Leonard Cohen's Philosophy of Time Natalia Vesselova
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“The Past is Perfect”: Leonard Cohen’s Philosophy of Time Natalia Vesselova Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctorate in Philosophy degree in English Department of English Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa. © Natalia Vesselova, Ottawa, Canada, 2014. ii CONTENTS Abstract iii Acknowledgments iv Introduction 1 Chapter One: The Glorious Beginning: Poetry 1956-1968 1. Let Us Compare Mythologies 21 2. The Spice-Box of Earth 61 3. Flowers for Hitler 105 4. Parasites of Heaven 148 5. Selected Poems 1956-1968 174 Chapter Two: Prose Left in the Past: Unpublished Works 1952-1960 192 Chapter Three: The Man and Time: Novels of the 1960s 1. The Favourite Game 250 2. Beautiful Losers 261 Chapter Four: Crises and Hopes: Poetry of the 1970s 1. The Energy of Slaves 279 2. Death of a Lady’s Man 311 Chapter Five: On the Road to Finding Peace: Poetry 1984-2006 1. Book of Mercy 331 2. Stranger Music 346 3. Book of Longing 363 Conclusion 385 Works Cited and Consulted 390 iii ABSTRACT This dissertation, “The Past is Perfect”: Leonard Cohen’s Philosophy of Time, analyzes the concept of time and aspects of temporality in Leonard Cohen’s poetry and prose, both published and unpublished. Through imagination and memory, Cohen continuously explores his past as a man, a member of a family, and a representative of a culture. The complex interconnection of individual and collective pasts constitutes the core of Cohen’s philosophy informed by his Jewish heritage, while its artistic expression is indebted to the literary past. The poet/novelist/songwriter was famously designated as “the father of melancholy”; it is his focus on the past that makes his works appear pessimistic. Cohen pays less attention to the other two temporal aspects, present and future, which are seen in a generally negative light until his most recent publication. The study suggests that although Cohen’s attitude to the past has not changed radically from Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956) to Book of Longing (2006), his views have changed from bitterness prompted by time’s destructive force to acceptance of its work and the assertion of the power of poetry/art to withstand it; there is neither discontent with the present nor prediction of a catastrophic future. Time remains a metaphysical category and subject to mythologizing, temporal linearity often being disregarded. Although Cohen’s spiritual search has extended throughout his life, his essential outlook on time and the past is already expressed in the early books; his latest publications combine new pieces and selections from previous books of poetry and prose works, confirming the continuity of ideas and general consistency of his vision. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would have never been written without the invaluable contribution of my teachers, colleagues, and friends to my academic formation. As an undergraduate student in Russia, at Tver State University, I was fortunate to study under Georgy Bogin; he introduced me to phenomenology and the techniques of textual interpretation; it was he who encouraged me to make my first conference presentation and publish my first article. For a range of aspects of my education and professional career in Russia I am obliged to the key person in my life, Igor V. Fomenko, the supervisor of my Russian postgraduate studies, leader, and friend. When I moved to Canada, it was my privilege to become a student at the Department of English at the University of Ottawa. I wish to express my gratitude to the University of Ottawa, to the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program, and to the SSHRC for the financial support, which enabled me to undertake my studies and research. I am deeply thankful to all the professors whose graduate seminars I attended; they supplied me with the knowledge and skills I needed to reinvent myself as a scholar in a new country, in a second language. Those members of the Department who were not my teachers formally still helped me with their informal counsel and collegial attitude. It is due to them that now I feel integrated into the Canadian academic community. I am particularly grateful to Seymour Mayne for the long conversations about poetry we have had since my first visit to Ottawa over a decade ago; I benefited from his memoirs, jokes, and insider information about Montreal poets, including Leonard Cohen. v I owe an infinite debt of gratitude to my patient and wise thesis supervisor, David Staines, whose expertise and unlimited support guided me from beginning to end of my graduate studies at the University of Ottawa. The most priceless endorsement I have received is from my husband Douglas Clayton, whose continuous help, expert advice, and unconditional love made the completion of my dissertation possible. I am indebted to the employees of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, especially to Albert Masters and Jennifer Toews; they facilitated my research and made the archival part of my work a happy and unforgettable experience. It would be unfair to forgo expressing my thanks to the owners and staff of Café Artissimo on George Street and Bluebird Coffee on Dalhousie Street in Ottawa for the warm, friendly atmosphere and the incessant stream of caffeine which took me through the long hours I spent there writing my thesis. 1 INTRODUCTION The phrase “Leonard Cohen’s philosophy of time” rightfully begs the question of whether he has one. All his roles considered (poet, novelist, singer, songwriter, and more), a professional philosopher he is not. He certainly does not systematically address fundamental aspects of being in scholarly tracts designed to reveal his rationally constructed opinions. Nevertheless, every person has an array of views on essential problems concerning his or her understanding of the world at large and of particular topics, such as faith, language, existence, ethics, mind, and time. Unlike other people, writers are privileged to have the ability of expressing these views on paper, in the form of fiction, drama or poetry, and occasionally to get credited for sustainable vision. Some authors give their philosophical standpoints a conscious expression and devote their works to a meticulous revelation of their perspectives; others disperse elements of their fundamental views and attitudes throughout their entire body of work. Even if a writer provides no rationalized theory concerning a philosophical problem, the essential outlook, or philosophy in a broad sense of the word, can be reconstructed on the basis of the totality of his or her written texts which enhance and complement each other. While in his key works, the poetic manifestoes, a poet consciously reveals his views, in minor poems he does so less deliberately; since lyric poetry by definition expresses momentary emotions, a wide range of works provides the evidence for a more detailed, complex, and accurate picture, uncovering various shades of attitude. The same method allows one to trace the continuity and the dynamics of the author’s system of views. In other words, larger numbers of works which have no quality 2 of a manifesto add up to exposing emotions and views the poet did not intentionally formulate for the readers but experienced and recorded in passing. Casting a broad net therefore supplies more facts on Cohen’s attitude to time than an analysis of a handful of his touchstone poems would do. Time is a universal category of being; it has been intriguing thinkers and writers for centuries, from Heraclites, Aristotle, and Saint Augustine to Marcel Proust, Henri Bergson, and Martin Heidegger. Every artist with a penchant for self-reflectiveness has a personal idea of time, and Cohen is no exception. A reader of his poetry and prose receives the impression that time for him is a potent force, determining human actions and affections. Ira Nadel quotes the poet’s essayistic rumination: “I have never loved a woman for herself alone, but because I was caught up in time with her, between train arrivals and train departures and other commitments” (Various Positions 28). In his works, Cohen touches upon all three aspects of time, the past, the present, and the future; the most attention, however, is given to the past. The author’s poetry and prose are past- oriented; he focuses on coming to terms with himself and the outside world in the contexts provided by the past. Cohen’s artistic output is known to be melancholic, despite his subtle humour and ubiquitous irony. Among the factors creating this impression of pensive sadness is his fascination with the past, which prompted the title of a recent book about him: Yesterday’s Tomorrow – Leonard Cohen by Marc Hendrickx. One can claim that it is this detachment from the “here and now” and an intense gaze trained on the past that earned Cohen his famous designation as “the father of melancholy.” It is important to note that “past” does not equal “history.” There are a number of reasons for drawing a line between the two notions: history gives shape to the past 3 through narrativization; it deals (at least, is supposed to deal) with facts. The past is a more general notion and involves personal perspectives. There is a further discrepancy between history and the past in literature; as formulated by Aristotle, it is the following: the function of the poet is not to say what has happened, but to say the kind of thing that would happen, i.e., what is possible in accordance with probability or necessity. The historian and the poet are not distinguished by their use of verse or prose; it would be possible to turn the works of Herodotus into verse, and it would be a history in verse just as much as in prose.