luka

Well-known member
What I'm now beginning to suspect, thanks to Jenks, is that there is a shadow Dickens, impossibly cynical
 

luka

Well-known member
And the supposition is giving great weight to the books. I think there is another that writes against him and that this is the Dickens that drops wanking hints
 

luka

Well-known member
And to solve the case you must answer who is the greater Dickens the Dickens who is in contempt of his audience or no
 

jenks

thread death
And this is a Dickens perpetually in revolt.
I think that probably is true. By the time you get to Out Mutual Friend you can see it out in the open.
He is cyclical about power and about organised religion and easy hypocrisy. He is cynical about fine words and legal judgements but he is not cynical about the great body of humanity and the value of each person’s life. He cares about Jo the crossing sweeper in Bleak House and Barkis and Mr Dick and all the other odd bods who make up life.
But yes there probably is a Dickens writing across and behind Dickens - I like that idea a lot.
 

jenks

thread death
And to solve the case you must answer who is the greater Dickens the Dickens who is in contempt of his audience or no
Does it need solving or can both be held in a kind of double bond, working for and also against each other?
 

luka

Well-known member
There is a Dickens as you say, very well , writing across and behind, and it took me all of hard times and almost all of DC to notice him, and they work together and establish something very ambiguous and perturbing
 

luka

Well-known member
I can't recommend reading Dickens enough. I don't think anyone can introduce you to these issues as violently
 

catalog

Well-known member
I'm about 300 pages into bleak house. It's requiring a bit of discipline, but when I get going with it, it's very readable. I feel like he's setting off a load of stories that are slowly winding together tighter and tighter. You get a bit more character with each round and after a while, the world gets built.

And I like his various voices and the fact he mixes up the spellings for the accents and how different people talk. Nothing so far to match that opening famous couple of pages, about the smog, but I really love that bit.
 

jenks

thread death
I'm about 300 pages into bleak house. It's requiring a bit of discipline, but when I get going with it, it's very readable. I feel like he's setting off a load of stories that are slowly winding together tighter and tighter. You get a bit more character with each round and after a while, the world gets built.

And I like his various voices and the fact he mixes up the spellings for the accents and how different people talk. Nothing so far to match that opening famous couple of pages, about the smog, but I really love that bit.
The architecture of that novel is something else - the crisscrossing of lives seemingly unconnected - as much as I love Great Expectations, I think Bleak House might be his greatest achievement.
 

jenks

thread death
I'm about 300 pages into bleak house. It's requiring a bit of discipline, but when I get going with it, it's very readable. I feel like he's setting off a load of stories that are slowly winding together tighter and tighter. You get a bit more character with each round and after a while, the world gets built.

And I like his various voices and the fact he mixes up the spellings for the accents and how different people talk. Nothing so far to match that opening famous couple of pages, about the smog, but I really love that bit.
In Our Mutual Friend one of the characters says ‘He do the police in different voices’ or words to that effect, which was going to be the original title of The Wasteland by Eliot.
 

catalog

Well-known member
There's a good bit in one of the early chapters at sir Leicesters posh house, where you get an intimation of what's to come, as lady dedlock and tulkingham are eyeing one another up.

it's a weird moment cos this other overarching voice comes in, that's new, and he talks about how they're each wondering what the other is wondering. Good bit to just keep you wondering yourself whats going on
 
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