Sundog Rising!
Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog
Anna Karenina’s Nose
illustration by Barnett Freedman
Peter Mendelsund, in his book What We See When We Read makes this very interesting observation on page 24:
Some readers … suggest that the only way they can enjoy a novel is if the main characters are easily visible:
“Can you picture in your mind, what Anna Karenina looks like?” I ask.
“Yes,” they say, “as if she were standing here in front of me.”
“What does her nose look like?”
“I hadn’t thought it out; but now that I think of it, she would be the kind of
person who would have a nose like …”
“But wait — how did you picture her before I asked? Noseless?”
“Well …”
“Does she have a heavy brow? Bangs? Where does she hold her weight? Does she
slouch? Does she have laugh lines?”
(Only a very tedious writer would tell you this much about a character.)
Mendelsund’s argument is that even should we read a writer tedious enough to tell us that much about a character, we still wouldn’t build a clear picture in our minds of exactly how that person looks. The best a writer can do is convey an impression, a feeling of what a character may actually be like built more upon their actions than their descriptions. The photographic details simply never add up.
I’m not certain I entirely agree with that. At least as regards Anna Karenina’s nose.
In another part of the book Mendelsund makes a very good point, stating that once we’ve seen a movie of a book we inevitably cast those actors in the same parts as we read. I’ve read Anna Karenina twice, both times before I saw any movie version. When I did finally, that was with Sophie Marceau as Anna. I enjoyed the movie, but in all honesty I would never picture Sophie Marceau as Anna Karenina when I read. Her face is too young. I see someone with a more mature bearing. More of a Claire Bloom. But not Claire Bloom. Someone with smaller eyes and a rounder, more symmetrical face. With a delicate nose I can picture quite clearly in the centre of it, balancing the other elements perfectly.
But you know what? (Spoiler Alert!) I could never precisely picture this Anna killing herself, which is why I had to read the book twice.
As well, the questions Mendelsund raises concerning how an author can and cannot create a picture of his or her characters are somewhat disturbing to me at the moment for a completely different reason. For the first time I’m presenting a Reality Fiction opus on the Internet illustrated with pictures of the characters involved that I drew myself. If anyone should know what my characters really look like, it should be me. Thereby bypassing the whole question of how to describe the characters’ appearances in the writing itself, right?
Not really. I’m not that good an artist. I’m only supplying cartoons of what I think the characters might look like in a humorous manner, I can’t draw real people that well. Even before I read Mendelsund’s book I was thinking to myself, I hope readers don’t think this is what the characters are really supposed to look like. These are just cartoons. Ironically enough, impressions of how I want you to think the characters appear. They are clearly real people when I write about them.
Thus I may potentially be distancing my readers even further from how I want them to have true impressions of my characters by supplying actual pictures of them. How much more confusing am I making matters!
I don’t really know. But a reassuring thought regarding how the whole process works came to me through the memory of a serendipitous event. Maybe I can picture Anna Karenina exactly the way I think she should look, right down to her nose, when I am reading Tolstoy’s book — but if I can’t understand why a woman who looks like that will kill herself at the end of the book, have I truly pictured the woman Tolstoy wants me to see? Is the image I picture just another, more elaborate cartoon I’ve provided for myself? Then I remembered this incident …
We had our son in Musical Theatre classes at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School many years ago. Coincidentally at a time when the RWB were debuting a full length dance version of Anna Karenina, with veteran prima ballerina Evelyn Hart in the title role. The production was in rehearsals while Dylan was taking his classes.
One evening, as I was leading Dylan through the chaotic setting of the RWB building, a mix of classrooms, rehearsal space, offices and common rooms always overloaded with people, we ran directly into Evelyn Hart returning from an Anna Karenina rehearsal with a group of the corps de ballet on a narrow walkway. It was a weird sight. The younger ballerinas had all dropped out of character, giggling and flitting about like bunheaded butterflies all around this menacing central figure — Evelyn Hart still fully occupying the role of Anna Karenina. Striding forcefully towards us with feet firmly upon the ground, eyes lowered oblivious to the rest of the world.
illustration by Barnett Freedman
Now I had never pictured Evelyn Hart as Anna Karenina at any time while reading the novel. Too short, for one thing. But my God, this woman was Anna Karenina walking towards us right then. Scared the hell out of Dylan.
The expression on Evelyn Hart’s face perfectly embodied Anna’s incapability of refusing Vronsky, her desperate regret over having given into her impulses, her defeat in the failure of their later relationship, and her despair over the loss of her children. Her entire body conveyed Anna’s pain. This was a woman I had no trouble imagining throwing herself under a train.
I would never have said Evelyn Hart looked like Anna Karenina as I pictured her. But she totally nailed how Leo Tolstoy wants you to see Anna. As a presence, not a photographic reality.
So I’ve got to tip my hat to Peter Mendelsund after all. Even when you can see a character’s nose perfectly in your mind, it still might not be the nose the author wants you to see. Better to get those impressions of her character clear, rather than the details of her physiognomy.
But just for the record, Evelyn Hart has quite a nice nose too.
*****
REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!
The Hermit’s Tale concludes, with the results given on Monday and The Electric Detective Chapter Two appearing on Friday, January 23rd. Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition, continues at:
http://realficone.blogspot.ca/
Ace finally explains the new rules and themes. Revealing that our Episodes this time around will be based on great works by great writers, hopefully not too extinctually massacred in the retelling in Reality Fiction. Thus, so far we have had:
Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno
Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale
All with illustrations by the author.
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