#rumer godden

[tyger-land]

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙍𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧 1951

[creepynostalgy]

Deborah Keer and Jean Simmons in Black Narcissus (1947)

[filmso2]

Black Narcissus

1947

[wordwhile]

People think we renounce the world. We don't. We renounce its ways but we are still very much in it and it is very much in us.

— Rumer Godden, In this House of Brede

[autolabrum]

Watched Black Narcissus

Constant onslaught of the most beautiful images you have ever seen. Masterful sense of tone and pacing, as the callous optimism of the colonial endeavor decays into abject failure in the face of a culture the nuns are utterly unwilling to regard and unable to disregard. Sister Philippa sees this most clearly: "I think there are only two ways of living in this place. Either one must live like Mr. Dean or like the Holy Man. Either ignore it or give yourself up to it," to which Clodagh replies "Neither will do for us." The colonial project attempts to straddle these perspectives, by ignoring the pre-existing materiality of its victims while simultaneously attempting to radically transform it. Usually this contradiction is resolved through violence, and the nuns enact their share of cultural violence, but the particulars of their environment make this contradiction all too plain. There is simply too much world to transform. The air is too clear, the wind too strong, the mountain too large, the chasm too deep. The nuns are placed above the village, above everything, and as they stare down at the world they can feel only vertigo. Their colonial control slipping from their grip. Their faith evaporating in the mountain air. Their chastity and restraint blown away in the wind. And, as in the Overlook Hotel, when the cold world of the mountains strips us of our armor, our chauvinism, our sanity goes quickly with it.

In this extraordinary fairy tale of colonial futility, it is difficult to see care in the fairy tale nature of the characters. The nuns, proper individuals with various interiorities, histories, and complexes, falter when they encounter a world that is foreign to them, yes, but it is foreign in its simplicity. The Nepalese of the film are not characters in the modern sense but stock characters, like the prince and the beggar maid. Perhaps their lack of unique interiority is simply a byproduct of the colonialist filter through which we see them, as the lens of the British Empire compresses violently anything it cannot understand into flat, easy stereotypes. Perhaps it is the contradiction between these stereotypes and the actuality of the individuals the nuns meet that triggers, in part, the decay of their project. Perhaps. After all, the Black Narcissus that shocks Sister Ruth so badly that it gives the film its title is not some orientalist magical incense, but a luxury scent from London. Perhaps this violation of expectation, wherein the young general has more connection to the British sensibility than the nuns, forces them (or at least Ruth) into an awareness of the contradictions of their role as a 'civilizing' force in an already globalized world.

[godzilla-reads]

💚 The Dragon of Og by Rumer Godden, illustrated by Pauline Baynes

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

Angus Og takes over a piece of land that has a gentle dragon living in the woods. The dragon is kind and people say it brings luck, but Angus Og takes offense when the dragon takes two bullocks from his herd. Thus begins a battle of wits as Angus Og vows to kill the dragon.

I read this book a couple years ago and absolutely loved it. The story reads like a folktale, which it is based off one, but the writing has that magic and hope and peace to it. I have this book on my Top 10 Dragon Books List and I’ll keep it there after this reread reminded me how much I love it.

[fictionadventurer]

I've progressed in my spiritual life (I feel ready to tackle In This House of Brede).

[saltwaterandstars]

JOMP BPC - 29th January - This Month's Favourite

I really enjoyed In This House of Brede - and managed to read all 500 pages of it in January, which given how much I've struggled to read physical books in recent years, is a testament to the quality of the writing. It's not a book for everyone - for a start, there's relatively little plot and action. We follow the protagonist, Philippa Talbot, as she gives up her successful career to become a Benedictine nun in an enclosed order. The book is really a way for us to spend time in that order, getting to know Philippa and the other nuns and gaining some insights into their spiritual and practical lives, and to have the rhythm of the days and years there wash over us. I'm not Catholic and never have been, so everything was new and interesting to me. Which isn't to say that I share the beliefs and have the same moral convictions as the nuns in the book - I don't - but I was engrossed in the lives they lead and I enjoyed the delicacy of the writing and the sense of slow movement through the liturgical year.