Commonplace 30 George & Rene Magritte - They Never Met Until Today.
Magritte 's pictures often remind me of George - or aspects of him. Magritte was prolific and one of the most influential twentieth century artists, especially for the worlds of graphics and advertising. Everywhere there are homages to his vision. Go to http://www.musee-magritte-museum.be/Typo3/ to find out more.
Not in chronological order we have:
Time Transfixed 1938. The classic Surrealist image, the train in the fireplace is that paradox at the heart of the absurd: two items that should not be together existing together. Magritte tiptoes between the playful exuberance of Dada and the knowing slickness of Surrealism. Here, we might have George, pondering his future with Gabrielle. His declining health (time/the clock) will be stopped in its tracks by the effects on his manhood (the train) of finding a loving destination in Gabrielle's warm female parts (the fireplace).
L'Homme Au Chapeau Melon 1964. George hated the thought of war, though it seems unclear what war and why. For someone so obsessed with a violent, belligerent, acquisitive people - the Romans - he viewed empire-building in a very poor light. As much as he railed against 'progress' especially science and technology, he seemed to forget all ages have benefited from science. The Romans were mad for it, after all, and gave us all those great inventions - flushing toilets, central heating and opus caementicium. Where would Maximus Decimus Meridius have been without opus caementicium I ask?
Olympia 1948. One of the odd things about Magritte is, the pictures look technically bad when you view them as reproductions, but when you see them in the flesh (so to speak) they are extremely proficient and weirdly perfect. Here we have a variation of Pandora's box. The shell is her box. Women are mysterious destroying angels to some men. Men are rapacious murdering rapists to some women. Is there a middle path? Pandora's Box as womb of the world - all the evils (mankind) issue from here. Not strictly her fault of course - she was set up by the gods which is why she was not punished for peeking in that container. George had an ongoing debate with himself over the English divorce laws - New Grub Street's Amy is a good example of a character mouthing his own ideas and arguments. Was his participation in the Emancipation debate nothing more than a ploy to spawn a call for a revised set of divorce laws? It seems hard to resign oneself to the notion that the world then, as now, is set up to favour men economically, socially, politically, and the price men pay for these freedoms is to have women and children dependent on them, yet most men resent this and regard their dependents as leeches and liabilities.
The Reckless Sleeper 1928. George had terrible problems sleeping throughout his adult life. Little was known in the nineteenth century about the need for adequate refreshing sleep - we now know, for example, one of the causes of obesity is inadequate sleep. One insidious complication of sleep deprivation is anhedonia - the inability to feel pleasure. Unsmiley face syndrome (I made that up, don't google it) affected George from time to time and he remarked that few things gave him real pleasure. Ryecroft is one long drawn out textual version of unsmiley face syndrome - at least, that's what it feels like to me.
The Giantess 1929. Tiny man takes on the might of 'Woman'. She is the normal one here, he the Incredible Shrinking Man (remember that fab film? Now, that was Surreal! take a look at the last scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp3iHjGBfT4 George felt his power beginning to ebb away from his early thirties - as Roy Batty gets told in 'Blade Runner': 'The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long'.
The Great War 1964. George and Mrs Gaussen - did he make a move on her and was he rejected? Did she make a move on him and disgust him? He went off her pretty fast. A man scorned... and a man unmanned... George was often so dismissive of the women he knew who would have made perfectly suitable wives - that is, they would have maintained the upper hand and not entertained his hysterical shenanigans - I mean the true hysteria of the somatic disorder form, not silly tantrums. George would have worshipped a dominant female to take him on and shape his desires. He chose less powerful women for the opposite reason - so that those desires never raised their beautiful/ugly heads. Strong women like his mother were both an aphrodisiac and an inhibitor to his libidinous self that brought conflict and impotence. He both feared and worshipped the maternal as much as the Magdalene, in woman. It was desire: satisfied that got him into so much trouble at Owens, the one time in his life he gave himself up to it, only to be punished and rejected for it.
Sebastopol by Leo Tolstoy”
― Leo Tolstoy, Sebastopol in December
The Threatened Assassin 1926.A much creepier sight in the flesh as it is quite large.
It's all here - the bare boards are George's brief stint with self-inflicted poverty; the three men are the phases of George's life with his wives. Centre: Marianne. He gazes into her beautiful intimate parts for the sweet joy of love music. Left: Edith. Brandishing the male weapon of dominance over her - the phallus and the cudgel. Right: Gabrielle. He is equipped with the net to capture her by stealth and persistence. In the faraway scene: the mountains are both bringers of joy and death. The snow looks like the sheet coverings Magritte used on The Lovers - is this the white sheet/George gazing down on the dark sheet/Marianne's corpse as she lays beneath the shroud of the lower white peak? The suitcase: George eternally on the move like a sea creature washed by the tide. When a storm hit, he uprooted and relocated. Did ever a man take so many holidays? Trouble was, wherever he went, he had to take himself along. The coat and hat: needed for all those tramps around in search of material for novels and to keep his feet warm. Was ever a man as dedicated to being on the move? The three men watching: the three Gissing boys. George looked after Algernon from filial duty and, perhaps, to compensate his brother for sullying the good name of the Gissings which might have impacted on Alg's self-confidence and work prospects. George must have missed William, his Samuel Smiles-inspired unconditionally supportive younger brother who always had good if not revolutionary advice to offer. The gramophone represents George's love of music and the sex of women. The table is the cheap deal one he wrote 'Workers' on, back in the good old days of his life. It was a very clear sign aspirations towards bohemia were over the day he bought a writing block in the early Exeter days of his marriage to Edith. Step back and the two men either side of the tableaux wait in ambush for young George, stood innocently thinking life is going to be all aesthetics and lady love... his future lives will kidnap him and turn him into one of them. To the left is Life and the way it beats you down; to the right, the entrapments that stop us from being free (if we let them). Or are these two the detectives at Owens waiting to spring their trap? The dead woman, the victim of the crime: George never stopped loving Marianne. His treatment of her may have been, for some Gissing fans (not me) understandable but that doesn't make them acceptable. I think more than any other aspect, it was guilt for what he did to Marianne that kept him plugging away at the writing - to vindicate his actions and to reassure himself that sacrificing her had been for Art, not for his own selfish reasons. Part of his life's anguish was the insight that his not quite Titanic genius did not warrant such a move - the end did not justify the means after all. Ryecroft is contrived wishful thinking - not the wee house in the country and the income bit but the fantasy that his life had been harmless: the spin version of his less than heroic Life.
The Treason of the Pictures (This is Not a Pipe) 1928. As they always tell you at Art school - no, it's a representation of a pipe. George was a committed pipe man but was not averse to cigars and cigarettes. His characters can be divided into pipe vs cigar men, with pipes being honest, reliable and earthy; cigars being relaxed, urbane and more outward-going. George was fascinated by women who smoked and young female tobacconists represented a fetish combined with a fetish-once-removed? Oral fixation or just a means to smoke tobacco?
Rape 1945. This painted hair looks like George's lovely locks. George was obsessed with hair. All his woman are defined by their hair and how they wear it. In New Grub Street we know Marian Yule is doomed to spinsterhood on account of her short hair. Amy Reardon is thus described: The hue of her hair was ruddy gold; loosely arranged tresses made a superb crown to the beauty of her small, refined head. Marian 0 - Amy 2. Very early on in their relationship(day 2?) George commented on how excited he was when Gabrielle returned after freshening up with her hair looking rearranged and beautiful. Gabrielle adds the comment that all she had done was remove her hat. Within weeks of them meeting George sends a lock of his hair and asked for one of hers that he then claims gives off a lovely perfume. And let us not forget he took a lock of Marianne's hair at the death scene. George, balding, would have been a very different man.
Still Life 1963. Is this a representation of the female genitals? Is that tree her pubic hair? A slight frisson of fear permeates the scene. When mentioning the terrible to-do over John Ruskin's divorce from Effie Gray, George explained it simply in terms of them being incompatible, though he must have heard the rumours. Considering how simple would have been the remedy if those rumours had been true... no doubt George was right.
The Pebble 1948. Another woman graduates from Sex Objectification school. George once returned from a dinner at JM Barrie's to marvel at how such a suave and beautiful woman as Mrs Barrie could be married to such a lightweight (and JM was just over 5 feet tall and balding). This tells us much more about George than it reveals about Mrs and Mr Barrie, doesn't it? His own concept of the 'trophy' wife makes it clear how George objectified women - something easier to deny if you concentrate on his imaginary female characters. His unrealistically specific standards crashed to the ground when he realised time was running out. Would Gabrielle have passed muster ten years earlier? George did not live long enough to see the dreadful falling out of Mr and Mrs Barrie, when Peter Pan's father dragged his wife through the divorce courts for his wife's infidelity. Now, if George had just made a move on her when he had the chance...
To find out more about Magritte go to:
http://www.mattesonart.com/1926-1930-surrealism-paris-years.aspx
Not in chronological order we have:
Homesickness 1940. After America, the inhibitive fear of metaphorically soiling his own back yard made sure the life of a small town pen-pusher or teacher was not for George. How could he grow within Wakefield's tight confines after the Owens debacle? Yet again we turn to Morrissey: 'Every day is like Sunday - every day is silent and grey... come, come Armageddon, come'.
The Tomb of the Wrestlers 1960.
This is how George liked his women - indoors and beautifully available; exhibits, not real people. He tended to keep his female characters in similar confines. Ida Starr, the most 'modern' of his heroines, had to be locked up in a cell in order to become acceptable and win her man. I loved that girl from the off when she threw that slate! But to degrade her from the unique, special creature she starts out as by subjecting her to the self-recrimination, unfair punishment and ritual humiliation inflicted on her by our man's cruel pen, shows just how George (not for the only time with Ida) punishes the women of his dreams. Just as he was penalised for his sexual desires, he punishes any character who feels anything below the belt - particularly the women.
The Lovers I 1928. George would have married a lamp post if he thought he could have sex with it and it would run a tight ship below stairs. Relationships are lucky dips with consequences, but the aim is to shorten the odds not lengthen them - hence the period of courtship. With no chance of an in-depth reconnoitring of the terrain except for boats rides, Tennyson readings, elocution lessons, and the joys of frugal dining, Edith was never really in a strong position to make an adequate assessment of our man's marriageability. If Edith had insisted on the old practice of 'bundling' she would have been able to test drive George before marriage and then got out whilst the getting was good. One night would have sorted it.
The Wonders of Nature 1953. George went to America to start a new life, but I feel sure he had no intentions of staying there a moment longer than he had to. Of course Marianne gets the blame for him returning, but he hated America and the ordeal of it. If there wasn't enough money for her fare, and he hated it in the States, it was better for him to return. One wonders what would have become of both George and Marianne aka Nell if the reception in Wakefield had been better.
The Son of Man 1967. George told Gabrielle he was a mixture of bourgeois and bohemian. He didn't furnish the specs, but I suspect it was always 99% bourgeois. What might have passed for 1890s street cred was negligible and built on such flimsy footings the whole house collapsed pretty quickly in the face of a seducing challenge like fancy dinners and hobnobbing with Fred Harrison. George liked theories and ideas but realties dragged him down.
The Balcony 1950. George's three wives. Is that his mother lurking in the background, or the idealised 'woman' of his deepest fantasies - always judging him, preventing him from being free? George was very hard on New Grub Street's Amy Reardon for her lack of support for Edwin's work. Writing is a metaphor for masculine sexuality; Amy doesn't realise this, and Edwin doesn't tell her - maybe he doesn't know himself as we are pre-psychoanalysis. His performance anxiety undermines any work he attempts and in the end fear of failure produces writer's block. Maybe he didn't want to succeed.
“Let fear once get possession of the soul, and it does not readily yield its place to another sentiment.Sebastopol by Leo Tolstoy”
― Leo Tolstoy, Sebastopol in December
It's all here - the bare boards are George's brief stint with self-inflicted poverty; the three men are the phases of George's life with his wives. Centre: Marianne. He gazes into her beautiful intimate parts for the sweet joy of love music. Left: Edith. Brandishing the male weapon of dominance over her - the phallus and the cudgel. Right: Gabrielle. He is equipped with the net to capture her by stealth and persistence. In the faraway scene: the mountains are both bringers of joy and death. The snow looks like the sheet coverings Magritte used on The Lovers - is this the white sheet/George gazing down on the dark sheet/Marianne's corpse as she lays beneath the shroud of the lower white peak? The suitcase: George eternally on the move like a sea creature washed by the tide. When a storm hit, he uprooted and relocated. Did ever a man take so many holidays? Trouble was, wherever he went, he had to take himself along. The coat and hat: needed for all those tramps around in search of material for novels and to keep his feet warm. Was ever a man as dedicated to being on the move? The three men watching: the three Gissing boys. George looked after Algernon from filial duty and, perhaps, to compensate his brother for sullying the good name of the Gissings which might have impacted on Alg's self-confidence and work prospects. George must have missed William, his Samuel Smiles-inspired unconditionally supportive younger brother who always had good if not revolutionary advice to offer. The gramophone represents George's love of music and the sex of women. The table is the cheap deal one he wrote 'Workers' on, back in the good old days of his life. It was a very clear sign aspirations towards bohemia were over the day he bought a writing block in the early Exeter days of his marriage to Edith. Step back and the two men either side of the tableaux wait in ambush for young George, stood innocently thinking life is going to be all aesthetics and lady love... his future lives will kidnap him and turn him into one of them. To the left is Life and the way it beats you down; to the right, the entrapments that stop us from being free (if we let them). Or are these two the detectives at Owens waiting to spring their trap? The dead woman, the victim of the crime: George never stopped loving Marianne. His treatment of her may have been, for some Gissing fans (not me) understandable but that doesn't make them acceptable. I think more than any other aspect, it was guilt for what he did to Marianne that kept him plugging away at the writing - to vindicate his actions and to reassure himself that sacrificing her had been for Art, not for his own selfish reasons. Part of his life's anguish was the insight that his not quite Titanic genius did not warrant such a move - the end did not justify the means after all. Ryecroft is contrived wishful thinking - not the wee house in the country and the income bit but the fantasy that his life had been harmless: the spin version of his less than heroic Life.
Philosophy Of the Bedroom 1947. We know from his attitude to Edith and Gabrielle that George employed an unsubtle approach to courting. Unrelenting, may be a better term. I suspect his approach to trapping Marianne was exactly the same. By possessing extraordinary determination, George had demonstrated to himself that sheer force of will wins the day. With his superior firepower in linguistics, his ability to manipulate others to his bidding (the weak person's skillset) an arsenal of Romantic poetry, funds (!), good-looks, clean habits (except for the smoking, drinking, lady chasing and whatever else he tried at Owens), the absolute certainty he knew what was best for her, topped of with the way he would fix her with his baby-blue needy puppy gaze - how could Marianne resist? Even when he changed her name to Nell... A woman responds to attention, to the masculine gaze. He entraps her by promising he will always be there for her, to protect and shelter her from life's storm.
Not to be Reproduced aka Reproduction Prohibited (Portrait of Edward James) 1937. It always makes me think of George looking for himself and never finding himself. The book on the mantelpiece is The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe. Weirdly, the story outline reads just like the love child of an HG Wells/Morley Roberts tale with added Poe insane magic: A sailor on a whaling ship goes voyaging, gets involved in misadventures like shipwrecks and cannibalism and ends up discussing the Hollow Earth theory with some people of colour. Considered seminal but even for its time, racist. Edward James, of course, is the Edward James - fan of Surrealism, writer, metaphysician.
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The Castle in the Pyrenees 1959. George believed (because someone told him) high altitudes and dry air would help his phthisis - that was why he planned to live in Switzerland when he finally left England for good and all to live with Gabrielle. He crossed the Pyrenees to visit Spain for a holiday with her. It was after a walk in mountains that he finally succumbed to whatever it was that did for him.
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http://www.mattesonart.com/1926-1930-surrealism-paris-years.aspx
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