Kong v Gonga

Mellard ("Framed in the Glaze," available via WebCT) argues that O'Connor offers, in Hazel, a kind of "case history ... a scene of original trauma ... that trauma's effects" (52) and offers a Lacanian reading of the novel that focuses on the novel's depiction of the gaze and anamorphosis. Anamorphosis is defined by the OED as a "distorted projection or drawing of anything, so made that when viewed from a particular point, or by reflection from a suitable mirror, it appears regular and properly proportioned; a deformation." Perhaps the most famous visual example of anamorphosis is Hans Holbein's painting The Ambassadors, where an image of a skull in encrypted near the bottom of the painting.



Mellard argues that O'Connor uses metaphor to effect this same kind of transformation, noting in particular Mrs' Hitchcock's observation of "The outline of a skull under [Haze's ] skin" (10;57). This image introduces one aspect of the novel I want you to consider: its fascination with the visual realm and that fascination translated into writing. From its opening description of Hazel's eyes moving from the window to the carriage aisle the novel adopts, I argue, a cinematic orientation to the representation of its imaginary spaces.

Perhaps equally important is its analysis of the cinematic space in the diegesis. Taulkinham is represented as a city of lights, reminiscent of the signage that dominates the cityscapes of the city symphony film: "PEANUTS, WESTERN UNION, AJAX, TAXI, HOTEL, CANDY" (Chapter 2) and Hazel arrives on the train, as by this point we might anticipate or require. Later Enoch goes to the movies and finds himself engulfed in its "maw." The first film Enoch witnesses concerns "a scientist named The Eye who performed operations by remote control ... only his eyes looked at the screen." The movie palace offers another scene of trauma, one supplemented by the appearance of Gonga, and of Hazel who preaches in front of the Odeon theatre. Gonga, a dimly and debased descendant of King Kong, orients the question of vision around phenomenon of film as he views Enoch through "celluloid eyes."



Marshalling these indices, some lines of flight emerge between:
* the city symphony and King Kong
* the city symphony and Wise Blood
* King Kong and Rose Hobart
* East of Borneo and King Kong
* Kong and Gonga
* writing and film

And one final intersection, the reworking of Wise Blood by John Huston in his 1979 Wise Blood, which we will watch, in part, in class.