Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (Ophelia), 2001
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Suppose I blame you as the evil principle that has a hostile effect on my coffee?
In “The Sandman” Nathanial is dillusional in his letters and later in his behavior at the university after he purchases the telescope from Coppolla. Nathanial believes and sees only what he wants to see. With Clara, claiming her as not the sharpest pencil in the box, in his second letter to Lothaire because she obviously wrote intelligently not because she can, but because Lothaire had lectured to her and she regurgitated his thoughts. Nathanial also ‘thrusting Clara from him, cried: 'Oh, inanimate, accursed automaton!', which clearly doesn’t relate to her cheerful and childlike disposition. Ironically, Nathanial believes Olympia to be of sound mind and to be absolutely radiant even though he can feel her coldness. Nathanial is in a very manic state when he falls in love with Olympia and beleives her stiffness and silence to be adoration. He seems to put all of his desires into her and then see them come out of her. But Spalanzani reveals after Olympia is stolen that the eyes were stolen from him. When were his eyes taken? As a child? Is that why he sees Clara in a different nature than she actually is before he gets the telescope. Or are Nathanials eyes stolen when he buys the telescope? Coppolla does call the telescopes and spectacles pretty eyes.
Brenda
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To fully understand “On the Marionette Theater” the reader must keep in mind the philosophies of German Romanticism. From what I have learned the German Romantics primarily grappled with the rift between reason and feeling. The lack of harmony between the world of logic and the world of beauty haunted thinkers such as Kleist, Kant, Goethe, and Hölderlin. Each writer tried to present ideas, which correlated or responded to this problem. Rich characters, complex situational examples, and poetic metaphors are some ways these writers communicated their thoughts. Although all the thinkers in this movement dealt with the same issues each had their own multifaceted take on it.
In terms of Kleist; the rift manifested in the story dealing with actions between humans and other things in the world. Talking about pure forms, such as God, puppets, animals, and art, we see the differences humans have and the problems that surface because of this. Animals and puppets have the harmony with the world because they act subconsciously (or in the case of puppets with no thought at all). God and art have this harmony with the world because they have surpassed the rift (of feeling and reason) onto a whole new level of enlightened harmony.
What is trying to be illustrated in this story is the analysis of action in relationship to reasoning of humans. Actions are flawed by all people Kleist is saying; yet there is still hope to at some point reach another level of harmony. Human kind should not try to go back into the state of unreasoning but to rise above their current state. With further work will lead people to again marry science and art.
In other works of German Romanticism the idea that the pursuit of mending the rift is what drive art. This might be difficult to think about in terms of just this story “On the Marionette Theater” but certainly a interesting idea to consider for artists in general. Also in relationship to the topic of dolls from this class one might consider what role the child has whilst playing with a doll and how that might correspond as acting like a certain god. Also consider how dolls are portrayed in art. What do they symbolize for you? Then relate your answer in terms of a German Romantic and see what you find.
((---April))
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The Uncanny
Freud's essay on the uncanny is an attempt at uncovering the origin of what makes us feel disturbed, whether the stimulus be found in fiction or reality. he gives many examples from literature of instances that give the reader a sense of unease that's difficult to place. One example he uses is from a story called "the sandman" in which a boy is told that there is a man who invades children's rooms during the night and that if he finds that they haven't fallen asleep, pours sand into their eyes, which irritates the eyes so much that they pop right out of their sockets. The sandman then takes the eyes back to his home, the half-moon, and feeds them to his own owl beaked children. To Freud, this has an archetypal significance in that he believes that the eyes are associated with male genitals, and the loss of the eyes to castration. Here, Freud postulates that many instances of the "uncanny" emotion are derived from events in a story or real life, which remind one of an infantile emotion that had been repressed but has now resurfaced in a disguised form.
Other incidents that may conjure this eerie feeling are times when one encounters the same thing many times in a row and feels this too strange to be mere coincidence. For example, that jim carey movie (i haven't seen it but assume he sees "the number 23" everywhere). Another phenomenon that induces this feeling is what one of Freud's patient's termed the "omnipotent thought" in which one thinks something or wishes something to occur and it does. This circumstance is decidedly removed from self-fulfilling prophecies, paradoxical intents etc. in that the event wished for or thought of is completely remote from the thinker himself and is, according to all presumed logic, entirely out of his control. Synchronicity is the ultimate example of this phenomenon. Also mentioned are the ideas of inanimate objects coming to life, ghosts, and the rising of the dead. Freud also discusses how, in fiction, the affect of the uncanny will not arise unless it is set in a world which the reader takes to be more realistic than fantastic, and that this is the reason why, usually, fairy tales are not disturbing but endearing.
Robert
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I wonder what systems of logic and reasoning convinced Freud that the fear of losing one's eyes is actually a fear of losing one's penis. That is not my real question. I was just curious about that strange concept.
However, I do agree that a fear of losing one's eyes can be a misplaced fear of something else. At a young age Nathanial lost his father. Which is a very tramatic experiance that can create serious, long lasting problems in a person's life. Treating Nathanial like a real human and not a character in a story for a second, could Nathanial's love for an elaborately made doll be a way of running from pain? If he falls in love with an inanimate object, he would propably not need to fear losing another loved one. Could his love for Olympia be an attempt to not let the pain of his past happen twice in his life? If that is the case, how ironic that Nathanial lost Olympia to the same man who possibly killed his father.
Elan
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Although taking place almost 200 years apart the similarities between E.T.A. Hoffman’s “Der Sandmann” and David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” are, in a word, uncanny. Sorry, I had to say it, however, both of these works do indeed provoke very similar responses and feelings from those who experience them. A certain unsettling atmosphere pervades both the short story and television series creating, not exactly a feeling of horror, but something more bizarre and mysterious, something Freud would liken to the uncanny. Both stories mix reality with a concoction of the normal with the paranormal, the real with the imaginary, until the reader is disoriented and uncertain of really what to believe and what to not. Hoffman and Lynch achieve this pervasive quality by employing fairly similar tactics and I will now go on to point out a few of the similarities, also as a guide I will use Freud’s “The Uncanny” and the notion of the “Heimlich” to draw comparisons between the two. First, and possibly most fundamental, these are both works of fiction, and operate under Freud’s pretense for the uncanny within the fiction, in that they are not fantastical, but believable as reality and in turn keep the reader uncertain as to what to believe as real and what to believe as fantastical. Also, both situations can be equated to, what Freud believes uncanny to be a derivative of, Heimlich or more specifically Heimlich in reference to the home, or something intimate and friendly. David Lynch chooses Twin Peaks a quaint, small town in the state of Washington, a town most would consider charming, comfortable, and possibly even a good place to raise a family. However, the town reveals it’s true yearnings with the death of Laura Palmer and many dealings, which were once repressed, become exposed. This could easily be likened to Freud’s usage of Schelling’s definition of unheimlich as “something that ought to have remained secret and hidden, but has come to light.” (4) In “Der Sandmann” this could be likened to Nathaniel’s repressed memory of discovering Coppelius to be the Sandman who penetrates the Heimlich of Nathaniel’s home and possibly even his mind at the same time.
Freud’s attribution of the uncanny to individuals is also of great importance in both works of fiction. Freud states, after Nathaniel’s discovery of Coppelius as the Sandman, “Hoffman already leaves in doubt whether what we are witnessing is tee first delirium of the panic stricken boy, or a succession of events which are to be regarded in the story as being real.” (6) I would go on further to say that I believe viewings of Coppelius to signal Nathaniel’s mental collapse, and possibly even as a representation of Nathaniel’s inner demons. In “Twin Peaks” this can be likened to the mysterious character of “Bob” who is eventually blamed for the murder of Laura Palmer, and believed to be a spirit who latches on to individuals and a personification of pure evil. “Bob” is eventually discovered to be Leland Palmer, Laura’s father, who in much the same fashion as Nathaniel is overcome by feelings of pure insanity and is transformed into “Bob”. However the audience is never certain if “Bob” is Leland or indeed a vagrant evil spirit. Interestingly enough when Bob murders Laura he leaves a note at the scene of the crime, “Fire walk with me” which could be likened to the end of the “The Sandman” when Nathaniel attempts to throw Clara off the Steeple of Town Hall, while proclaiming “Circle of Fire’spin round’ spin round!” before leaping to his death. These sudden bouts of madness are indeed one of the most similar aspects of both stories and although both are eventually somewhat resolved an uncertainty remains as to the cause and the source, whether the men are indeed mad or inhabited by demons.
Within both the stories there are also instances of animism, or the attribution of a soul to non-human qualities, but operate in very different senses. In Hoffman’s work this lies within Ophelia an automaton Nathaniel believes to be an actual woman. In Twin Peaks, animism is attributed to a piece of wood, a woman called the Log lady yields, and is believed to be prophetic. The uncertainty lies in the fact that log does predict things correctly although cryptically and vague, is the woman a surrogate for the log’s prophetic animistic nature or is the log a surrogate for the woman’s mystical powers?
Kevin
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