Sunday, April 5, 2009
The woman-journalist
What is the point of including the character Meg Bishop in Mrs. Stone's story? She is the "woman-journalist" and old classmate who is visiting Mrs. Stone in her apartment at the beginning of the book, the one who warns her against the corrupt society she is moving in, accusing her of "escapism." She is also, perhaps more importantly, someone with whom Mrs. Stone, as a young woman, had some sort of intimacy with in "the dormitory of an Eastern college." The incident is mentioned once at the beginning, and then another time later as one of two instances of "emotional anarchy" in her life: "when the the kind of emotional anarchy which now seemed to possess her had happened only twice, in a college dormitory and the dressing room in Toledo" [where she seduced the actor].
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This is a very good question. I actually wondered, after I'd finished the book, what the point was of that encounter with Meg Bishop. Surely we didn't really need to see anyone shaming Mrs. Stone for her seemingly promiscuous behavior.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the importance of the moment of "emotional anarchy"? It was so awkward and embarrassing to Mrs. Stone that she forever afterward overcompensated in friendliness to Miss Bishop. It seemed odd to me that Mrs. Stone would be so out of sorts over an intimate encounter.
Meg Bishop is another puzzle. I had a passing thought that maybe she had come unglued from a story by the likes of Henry James or E. M. Forster and was drifting through the decades and just happened to walk across the pages on Williams’ desk.
ReplyDeleteWilliams goes all out on the butch dyke image. Besides her robust masculine form, she is not just a “woman-journalist”, but a war correspondent. Is this just color, or is there some point to this butchness either in regards to the sermon she has come to deliver to Mrs. Stone or their encounter back when they were college kids?
Did you think she had her own designs on Mrs. Stone? A hope of renewing the old "attraction" now that Mrs. Stone is free? Or was she sincerely trying to save her from becoming ridiculous?
ReplyDeleteWooing somebody with a harsh lecture probably isn’t going to work. But maybe Bishop’s attraction remains and is behind her anger—why are you demeaning yourself with those lowlifes when you ought to be with me? This could go along with a true desire to save Stone from the humiliation of becoming ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI myself am quite partial to being wooed with a harsh lecture. Hehe. More so than, say, a street urchin crudely exposing himself to me in public. But that's just me.
ReplyDeleteSomeone should write a version of this story where Ms. Bishop wins.
What if, instead of the stalker, the story had been framed by Meg Bishop? Or would you want it framed by both with Bishop winning? That could be quite strong when you consider the implied contrasts between the two.
ReplyDeleteI'm talking what if the two ladies bought some Birkenstocks, let their hair go natural and used Mrs. Stone's fortune to backpack through Europe — staying at gay-friendly convents and listening to Helen Reddy CDs.
ReplyDeleteYour future as a writer awaits you , my dear.
ReplyDelete