Volume 6 Number 2 Article 13 4-15-1979 Cavalier Treatment Lee Speth Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Speth, Lee (1979) "Cavalier Treatment," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 6 : No. 2 , Article 13. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol6/iss2/13 This Column is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Notes the possibility of a parody of “Let Me Linger,” a 1937 poem by Mabel Ingalls Westott, in Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan. Additional Keywords Peake, Mervyn. Titus Groan—Sources; Wescott, Mabel Ingalls. Let Me Linger and Other Poems This column is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol6/iss2/13 or Lewis or White or just about anybody else you care to Deschene, James M. "The Mystic and the Monk: Holiness name" (p . 9 ) . ( I . H. W hite a c t u a lly made i t in t h is same and Wholeness". Studia Mystica, 1:4 (Winter 1978), year — 1977 — with The Book o f M erlyn.) Carter mis­ 37-50 [Lewis, 40, 45-46, 49n, 50n]. takenly assumes that Tolkien began writing on The Silm aril- Deschene, in his discussion of the relationship of holiness l i o n after he finished The Lord of the Rings. Carter also to wholeness and health, cites Lewis' T i l l We H ave F a c e s on mentions the Gandalf award for fantasy given at the World the depths of holiness ("Holy wisdom is not clear and thin Science Fiction Convention (p. 11). In his "Appendix: The like water, but dark and thick like blood") and The F o u r Year's Best Fantasy Books" (pp. 204-208), he includes L o v e s on the pains of love. The Silm arillion in the list of eight books of original Eastman, Arthur M. (gen. ed.). The Norton Reader: An fiction (p. 205); he also, in a nonce category of "The Anthology of Expository Prose. Fourth Edition. Worst Book Ever", includes Terry Brooks' The Sword of New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1977. xxiii + S h a n n a r a : "I have nothing against the fine art of pas­ 1274 pp. [References to Lewis, pp. xxx, 1170-1175, tiche, or writing in another author's style, since I 1265.] With Craig Bradford Snow, A Guide to "The practice the craft myself. But Terry Brooks wasn't trying Norton Reader", Fourth Edition: Discussions of to imitate Tolkien's prose, just steal his story line and Content and Rhetoric with Questions for W riting. complete cast of characters, and did it with such clumsi­ New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1977. xliv + 226 pp. ness and so heavy-handedly, that he virtually rubbed your [Lewis, xxvi, x lii, 215-217,] Note: from the nose in it", (p. 208. page references in Snow's G u id e , it is apparent that the selection from Lewis also is printed in Cawelti, John G. "Trends in Recent American Genre Fiction" the Shorter Edition of The Norton Reader, p . 619 f f . Kansas Q uarterly , 10:4 (Fall 1978), 5-18 [Lewis, 8; Tolkien, 7-9]. The selections from Lewis is titled "Three Screwtape Let­ ters" (pp. 1170-1175) and numbered I, II, and III; they Cawelti finds three trends in recent popular fiction: the are, in fact, the first three of The Screwtape Letters. shift from the western to science fiction, the shift from A footnote explains the identities of Screwtape and Worm­ the detective puzzle to the spy thriller, and the develop­ wood (p . 1 1 7 0 n ). In The Norton Reader’s R h e to r ic a l ment of fantasy. He contrasts the moral ambiguities of the Index, these selections are listed under Persona and modern spy novel with the clear moral sides of the fantasy Irony (p. xxx; also G u id e , p. xxvi); a very brief bio­ (.The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars), in that only by the graphical notice, listing The Pilgrim 's Regress and reader escaping this world can he find moral certitude. The Screwtape Letters, appears, with others in the back Lewis' Ransom trilogy is contrasted with Tolkien's works as of the book (p. 1265). In the G u id e 's "Rhetorical Index being more openly didactic and hence old fashioned. By Essay", S a t i r e is added to P e r s o n a and I r o n y (p. x l i i ) . "Dabbling in Exotheology" (in the "Religion" section;. The main discussion in the G u id e introduces The Screwtape T im e , 111:17 (24 April 1978), 63. L e t t e r s as a Christian work, describes Lewis' view of Hell, A discussion, probably inspired by the movie Close Encoun­ and explains the connotations of S c r e w ta p e and Wormwood ters of the Third Kind (1977) which is mentioned once and (pp. 215-216); twelve "Analytical Considerations" follow has a still reproduced, of the possible theological impact (pp. 216-217). One of the shortest may be quoted as an of extraterrestrial intelligent life. Lewis' "Will We Lose example: "7. Is the purpose of "Three Screwtape Letters' God in Outer Space?" (reprinted in The World's Last Night the traditional goal of satire: to rid people of v i as "Religion and Rocketry") is cited twice. and folly through ridicule? Please explain." Cavalier Treatment B y L ee Speth A Connecticut Yankee In Gormenghast Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan is to fantasy litera­ Linger now with me, thou Beauty, ture as chicken livers are to the palate: each excludes On the sharp archaic shore. neutrality. T itu s is either treasured as an imaginative Surely 'tis a wastrel's duty triumph or loathed as a diseased excrescence. Those who And the gods could ask no more. read it, or try to read it, will rarely, if ever, reshelve If thou lingerest when I linger. it as "just another book". If thou tread'st the stones I tread. Thou wilt stay my spirit's hunger But I hope that those of the second party, the And dispel the dreams I dread. "Saints and angels shield us, T itu s Groan!" sort, will not skip this column just because it concerns Titus. For Come thou, love, my own, my Only, I will intrude no demented fancies, nor, I hope, stir the Through the battlements of Groan; scent of decay. 1 am of the first party and love the Lingering becomes so lonely book, but I do not write as champion. I figure here as When one lingers on one's own. a pedant and dusty, bespectacled bibliographer. I have made a modest discovery and intend to elevate My th lo r e Primordial stuff. Anyway, I think it's catchy. with a Question as to Source. And whether or not one likes it, one would think it u n iq u e . Those who have read T itu s as far as the great odyssey of Steerpike across the roof of Gormenghast may But it isn't; not altogether. recall the recitation of the Poet at the turret window; Steerpike overhears him expounding this weird composition Let Me Linger and Other Poems is the title of a with its haunting refrain in soliloquy. I will not repeat collection of lyrics by Mrs. Mabel Ingalls Wescott. I have the poem entire - it can be found on pp. 147-8 of the called her a Connecticut Yankee for the sake of the Ballantine edition. A snatch will convey the meter and the heading; in fact she hailed from Vermont and set out fla v o r. her sugary baits for the muse in New Hampshire. 46 So my thoughts will ever linger where the If I use the word "poetess" I shall brand myself roses gently lean. as a sexist, but in fact no other word defines the lady And I'll rest beside the trellis, where no sound more precisely. Here is how her publishers the Meador can intervene. Publishing Co. expound her qualifications for the laurel: And the world may spin about me, but the spinning I'll not see, "Mrs. Wescott is a member of the Methodist Epis­ For the mighty wheels of commerce have no copal Church, the Order of Eastern Star, the Order of urge of time for me. White Shrine of Jerusalem, the Laconia Woman's Club, the Laconia Business and Professional Woman's Club, the Let Me Linger and Other Poems was published in National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Boston in 1937, nine years before Titus Groan a p p e a r e d Clubs; and a charter member of many Vermont clubs, in England.