"This book is planned according to a definite and balanced design. The form is contrapuntal throughout. Like a voice in a fugue each one of the main characters is an entirety in himself - but his personality takes on a new richness when contrasted and woven in with the other characters in the book."
-- McCullers (quoted by Fuller in "The Conventions of Fugue and Counterpoint")
It's difficult to doubt the musical influence of McCuller's novel - Mick's greatest weakness is the classical music on the radio; the first character's name is "Singer"; "She started on the same tune and said the same thing over and over..." (McCullers, 50); the list goes on.
Similarly, the presence of counterpoint and fugue is hard to ignore - the book's characters tell their stories in a very similar, repeating manner, much as a musical fugue repeats its components to create a new piece that is harmonically sound.
Take, for example, the fact that each chapter in part I begins with a description of the specific time of day: "On a black sultry night in early summer Biff Brennon stood...(13); "the sun woke Mick early..." (33); "late in the afternoon Jake Blount awoke...(53)". Similarly, in part II, each chapter (thus far) begins with a description of the season - "this summer was different..." (97) and "by October the days were blue and cool" (121)
Still, my question is whether or not these elements of counterpoint and fugue allow each character to "take on new richness" or blend them all into one. On the one hand, the similar yet different manners in which the characters act contrast to highlight each of their differences. Yet, on the other hand, much like a musical fugue, each individual part refrains from being it's own piece and begins to blend together in a conforming manner. Do the characters conform or stand out as a result of McCuller's musical composition?
I feel as if the characters are seperated as a result of McCuller's musical composition. While the various storylines are indeed interwoven into a fugue, and do occasionally overlap, they remain seperate.
ReplyDeleteIn a fugue, tho the base melody is repeated, it is accomplished with varying instruments, each with their own seperate tone, as is reflected by how each character in the story is given a voice by McCullers. As well, even though basic themes are repeated wihtout, the events of each individual chapter vary.
The very nature of a fugue divides up its components in such a way that even though similar events occur, they rarely do in a harmonious fashion, rather, any point of overlap is often discordant. The musical composition of the novel sets apart characters who could have been pulled together by common circumstance.
We rule at creative titles, George.
ReplyDeleteThere should be some textual evidence in these blogs... (from the articles and/or from THiaLH)
ReplyDeleteOops. Cited textual evidence?
ReplyDeleteI just mean direct quotes, either from the article you read or from the novel itself. The papers for Friday do not need to address the novel, and in fact, should not, but your papers due on the 11th should... how you use the blog is ultimately up to you, but I think that really examining at least ONE of these texts (article or novel) will provide for more engaging and useful blog discussion.
ReplyDeleteOK, because in both my post and my response I referred back to the article's ideas and points but did not utilize direct quotes.
ReplyDeleteI thought that your post had adequate textual evidence.
ReplyDeleteWhew.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKaare-
ReplyDeleteI found the same interest in this unique intertwinement of the highlighting and blending, that Fuller uses in her novel as what she calls 'fugue.' However, in my opinion, the answer lies in the discussion we had in class on Monday. I truly think that McCuller uses Fugue to juxtapose what other authors would call foiling. However, McCuller uses her form of fugue on the setting and the emotions of the novel rather than the characters themselves.
I am going to have to act as a fence sitter on answering this question, because I truly believe that the right answer lies in an in-between response.
I think that McCuller's use of fugue highlights the key parts of the book while blending the characters together. Seems like a pretty obvious answer, however I think that the support comes from looking deep into the setting of the text. We spoke about in our discussion on Monday the importance of the small town. Basically the small town acts as a restriction on networking and creates social boundaries for the people. The characters are not used to exploring or exceeding those boundaries, because it is out of their comfort zone. Therefore the characters are forced to find similarities between each other, in order to form a connection. When they are forcing the issue of finding similarities, they are highlighting their differences while attempting to blend their personalities together to form a fugue.
Do you see my point?
Yes, but this is George's blog.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am not George.
Or am I?