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You're
in your late twenties, you're
married to one of the most powerful industrialists/politicians in postwar Canada
(although you're now living apart), and your beautiful Harpy sister has just
died in a mysterious road accident. So what do you do? You publish
your sister's first and only novel, and watch as the vultures descend...
Margaret Atwood's Booker prize winning novel is
long and difficult to digest, a veritable seven course meal. It's taken
me a long time of reading and rereading to get my angle upon it. From the
start, everything seems relatively straightforward. You know what happens
to who, and where and when they died. The rest of the novel explores have
they got there. However, what's most interesting about this narrative is
that it does stray from the path, and ventures into the Wild Woods. When Atwood
won the Booker, she poignantly praised the work of Angela Carter, which
resounds in a small paragraph in the novel: "All stories are about
wolves". The Blind Assassin is very much a work of magic
realism. You need to have some background reading, starting off with
Dante's Inferno, especially Canto XIII. The Wood of the Suicides feature
the Harpies, and I believe these are symbolic of Laura's supposed
'hysteria'. Harpies are also known as 'The Robbers', and Laura is a
notorious klepto. Iris, our narrator, was also sister to the Harpies in
myth. The two young heroes in the pulp novel have the enter a wood which
supposedly has terrifying dead women in it. Laura is symbolised by the
suicide of Dido from the Aeneid. There's also the glorious Book of
Daniel, which recounts how Babylon fell overnight (which resounds in the pulp
novel too, including the victorious Assyrians' Code of Hammurabi).
Allied to this is the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward
Fitzgerald: "The Moving Finger writes" quote is a direct link to the
Book of Daniel and the Fall of Babylon. Add to these ingredients a
generous helping of the Pre-Raphaelites and Alfred Lord Tennyson, and you've
got the kind of novel that I love.
No doubt this will sound pretty daunting for
your average reader (I've compiled a page concerning the context of this novel
for interested readers). However, I think most people will be able to
enjoy this novel without all these references. On the other hand,
Margaret Atwood makes a big assumption that lots of people will know what the
Depression was like in Canada. Unfortunately, Roosevelt and his New Deal
are far more famous internationally than the ruthless 'Iron Heel' of
Canadian Prime Minister Richard Bennett. Canada had a devastating
Depression in the "Hungry Thirties", which was only fuelled by
Bennett's policy of setting up forced work camps. This suffering made
more people rally to the Communist Party of Canada under the leadership of Tim
Buck, and led to organised protests, such as the Ottawa Trek. This was
also the time of the 'Red Scare', the violent repression of 'pinkos' in North
America. It's worthwhile looking up the tragedy of Sacco and Vanzetti,
and the deportation of Emma Goldman in order to really
appreciate Alex's flight. Alex symbolises the many Canadian
Communists who fought in the Spanish Civil War. However, Iris and Laura
are cocooned in Avilion, and you don't really get to see anyone starving in The
Blind Assassin to get any sense of this context, so probably Alex's cause is
lost on a lot of readers.
The only fault of the novel is openly
acknowledged within Laura's narration: "I've failed to convey Richard, in
any rounded sense. He remains a cardboard cutout." Due to the
plot of the novel, Richard's most significant actions are always clandestine,
off-camera. The only factual error I can find in the novel also revolves
around him: "He was a frequent participant in the Pugwash
conferences" we're told in his obituary at the beginning of the
novel. Yet Richard died in 1947, and the Pugwash Conferences started in 1957
- the only way that Richard could have atteended would have been as a
manifestation of Banquo. Since the Pugwash Conferences were devised
to bring around world peace, Richard (who's profited so much from his
pugilistic attitude and the Second World War), seems a most unlikely candidate
for membership. Margaret Atwood can't have too much of a liking for the
legendary King Arthur on this evidence, but it's poetic justice that Richard's
Excalibur is thrown away, never to see the light of day again.
All in all, this is a very enjoyable novel,
and Atwood deserves the Booker prize (even if I think
Matthew Kneale's
English Passengers was
slightly better). John Buchan, author of The Thirty-nine Steps, makes a
cameo appearance towards the end in his more formal role as Lord Tweedsmuir,
Governor General of Canada at the start of the fall of the British
Empire. The narrative also concerns the Fall of the House of Chase.
Norval Chase commits an unforgivable act of patriarchy when he sees the writing
on the wall, and submits his daughter to the veil. Just like Belshazzar,
he cannot avoid his fate, especially when faced with the mercurial Richard
Griffen as adversary. Laura finally finds her voice after years of
numbness, but at what price? The house of the Patriarch is falling (which
is only just), but Margaret Atwood is courageous enough to question what has
taken its place.
Authortrek Rating: 9/10
Kevin Patrick Mahoney
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Atwood page, for Margaret Atwood biography, Margaret Atwood bibliography,
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There now
follows a series of links related to the cultural context of the novel:
Persia 1800-1830 -
a mention of Agha Mohammed Khan
The Double Hook by Sheila Watson -
a description of this novel
History of Colonel Edmund Phinney's
Eighteenth Continental Regiment - a mention of the
original Fort Ticonderoga
The Lifted Veil by George Elliot mentions a Water Nixie
and is the tale of a troublesome marriage
Pugwash Conferences - this is the only factual error I can find in The Blind
Assassin. Atwood writes in Richard's 1947 obituary that he was "a
frequent participant in the Pugwash Conferences". However, the
Pugwash conferences were first held in 1957 - ten years after Richard's death.
"The purpose of the Pugwash Conferences is to
bring together, from around the world, influential scholars and public figures
concerned with reducing the danger of armed conflict and seeking cooperative
solutions for global problems" - that doesn't sound like Richard either!
The Granite Club History -
established 1875, so Richard could have been a member
History of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club
The Code of
Hammurabi - part of the Babylonian aspect of The Blind Assassin
O Canada -
with the French version as well
Strawberry Thief Images - William Morris -
no home should be without Morris. What the decoration in Avilion would
have looked like
Legends - King Arthur - Tristan and Iseult
Sir Mackenzie Bowell -
bio
Sir Charles Tupper -
bio
Norval on the Credit
- a
possible real location for Fort Ticonderoga? Norval is the first name of
Iris's father
Greek Mythology Reference - Iris
The Origin of the Rainbow -
starring Iris
The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies
and the Suicides by William Blake - in myth, Iris is sister
to the Harpies. Laura, her sister, commits suicide. There's also
the Wood full of Harpy-like beings in the Blind Assassin pulp novel
Forest of Harpies by John Flaxman
Note that The
Harpies are known as the 'Robbers' - Laura has a tendency to pocket things
which don't belong to her
Dante's Canto XIII: The Wood of the Suicides -
this scenario would be familiar to the blind assassin and co
Richard Bedford Bennett -
Prime Minister of Canada during the Depression, despite his mean reputation as
Prime Minister, Bennett was actually quite generous in private - but this
doesn't really make up for his harsh policies
The CAW - the Birth and Transformation of a
Union - it's crucial for an understanding on The Blind
Assassin to know that Canada have a very bad Depression - "While President
F.D. Roosevelt was introducing unemployment insurance, massive job-creating
public works programs, and labour legislation supporting unions, Prime Minister
R.B. Bennett was setting up forced work camps which paid twenty cents per day
to single young workers. While the governor of Michigan, Frank Murphy, was
refusing to use the National Guard against the strikers in Flint, the premier
of Ontario, Mitch Hepburn, was threatening to establish his own army if the
federal government wouldn’t provide troops. And it was in the United States rather
than in Canada that the largest demonstrations of the unemployed and the most
militant actions of those fighting for unionization took
place." See also the lines from Carl Sandburg - sounds
like a speech which could have been given to the People of Joy
On to Ottawa Trek: the "Hungry
Thirties" Relief camps - this is what Richard
supported, and Alex opposed in The Blind Assassin
The Gallant Cause - Canadians in the Spanish
Civil War - Alex wasn't the only Canadian Communist to
fight in the Spanish Civil War. This link mentions Tim Buck, the relief
camps and the Ottawa trek
Unemployed Movements of the 1930s -
talks of violent repression, of the fearsome 'Red Squads', section 98, and
'Iron Heel' Bennett
William Wordsworth’s “The Daffodils” - this is the poem
that Alex so willfully perverts
Tropic of Cancer -
possibly what the explicitly shocking blind assassin, acknowledged to
Laura, is based upon
In Flanders Fields by John McCrae
The Song my Paddle Sings by
E. Pauline Johnson
Mariana by Sir John Everett Millais -
featuring a verse from Tennyson
Mariana in the Moated Grange -
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Break, Break, Break -
by Alfred Lord Tennyson - these words come back to haunt Iris later on in the
novel
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough
The New Omar by G. K. Chesteron -
a humorous adaptation
Omar Khayyam
- the
story of an astounding life
Edward Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam -
Iris puzzles over Fitzgerald's contribution to the Rubiayat. This site
goes some way to explaining
Henry Layard and the Kings of Assyria
The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires 911-539
BC - mentions the Israelites ('the People of Joy'?),
Hammurabi, and the fall of Babylon from the Book of Daniel: "Belshazzar
king of Babylon was feasting, and drinking with his wives and concubines form
the gold goblets taken from the temple at Jerusalem when {Daniel 5:5-7}
"suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of
the wall MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN," words which prophesied
his downfall"
The Fall of Babylon -
used in the composition of the pulp novel in The Blind Assassin
The Moving Finger Writes -
you begin to realise the complexity of Atwood's novel when you realise that
this Rhubaiyat quote refers to Daniel and his account of the Fall of Babylon
Boston Cooking School Cookbooks
The Winged Victory of Samothrace -
this is what it's supposed to look like - Iris comments unfavorably on a woman
who doesn't have the physique to wear a dress based on this model
Break, break, break -
these words come back to haunt Iris after her marriage to Richard. It's
interesting to note what caused Tennyson to write the poem
Excelsior by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Legacy of Sacco and Vanzetti -
how the innocent suffered during the North American Red Scare, Alex fears being
set up, as these two guys were
The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti in Cartoons
from the Daily Worker
Sacco and Vanzetti -
one of the authors of this article, Emma Goldman, is mentioned in The Blind
Assassin in her own right
Anarchy in Intrepretation: the Life of Emma
Goldman
Anarchism's Greatest Hits: Emma Goldman
An Anarchist looks at Life - Emma Goldman
Artemisia, Renaissance Baroque artist -
one of the publisher's of Laura's novel is named after this artist
Djuna Barnes -
is the one of the novelists who Artemisia presume influenced Laura, as was:
“Twelfth Night” is the source of "Journeys end in
lovers meeting"
Song of the Abyssinian Maid from Kubla Khan by
Coleridge - an intriguing interpretation
Ships of State: Queen Mary Service Career -
signalled the end of Britain's Depression
Lord
Tweedsmuir of Elsfield - he was Governor General of Canada, but most famous
for being the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps -
John Buchan
Keep the Home-Fires Burning -
the lyrics
Cafe Scene: Diana Sweets - this is the name of the
Cafe where Iris last meets Laura - this is what it may have looked like -
however demolist mentions
that Diana Sweets in Toronto was demolished in the 90s
Robert Fulford's column about Toronto and
Margaret Atwood
|
Visit
our Margaret
Atwood page, for Margaret Atwood biography, Margaret Atwood bibliography,
Margaret Atwood articles, Margaret Atwood interviews, Margaret Atwood reading
guides, and free Margaret Arwood essays |
