Bridgewater Review

Volume 4 | Issue 1 Article 12

Apr-1986 Book Reviews David Richards Bridgewater State College

Hal DeLisle Bridgewater State College

Richard A. Henry Bridgewater State College

Recommended Citation Richards, David; DeLisle, Hal; and Henry, Richard A. (1986). Book Reviews. Bridgewater Review, 4(1), 22-25. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol4/iss1/12

This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Book Reviews

Tavris disputes each of these beliefs. tunately, these three conditions are seldom Rather, she views anger as a social event. a met. form of communication. To be sure, anger Does alcohol release anger? Alcohol ANGER is in part a product of our biological soothes angry individuals as often as it heritage. However, unlike animal aggres­ inflames them. Tavris suggests that alcohol The Misunderstood sion, which may occur more or less auto­ merely provides one with a social excuse to matically in response to certain stimuli, behave in ways that might be otherwise Emotion human anger is influenced by judgment and threatening or uncomfortable. choice. Which sex has the anger problems? Tav­ For example, whether or not we become ris produces some interesting statistics. Carol Tavris angry in a given situation depends upon our Very few studies have found any sex dif­ interpretation of that situation. Behind ferences in proneness to or expression of Simon and Schuster, Inc. every incidence of anger is the belief that anger. Males are more aggressive than fe­ New York: 1982 someone is not behaving as he or she ought males, but only to strangers. In the home, to behave. Furthermore, the message of neither husbands nor wives are more aggres­ mericans have mixed attitudes towards anger is, according to Tavris, "Pay atten­ sive. And this lack of sex difference in­ A anger. At one time anger was thought tion to me.I don't like what you are doing. cludes direct physical aggression. Wives are to be a very destructive emotion which Restore my pride. You're in my way. apparently just as likely as husbands to be should be suppressed at any cost, but it has Danger. Give me justice." Thus, anger is a physically violent towards their spouses, more recently been seen as a healthy emo­ message to another with a desired social but less likely to use fists, guns, and knives, tion whose suppression entails a physical objective. As with any other communica­ and thus less likely to cause serious injury. and psychological price. We are advised by tion, we choose to express it. Tavris has not answered all the questions the "angerindustry", psychotherapy, thatwith­ Tavris cites extensive research evidence one might have and her book is at times in many a tranquil person is a furious one in support of her thesis, evidence which rambling and anecdotal. Yet, she is always crying to get out and that blocking this also provides partial answers to some peren­ thought-provoking. No one who reads her anger can produce depression, guilt, anxi­ nial questions about anger. Does suppres­ book will ever again think of anger as ety, family problems, psychosomatic ill­ sing anger cause illness, specifically high something which "just happens" to us. ness, and even suicide. Some ofus dutifully blood pressure and heart disease? Converse­ Anger is a social tool which we choose to follow this advice and express our anger at ly, does expressing anger reduce stress? use. Although anger may have destructive every thwarted wish, cleansing our systems Tavris concludes that either expressing or consequences, both to others and to our­ in the process. Yet, we are also aware that suppressing anger seems to be related to selves, it can also be used morally to rectify anger may be dangerous, that it can have elevated blood pressure. How should these wrongs. serious social consequences. So, others, apparently contradictory findings be ex­ fearing the loss of control that anger may plained? The critical variable is not suppres­ David Richards bring, suffer injustice in silence. Most ofus sion versus expression but rather the persis­ Associate Professor who don't react in these extreme ways tence of stress, which is in turn associated Psychology Department remain ambivalent about how to respond. with high physiological arousal. Suppres­ Carol Tavris challenges many of the sing our anger is undesirable if, by not prevailing assumptions about anger, par­ revealing our feelings, we allow the stressful ticularly those of psychologists and psychi­ situation to continue. However, expressing atrists of the"ventilationist" persuasion. anger can also be harmful if it subjects us to Those who recommend ventilating one's continued stress (as may happen if we anger do so on the basis ofseveral question­ alienate friends and spouses or get fired). A MAGGOT able beliefs, in large part a distortion of the The anger strategy which seems to work legacies ofDarwin and Freud. These beliefs best is reflecting, waiting until we have by are, first, that anger is an instinctive, bio­ calmed down, and then trying to reason logically based response to threat or the with the person who has made us angry. John Fowles frustration ofgoals and desires. Since anger Anger deals with other common questions. Little~Brown is an instinct, attempting to suppress it will Does "talking out" anger get rid ofit? Most ultimately fail. Second, anger is a form of people think so, but the evidence suggests Boston: 1985 emotional energy which can be "dammed that "talking it out" rehearses the emotion up," "spill over" and possibly "flood" the and might make one worse offby providing system. Third, ifthe outward expression of a label and justification for one's feelings. anger is prevented, anger turns inward, Should one always remain quiet? No. Re­ ohn Fowles is, not surprisingly, up to his resulting in neurosis, depression, guilt, and member that anger is a social communica­ old tricks. I say "not surprisingly" be­ psychomatic illness. Fourth, catharsis, tion with consequences. Discussing your Jcause we have sufficient and increasing treated by many today as nearly synony­ anger can sometimes lead to practical solu­ evidence from his store of novels, articles, mous with emotional ventilations, empties tions to a problem. When is the expression and interviews to suggest quite clearly not the emotional reservoirs and prevents ag­ of anger cathartic, or calming? Tavris re­ only where he has been but also where he gression and all the other ills associated ports that aggression is cathartic if you might be going. Surely a writer can carve with blocked emotions. Catharsis may be retaliate against the person who you feel out new territory; but A Maggot, his most achieved in various and sundry ways, rang­ deserves the blame, if your retaliation in­ recent novel, though markedly different in ing from "talking it out," exercising, shout­ flicts an appropriate degree of harm (no plot and material from The Magus, The ing, playing sports and watching violent more and no less) to the target, and if your Ebony Tower, and Daniel Martin, and even movies, to pounding a pillow. target doesn't retaliate against you. Unfor- The French Lieutenant's Woman which is set

22 in the same Dorsetshire countryside, bears plains in his "Prologue" to mean "a whim a striking resemblance to his earlier work in or quirk...an obsession with a theme." The structure and theme. maggot of his novel, the seed from which Simply, thus unfairly, stated, Fowles, the story springs, is a fleeting, imaginary like many of his predecessors in the tradi­ picture of a "small group of travellers, tion of the English novel, places his central faceless, without apparent motive.. .in a KANSAS character in a mysterious, sometimes per­ deserted landscape...." From this modest sonally threatening situation, moves him scene Fowles gives his faceless group a local through a series of self-revealing crises habitation and a name, and fashions an which force him to assess himselfand make intriguing novel of adventure, mystery, Kansas lies down crucial self-defining choices, and then de­ suicide, suspected murder, deceit, sex and because the rest of the country mands that he act on his decisions. Usually, love, and, importantly, faith. Woven into won't. It rolls on one side he incorporates an open scene in nature for the fabric of his material are consistent then the other, critical events, a literal green world, which patterns ofplay-actihg and stage directing, of verdant or brown. Here becomes a recurrent device in his novels, known lying and suspected falsehood. the earth speaks only one that identifies Fowles with the ancient Fowles brilliantly invokes the spirit and to the earth. When people came pastoral tradition. (Serious critics beware; flavor of eighteenth-century England they were told to rest Fowles holds little regard for academics; (much as he did for the nineteenth century or else continue on. "classics-stuffed Strasbourg geese," he in The French Lieutenant's Woman) by inter­ Because Kansas knows the value lacing copies of pages from-rhe Gentleman's once called them). Thematically, the course of sleep, night hangs ofevents usually brings the main character Quarterly at strategic points in the narrative, just above the waist, to understand that the only true freedom by incorporating political and sociological and in daytime the sky commentaries by the intrusive authorial for the individual is the freedom he shapes rests on any hand voice (when were undergarments adopted by his own choices, that his identity is not held up to it. to be bestowed by society or by tradition by eighteenth-century gentlewomen; what but by his own freely chosen acts. For was the attitude ofthe clergy toward change Fowles, the individual must pass from self­ and property), by re-creating the pompous Fran Quinn delusion through self-analysis to choice. reports of the officious lawyer, and by Fowles' obsession with this motifmanifests recapturing the eighteenth-century idiom itself in what in The Magus he calls "god in the dogged interrogations of the wit­ games" in which one character manipulates nesses. situations through disguise, deceit, or, some­ The opening narrative, striking in its times, truth, to force the main character to control of detail and rhythm, carries the choose, in effect, to create himself. riders, five men and one woman, from Nicholas Urfe of The Magus (whichever London, through Salisbury, by Stone­ ending is read), Charles of The French henge, to Dorset on a mission whose true Ayscough, lawyer, rationalist, sceptic, pro­ Lieutenant's Woman (again, regardless of purpose is known only to one member of tector of vested property interests and ending) and Daniel Martin of that novel the group; the others, however, believe guardian ofthe status quo. In such a confron­ instantly come to mind as examples. they do know. The party is comprised of tation, ofcourse, no middle ground can be Fowles' existential humanism is clear, firm­ his Lordship, the main figure of the party, reached. Rebecca has accepted Christ and ly stated at the end of Daniel Martin. second, his deaf/dumb servant who thinks faith; Ayscough believes in empirical evi­ Reflecting on the late Rembrandt self­ he knows but is unable to indicate in words dence and the rule of property. portrait, Daniel Martin tellingly muses: "It his understanding, then an actor, chosen On the surface, the interrogations form is not finally a matter ofskill, ofknowledge, for both his ability and his diplomacy, a the center ofthe novel. They seem designed of intellect; of good luck or bad; but of serving man who lives by day to day labor, to be the vehicle for the discovery of truth choosing and learning to feel...No true and, finally, a London whore, drafted for and in a way they are. We want to know the compassion without will; no true will with­ purposes known only to the Lord. After a true identity of the members of the little out compassion." Fowles' philosophic posi­ stay at an inn the party travels to a deserted band of travellers; we want to know their tion extends to include an aesthetic posi­ but symbolically described remote place in mission; and, especially, we want to know tion which not only postulates the artist as the wilds of Dorsetshire where an incident what happened to the Lord, Rebecca, and shaper, as manipulator controlling his own of significant magnitude occurs. The inci­ the deaf/mute in the cavern which is the god games but also emphasizes the artist as dent is followed by the disappearance ofthe core of the novel. Fowles presents varying observer of his own process of creation, as Lord and the apparent suicide of his deaf/ versions of the incident in the interro­ observer of his own work. The emphatic dumb valet. The rest of the novel is com­ gations, ranging from satanic copulation to position of the self-regarding self-portrait prised mainly of the legal interrogation by divine revelation. One version comes from of Rembrandt at the end of Daniel Marrin Henry Asycough, a lawyer, of members of Jones, the servingman, who reports the acts as a perfect symbol of Fowles' notion the party (and others), to determine the incident as seen from his hidden vantage of the artist as artist. In the novels, Fowles' whereabouts ofthe missing Lord, the cause point outside the cavern and embellished use of double time -- historic past and of the apparent suicide, the purpose of the by what he tells us Rebecca told him. Two narrative present, of art observed, serves journey to the wild place, and, in general, additional versions come from Rebecca this purpose as does his use ofthe intrusive what actually happened. herself, one of which she insists is delib­ author. A Maggot follows the same struc­ The center of the interrogations pits the erately distorted, the other she quietly tural and thematic course. ex-whore, repentant and renewed-in­ protests as the truth. Finally, objective Fowles uses the term "maggot" in its Christ Rebecca Lee (the mother of Anne investigators inspect the scene, within and eighteenth-century meaning, which he ex- Lee, founder of Shakerism) against Henry without the cavern, and report their find-

23 Book Reviews continued

ings. Surely both Henry James and Robert of the times impressive, the theme and a disproportionate number of crimes. No Browning would relish the material, butthe structure remain close to that ofThe Magus matter the attempt to redirect or rehabili­ question of A Maggot is not one of moral and, especially, Daniel Marrin. One of the tate these individuals, innovative programs judgement or motivation or of psycho­ thematic allusions in Daniel Marrin comes have not been successful. The fact that a logical understanding. Although the inter­ from Rabelais: Do what you would; "Fais substantial proportion of criminals are re­ rogations provide the reader with a variety ce que voudrais." From what he has written peaters brings into question the ability of of views, they serve more than a structural and what can be discerned in A Maggot, I the criminal justice system to deter crime, function, for the question of the novel think Fowles wishes he had coined the let alone to rehabilitate offenders. centers on the motive offaith, a motive not phrase. As a result, policymakers and some disclosed by empirical or psychological crime researchers have shifted their at­ methods. The interrogations, which shift in Hal Delisle tention to identifying repeat offenders (re­ tone, often becoming acerbic, also frame a Associate Professor cidivists) in order to facilitate successful deeper question: not only what is the English Department prosecution and imprisonment. Conse­ motive to faith in a strict, divinely ordered quently, there has been a gradual butsteady universe, a faith that demands total submis­ shift in the search for the causes of crime sion of the will, but also, how can ob­ from social and environmental explana­ servers, those outside the faith, understand tions to individual and personal ones. The it and, if understood, how accept it. Crime and Wilson and Herrnstein essay on criminal In addition, the interrogations reveal a behavior reflects these interrelated trends. contrapuntal journey experienced by Re­ Human Nature Crime and Human Nature is a megabook becca and Ayscough. On the one hand, (twenty chapters and over 500 pages) on Rebecca's literal journey from London to by the crime problem, written both to docu­ Dorset parallels, a bit too obviously per­ ment the problem and to set forth a general haps, her spiritual journey. Growing out of James Q. Wilson theory of criminal behavior based upon a curiously commercial sexual liaison and individual differences in susceptibility to which ends in a nearly miraculous trans­ crime. It is a rational view based on the formation, Rebecca moves from a highly Richard]. Herrnstein psychological theory of behaviorism, sought-after London prostitute to a woman Simon and Schuster, Inc. which assumes that " ...people, when faced of faith with the light of Christ in her, in a New York: 1985 with choice, choose the preferred course of phrase, from eros to agape. On the other action... a person will do that thing the hand, Ayscough's journeys, from his pos­ consequences of which are pt;rceived by ture as spokesman for eighteenth-century him or her to be preferable to the conse­ religious, economic, and political beliefs to quences of doing something else." a grudging acceptance of the possibility of According to Wilson- and Herrnstein, Rebecca's avowal offaith, from a question­ involvement in crime is simply a matter of ing certitude of his values to a puzzled he crime problem has received a great choice, a decision based upon the rational admission of the possibility of another Tdeal of attention in recent years from calculation ofconsequent rewards and pun­ view. Ayscough, like many of Fowles' academicians, politicians-policymakers, ishments. Theoretically, the larger the ratio characters who are philosophically and law enforcement personnel, the general of the net rewards of crime to the net morally moved by a significant encounter, public and the mass media. The increasing rewards of non-crime, the greater the ten­ comes, ever so hesitantly, not to a true magnitude and tenacity of crime have cre­ dency to commit the crime. understanding ofRebecca's position but to ated a coalition among these groups in Wilson and Herrnstein suggest that this understanding how one's identity, one's efforts to analyze and control this problem, theory is particularly applicable to indi­ values, and implicitly one's actions, are but the coalition has not always been viduals who commit repetitive predatory shaped by choice, usually choice under harmonious. For example, politicians use street crimes (aggravated assault, murder, pressure. Fowles underlines this point the crime issue in seeking election, but not larceny, robbery). Moreover, the fact that through Rebecca's impassioned diatribe to effect meaningful crime control policies; predatory crime is a matter ofconcern in all against Ayscough during her final interro­ law enforcement agencies use it to obtain societies and in all historic periods indi­ gation. Her uncharacteristic outrage at his additional firepower, but not to improve cates something more than a mere universal lack of moral sensibility and his dispas­ community relations; the mass media use concern with srime and social order. Peo­ sionate intellect, uttered when she is legally the crime problem to titillate and reinforce ple in different societies rank the serious­ at his mercy, marks her true being. Impor­ fears, stereotypes, and as bait in the competi­ ness of specific offenses (murder, robbery, tantly for the novel and for Fowles' posi­ tion for readers and viewers. The public theft, incest) in similar ways regardless of tion, her attack emphasizes the essential fear of crime is used to justify protection the individual characteristics (age, sex, edu­ need for personal self-denial as the funda­ ...at any cost. cation and social class) of respondents to mental virtue. Clearly, here, Fowles is The crime problem has also brought to crime surveys. implying that choice, even one that limits fruition an interesting, if not dangerous, To Wilson and Herrnstein, crimes are further choice, is essential in discovering relationship between academicians and pol­ committed by a certain "type" of person and determining self. In this much at least, icymakers. Increasingly, theories of crimi­ and are the result of a rational decision­ Fowles' existential humanism has advanced nal behavior are advanced which are more making process. It is not that non-criminal beyond that of Daniel Marrin. directed toward controlling the offender individuals are entirely crime free, it is just A Maggot, then, can be seen as consistent than to clarifying conditions which tend to that they do not commit repetitive preda­ with most ofFowles' major works. Though produce high levels of crime. tory crimes. the setting is new, the characters fascinat­ The empirical base of the crime problem Who are the criminal individuals? Ac­ ing, the mystery attractive, the re-creation is rather clear. Young, urban males commit cording to the authors, there is mounting

24 evidence that offenders are differentiated by physique (they are mesomorphic males); by intelligence (they are from the low/normal or borderline percentile distri­ butions on standard tests of intelligence); and by personality type (they are generally psychopathic). The personality psychopa­ A Poem For My Father Upon Finding thy is then the salient force which consti­ tutes the essential base ofcriminality. This A Brittle Piece of Moss With A Twig In It type is characterized by hyperactivity, im­ pulsivity, distractibility, poor judgement, lack of internal motivation, deficient sense ofguilt, anxiety, and deficiency in learning, as manifested in the failure to learn or profit from past experience or punishment. To Wilson and Herrnstein, these personali­ The light green hair of earth, matted and snarled, ty attributes of psychopathy are critical twisted around a twig. The winding thatch will not open. because they affect the offender's ability to The twig remains stuck -- a nest with a sword beside it, realistically calculate the rewards for non­ a crossroad where branch and fur meet, old friends crossing a stream criminal over criminal behavior. We are and if they part they are still entangled. told that ,•...the relevance of(psychopathy) to criminal behavior can hardly be over­ There is a tea smell down in the earth estimated, for crime often pits a quick gain like horse hay left in a long abandoned barn; against avoiding a remote punishment. Be­ it still gives off odor. cause of (psychopathy) the offender is The stems of the moss are hand-shaped, fingers of a poor one grasping nothing. driven toward the wrong end of the choice." II The authors adduce an impressive array Old nest, my father! The green of his life did not leave offamily, educational, media, constitution­ when the brittleness came. His sword, a hat pin al and other data to support both their caught in his mother's hair. rational choice theory and their program for the effective control of crime. Old nest! Old hounds baying over hills. The answer to the crime problem seems My father standing in snow, off any path, somewhere to be the development of a calculus of where the fox would run, somewhere where the rabbits scatter. punishment that would increase the risks of He knew where the treasure was, the silent places, the names of things crime. It is interesting that Beccaria, writing I do not notice now. Stepping along a path in 1764, with the admonition that the or walking paved streets I cannot hear his voice; punishment should fit the crime, also and at those parties where wine flows easy and conversation thought a calculus of punishment could be is like the hum of spent machinery, I cannot remember developed to deter repetitive criminal be­ his face, or how tall he was, havior. and only when I brush apart the bushes do I remember Wilson and Herrnstein's argument that the way he could rumble through the bushes or go softly. personal conditions affect the rational I left him, it seems to me, standing in snow choice to commit crime synthesizes a grow­ the hounds running farther and farther away. ing compendium of literature used to sup­ port an emerging nationwide correction policy of punishment by incapacitation. In Fran Quinn the Commonwealth, this policy is reflected in the Governor's presumptive sentencing bill, prison construction program and advo­ cacy of state control of county lockups legislation, which are currently under con­ sideration in the Legislature. Thus, aca­ demic research and political policy con­ Fran Quinn was born in Easthampton, MA in 1942. He taught on ellery level cerns are joined. from pre-school to graduate school. He has worked for the Commonwealth of Crime and Human Nature should be a Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities in the Poets-in-the-School controversial book; for those interested in program. A founding member of the Worcester County Poetry Association, Inc., the mysteries of deviant behavior, it is well Mr. Quinn conducted a radio program on poetry for sellen years. He has read worth reading. throughout the United States and also in Canada. He lilies in Worcester, MA, and this is his first collection of poems. Richard A. Henry Assistant Professor Sociology Department

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