Agung S. Ongko
Warning from Ms Chia: Don't plagiarise. Not that you can anyway as this won't be coming out again.
VJC H2 LITERATURE
Practical Criticism of Angel Pavement
Write a critical appreciation of the passage, showing in what ways it is characteristic of the modern period.
There are many layers of the passage that indicate its close association to the modern period – a time that marked the world’s transition from the Victorian era to the troubled 20th century. This essay shall demonstrate how the passage is characteristic of this period, by paying particular attention to the themes explored, the characterisation, as well as the style employed by the writer.
The modern period is often linked to the rejection of social norms, conventions, and values that used to be held by the older generation of the 19th century. By dissecting the majestic façade of the tea‐house, this passage expresses the same disapproval of the vulgar hedonism that used to be the hallmark of the late Victorian and Edwardian society. The artificiality of the glamour is first implied by the ‘crazy‐coloured fountains of illumination’, which painted over the ‘blue dusk’ with ‘green and crimson fire’. The natural blue hues of the night sky are distorted by the wild combination of colourful lights, suggesting that the apparent wonders of the tea‐house are actually far removed from nature and the reality. In this case, lights, which are supposed to be a source of lucidity that dispels doubts and uncertainties, become exactly the thing that deceives human senses and perceptions. This light touch of irony at the beginning of the passage already creates an ominous sense of vagueness about the tea‐house; it seems to forewarn the readers of the negative undertones that lie beneath all the hyperbolical descriptions that follow.
The magnificent tea‐house functions as a microcosmic manifestation of the society. As its multiple layers gradually unfold in the paragraph, more of the thoughtless excesses of the society are also revealed. At first, the tea‐house is seen as ‘a white palace with ten thousand lights’, but afterwards, it is also described as the ‘outpost’ of a ‘new barbarism’, and a ‘careless profusion of luxury’. Then, as we go deeper into the tea‐house, behind all the lights and the dizzying luxury, its pomp and fanfare (‘ten thousand lights and acres of white napery…the cauldrons of stewed steak’), we find as the essence of the place a group of men who deal with ‘fractions of a farthing’. This seems to illustrate the absence of a spirit or a soul at the heart of this rich society, a lack of any substantial paradigm that underlies its people and their relationships with each other. As we approach the core of the society, we realise that its fantastic and colourful surface is reduced to mere trivia, an absolute emptiness. Indeed, this crowded tea‐house ‘steamed with humanity’, where it possibly boils over and then evaporates altogether from the place.
The modern period also sees the development of a certain aversion towards industrialism among the artistic community, including writers. This is especially so, as the dawn of industrial advancement and mechanisation was considered to be anti‐humanist, being primarily, if not solely, concerned with workers’ efficiency and, to quite a large extent, depriving humans of other pursuits related to the arts or spiritual development. While this theme is not explored in great detail in the passage, Turgis’s disdain of lifts and his preference for the staircase appear to point quite sharply at the issue; these seem to be potent metaphors for the rejection of industrialism and mechanisation.
Apart from suggesting the above opposition against industrialism, the passage also implies another major phenomenon that occurred during the modern period – the departure from positivistic empiricism and in turn, the acceptance of relativist thinking. The portrayal of a banal routine in the kitchen of the tea‐house as a scientific process, complete with mundane descriptions of a waitress’s physical condition like those in health surveys (‘five‐feet four in height and in average health’), results in a mockery of the precision of the positivistic approach to scientific inquiry. Using phrases like ‘given weight’, and repeating expressions like ‘how many units’ and ‘how many minutes and seconds’, the writer highlights the approach’s obsession with certainty and fixed quantities, which runs in counter with relativism and the increasingly popular concept then of entropy – that the world moves naturally towards a state of chaos and disorder.
The acceptance of relativism is also specifically expressed in the juxtaposition of activities in the upper storeys and the basement of the tea‐house. While ‘a warm sensuous vulgar life’ goes on in the former, ‘cold science’ works in the latter. This emphasises the fact that how the tea‐house appears is largely dependent on one’s viewpoint; from the perspective of a waitress working in the basement, the tea‐house is simply another industrial factory, but from Turgis’s perspective, the tea‐house is a dreamland (‘high midsummer of confectionery’) that offers him ‘all the enchantment of unfamiliar luxury’. In other words, the contradiction in the tea‐house is actually an acknowledgment of relativism’s place in the modern period, an affirmation that perspective plays a significant role in determining what and how we know.
The character in the passage, Turgis, also distinctively belongs to the modern period. As a delusional dreamer, he seeks to indulge in the ephemeral pleasures of the tea‐house (a transitory ‘railway station’), and continues to be overwhelmed by his own imagination that he is well‐to‐do. The writer suggests that Turgis perhaps thinks of his arrival at the tea‐house as an occasion more momentous than even the looting of ‘whole kingdoms’ and the conquest of ‘half the known world’, and this delusion is further accentuated by the pause between the third and fourth paragraphs. Before directly mentioning that the tea‐house ‘was built for a great many other people too’, the writer actually dedicates a paragraph to express that ‘the place was built for him [Turgis]’, underlining the ironic lie that Turgis probably tells himself.
Yet, even with the high hopes and dreams that he harbours, Turgis is still very much a lone character who is subject to whatever fate deals him in the wildly indulgent society. ‘There was no picking and choosing your [his] company at the table’, and he ‘had to take the seat they offered you [him]’. Ultimately, in Turgis’s journey to seek enjoyment and find meaning in his interaction with the society, he has to directly confront its excesses and paradoxical hollowness, as personified exactly by the people with whom he shares the table – the two ‘stout’, ‘voluble’ middle‐aged lady, and the middle‐aged man who ‘would shrink to nothing but spectacles, a nose, a collar, and a pair of boots’. Indeed, the challenges of the modern period are reflected by the characters in this passage and their experience.
In terms of writing style, this passage is characteristic of the modern period, as it is unadorned by 19th century sentimentalism, which normally entails emotionally‐charged diction and characterisation. Such rejection of sentimentalism is actually done by modernist writers to establish some distance from their writings, and maintain the objectivity of their voices. The descriptions of the tea‐house in this passage are very vivid, but in general, they merely evoke a sense of awe and amazement – sentiments that are not particularly personal, even rather distant, in nature. In the same way, there is also little evidence of much attempt at all on the writer’s part to specifically win our sympathy, or any other strong emotions for that matter, for Turgis. Other than drawing our attention to Turgis’s unluckiness in the last paragraph, the writer maintains a certain emotional distance from the passage. In other words, the writer’s subjectivity does not significantly intrude on our experience of the passage.
The modernists’ desire to remain objective in their writings also translates to the use of external means, including any objects and situations outside of their characters, to explore these characters’ individual subjectivity. This method is evident in the passage, as shown by the analysis of Turgis’s predicament as a member of the society through the dissection of the tea‐house’s grand façade, as well as through his encounter with the three unusual characters in the tea‐house. Instead of illustrating clearly to the readers what Turgis thinks and feels, the writer uses the world around Turgis to explain his situation.
The themes, characters, and the style of the passage show that it is indeed a creative legacy of the modern period, born out of a shift in the societal paradigm brought about by the transition from the 19th to 20th century. A sense of rejection against the past norms and values, even the status quo, permeates the passage, while a yearning to embrace the new century’s new ideas is woven subtly into the paragraphs. At the same time, the challenges facing Turgis are laid out as a warning against the temptations of hedonistic lifestyle in the modern period. Even more than that, Turgis’s encounter with the contradiction between excesses and hollowness could be an impetus to further self‐discovery on the part of the readers then, especially in the midst of all the changes at the turn of the century.
Comments: excellent work, with great attention to detail and subtlety of expression. :)
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
unseen prose analysis: common errors and good essays
Common errors:
1. inaccurate attribution of "stream of consciousness writing" to Angel Pavement
2. lack of close textual analysis to support statements made
3. misreading/mis-interpretation
good points (these are extracted from actual essays)
1. "Priestley describes the tea-shop as a 'citadel' 'towering above the older buildings.' This motif of giving protection and support to a newly emerging world order is continued when Turgis 'marches' into it, with a likely satisfaction ins perceiving that he has encountered luxury far greater than any human 'conqueror'. (close reading and elaboration of point)
2. "All in all, the passage, with its derisive scorn for this "Bablylonian' pleasure-seeking lifestyle, the pathetic protagonist and changing world is symptomatic of the modern age [...] this piece of literature is in fact reactionary to that which has lately arisen." (good summation of points, with most apt use of adjectives)
3. "The extract from J. B. Priestley's Angel Pavement, can easily be identified as a work of the modern period as the elements which characterise it as such do so clearly and pointedly. The extract, for instance, excites the reader with a sensory feast, especially with its imagery. However, the deception which lurks beneath such imagery creates doubt and disenchantment within the reader and the idea of such embellishments crumbling in on themselves in that they merely support a facade to conceal an uglier interior, form the true parameters of a piece of modern writing." (Good introduction)
4. "Priestley was clearly a disillusioned man, as seen in how he has characterised Turgis, as one still enchanted by the Revolution of prosperity. From "Perhaps he knew in his heart that men have conquered half the known world, looted whole kingdoms, and never arrived at such luxury. The place was built for him", we see that Turgis considers material pleasures to be man's ultimate gratification. It is clear that Priestley rejects such materialism associated with modernisation from his constant interjections of disconcertion throughout the extract. Examples are how he deflates hope for 'a new civilisation" with "a new barbarism" and how he immediately poisons "warm sensuous" with "vulgar", thereby never leaving a scene to seem completely picture perfect. This is proof, therefore, of Priestley's disillusionment as a writer, and more importantly, as a member of the decaying society and this is how disillusionment takes centrestage in modernist literature." (Good close reading)
5. "People's obsession with money and their carelessness with it, together with its consequences, are also brought out in this passage, as can be inferred from paragraph one. With the description of the "new age", "new civilisation", being made up of nothing but stacked up pennies, represents the modern person's obsession with money. Also, the world "balanced", the basis of which this new world is built on, has its vulnerability made clear." (Good close reading, with extrapolation into thematic concerns)
6.
Speaking of descriptions, the imagery used in “Angel Pavement” is also an apt reflection of the Jazz Age in its extravagant descriptions that overwhelm the senses. Descriptions of a “golden tropical” atmosphere permeating the tea shop, and image of the place being a “white palace”, “[towering] above the older buildings like [even] the citadel” shows the sheer grandeur and opulence of the surroundings – something that is often alluded to that period. However, with the recounting of there being “ten thousand lights” and “acres of white napery”, there also appears to be a recurring image of excessiveness to the point of absurdity (very good). There is also a hint of a certain of superficiality and artificiality, which is seen mostly from how the only type of food available was the likes of “mounds of shimmering bonbons and multi-coloured Veinnese pastries”; which can hardly be considered as substantial food, thus rightfully relegating the tea shop as “some high midsummer confectionery”. Once again, facing these seemingly resplendent visions, Priestley hints that such indulgences and decadence could in fact be working against (very good) Man, and eventually explode back into their faces like a “sugary bomb”.
Like many other pieces of literary work at that time, “Angel Pavement” not only presents the grandeur and frivolity of the Jazz Age, it also warns the people of that time about the very culture that they had immersed themselves in by effectively portrays the cracks of society at that point of time. Hence, as can be seen from its thematic concerns and its stylistic nuances, “Angel Pavement” is truly characteristic of the modern period.
(Good close reading, with extrapolation into thematic concerns)
7. The café being described as a public place such as the “railway station” suggests that it is a mere place of the accidental gathering of strangers, despite the façade of the “warm sensuous” intimacy that “flower[ed]” the place. (very good close reading)
8. Turgis is not the only person in isolation. Priestley suggests that everyone else is having similar experiences to him. As Turgis observes the richness of his surroundings, he cannot help but feel that “the place was built for him” – that surely in this bustling café is the human communication he wants, waiting for him to find it. However the anticlimactic undercutting (good) of the next sentence, emphasized by the stark jump into another paragraph, shows that Turgis is not actually as special as he feels, as the place was “built for a great many other people, too”. The fact that all the other people also feel some singular personal connection with the café hints that these emotions are just imagination, wishful thinking (good) in each person’s head. All these individual consciousnesses with their separate ideas give an image of everyone in their own personal bubble, distanced from each other. It is ironic (very apt) that in a place that “steamed with humanity” it is impossible to properly relate to another human being. For example, the “young Jewish violinist” who is like “a magnet to a thousand girls” can only interact with them on a superficial level, the irony of a well-loved celebrity.
(clear topic sentence and very good close reading)
1. inaccurate attribution of "stream of consciousness writing" to Angel Pavement
2. lack of close textual analysis to support statements made
3. misreading/mis-interpretation
good points (these are extracted from actual essays)
1. "Priestley describes the tea-shop as a 'citadel' 'towering above the older buildings.' This motif of giving protection and support to a newly emerging world order is continued when Turgis 'marches' into it, with a likely satisfaction ins perceiving that he has encountered luxury far greater than any human 'conqueror'. (close reading and elaboration of point)
2. "All in all, the passage, with its derisive scorn for this "Bablylonian' pleasure-seeking lifestyle, the pathetic protagonist and changing world is symptomatic of the modern age [...] this piece of literature is in fact reactionary to that which has lately arisen." (good summation of points, with most apt use of adjectives)
3. "The extract from J. B. Priestley's Angel Pavement, can easily be identified as a work of the modern period as the elements which characterise it as such do so clearly and pointedly. The extract, for instance, excites the reader with a sensory feast, especially with its imagery. However, the deception which lurks beneath such imagery creates doubt and disenchantment within the reader and the idea of such embellishments crumbling in on themselves in that they merely support a facade to conceal an uglier interior, form the true parameters of a piece of modern writing." (Good introduction)
4. "Priestley was clearly a disillusioned man, as seen in how he has characterised Turgis, as one still enchanted by the Revolution of prosperity. From "Perhaps he knew in his heart that men have conquered half the known world, looted whole kingdoms, and never arrived at such luxury. The place was built for him", we see that Turgis considers material pleasures to be man's ultimate gratification. It is clear that Priestley rejects such materialism associated with modernisation from his constant interjections of disconcertion throughout the extract. Examples are how he deflates hope for 'a new civilisation" with "a new barbarism" and how he immediately poisons "warm sensuous" with "vulgar", thereby never leaving a scene to seem completely picture perfect. This is proof, therefore, of Priestley's disillusionment as a writer, and more importantly, as a member of the decaying society and this is how disillusionment takes centrestage in modernist literature." (Good close reading)
5. "People's obsession with money and their carelessness with it, together with its consequences, are also brought out in this passage, as can be inferred from paragraph one. With the description of the "new age", "new civilisation", being made up of nothing but stacked up pennies, represents the modern person's obsession with money. Also, the world "balanced", the basis of which this new world is built on, has its vulnerability made clear." (Good close reading, with extrapolation into thematic concerns)
6.
Speaking of descriptions, the imagery used in “Angel Pavement” is also an apt reflection of the Jazz Age in its extravagant descriptions that overwhelm the senses. Descriptions of a “golden tropical” atmosphere permeating the tea shop, and image of the place being a “white palace”, “[towering] above the older buildings like [even] the citadel” shows the sheer grandeur and opulence of the surroundings – something that is often alluded to that period. However, with the recounting of there being “ten thousand lights” and “acres of white napery”, there also appears to be a recurring image of excessiveness to the point of absurdity (very good). There is also a hint of a certain of superficiality and artificiality, which is seen mostly from how the only type of food available was the likes of “mounds of shimmering bonbons and multi-coloured Veinnese pastries”; which can hardly be considered as substantial food, thus rightfully relegating the tea shop as “some high midsummer confectionery”. Once again, facing these seemingly resplendent visions, Priestley hints that such indulgences and decadence could in fact be working against (very good) Man, and eventually explode back into their faces like a “sugary bomb”.
Like many other pieces of literary work at that time, “Angel Pavement” not only presents the grandeur and frivolity of the Jazz Age, it also warns the people of that time about the very culture that they had immersed themselves in by effectively portrays the cracks of society at that point of time. Hence, as can be seen from its thematic concerns and its stylistic nuances, “Angel Pavement” is truly characteristic of the modern period.
(Good close reading, with extrapolation into thematic concerns)
7. The café being described as a public place such as the “railway station” suggests that it is a mere place of the accidental gathering of strangers, despite the façade of the “warm sensuous” intimacy that “flower[ed]” the place. (very good close reading)
8. Turgis is not the only person in isolation. Priestley suggests that everyone else is having similar experiences to him. As Turgis observes the richness of his surroundings, he cannot help but feel that “the place was built for him” – that surely in this bustling café is the human communication he wants, waiting for him to find it. However the anticlimactic undercutting (good) of the next sentence, emphasized by the stark jump into another paragraph, shows that Turgis is not actually as special as he feels, as the place was “built for a great many other people, too”. The fact that all the other people also feel some singular personal connection with the café hints that these emotions are just imagination, wishful thinking (good) in each person’s head. All these individual consciousnesses with their separate ideas give an image of everyone in their own personal bubble, distanced from each other. It is ironic (very apt) that in a place that “steamed with humanity” it is impossible to properly relate to another human being. For example, the “young Jewish violinist” who is like “a magnet to a thousand girls” can only interact with them on a superficial level, the irony of a well-loved celebrity.
(clear topic sentence and very good close reading)
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