Aerial Aesthetics: A Study of Non-Fiction Narratives of Balloonists and Aviators Jane Henrietta Pasman Thomson Bachelor of Arts (Hons), University of Wollongong Graduate Certificate in Criminal Intelligence, Charles Sturt University This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia School of Humanities English and Literary Studies 2020 ii Thesis Declaration I, Jane Henrietta Pasman Thomson, certify that: This thesis has been substantially accomplished during enrolment in this degree. This thesis does not contain material which has been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma in my name, in any university or other tertiary institution. In the future, no part of this thesis will be used in a submission in my name, for any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution without the prior approval of The University of Western Australia and where applicable, any partner institution responsible for the joint-award of this degree. This thesis does not contain any material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. This thesis does not violate or infringe any copyright, trademark, patent, or other rights whatsoever of any person. This thesis does not contain work that I have published, nor work under review for publication. Signature: Date: 7th of July 2020 iii Abstract This thesis explores the idea of an emerging discourse of flight in the aerial literature of non-fiction ballooning and aeroplane narratives over a period of 130 years, up until the commercialisation of flying, when leaving the ground becomes more commonplace. The texts of writer-flyers show the uniqueness of the embodied experience of being in the air. My emphasis is on the writer-flyer’s aerial perspective and how they portray their experiences in the sphere above. I propose that flight was a new aesthetic experience, a sensory phenomenon that deeply affected those who flew. Drawing on ideas of aesthetics by philosophers Donald W. Crawford and Glenn Parsons, I focus on the way in which qualities drawn from aesthetics, including sensation, danger and the sublime, interactions with nature, beauty, risk and adventure recur. I suggest that the similarities shown between the texts point to a discourse of flight which is related to the unique point of view of the balloonist and aviator in the skyscape. Throughout the thesis I use textual analysis to explore the narratives of writer-flyers from the United Kingdom and France. Before analysing the individual texts, in Chapters One and Four I consider the cultural and historical context of the beginnings of ballooning and aeroplane flight to position the texts in relation to the history of flight and the social responses to it. Chapter One outlines the reactions to the first human flights, the phenomenon of ‘balloonomania’ and the value of proposing an aesthetics of flight. Chapter Two is an examination of James Sadler’s Balloon. An Authentic Narrative (1812), an account of his attempted flight across the Irish Channel, which describes the spectacle of a balloon launch, contrasts the sky-bound balloonist and the earth-bound spectators and reflects on the significance of sensation. The ways in which James Glaisher, Camille Flammarion, Wilfrid de Fonvielle and Gaston Tissandier respond to the visual prospect of ballooning, particularly iv light, colour and clouds in Travels in the Air (1869), a compilation of accounts of their multiple balloon journeys, is the focus of Chapter Three. Chapter Four details the early stages of aeroplane flight and the notion of being ‘air-minded’ and the enduring fascination with flight. In Chapter Five the figure of the aviator as adventurer, separate from the earthbound human, in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Wind, Sand and Stars (1939) is examined. Finally, Beryl Markham’s portrayal of the aerial sphere as another world in her West with the Night (1942), of her aeroplane as a sentient being and of the existential aspects of pioneering flight are analysed in Chapter Six. Overall, the thesis demonstrates the significance of an evolving aesthetic discourse in the literature of both balloon and aeroplane flight. The narratives detail a new perspective on the world and show the distinctive phenomenon of aerial aesthetics. v Table of Contents Thesis Declaration ii Abstract iii Table of Contents v Dedication vi Acknowledgements vii Introduction – Human Flight from Imagination into Reality 1 Chapter One – Ballooning and ‘Balloonomania’ 43 Chapter Two – Balloon. An Authentic Narrative 59 Chapter Three – Travels in the Air 75 Chapter Four – The Aeroplane and Air-Mindedness 101 Chapter Five – Wind, Sand and Stars 119 Chapter Six – West with the Night 164 Conclusion 201 Works Cited 207 vi Dedication For my late mother Ik wou dat je hier was om dit te lezen vii Acknowledgements I wish to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Associate Professor Kieran Dolin, for his committed supervision, perceptive feedback, patience and understanding. I could not have asked for a better supervisor. Thank you to Professor Judith Johnston, who first welcomed me to The University of Western Australia and started me on my thesis. I would like to thank my English lecturers at the University of Wollongong for planting in me the desire to complete a PhD. To The University of Western Australia, I am grateful to have been awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award and the Postgraduate Students’ Association President’s Scholarship. To my late, beloved parents, who always encouraged me and instilled in me a love of learning. They were with me at the beginning of my thesis, but, unexpectedly and regretfully, not the end. They would have been so proud that I finally finished. It pains me that they are not here to celebrate with me. Finally, to Tamara, who has supported me in every way throughout this thesis adventure with much love and patience, and who has been my safe harbour, particularly during our various house sits, travels and sorrow in the thesis’ final years. This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship. 1 Introduction – Human Flight from Imagination into Reality Flying produces a new awareness: in writing, a new way of seeing. – Piero Boitani A longing and fascination for flight has been present throughout human history. Laurence Goldstein observes that there has been “no historical period – not even in the most archaic cultures – in which the desire for flight did not exist” (Flying 1) and suggests that “such a desire may be coeval with the category we call ‘human’” (Flying 1). This yearning for flight was only able to be imagined until near the end of the eighteenth century, when flight became an achievable goal with the increasing technological expertise brought about by the Industrial Revolution. The technology of flight was perceived as a sign of progress, and modernity made available the necessary technology to reach the sky mechanically. When this aspiration to fly, to escape the earth and its constraints and to soar above, was finally achieved, outpourings of writings accompanied the new flying era. Robert Wohl asserts, in relation to aeroplane flight, but in words equally apt for the earlier era of balloonists too, that “[f]lying and literature…were more compatible than anyone could have imagined” (Passion 271). Humans have always sought to explain events through narratives, and the advent of the ability of humans to leave the earth was a major historical and literary beginning. The importance of flight to humanity cannot be overstated. With the ability to fly, first through ballooning and then with aeroplanes, humanity’s world view changed. Until this time no human eyes had seen the earth from that vantage point.1 This was a significant shift in the human perspective of the world, changed awareness of time and space and gave access to 1 Mountains were the highest someone would have been elevated to at that time. See Marjorie Hope Nicolson’s Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite for the changing attitudes to these high places over the centuries. 2 places previously inaccessible, opening up a new aesthetic experience.2 An aerial view of the world turned upside down the human on the ground forever looking up and wondering about that inaccessible space. The two spheres, the ground and the sky, which for so long had been clearly separated, were now both reachable. Now, humans could go where birds flew, and with this change, a literature related to realised human flight began to emerge. In this thesis I examine the representation of flight in selected literary works between 1812 and 1942, a time period during which there were two major achievements in flight. The first was the invention of balloons, which gave humans the ability to finally ascend into the sky above, embodying the physical manifestation of the dreams of flight that have occurred throughout history. The second, and the one that most changed the aerial world, was the Wright brothers’ development of the aeroplane. Neither of these milestones came out of isolated attempts. For centuries, many had tried various experiments to reach the sky, and had failed or perished as a result. Across the world, but most particularly in the United Kingdom, France and the United States of America, many minds were working to make into reality the dream of human flight. The French Montgolfier brothers and the American Wright brothers are credited with the first human balloon flight and the first successful, sustained aeroplane flight. Outside of these widely, and wildly, celebrated successes, many others had also invented, tested and hoped that they would be the first ones to bring these feats to the wider world.