An extract from Cedric Watts' foreword to the OUP edition of Heart of Darkness

Critics who allege that Conrad is imperialistic may themselves be practising ideological and temporal imperialism. They assail the text for failing to endorse their own present-day beliefs or prejudices; and thereby they seek to subordinate the literary work to their own systems. ... A literary work may have a diversity of political implications and consequences, but it is not a political manifesto. It is an imaginative work which offers a voluntary and hypothetical experience. ... Awareness of the tentacular complexity of 'Heart of Darkness' may alert to us a current critical tendency: the reductive treatment of past texts in the attempt to vindicate the political gestures of the present ... Naturally readers discuss political aspects of literary texts; but to use political criteria as a 'master-discourse', as the final tribunal of judgement, is to commit an error of categorization. (An equivalent error would be to condemn The Communist Manifesto for lacking the lyricism of Shelley's 'Ode to a Skylark'.)

YES.

An excellently phrased response to the critical literary theories (feminism, post-colonialism, post-modernism) seeking to pigeonhole literature into their own narrow agendas instead of actually reading the text.

Diplomas of the Grandes Écoles: The Great Escape

[This is translated from an article written by Maryline Baumard on 9 October 2013 in the French newspaper Le Monde, which can be accessed here: http://www.lemonde.fr/education/article/2013/10/09/diplomes-des-grandes-ecoles-la-grande-evasion_3492235_1473685.html]

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Barely graduated with a degree, and already a visa on the passport! Some 79% of university students in the previous year in 9 of the most exclusive grandes écoles* of the country do not exclude the possibility of looking for a job in a foreign country. This is the lesson that the Harris Interactive Institute draws from a study to be presented on Tuesday 10 October, on the state of the spirit of 975 university students from ENS Cachan, Polytechnique, Centrale, ESCP or Sciences Po.

"These results are emblematic of an encompassing pessimism. When the holders of the best degrees foresee that all the doors are not open in France for them, what do the others think?" worries Jean-Daniel Lévy, the Director of the Politics Department of Harris Interactive. The survey conducted by the Montaigne Institute shows that in effect 34% of those who will soon have in their pocket one of the best degrees think that "it will be difficult to find a job in France".

The country has nevertheless invested in its youth who have succeeded in the most competitive examinations. Here they are looking across the borders: 32% see themselves doing well in the United States, 23% in the UK, and 12% in Germany. 79% have went overseas during their studies in a grande école, of which 42% was for an internship. This opening-up is today one of the strengths of the grandes écoles which otherwise remain cautious as the list of countries invested in remains very old-fashioned. China only comes in 6th place, India in 14th. And the other emerging countries do not even make the list.

A career accelerator

After the anxiety of introductions, the primary motivation of the students of these grandes écoles remains "career opportunities" and the desire to "have an interesting job".

No wonder they prioritise countries whose ambiance they guess will be less morose than France. "I see around me many young engineers who only get interviews for foreign postings when leaving university," marvels Jean Steenhouver, graduate of the Institut national des sciences appliquées [National Institute of Applied Sciences] in 2011. "There are more offers across the borders than in France. And plus, if one thinks of the long term, it's a clear carrier accelerator. One progresses more rapidly there than if one stayed in France."

Since graduation, the engineer has spent one year on the site of an Indian subway and kicked off his second year in Amsterdam, always in urban transport. "Without Calcutta, I would not have had Amsterdam", he analyses. For him, today, only the international CV counts. While the young man has actually chosen this path, the Harris Interactive survey shows that a third of university students resign themselves to the option [of finding work overseas] out of the fear of not being able to find a job in France.

A surfeit of worry, according to Armel de la Bourdonnaye, Director of the Ecole nationale des ponts et chaussées [National School of Bridges and Roads]. "Within a period of 6 months, 96% of engineers that we graduate would get a job, of which 64% have even signed a job contract before graduating..."

Privileging the "fulfilling job"

According to Mr. de la Bourdonnaye, these results reflect an all-encompassing pessimism à la française, even if the statistics of integration on the job market shows that the crisis has passed for them. According to a survey of the Conference of grandes écoles, the insertion of the 2012 graduates shows a slight decline with a net employment rate of 81.5% out of the total graduates of 167 grandes écoles, in contrast to 84.9% in 2011. Some 83.5% of engineers had a job, compared to 78.4% of managers.

The idea of making oneself useful to society was only judged to be "very important" for 51% of them. For the graduates of schools of social sciences, this preoccupation was slightly more pressing, with nearly 61% invoking it as essential.

Now, it remains to be seen what they make of this notion of usefulness. Starting up a business? Resolutely no, since only 42% say they are ready for such an adventure (a little more in the schools of commerce, 49%).

Besides, only 35% of them completed a training module on this theme. "However, it is a desire that I sense is increasing in our latest batches of students," reassures Mr. de la Bourdonnaye. "Recently, one of my engineering students had a beautiful phrase showing that the creator of businesses is today a heroic figure when yesterday the dream of students was to integrate themselves into a big business."

Is the spirit of adventure blowing in these temples of classicism? Jean-Daniel Lévy observes that the value of money is no longer the main concern for this generation that privileges the "fulfilling job". It is in this light that they include a passage overseas. In this sense, it is less of a brain drain than adding another brick in the construction of their careers.

*A grand école (lit. "higher school") is a tertiary educational institution outside of the main framework of the French university system. They are known for being highly selective (they have entrance examinations that are very competitive) and graduates are often employed in prestigious jobs.

Short update - A Room with a View

E. M. Forster's A Room with a View is very delightful! I was gripped and kept reading it until I finished it at midnight, then I was too excited to fall asleep afterwards. Sigh.

The next day I watched the laudable film adaptation by Merchant-Ivory Productions online. I highly recommend it. (It is quite interesting to see Helena Bonham Carter play Lucy; a very different character compared to the type of 'femme fatale' characters in Fight Club and the Harry Potter series.) You can find the uploaded movie here on YouTube for free:

Warning: Nudity of a non-sexual but comic nature when Freddy and George skinny-dip with Mr. Beebe.

Cannery Row / Sweet Thursday

 

"Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream." - John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

I recently finished reading John Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday; I've read Cannery Row a few months before. Both are great pieces of writing that show that Steinbeck is indeed as brilliant in his comic work as he is in his more 'serious'/tragic writings (e.g. Of Mice and Men). I would heartily recommend them.

Both novels take place in Cannery Row, a waterfront street in Monterey with many sardine-canning factories. This is actually the nickname of a real place (pictured below), previously called Ocean View Avenue. [It was officially renamed Cannery Row in honour of Steinbeck's novel.] Cannery Row takes place in the Great Depression, while Sweet Thursday is a sequel, revisiting the colourful characters and their lives after WWII has ended.

Reading both books makes you feel as if you've actually lived there in Monterey. It really takes skill to make one feel nostalgic for a place that one has never even been to, and Steinbeck achieves this quite effectively in both novels through his careful eye for detail. He intersperses longer chapters mainly driven by the plot with shorter chapters that are basically vignettes about life in Monterey. His characters are very well fleshed-out. They are ordinary folk - bums, hookers, shopkeepers - but he writes about them very warmly with good humour and a heartfelt sense of sympathy for their lives, thoughts and aspirations, challenging us as readers to look beyond first impressions.

Take for example, the two different proprietors of the Bear Flag House (a brothel) in Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday. Dora is kind-hearted and generous, paying grocery bills for hard-up families hit by the Depression and donating to charitable causes. Fauna, who takes over Dora in the sequel, tries to turn the brothel into a finishing school, passes on her expertise on social decorum to the girls, and tries to marry them off to reputable men. (She even has a board in the house with a golden star for each girl in the House that has been married off.) Instead of the stereotyped Madam that exploits her prostitutes, both proprietors are genuinely interested in the well-being of their girls.*

Central to both novels is the immensely likeable character, Doc, who owns the Western Biological Library that supplies specimens of species. He goes to the nearby tide pool, rich in wildlife, to procure samples that he sells for money. Doc is a gentle personality whom all the occupants of the Row go to for advice and help, but somehow he always seems lonely and melancholy. His kindness motivates the characters to do something for him to show him how much he is loved in the neighbourhood, and this is the driving plot of both novels. In Cannery Row, Mack and his boys, a bunch of vagrants, decide to throw him a party but end up [SPOILER] ruining his house. In return, they try to make up for it with another party. In Sweet Thursday, Doc feels strangely depressed, and the whole community in the Row thinks he needs a woman and end up trying to pair him up with Suzy, a new hustler who has come to town. [SPOILER] As with any romantic comedy, after overcoming difficulties with each other (Suzy thinks he's too good for him, Doc is too shy, etc.), they succeed.

Doc is based on Ed Ricketts, a marine biologist and a very good friend of Steinbeck that influenced him greatly. Steinbeck himself joined Ricketts on a six-week long boat expedition to the Sea of Cortez, producing The Log from the Sea of Cortez in 1951. In fact, Western Biological in the novel is based on Ricketts' Pacific Biological Laboratories in Monterey (pictured below).

I really enjoyed both novels. I must admit I got rather misty-eyed at the ending of Cannery Row because it is just so beautifully written. I couldn't say the same for Sweet Thursday but it is really good nonetheless. Look, these aren't 'major' novels like The Grapes of Wrath or East of Eden, with a grand sweeping story and stark exposure of social injustice, but for their shorter length they are admirable minor works faithfully and nostalgically capturing the feel of a place that is no longer there. They are sweet. They are sentimental. They are something that will stick in your memory like the smooth aftertaste of well-brewed tea. Read it on a sunny and lazy afternoon. 

*Is it a fair accusation to say Steinbeck romanticises the poor? If he does (I think it is difficult to say that he doesn't), is it for justifiable reasons?

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I am currently working through Volume 1 of Clifford R. Backman's wonderful The Cultures of the West: A History. It is very concisely written and a good book for a broad survey of the history of Europe and the Middle East. Expecting a dry textbook, I've found Backman's work insightful and informative instead. Also, instead of having boxes at the side for historical sources, he works them inside the narrative of the text, which is a highly effective approach that saves you from the distraction of switching between texts.