Yet more about Rachel Ferguson and The Brontës Went to Woolworths

Readers of Rachel Ferguson's 1931 novel The Brontës Went to Woolworths do not always find it easy to determine which incidents are real and which take place only in the imaginations of some of the characters.

Another key case for consideration is how much of the story comes from Rachel Ferguson's own experiences. 

This book also raises some questions about the effect on all concerned of the ongoing game played by the imaginative and fun-loving Carne family:

What effect does playing this game have on the players?

What effect does it have on the people who are mentally targeted?

What happens to everyone involved in the game when fantasy meets reality? 

The previous article describes some of the dangers and damaging consequences of fantasies that involve imaginary relationships; this one attempts to show why the answers to these questions are not what might be expected. 

What effect does the game have on the players?
It is dangerous to spend too much time living in a fantasy world. People who do this compulsively, intensively and continually may become borderline delusional; they may fall apart when their dream world collapses because they haven't got anything else to live for.

The three Carne girls and their mother get off very lightly however. 

Perhaps they escape the usual consequences because the fantasies are out in the open and shared rather than, as is more common, indulged in secretly by just one person. 

Perhaps they escape because the game they play is mostly treated as a joke and a pastime rather than a matter of life and death. Apart possibly from Sheil, the youngest girl, they know that it is just a game. 

More about Rachel Ferguson and The Brontës Went to Woolworths

The first article inspired by Rachel Ferguson's 1931 novel The Brontës Went to Woolworths features some miscellaneous material of interest from the book.

This one has something to say about the ongoing game played by the eccentric and bohemian Carne family. It was the unexpectedly positive results of this game and the possibility that Rachel Ferguson was writing from her own experience of imaginary relationships that inspired these articles.

The frivolous family saga
The Brontës Went to Woolworths is primarily about the game the Carnes play. They live in a fantasy world of their own creation in which their toys, their dog, people they have never met and even ghosts of the Brontës have starring roles. 

The three girls and their mother mentally appropriate real-life people who appeal to their imaginations and incorporate them into their lives. They invent stories about them; they have imaginary conversations with them; they behave and talk about them as if they were part of the family circle. They even sometimes pretend to be them, acting out the parts with each other.

The benefits of playing the game
The Carnes are high-spirited and playful; they are sometimes rather silly. They love to joke, imitate people and make up stories about the toys, the dog and people of interest and their activities. They sing and dance; they also like acting: they pretend to be a variety of characters. 

While they do all this mainly for their own amusement, they may also do it to distract themselves from a painful family situation. 

The exercising of their imaginations and talents and having fun is enough to explain why they all enjoy performing, creating stories and role-playing, but the Carnes may also be trying to distract themselves from the grief caused by the death of the girls' father. Their obsession with the elderly and illustrious Lord Justice Toddington may be an attempt to compensate for their loss.  

Taking things a little too far?
The Carnes sometimes go a little too far. For example, they give each other cards and presents from their toys and people they have never even met!

The girls go to great lengths to learn about people who capture their interest; they also practice something that comes close to stalking.

Jean Rhys: more about witches, magic and energy vampires

In the previous article in the series inspired by Carole Angier's biography Jean Rhys: Life and Work, I said that Carole Angier explains Jean Rhys's life and personality mainly in psychological terms. She does mention witches and magic and the terrible draining effect that Jean Rhys had on people, but she leaves these topics mostly unexplored and unexplained. 

This article has more to say about these sinister elements, and from an alternative perspective.

More about witches 
Jean Rhys's witchlike personality is something that she shared with other writers: Stella Benson for example was described by Vera Brittain as being “delicate, witchlike, remote”, and descriptions of Ouida and Dorothy Parker in old age make them seem very similar to each other; they too grew to be very witchlike.

The writer Francis Wyndham, who encouraged Jean Rhys to work on Wide Sargasso Sea, said that he thought she was something of a – white – witch in that she was very alluring, she could attract any man she wanted and definitely had a charismatic power.

Her manner and appearance when young and her writing talent when older may seem enough to explain why people gave her so much money and help and endured her dreadful behaviour and lack of gratitude, but she may also have used a kind of mind power, something I think of as psychological black magic or unconscious witchcraft, to get what she wanted and to draw in, hold and exploit unprotected people.

Carole Angier tells us that Jean Rhys felt that she had never lived. This may seem odd in someone who on paper at least had quite a full life, but it makes sense if we accept the witch theory. Some people rarely engage with life or speak or act from their real selves: something timeless and unchangeable operates through them instead. This possible possession could  explain the failure to grow up: the real self has no opportunity to develop.

Similarly, such people are like black holes and bottomless pits: they never feel that they have enough no matter what. This makes sense if we understand that little or nothing gets through to nourish their real selves: the witch takes it all. 

Witches are traditionally said to sacrifice children; Jean Rhys's baby son died because of her thoughtlessness. 

Isaac Asimov: death anniversary and a few quotations

Today, April 6th 2022, is the 30th anniversary of Isaac Asimov's death.

The 25th anniversary in 2017 inspired an article about him; he has also been mentioned in connection with Noel Streatfeild. He was a great supporter of public libraries, and an article about Jean Rhys mentions his beloved underground cities.

Today, we have a few miscellaneous quotations of particular interest and significance to mark the occasion. Some of them come from I, Asimov - Galactic Words of Isaac Asimov by Sreechinth C, who does not always give his sources. 

These quotations provide just a small sample of Isaac Asimov's words of wisdom: much more of the same can be found in the huge number of books that he produced. 

The importance of reason

Isaac Asimov has something to say about reason and the lack of it:

“I stand four-square for reason, and object to what seems to me to be irrationality, whatever the source. If you are on my side in this, I must warn you that the army of the night has the advantage of overwhelming numbers, and, by its very nature, is immune to reason, so that it is entirely unlikely that you and I can win out.

We will always remain a tiny and probably hopeless minority, but let us never tire of presenting our view, and of fighting the good fight for the right.” 

This is all very true and very well expressed. I am on his side in this. I know what we are up against: I too have found that there are many people in the world who will not listen to reason and that rational human beings are like a few small islands of sanity in a huge ocean of unreason. 

I like his expression “the army of the night” as it makes me think of the forces of darkness! 

Charlotte Brontë and Jane Eyre: some 'coincidences' revisited

The 'coincidence' of Charlotte Brontë's childhood obsession with Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington and the subsequent appearance in her life of Arthur Bell Nichols was first mentioned in an article about being careful what you dwell on and again in an article featuring Jean Rhys.  

Another 'coincidence' in Charlotte Brontë's life that is worth highlighting and was also mentioned earlier is her accident involving a horse that echoes something that happened in Jane Eyre, which was published seven years before the event. 

Other people have noticed these connections. While they may assume that they are just interesting, but not particularly significant, coincidences, I thought at the time that certain unseen influences were at work, and I still think so.

Many years have passed since I first mentioned these two 'coincidences'. Since then, I have come across other examples of such coincidences and accidents. 

Something I recently read in Carole Angier's biography of Jean Rhys inspired me to take another look at the two incidents involving horses in the light of some of the later discoveries and produce an updated and enhanced version of events and my ideas about them.

Jane Eyre and the horse incident
The incident involving Jane Eyre and a horse occurs when she first encounters Mr Rochester. 

On the way to post a letter on a freezing winter's day, she sits on a stile for a while. She hears the sound of approaching hooves, then Mr Rochester comes into view on his black horse. Just as they are passing her, the horse slips on the ice and comes crashing down. Mr Rochester is hurt, so he asks Jane to catch the horse for him. This is not an easy task:

“I...went up to the tall steed; I endeavoured to catch the bridle, but it was a spirited thing, and would not let me come near its head; I made effort on effort, though in vain: meantime, I was mortally afraid of its trampling fore-feet.”

From Jane Eyre

Jean Rhys, Isaac Asimov, and some nightmare scenarios

Carole Angier's biography Jean Rhys: Life and Work mentions two incidents in one of Jean Rhys's novels that could be classed as small-scale nightmare scenarios.

I was reminded of this recently by something I read about tunnels in Isaac Asimov's memoirs; I decided to follow up Carole Angier's leads and look at the novel; the material I found has inspired a few comments.

Sasha's first nightmare 
Carole Angier refers to a horrible dream that Sasha, the main character in Jean Rhys's very depressing autobiographical novel Good Morning Midnight (1939), has on her return to Paris. This is the relevant extract from the novel:

“I am in the passage of a tube station in London. Many people are in front of me; many people are behind me. Everywhere there are placards printed in red letters: This Way to the Exhibition, This Way to the Exhibition. But I don't want the way to the exhibition -I want the way out. There are passages to the right and passages to the left, but no exit sign. Everywhere the fingers point and the placards read: This Way to the Exhibition...The steel finger points along a long stone passage. This Way - This Way - This Way to the Exhibition....”

This is uncannily similar to my own experiences in one or two huge tube stations in London. I still remember the crowds of people in the underground passages walking along like zombies, the long tunnel-like corridors, the flights of stairs, the inadequate and misleading signage and how it all became more and more stressful.

I followed the signs up some steps, along some corridors, round some corners and ended up where I started! I remember thinking to myself, “I don't want the Northern Line, I want the way out”! 

Being unable to find the exit can easily turn into a nightmare. It can feel like being trapped in Hell with no way out. I think that Jean Rhys was remembering her own experience of the London tube system when she described Sasha's bad dream.

Sasha's second nightmare 
The second nightmare incident that Carole Angier mentions happens when Sasha's boss asks her to take a letter to a certain place in the building where she works. She doesn't understand where she has to go but accepts the errand anyway. 

Sasha immediately does the wrong thing:

“I turn and walk blindly through a door. It is a lavatory. They look sarcastic as they watch me going out by the right door.“

Something about Rachel Ferguson and The Brontës Went to Woolworths

I first heard about Rachel Ferguson's novel with the intriguing title some years ago, but only recently got around to reading it.

The title is a little misleading: the Brontës appear only briefly in the book and then only in ghost form. 

I found The Brontës Went to Woolworths to be of interest more for the connections and coincidences than for the characters and story.   

The book, which was first published in 1931 and is set in the London of the time, features a bohemian, eccentric family consisting of a widowed woman and her three daughters. They all participate in an ongoing game in which they make up stories about and have imaginary relationships and conversations with real people they have never met. 

This game and the effect that it has on their lives will be covered in a future article; first comes some miscellaneous material of interest.

The Celtic connection 
The last name of the family in The Brontës Went to Woolworths is Carne. The three daughters are Deirdre, Katrine and Sheil.

All of these names have Celtic connections.

Carne is a name of Gaelic origin; it means a pile of stones or a cairn.

Deirdre is an Irish name; Katrine and Sheil are Scottish place names. The girls' father was born on the Isle of Skye.

The Celtic heritage might explain why the girls can see ghosts and their father could see nature spirits.

Ferguson is also a name of Gaelic origin, and ghosts appear in some of Rachel Ferguson's other books.

Brontë connections and the Carne coincidence 
Like many other writers featured on here, May Sinclair for example, Rachel Ferguson was very interested in the Brontës and produced works about and/or inspired by them. She probably got the idea of siblings who share an imaginary world from Brontë biographies.