Myth and Trivia: the Double Encoding of the Irish Representations in the Novel at Swim-Two-Birds Safta Cristina Elena
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International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-2, Issue-5, Sep - Oct, 2017 https://dx.doi.org/10.24001/ijels.2.5.8 ISSN: 2456-7620 Myth and Trivia: The double encoding of the Irish representations in the novel At Swim-Two-Birds Safta Cristina Elena I set out from the working hypothesis that Flann and pity us”(12), “Well faith”(10), “What in God’s name” O’Brien’s novel, At Swim-Two-Birds is a satire on (11), “Lord save us” (1). contemporary and mythological Ireland. The author seems Another confusing, we might say, contradictory to have created an epic representation of the Irish myth and aspect regarding the Christian representation is Pooka’s inception using the mask of trivia, of encoded messages theory regarding “truth”. Could this ‘truth’ be referring to placed in the storyline of a seemingly ridiculed society. an identitarian feature of Ireland? Could he be referring to This story within a story uses a literary device, comparable the symbol of Christianity in a post-war modernist society? to that of presentational theatre, where the actor does not To the Holy Trinity? An interpretation could be that by allow the audience to forget they are watching a play, as bringing forth the mythological devil, the Pooka, as being a O’Brien himself mentions: “a self-evident sham, to which civilized, social, rat, a villain who insists upon the the reader could regulate at will the degree of his credulity” apparently nonsensical theory of “truth” being an “odd (O'Brien, p. 25). Within this noticeably ironic and number”, the author deplores the spirituality of a once contradictory lecture, the tumultuous loss of Irish Christian nation. The “odd number” can suggest the number spirituality is evidenced. The heroic characters praised by three represented by the Irish clover leaf, a pagan symbol Ireland’s legends are included in a contemporary reality converted to Christianity (The Holy Trinity). show fusing with the after-war decayed society. Moreover, the legendary hero of Irish mythology, This paper aims to cast light upon O’Brien’s Finn MacCool, portrayed as a villainous character, one who codification from within his work, At Swim-Two-Birds, enjoys the sound of “wing-beating in the dark belfries, cow- which unveils the lost spiritual heroic Ireland, through a cries in pregnancy […] lamenting of a wounded otter in a mix of mythical allusions and banal incidents calling forth black hole” (O'Brien, p. 14) refers to himself as being a his famous ironic statement regarding Associate Professor “hero from the crack of time”: “I am Cuchulainn I am Schrödinger’s work for the Trinity College of Dublin and Patrick” (O'Brien, p. 19), making reference to a Christian his efforts to prove “that you cannot establish a first cause”. identity, alongside the legendary names of Irish historical O’Brien ironized this as being an “an effort to show that representatives Cuchulainn, Connachtman, Ulsterman, Goll there are two Saint Patricks and no God” adding to this, that etc. “Evil is even, truth is an odd number” is the first “propagation of heresy and unbelief has nothing to do with sentence of the ultimate conclusion. The “poor German” polite learning” (Blather.net, 2004). salutes the reader, concluding the novel with three Brian O’Nuallain, anglicized as Brian O’Nolan, an goodbyes, as though they were the three endings for the author who goes by several pen names out of which Flann three introductions, as though he had been writing the novel O’Brian is best known, had once attended a Catholic all along, obsessing with the number three, under one of his secondary school, Blackrock College. The allusions to numerous masks. Christianity can be observed throughout the whole novel, It is interesting to observe that he associates this although they are contradictory and can vaguely suggest a last character with the obsession with the number three, an support unveiling his own views on the subject. On the one odd number, the odd number mentioned by Pooka, the hand the uncle is portrayed as a man of God with Pharisaic number of the three levels of fiction in the introduction, a and Fanatic behaviors, evidencing the imperfectness of the number which had symbolized omniscience throughout Christian followers. “God’s name” (O'Brien, p. 11) comes O’Brien’s education and upbringing in the spirit of Catholic up quite often and it is generally overused by characters ideology (The Holy Trinity). The number three was a sacred portrayed as villainous. The uncle, described as being “rat- number for the druids and the Celtic religion and it is a brained, cunning, concerned-that-he-should-be-well- sacred symbol to Christianity. As we can notice, the title of thought-of” (O'Brien, p. 30), in almost every appearance the novel, “Swim-Two-Birds”, refers to a place of and dialogue uses expressions like: “God look down on us www.ijels.com Page | 59 International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-2, Issue-5, Sep - Oct, 2017 https://dx.doi.org/10.24001/ijels.2.5.8 ISSN: 2456-7620 reconciliation in Irish Mythology, where pagan and Irish folk traces its roots back to the Iron Age, when a Christian worlds meet” (Gallagher, p. 20). significant branch of the Indo-European people, speaking We can conclude that O’Brian does not positively assess the Celtic languages invaded the western island of Europe and Catholic environment (see representation of the uncle, part settled there. They were known as the Celts. of the clergy) but it seems as though he enforces its essence, The Celtic tribal groups found the soil of Ireland the ultimate representation of Christianity, being the Father, rich and fit for their cattle and farming. The Gaels, part of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Truth being an odd number, the Celtic folk dominated and guarded the island up to can refer also to the first encounter between man and approximately 1170 A.D., when an Irish ruler would invite Divinity when God showed Himself to Abraham in the the Normans and English Crown into Irish disputes. form of Three Men (Gen.18:2) (Anania, p. 38), in the era Various archeological discoveries lead to the conclusion before Christ, in the era of pagan divinities. The first that the Gaels preserved the Celtic sacred traditions and representation of a Christian God in a pagan society was beliefs, especially due to the fact that Ireland was not portrayed as three entities, an odd number. Could O’Brien subject to the vastly extended Roman Empire. In a have been deploring the Irish conflict between the two main seemingly barbaric Celtic community, archeologists found religions of Ireland? Alluding to a reconciliation between traces of a god-like figure, Ogmios, holding an arch and the Protestant and Catholic? By insisting that truth is an odd bearing along the people, whose ears were tied to a golden number, was he insisting on the fact that there is but one thread connected to his tongue, proving the importance they truth and that it is formed of an odd number, insinuating the gave to eloquence. According to the Celtic myth, the number three? warrior, Finn Mac Cool, son of Cumail, also considers The puzzling plots entwine with reproductions of poetry and words as being magical weapons (Pons, p. 44). Irish myths, narrating a labyrinth of allusions and mockery. O’Brien’s Finn Mac Cool gives importance to “sweet The levels of fiction are presented in the beginning of the poetry and melodious Irish” (O'Brien, p. 17) but has a series novel in O’Brien’s avant la letter postmodernist style of nonsensical and ludicrous solicitations for the “people of introducing the “examples of three separate openings” Finn” (O'Brien, p. 17) resulting in, what Derrida might call, (O'Brien, p. 9) and proving the unreliability of the narrator the dissemination of the mythological spirituality. Another which features the ironized characters and situations. If we example of the decayed representation of myth would be the are to agree to the concept that O’Brien encoded his own apparently elaborate “refinement of Finn Mac Cool” personality and views through the mask of the through speech, “clashing with Shannan’s pedestrian undergraduate student, who himself is a writer describing English” (Gallagher, n.d.). Trellis as an author, which again resembles himself, we can The archaism of the Celtic culture and belief, extrapolate that through the statement: “One beginning and surviving in the Gaelic culture, is endorsed by the traditions one ending for a book was a thing I did not agree with.” and ideas originated in ancient India, as can be observed (O'Brien, p. 9), O’Brian parades his response to the through a parallelism between Irish and Hindu laws (Eliade, previous dogmatic era certifying his autonomous literary p.120). The Christian religion brought by St. Patrick, representation. The biographical reminiscences of the flourished in the Gaelic olden days, due to certain undergraduate student display the first level of fiction and resemblances with the pagan symbols ( e.g.: the trinities of continuously interrupt the embedded stories, as if the aboriginal ancestral gods: Teutates, Esus, Taranis, or the director of a movie continuously intervenes while the film is female ‘Matres’ converted to the Three Marys (Vasilescu, being played, justifying the reasons behind the plot, p.331)). The Irish patron, Saint Patrick also converted throughout the whole live session (e.g. “it was certain Celtic symbols to Christianity, for example: The undemocratic to compel characters to be uniformly good or cloverleaf or shamrock, was once sacred to druids because bad” (O'Brien, p.