Dear J-
Well, not much faster over the past few days; at the miserly rate of one percent per day, I’m staring down another ninety-some days of this. Thankfully, things are starting to pick up.
- Telescopic Philanthropy
- A Morning Adventure
- Quite at Home
Progress: 9%
Our intrepid band of three stops for the night at the Jellybys before setting off; if you didn’t know it, you might have mistaken the Jellyby household for the eponymous Bleak House. There’s an indeterminate number of children, and the mother appears to care too much about her African coffee project to be bothered enough to raise them, pressing the eldest daughter into scribe service for letters to Africa.
Upon escaping the house the following morning, they take a walk around the neighborhood and run into the curious old lady and her landlord, the inaptly named Krook (he’s a buyer of unwanted junk; you have to wonder about his business acumen — even the mad old lady considers him mad). Yet for the delicious hint that he has been nicknamed the Lord Chancellor of his shop, Chancery, this chapter starts to show off Dickens’ feelings for bureaucracy:
“You see, I have so many things here,” he resumed, holding up the lantern, “of so many kinds, and all as the neighbours think (but THEY know nothing), wasting away and going to rack and ruin, that that’s why they have given me and my place a christening. And I have so many old parchmentses and papers in my stock. And I have a liking for rust and must and cobwebs. And all’s fish that comes to my net. And I can’t abear to part with anything I once lay hold of (or so my neighbours think, but what do THEY know?) or to alter anything, or to have any sweeping, nor scouring, nor cleaning, nor repairing going on about me. That’s the way I’ve got the ill name of Chancery. I don’t mind.”
Junior notes that Dickens has clearly established Esther’s sympathetic nature — and yes, I thought the burial of her sole companion, Dolly, prior to leaving the grim clutches of Miss Rachel, a particularly brilliant touch — yet for all the revelation of Esther’s character, we don’t know much about her companions, Richard and Ada, other than that they are some kin to each other and the mysterious Jarndyce. We learn that he’s uncomfortable with praise, preferring to duck out rather than hear one more hosanna heaped on his head. And finally, we are given a tour of Bleak House, where our Esther — Cinderella — will now work off the obligation incurred through her tutelage as a governess.
It’s the newest character who holds my interest, though; Mr. Skimpole was described as a child, and yet it’s only when he starts to talk that we understand his innocence is not the product of immaturity, but in finding his ascetic state of acceptance without envy. Or is Dickens reflecting on the worry-free life of a child? No pressures of money, no schedules, free to be in the moment and not fret over the future; pursuing only the things that make you happy without flinching. The child in Skimpole isn’t all wide-eyed innocence and light, though; in the same breath, Dickens shows why we can’t live as children forever. Skimpole just can’t seem to learn from his mistakes, forever in debt, forever staying just one step ahead of the collectors. Until we begin to accept responsibility for the things we do, we’re doomed to repeat our actions, Sisyphus rolling up an endless hill. Just as we can’t be forever Jellyby-eyed on the outside world to the exclusion of those closest to us, Dickens reminds us — perhaps not so gently with such blatant examples — that the ideal lies in moderation. Again, I’m surprised by Dickens’ modern sensibilities, or perhaps some advice is merely timeless.
Mike
Tags: bleak house, dickens, nanoremo
Dear J- 
15 November 2008 at 9:44 pm |
Interesting, your reaction to Skimpole; I gather you basically take him at face value. My own impulse was to be immediately suspicious of him as manipulative and phony – one who preaches basically a hippie ideal, but whose eye is very capable of focussing upon the path to material satisfaction.
I was literally laughing out loud during the segment at the Jellybys where one of the children (Peepy?) was comically bouncing down a flight of stairs.
Excellent summary; I’m not sure I would have picked up on the exact relationship between Esther and the Jarndyce wards if you hadn’t pointed out that she is engaged to work as a governess. I don’t know how I miss stuff like that, but I do!
16 November 2008 at 7:38 pm |
I’ll come back to “pages” I’d read a few hours ago and end up having to turn back a few screens, just so I can catch the drift of what’s going on again.
Skimpole’s another one of the character lessons, isn’t he? Unrepentant, unabashed, he goes and seeks help from a steady stream of new victims — er, charitable souls. There’s a lot of people exposed in ways they didn’t expect.