thinks the old man might just be older than he seemed, or had an unusually rough go of it. Imlac just sort of smiles and lets them delude themselves; they'll learn the hard truth soon enough, and there's no point in depressing them now. And he remembers what it was like to be young! They're concerned about the mad astronomer, so they want to see him.
Ch 46
They figure out a way to get the women to the astronomer: Pekuah, with her bit of education in astronomy care of the Arab, can appeal to him as a student, with Nekayah as a companion to her. They go, he's delighted with Pekuah's knowledge, and society generally. They're able to draw him out of himself, though he never talks of his delusion, but to Imlac he's plainly growing saner. They tell him of their whole happiness quest, and he doesn't know the answer, but tells them that it sure as hell isn't his life. He's lost his chance at marriage, friendship, everything in pursuit of science, and isn't sure he's discovered anything valuable anyway. He eventually confides to Imlac that he's losing his certainty about the weather control thing.
Another heart-wrenching description:
I am like a man habitually afraid of spectres, who is set at ease by a lamp, and wonders at the dread which harassed him in the dark, yet, if his lamp be extinguished, feels again the terrors which he knows that when it is light he shall feel no more.
God. Yes.
Ch 47
The astronomer is understandably deeply relieved to be reassured by Imlac that his doubts about weather-controlling powers are quite reasonable, and concludes that he allowed chimeras to prey upon his peace. He hopes that he'll be completely recovered by participating in new and different things. The group considers what new thing they'll do, reflecting on the nature of novelty in the meanwhile. The monks at St Anthony's (the monastery where Pekuah was dropped off) seem calm and cheerful enough with their lives of self-denial and toil. Imlac praises the monks, and Nekayah asks if living virtuously in the world isn't as good, despite not flagellating yourself and having enjoyments.
Imlac thinks that's actually better in the moral sense—a daily choice of right rather than deliberate withdrawal from choice. However, there are people who aren't up to that for various reasons, and making the choice of a cloister is best in those cases.
It turns out that Pekuah has always wanted to go into a cloister. Who knew? Imlac remarks on "harmless pleasures" that yes, they're fine—the trouble is identifying which are harmless.
...Yeah.
They ask the astronomer if he has any ideas for today's novel thing, and he suggests the catacombs. Fun!
Ch 48
Oh, I remember this one. It's, uh. Okay.
They go to the catacombs, and wonder about the purpose of embalming bodies. Imlac's helpful remark is "for what reason did not dictate reason cannot explain." But they end up wondering what the Egyptians thought about the nature of the soul.
(Despite the framing device of this being a story of Ye Ancient Tymes passed down, all evidence is that this is happening in a fantasyland present rather than the past. A lot doesn't even make sense unless it's eighteenth century. There are some references to Europeans that I've kindly skipped over which really have to be right then.)
That takes them into a discussion of the soul itself, and whether it can actually be essentially physical, or must be immaterial. Imlac argues for immateriality based on the immateriality of thought; matter has no properties that can make it the source of abstractions like thought. The astronomer quite reasonably says that matter might have properties than they understand (*cheers*), but Imlac dismisses that. Nekayah and Rasselas are a bit out of their depth in the discussion of eternities and immateriality (Imlac argues that immaterial things are by nature eternal, because something that doesn't have composite parts obviously can't decompose), but Imlac explains patiently. He's wrong, but interestingly so.
Rasselas is like, well, this is depressing. Let's think on the brevity of mortal life and remember not to take too long making our choices. Nekayah: "To me...the choice of life is become less important; I hope hereafter to think only on the choice of eternity."
Sure, sweetie.
Ch 49
This chapter has my favourite title of them all: "The Conclusion, In Which Nothing Is Concluded."
It is exactly what it says on the tin.
So it's Nile flooding time and they're stuck inside, reflecting on their experiences. Pekuah's idea of happiness would be to join a convent with pious maidens and to run it all; she just wants stability. Nekayah wants knowledge; her idea of happiness is mastering the sciences and starting a university for female scholars, whom she could both teach and learn from, raising up a new generation of well-educated women. (I love her!!) Rasselas wants a small kingdom where he can personally govern everything, and keep an eye on everything and keep it just, but it keeps getting bigger as he thinks about it.
And I believe we have our Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherdor.
They know none of their dreams are realistic, and decide to go back to Abyssinia.
The end!
...Yep. "Nothing is concluded," indeed. What happens next? Do they set up somewhere in Abyssinia? Go back (*shudder*) to the Happy Valley? Enter the emperor's court? Have any plans for their actual lives at all?
???????????????