The title is the question we'll be raising in class on Friday and Monday. Since you all have paper proposals due Friday, I won't expect you to do a lot of reading for class on Friday, but you should bring Tristram Shandy to class on Friday and plan to do some reading in it over the weekend.
To sort out the sublimity (or not) of Tristram Shandy we'll be focusing on the character of Uncle Toby, and particularly his amours with the Widow Wadman. This material takes up most of volumes 8 and 9 of the book, so that's what you should plan to read (as much as you can) over the weekend (some passages in there you will recognize from previous readings and class discussion). It will reward your study. As Sterne points out, "the following memoirs of my uncle Toby's courtship of widow Wadman...turn out one of the most compleat systems, both of the elementary and practical part of love and love-making that ever was addressed to the world" (VI.36, p. 420).
Tomorrow, we'll look at Sterne's set-up for these episodes, looking at some excerpts from the passages where Sterne explains Toby's war sound and how it leads him to build miniature fortifications in his garden (I.25-II.5, p. 68 - 88) and the relationship between love-making and literary narration (VI.20-VI.40, p. 420 - 427).
Our discussion Monday will conclude our study of Tristram Shandy, clearing the way for the Castle of Otranto which we will discuss the following week.
Some bloggy questions you can respond to in preparation for class tomorrow (feel free to answer any one of them--just specify which!):
1. In what ways does it make sense to connect sublimity to Tristram Shandy?
2. If you have had a chance to browse around in some of the passages that I mentioned above, what questions or observations do you have?
3. What's the significance of the squiggly lines on p. 425? Is this just a piece of random, gimmicky preciousness on Sterne's part, or does it convey an idea of substance and significance?
Deadline: Friday (4/15), 1pm.
9 comments:
I’m not exactly sure what to make of the squiggly lines at the beginning of Chapter XL. Shandy himself explains them as representations of digressions in the first four volumes and wishes that “I shall be able to go on with my uncle Toby’s story, and my own, in a tolerable straight line” (425). The first four “digressions” are not really explained, and I don’t know if it would be possible to actually track them within the book. If not, then I guess it’s a piece of gimmicky preciousness on Sterne’s part. Partly, I think these lines are a kind of joke which the author uses to show he’s aware of the discursive nature of the story. Shandy draws a perfectly straight line to indicate the way he’s going to tell his uncle’s story in volume 6. Although we have only read pieces of the text, I have trouble believing that Shandy sticks to this line. Again, I think the significance of the lines is the way they signal the text’s awareness of itself.
Tristam Shandy treats the wealth of knowledge similarly to the way in which we've been discussing nature in relation to the sublime. Instead of viewing the night sky, the forest, or other depths of nature as sublime, he sees the wealth of knowledge this way. It is too great to be understood entirely. Possessing a piece of understanding about the great abyss of knowledge is enough to allow him to feel superior.
The squiggly lines, in my opinion, are hilarious and describe Sterne's writing style perfectly. He says that he can write the rest of the story in a straight line, that nothing will force him to veer off track. The lines are a visual representation of the fact that he is physically or mentally incapable of telling a story without his thoughts interfering. Instead of saying "this happened, then this, then this," he is forced to constantly explain background information, related thoughts, and unrelated musings that cause him to lose sight of the original story for a while or lose it entirely. Just as he can't tell a story from start to finish, neither can he draw a straight line.
The squiggly lines depict, in a very lighthearted manner, Sterne's own view of his narrative style through the first four volumes of the work. They show that, instead of employing a straight, linear style, he has at times wandered off course, though not without purpose. At times he has found it necessary to address side topics or even backtrack to recount some of the events of the story.
For the remainder of the work, he hopes to "go on even thus; ______________" (425). He says that this line is "drawn as straight as [he] could draw it" (425). That is, it is not perfectly straight, and he can not hope to present a perfectly linear account.
Sterne may be suggesting that a perfectly straight, linear narrative style is not possible, and not likely desirable.
I think that the squiggly lines can be to the sublime. If these are the plot lines Tristram's live and narrative move through, imagine how it would be to go along and then suddenly there is a huge dip, as in line 4, or episodes of very high and low moments right next to each other, as in line 3. Compare these four lines to the very last line Sterne gives us, which is a flat line, to represent volume 6. There is nothing sublime about a life that goes along a perfectly straight line, but in a life that has an irregular path, where nothing is predictable or consistently ordinary, there can be so much thrill and pleasure. These lines also made me think of an ECG, the machine used to monitor heart activity: the first 5 lines resemble an irregular heart rate, something a person would experience at the sight of anything sublime, or just exciting or scary; pulses speed up very quickly and then calm down when it's all over. The final one has "flat lined" as if there is no life left at all, and no trace of anything extreme or interesting having occurred.
In trying to justify how Tristram Shandy fits into the sublime I am immediately taken back tot he first passage we read from this book. If the sublime is an object, thougth or idea so large/unknown and incompresible that it creates a sense of fear causing one to loose their senses, then I would place Shandy's philosophy on learning in opposition to that. To him the white bear seems to represent the sublime. the idea of talking around a subject until you can begin to understand it the way Tristram was told to do. seems to be a direct attack on the sublime. His father wants him to not be afraid or intimidated. I am not sure if it is effective or not or even if I am way off base but that is how I read it.
As Jillian said, I have to agree that the squiggly lines depict Sterne's particular way of writing, but I think it also speaks to the way his thought process works. Some of the twists and turns of the lines can represent narrative flashbacks while the angular trail-offs seem more in line (no pun intended) with his digression of thought. It makes me wonder, though, where these lines end? Would it be more representative to draw some sort of crazy circle if all this story is about "a cock and a bull"?
I get the feeling again that Sterne's logic often appears overtly absurd, especially in his description of the line for the fifth volume. I think its funny how he appears so reassuring that the readers will clearly understand the reasoning behind his obscure letter designation to particular events.
To 18th century readers, this may appear sublime due to the abstract thought that is involved, but I do not think that it is fully sublime because it is still contained within the parameters of the book itself.
3. Like the other unconventional narrative elements in the Tristram Shandy (i.e. the marble page, the black page), I feel Sterne purposefully put the scribbly lines in the chapter. As many people stated above, Sterne put these lines in the chapter to call attention to his narrative style. Since the beginning of the novel Tristram has asked his readers to take a journey through his unique life-story and narrative writing style. Shandy(Sterne) breaks the fourth wall typically found in fictions multiple times in this novel. These scribbly lines are simply a continuation of this technique. He’s calling attention to himself and sharing a joke with the reader. He knows that the reader may feel disoriented as they flip the pages of his novel. This is merely a depiction of that. Even when he goes in depth as to what each curve and squiggle in the line are he isn’t consistent—“…and the indented curve B. which is the short airing when I was with the Lady Baussiere and her page [...] as for c c c c they are nothing but parentheses” (426). At first the reader may think those are narrative digressions, which they are, but as Shandy reveals they are also punctuations marks. There is hardly any consistency/linearity to the lines, just as the novel.
3. The squiggly lines, like most of the book, are a source of confusion for myself. I think Sterne uses the line as a reflection of his writing style. He mentions tangents - a trip to Navarre at point A, meeting with some people at point B - these digressions seem to mimic the rest of the novel. The story has an overarching linear plot, but throughout the text, Sterne takes moments to discuss various topics and thoughts. He mentions his attempts to minimize these and maintain a straight line for the remainder of the novel. The straight line is connected to Cicero's idea of "the right path." Although, in contrast to the context of the novel, I think Sterne's allusion is bawdy.
It's difficult to say anything with certainty in regard to Sterne, but the squiggly lines could indeed be a representation of the sublimity of life itself. That is, certain situations can hearken back to previous encounters and the associated emotions. It's overwhelmingly difficult to imagine an entirely straight line when so many events, memories and emotions can warp a single moment into countless loops and sharp turns, perhaps not moving forward for some time. A straight time line is almost like a dead pulse.
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