Ben Seeman
Dr Moseley
Art of the Novel
4/03/06
The pleasure of anticipation
Is Flaubert Buddhist? Would Emma have been better off if instead of dwelling in the pleasure of anticipation she had enjoyed the fleeting moments?
What does literature say about life, that it is enjoyed in fleeting moments? The rain drops on a cloak. The flowers we can see as that they are beautiful live and then fade into memory which will never be as vivid as the experience. The present is where things happen.
Flaubert creates a presence for us in the book. But then why is the presence in Emma’s books not as good? Flaubert’s realism? Or does he concede illusions on top of illusions? Is Emma a complicated prose koan?
Why does Flaubert have to be Buddhist? We know he had a budda on his desk. We know he had moments in his work. The concept of epiphany, of eureka, of satori is not tied to one meta-narrative and can be taken out and used at will.
I think Julian Barnes may have found that and wants to suggest it. The use of chronology reminds me off Siddhartha
If we consider the idea of illusions
Flaubert wants to make the most realistic book possible not because he thinks he can make the book real (he doesn’t intend for us to live in the book), but the more realistic the book the more he thinks he can helps us understand the world. The illusion of the book is used to address other illusions and this reminded me of had read recently,
"Therefore, what I say is false, but true, because I speak of That. The address is false but when you reach the goal, it is Reality. In the same way, all the scriptures and the philosophical books are meant only to indicate that point, and when you reach it they become non-existent, empty. Words are false; only the meaning they convey is true. They are illusion, but they give a meaning. Therefore, All Is Illusion, but to understand the illusion, illusion is needed. For example, to remove a thorn in your finger you use another thorn; then you throw both of them away. But if you keep the second thorn which was used to remove the first one, you'll surely be stuck again." - Shri Ranjit Maharaj
Emma’s problem is that she is not learning, she is not in the moment she is no self reflesive. She thinks only of wants and the promises of the book she read. There is nothing wrong with them perse but by not being realistic they create a world with different sign posts so when emma tries to get to happiness she gets lost. The romances promise a constant state of bliss that she does not find and then assumes the marriage is wrong.
The anticipation of pleasure (Barnes, P15) when you look forward to something for a long time and then it occurs what do you have? You have the memory of the event but you can no longer anticipate it. Therefore you must find something else to anticipate. Emma concentrates on anticipating what will make her happy instead of what she would need to be happy there. We cannot change Emma nor can we expect her to suddenly take up a philosophy from half way across the world. Flaubert could have introduced a book from a passerby. But he didn’t. What purpose does Emma serve as she is made? Contrast her with Charles? Though a dolt, he enjoys moments, the fire, the food, taking off his boots. We cannot compare lives nor even enjoyment of them but would you rather be content then always wanting?
What is this search for the parrot? Could it be a search for truth? Truth that is varied in expression and colored by experience yet still an experience?
Your mania for sentences has dried up your heart. Mme Flaubert, G found it sublime.
Spent time in the orient. Came back a realist. P156
But can we trust these quotes? And taken out of context do they mean anything?
p159 barnes through his character says, “who needs whom more: the disciple the master or the master the disciple? Discuss without concluding.” This reminded me very much of the idea of a koan, “a story, dialog, question, or statement in the history and lore of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet that may be accessible to intuition.(wikipedia)” Barnes did not werite a koan but it is close. It may be understood rationally but not elegantly expressed. Philosophy shows that when ideas are attempted to be expressed directly the result is often clunky and difficult to read whereas a well written story can give the same idea by showing it in action instead of telling it. Because
consider why is a raven like a writing desk. A literature koan that people have answered in the same fashion, “Because there is a B in both and an N in neither.” Aldous Huxley, 1928
One of my point is not that Flaubert is a zen buddist. It is rather that he approaches the same thing, how to best live ones life and help others, obliquely yet arrives in a simaler spot. Realism is not reality.
For what would the moment of finding le mot juste be but a momentary flash of enlightenment? A small flash but then again that is all we get?
What is signal and what is noise?
A monk asked Tung Shan, "What is Buddha?" Tung Shan said, "Three pounds of flax".
Is the cannon then our koans? There are questions that we cannot answer. Is it better to do this or that? But in thinking about the questions we gain something.
What are we to make of this, “To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless.”
Work Cited
Flaubert’s Parrot, Julian Barnes standard bookstore edition
Madam Bovary, G. Flaubert, Translated by Geoffry Wall 1992 (Julian Barnes calls this a masterpiece)
From: D.T. Suzuki's An Introduction to Zen Buddhism:
Satori is the sudden flashing into consciousness of
a new truth hitherto undreamed of. It is a sort of mental
catastrophe taking place all at once, after much piling up of
matters intellectual and demonstrative. The piling has reached a
limit of stability and the whole edifice has come tumbling to the
ground, when, behold, a new heaven is open to full survey. When
the freezing point is reached, water suddenly turns into ice;
the liquid has suddenly turned into a solid body and no
more flows freely. Satori comes upon a man unawares, when he
feels that he has exhausted his whole being. Religiously, it is a
new birth; intellectually, it is the acquiring of a new viewpoint.
The world now appears as if dressed in a new garment, which seems
to cover up all the unsightliness of dualism, which is called
delusion in Buddhist phraseology."
Both quotes are from this site which is down today.
http://sped2work.tripod.com/satori.html
origin of koan definition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koan
Dr Moseley
Art of the Novel
4/03/06
The pleasure of anticipation
Is Flaubert Buddhist? Would Emma have been better off if instead of dwelling in the pleasure of anticipation she had enjoyed the fleeting moments?
What does literature say about life, that it is enjoyed in fleeting moments? The rain drops on a cloak. The flowers we can see as that they are beautiful live and then fade into memory which will never be as vivid as the experience. The present is where things happen.
Flaubert creates a presence for us in the book. But then why is the presence in Emma’s books not as good? Flaubert’s realism? Or does he concede illusions on top of illusions? Is Emma a complicated prose koan?
Why does Flaubert have to be Buddhist? We know he had a budda on his desk. We know he had moments in his work. The concept of epiphany, of eureka, of satori is not tied to one meta-narrative and can be taken out and used at will.
I think Julian Barnes may have found that and wants to suggest it. The use of chronology reminds me off Siddhartha
If we consider the idea of illusions
Flaubert wants to make the most realistic book possible not because he thinks he can make the book real (he doesn’t intend for us to live in the book), but the more realistic the book the more he thinks he can helps us understand the world. The illusion of the book is used to address other illusions and this reminded me of had read recently,
"Therefore, what I say is false, but true, because I speak of That. The address is false but when you reach the goal, it is Reality. In the same way, all the scriptures and the philosophical books are meant only to indicate that point, and when you reach it they become non-existent, empty. Words are false; only the meaning they convey is true. They are illusion, but they give a meaning. Therefore, All Is Illusion, but to understand the illusion, illusion is needed. For example, to remove a thorn in your finger you use another thorn; then you throw both of them away. But if you keep the second thorn which was used to remove the first one, you'll surely be stuck again." - Shri Ranjit Maharaj
Emma’s problem is that she is not learning, she is not in the moment she is no self reflesive. She thinks only of wants and the promises of the book she read. There is nothing wrong with them perse but by not being realistic they create a world with different sign posts so when emma tries to get to happiness she gets lost. The romances promise a constant state of bliss that she does not find and then assumes the marriage is wrong.
The anticipation of pleasure (Barnes, P15) when you look forward to something for a long time and then it occurs what do you have? You have the memory of the event but you can no longer anticipate it. Therefore you must find something else to anticipate. Emma concentrates on anticipating what will make her happy instead of what she would need to be happy there. We cannot change Emma nor can we expect her to suddenly take up a philosophy from half way across the world. Flaubert could have introduced a book from a passerby. But he didn’t. What purpose does Emma serve as she is made? Contrast her with Charles? Though a dolt, he enjoys moments, the fire, the food, taking off his boots. We cannot compare lives nor even enjoyment of them but would you rather be content then always wanting?
What is this search for the parrot? Could it be a search for truth? Truth that is varied in expression and colored by experience yet still an experience?
Your mania for sentences has dried up your heart. Mme Flaubert, G found it sublime.
Spent time in the orient. Came back a realist. P156
But can we trust these quotes? And taken out of context do they mean anything?
p159 barnes through his character says, “who needs whom more: the disciple the master or the master the disciple? Discuss without concluding.” This reminded me very much of the idea of a koan, “a story, dialog, question, or statement in the history and lore of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet that may be accessible to intuition.(wikipedia)” Barnes did not werite a koan but it is close. It may be understood rationally but not elegantly expressed. Philosophy shows that when ideas are attempted to be expressed directly the result is often clunky and difficult to read whereas a well written story can give the same idea by showing it in action instead of telling it. Because
consider why is a raven like a writing desk. A literature koan that people have answered in the same fashion, “Because there is a B in both and an N in neither.” Aldous Huxley, 1928
One of my point is not that Flaubert is a zen buddist. It is rather that he approaches the same thing, how to best live ones life and help others, obliquely yet arrives in a simaler spot. Realism is not reality.
For what would the moment of finding le mot juste be but a momentary flash of enlightenment? A small flash but then again that is all we get?
What is signal and what is noise?
A monk asked Tung Shan, "What is Buddha?" Tung Shan said, "Three pounds of flax".
Is the cannon then our koans? There are questions that we cannot answer. Is it better to do this or that? But in thinking about the questions we gain something.
What are we to make of this, “To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless.”
Work Cited
Flaubert’s Parrot, Julian Barnes standard bookstore edition
Madam Bovary, G. Flaubert, Translated by Geoffry Wall 1992 (Julian Barnes calls this a masterpiece)
From: D.T. Suzuki's An Introduction to Zen Buddhism:
Satori is the sudden flashing into consciousness of
a new truth hitherto undreamed of. It is a sort of mental
catastrophe taking place all at once, after much piling up of
matters intellectual and demonstrative. The piling has reached a
limit of stability and the whole edifice has come tumbling to the
ground, when, behold, a new heaven is open to full survey. When
the freezing point is reached, water suddenly turns into ice;
the liquid has suddenly turned into a solid body and no
more flows freely. Satori comes upon a man unawares, when he
feels that he has exhausted his whole being. Religiously, it is a
new birth; intellectually, it is the acquiring of a new viewpoint.
The world now appears as if dressed in a new garment, which seems
to cover up all the unsightliness of dualism, which is called
delusion in Buddhist phraseology."
Both quotes are from this site which is down today.
http://sped2work.tripod.com/satori.html
origin of koan definition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koan