Don't keep it to yourself!

In the switchback ride which has been our experience of 2007 the equilibrium of illness has now dipped in my direction: Toni is getting better while I am getting worse. The incipient cough which I managed to restrain last night in Alison and Bryn’s has now developed into something which cannot be ignored. So I’ll ignore it.

I am ashamed to admit that Emily and I did not struggle unduly at the picture quiz: we preferred to sit down and drink and chat rather than join the scrum of ‘keenies’ who not only exerted every little grey cell in dredging up names to faces, but also they engaged in furtive forays trying to catch a glimpse of other people’s efforts. In a sad moment some unnamed people even picked up Emily and my effort to see if they could glean a few extra names! Now that is my definition of desperation!

The Dickens reread continues with my first (shame!) reading of ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’. I can see why the title is perhaps the most impressive feature of this novel. It’s full of questionable aspects: the use of an ugly dwarf as an evil character; the whole sexual identity of Little Nell; the presentation of the legal profession; the presentation of industrialisation; the presentation of the teaching profession; the ever present paternalism in Dickens; the over use of coincidence (again!) and the unconvincing narrative.

The ‘problem’ which Nell’s grandfather has is quite modern given that Britain is trying to decide where to site the first Super Casino. His infatuation with gambling is presented in a totally convincing way and his schizoid self justification is chilling in its reality. He is another of Dickens’ true monsters: justifying his destructive selfishness in a continuing whining parody of disinterested mawkish self justification. At this stage of the novel, and given Dickens’ ideas of justice, the old man should expire pathetically with some degree of self knowledge surrounded by grieving family. Little Nell should be matched with Kit and the Solitary Gentleman turn out to be a long lost brother/uncle/son/brother or whatever appellation that this particular deus ex machina cares to carry!

Quilp is another of those Dickensian baddies who delight in their badness and he is an example of ‘motiveless malignity,’ a phrase used by Coleridge to describe Iago. Quilp hates everybody and his hatred is expressed not only physically by his constant attacks on his boy and wife, but also in the way in which he continually acts up to his physical deformity – a typical example being his constant playing up to his impish image by hanging upside down and grimacing through the window at the unfortunate mother of Kit on the return journey. For Quilp, his raison d’etre is to frustrate anything which he perceives as positive and normal: his life is one long perversion in which he delights, but what you see is what you get – he looks bad and, surprise! Surprise! He is! Whereas with Nell’s grandfather, he appears to be a sad old man bowed down by grief working constantly for his grandchild, but in reality is someone consumed by a passion which is able to pervert his sense of morality – a much more convincing baddie than the misshapen Quilp.

In spite of my debilitating cough I am looking forward to finishing the novel and seeing just how far Dickens is prepared to push his penchant for coincidence to provide a suitable ending. However much you think Dickens can go, he always shocks you by how much he actually demands of the incredulous reader.

Shock on Charles!