Jun 20

Henry James and reality

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Forest writes:

Recently I came upon this paragraph:
Henry James believed that reality lies in the impressions made by life on the spectator, and not in any facts of which the spectator is unaware, such realism is therefore merely the obligation that the artist assumes to represent life as he sees it, which may not be the same life as it “really” is. James shifted the ground of realistic art from the outer to the inner world.

I can’t fully understand its meaning, especially the words marked in bold. Please help explain them in plain words and give some interpretation on it. Many thanks.

My comments:
I’m happy to oblige, Forest, for it isn’t everyday that you inquire about Henry James (1843-1916) and the seemingly mundane matter of what reality is.

First, what does James (who wrote The Portrait of a Lady) mean with “reality lies in the impressions made by life on the spectator”?

He means to say that reality is what you as an individual see with your eyes, feel with your senses and generally experience with your body and mind.

Is this plain enough?

Well, it would be thus and so if our mind were not clouded by ideas and language itself. I’d better explain and do so fully aware of the risk of making matters even more clouded.

Forest, there’s a tree falling thumping down to the ground in the forest (no pun intended), do you hear it?

Exactly. That’s what James means. He believes reality is what happens to us each as an individual. If we were deaf we would not hear the tree’s fall but otherwise we might (if out attention happened to be there). Reality, therefore, depends on how we interpret it. If we like rain, the drizzle makes us feel happy and romantic; if we don’t like it, the drizzle makes us sad and melancholy. Reality is how we experience it, or how we are able to experience it - to be precise how our sensory functions as a whole (eyes, ears, nose, mind and brain) allow us to.

In the way of the I-Ching, it (reality) is a game of yes and no, now you see it, now you don’t. If you feel it, it happens to you. If you don’t, it doesn’t. At this moment of our speaking, construction workers are hammering away outside my window, and I hear all the tings, tangs and vroom! For you, the hard hats simply don’t exist (if I don’t happen to talk to you about it).

Bats are able to “see” in the dark because they’re equipped with sonar-location. Dolphins too “see” with their ears which help them pin down prey in even the muddiest of waters.

In other words, it’s all relative - this is what is called in the West a postmodernist point of view.

With this established - ok? - James goes on to say “realism is therefore merely the obligation that the artist assumes to represent life as he sees it, which may not be the same life as it ‘really is”.

Realism in literature, that is - I can’t imagine James talking about bats and dolphins. James writes what he feels. He writes about what is real to him and him alone. He writes about reality the way he perceived it. This reality may not be the same reality as perceived by others, readers or critics, but this latter concern is none of his business.

It’s as if saying: if you don’t like my works, it’s your problem, not mine. Reads like a good way to fend off criticism, doesn’t it? If all critics knew this, they’d talk less. Indeed, if James knew this, he’d talk less, too, at least not so much about Thomas Hardy (author of Jude the Obscure, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Woodlanders). You see, when Robert Louis Stevenson (author of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Treasure Island) wrote telling James that he found Hardy’s characters “not alive, not true”, James wrote back saying: “Oh, yes, dear Louis: ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ is vile”.

Hardy in retaliation said of James’s subjects were “those one could be interested in when there was nothing larger to think of”.

I’m sure all these assessments are true, but only according to each of the authors’ own impressions. James was born into an upper-class family, Hardy working class. No wonder they had a different view.

Even over such a fundamental question as to what is real.

Henry James and reality

This Article is from: Health matters[http://stevenlichen.com]

URL: http://stevenlichen.com/2007/06/20/henry-james-and-reality/

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