Essay Questions

What are some examples of a common criticism of the writing style of the author most creatively characterized as thinking if something is worth writing once, it’s worth repeating excessively?

One notable example of repetition in the story is a passage containing the following: “draws circles like Perdix, constructs citadels like Daedulus, forges like Cyclops, fashions arms like Lemnian, teaches like Seneca” and that is not even half the excerpt. Still, one can more easily forgive this type of repetitive quality by labeling it an extreme example of parallelism. More troubling is a more common style of intentional monotony found throughout the story: “According, she considers, investigates, studies, tries to discover, seeks to choose which road, which trail, which path will bring her more directly to the upper word.” And that example, too, is not the fully quoted passage.

What long sequence that is repetitive in form if not content almost seems like a postmodern satire of relationship tropes on a sitcom?

Except for God as the outsourced supplier of the soul, the construction of the new improved man is done entirely by feminine characters. Nature, Logic, Concord, Fame, Prudence and many more all make their own particular contribution to the construction of every aspect of the New Man that doesn’t lie within the sole domain of the soul. Anyone who has watched almost any sitcom focusing on domestic relationships between men and women (and quite a few that don’t) will be forgiven for accepting as a universal truth that, at least in America, the driving dichotomy of relationship between woman and the men with whom they fall is love is the persistent and enduring desire to improve them by changing their behavior not least because without those behavioral changes, most men would likely perish within days of leaving the protective security of their mothers.

This trope of women telling men how to do almost literally everything is presented as almost he entirety of Book VII and it is presented without irony or any post-modern self-awareness. The result are scenes in which the females offer advice to the newly created like such as laughter is good unless spiteful, what secrets should not be blurted out, and even—seriously—how to walk like a man instead of a mincing Nancy-boy. One can only wonder how many minutes the New Man would have lasted against “the monsters of the underworld” without the useful advice on Constancy and Chastity.

What particular physical feature seems to be a peculiarly fetishistic obsession for the author?

The author seems to have some kind of fixation on hair. This fascination has been interpreted as extending far beyond a person obsession with scholarly papers noting various attributions of symbolism and thematic significance to the overly obvious focus:

“Her well-ordered brows, in proper balance arranged, neither too light nor beclouded with luxuriant growth.”

“Her hair…its contour, arrangement, style, thickness and length well suit her body-structure and perform their due office.”

“Her loss reflecting the gloss of gold lie adorned with wondrous artistry”

“Lest hair, over-ornamented with excessive treatment, reach the level of feminine excess.”

That last reference to hair is made regarding the New Man and it is precisely the notability of how masculinity is not so profoundly linked with the physicality of hair that is important. For why is there even a need to create a New Man? What happened to the original? Nature declared mankind to be out of order with the unity of all that surrounded it; it was, in fact, unnatural. Even more to the point: in the prequel which was written before his text, the story is about what happened Nature’s declaration of mankind being tools of chaos is explained. Although not overtly so, the subtext is quite clear. By “unnatural” is meant sexual deviancy, including homosexuality. It is not by accident that Constancy teaches the New Man how to walk correctly and the incorrect way is described as “mincing.” Women are to be looked at and enjoyed for their physical beauty and hair is clearly the author’s primary physical feature for exploring this sense of patriarchal chauvinism while forwarding female characters as his heroines.