Sarah, because my own lag has led me to read Clarissa not-quite-in-real-time, I've only just gotten through this segment and read your piece and I LOVE situating the novel's climactic act of violence at the peak of midsummer madness, as well as alongside the violent kidnapping and rape at the heart of A Midsummer Night's Dream - which opens, after all, with the planning of a marriage at knife-point - "Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword, and won thy love doing thee injury" - alongside a father trying to coerce a daughter into marrying against her will, prompting her to put herself in peril while running away with another man. Wow, wow, just wow! Disorderly desire all over the place - what a gorgeously dense array of intertextual threads in play. Also, since I love Terry Castle and love procrastination even more, I've just downloaded her article on Lovelace's Dream - the title itself is lure enough (and suggests some of the impossible reasoning of Bottom's own dream - kettle logic?). I wish I'd been enough on top of my game to have *actually* read this at Midsummer, but better late than never!
(Unrelated, I've never been to Swedish Colony nor had I ever heard of it before, but having grown up in Maine - Blue Hill - I find this topical reference fascinating in and of itself!)
Thought I had left a comment fully weeks ago about 1) reading Jung and Freud alongside Clarissa, which I’ve been doing for another project; 2) a note about having lived in a deeply Scandinavian community in Wisconsin for three years (Ephraim, specifically, within the very Scandinavian Door County); 3) my deep ambivalence about MND even after spending an entire summer wrestling with it at the Folger Library—but realized I never actually did.
Until I can recollect all the brilliant thoughts I had then, suffice to say: loved this post. Thoughtful and seasonally appropriate, which is one of the great gifts of reading this text as we move through the year.
What a gorgeous, haunting, spot-on commentary! You know, when I read the description of the 'dream' I assumed it was Lovelace being arch about his plans, pretending he'd spontaneously just dreamed them. It hadn't occurred to me that maybe he HAD actually dreamed them. But the conflicted nature of the dream you describe so well here really does characterize post-rape Lovelace perfectly: he wants all sorts of mutually incompatible things, he's falling apart, like a top spinning out of control, incoherently emitting random plots and hopes and tears and vows and threats and regrets as he staggers around. You've made me think that his psychological disintegration is a dream logic - he is, as they say, living the dream - but not in a good way.
I must confess that when I saw the title I thought this was going to be about Ari Aster's movie Midsommar and I was very confused about how that could connect to Clarissa 😂
This is so beautiful! I really like how you describe the ability of dreams and midsummer to capture the hallucinogenic-like qualities of this stage of the novel. The drugging, Clarissa's addled state in the days following the assault, and Paper X with all of its sideways phrases feel like a trip. Writing, and by extension her mind, was Clarissa's single safe retreat, and now even that has been taken from her.
I really appreciate the characterization of her silence as defiance, though... and even when she speaks, it's to say "no, I will not marry you." It's brutal and achingly beautiful, something like Cordelia's response of "Nothing" to King Lear (to continue the Shakespeare theme). Maybe I'm romanticizing (or perhaps projecting?) but I think there is so much power in hearing a woman say NO. I'm relishing how baffled Lovelace is by Clarissa's defiance of his "once subdued, always subdued" saying.
Ha! You know it was only after this piece was posted that I realised that I should maybe have chosen a different title (and I’m such a wimp about horror movies that I’ve never actually watched Midsommar).
Your comment should really be in the piece—you’re absolutely right: it’s striking that Richardson presents the horror of the novel’s crisis in dream/nightmare mode.
Sarah, because my own lag has led me to read Clarissa not-quite-in-real-time, I've only just gotten through this segment and read your piece and I LOVE situating the novel's climactic act of violence at the peak of midsummer madness, as well as alongside the violent kidnapping and rape at the heart of A Midsummer Night's Dream - which opens, after all, with the planning of a marriage at knife-point - "Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword, and won thy love doing thee injury" - alongside a father trying to coerce a daughter into marrying against her will, prompting her to put herself in peril while running away with another man. Wow, wow, just wow! Disorderly desire all over the place - what a gorgeously dense array of intertextual threads in play. Also, since I love Terry Castle and love procrastination even more, I've just downloaded her article on Lovelace's Dream - the title itself is lure enough (and suggests some of the impossible reasoning of Bottom's own dream - kettle logic?). I wish I'd been enough on top of my game to have *actually* read this at Midsummer, but better late than never!
(Unrelated, I've never been to Swedish Colony nor had I ever heard of it before, but having grown up in Maine - Blue Hill - I find this topical reference fascinating in and of itself!)
Thought I had left a comment fully weeks ago about 1) reading Jung and Freud alongside Clarissa, which I’ve been doing for another project; 2) a note about having lived in a deeply Scandinavian community in Wisconsin for three years (Ephraim, specifically, within the very Scandinavian Door County); 3) my deep ambivalence about MND even after spending an entire summer wrestling with it at the Folger Library—but realized I never actually did.
Until I can recollect all the brilliant thoughts I had then, suffice to say: loved this post. Thoughtful and seasonally appropriate, which is one of the great gifts of reading this text as we move through the year.
What a gorgeous, haunting, spot-on commentary! You know, when I read the description of the 'dream' I assumed it was Lovelace being arch about his plans, pretending he'd spontaneously just dreamed them. It hadn't occurred to me that maybe he HAD actually dreamed them. But the conflicted nature of the dream you describe so well here really does characterize post-rape Lovelace perfectly: he wants all sorts of mutually incompatible things, he's falling apart, like a top spinning out of control, incoherently emitting random plots and hopes and tears and vows and threats and regrets as he staggers around. You've made me think that his psychological disintegration is a dream logic - he is, as they say, living the dream - but not in a good way.
Oh that’s so well put!! He gets what he wants—but it’s terrible.
Also thanks so much!
I must confess that when I saw the title I thought this was going to be about Ari Aster's movie Midsommar and I was very confused about how that could connect to Clarissa 😂
This is so beautiful! I really like how you describe the ability of dreams and midsummer to capture the hallucinogenic-like qualities of this stage of the novel. The drugging, Clarissa's addled state in the days following the assault, and Paper X with all of its sideways phrases feel like a trip. Writing, and by extension her mind, was Clarissa's single safe retreat, and now even that has been taken from her.
I really appreciate the characterization of her silence as defiance, though... and even when she speaks, it's to say "no, I will not marry you." It's brutal and achingly beautiful, something like Cordelia's response of "Nothing" to King Lear (to continue the Shakespeare theme). Maybe I'm romanticizing (or perhaps projecting?) but I think there is so much power in hearing a woman say NO. I'm relishing how baffled Lovelace is by Clarissa's defiance of his "once subdued, always subdued" saying.
Oh and the Lear reference I think is absolutely spot on!
Ha! You know it was only after this piece was posted that I realised that I should maybe have chosen a different title (and I’m such a wimp about horror movies that I’ve never actually watched Midsommar).
Your comment should really be in the piece—you’re absolutely right: it’s striking that Richardson presents the horror of the novel’s crisis in dream/nightmare mode.
Midsommar is certainly not for the faint of heart. But it's a favorite of mine, so if you're ever feeling brave, you really should watch it!
And thank you, you're very kind to say so!