Sir James George Frazer writes in The Golden Bough that while modern science has evolved from religious and magical attempts at understanding and controlling the natural environment, it eclipses these frameworks[1]. Frazer said that magic of the 20th Century was “a spurious system in natural law as well a fallacious guide for conduct; it is an abortive science as well.”[2] Frazer’s significant influence on early modernism, especially T.S. Eliot stated that his work had profoundly influenced his generation. Marianne Moore’s and Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry have been described as reflecting a modernist obsession for scientific ways to understand the world. Paradoxically, both poets have an “otherworldly” effect. While Moore’s poetry is characterized by an overuse of defamiliarization and Bishop’s works explore the dreamscape with existential anxiety, Moore’s poem achieves a mysterious, otherworldly effect through its commitment to precision. Although some have investigated Torodov’s surrealist influence on Moore and his ‘fantastic’ literature, others have focused their attention on Bishop’s surrealist influences. But none of these critics has ever considered that their works may have a certain magic/al realist quality. The term is often associated to the fantastical Latin American works of Garcia Marquez. However, “magic realist” was originally defined as “a way that uncovers the mystery hidden in everyday objects and everyday reality” [4]. This is a non-localized mode of thinking. William Spindler, a critic of the genre, has created a “typology” to describe it. I will argue using Spindler’s typology that Moore, Bishop consistently invoke this “magic”. Instead of being “falsescience”, this “magic” effect actually results from a hyperrealistic and almost scientific analysis.
Moore, speaking to the Paris Review, stated that she found studying biology… exhilarating. Actually, I considered studying medicine. Precision, economy, logic, and precision are all used to disinterested ends. They also draw and identify, but they don’t necessarily have any bearing on the imagination. Moore’s works are filled with exhilaration and excitement for the scientific. Moore uses logic to describe her poems and even her sources of inspiration. In Silence, for example, Moore’s poem is almost entirely based on the quote of her father – my father used ” – which is perhaps appropriate since the narrator herself is marginalized. The poet also attempts to hide her attempt to put her own biography in the poem. Moore died six months ago. She also notes that the poem is attributed, in part, to Miss A.M. Homans. Professor Emeritus, Wellesley College. The origin of this citation has been altered so that the last line “make me your inn”, delivered like it was also by Mr Homans is attributed instead to Edmund Burke. John Charles Hawley and other critics argue that these “irregularities” are not troubling. They claim that Moore intended to create two archetypal composite figures: father ….. [6] Mr Homans is used explicitly to build the father figure. Edmund Burke is also used. Although the former argument is true, I disagree that it has any troubling effect. Moore conveys verisimilitude through her use of quotes: it is impossible not to trust the narrator’s statement that “my father used” In her argument, Moore employs a logical approach. It can be summarized using the first and last lines. “My father used the say”: “Inns are not residences” is the main body. Moore’s notes reveal that the father is an archetype. This means that the scientific indexicality[7] can actually cause the character to be dislocated from a particular place or time. Natalia Cecire interprets this dislocation in Moore’s precision. She argues that Moore “reproduces and gives life to an overwhelming quality that precision is meant to manage. This poetics, however, has a mysterious side effect. Moore, paradoxically, opens up the possibility to the unknown through her poetry. Moore’s “relentless precision”[9] sometimes has a defamiliarizing impact, especially when it comes to poems about animals and the natural environment. For example, “To a Snail”, the poem “the curious phenomena of your occipital horn”, describes how the familiar eyes that a snail has are made unrecognizable by neuroscientific Lexis such “occipital”, as well as the unusual use and “horn” Like in “Silence”, precision is stressed and the value of what isn’t said is highlighted. Moore’s poetry reveals a lesson in its poetic form. Moore’s emphasised virtue – repeated twice per line in “To a Snail” – comes from a careful examination of nature, which is both presented as a source of moral teaching and defamiliarized with her precision. These virtues are objective properties of the snail; the modesty shown in the ability of the snail to contract at will is one example of “the principle of hiding // in the absenceof feet”. Moore’s poetry reflects the same virtues she admires within this unromantic creature. It was true that she spent years crafting a single piece of poetry. After erasing the entire text, Moore was left with a very small number of lines. Moore’s poetry is an example of the Imagism style. Moore’s general and editing values may be evident in Moore’s close description, however, Moore’s poetry is not only an allegory for them. Schulze, critic, says “Moore’s creatures remain animals.” [10]. The snail serves as a metaphor. One could argue that scientific analysis can reveal objective, relevant moral instructions.
Moore, Bishop’s mentor, had a tremendous impact on her poetry. Moore’s younger brother, Benjamin Moore, wrote that Moore and she “see what others neglect”[11]. Moore seems less convinced that she can observe morality in the natural world. However, she does acknowledge that it is possible to observe these values. The importance of precision is shown in “Sandpiper”, for example. The necessity for precision is illustrated by Bishop’s observation of the ocean. This value is highlighted in parenthesis to the reader as “(no detail too large)”. The last stanza leaves the reader feeling alienated from the narration human voice. He is in a smug tone while watching the bird search between the grains. Despite the speaker’s inability to comprehend the Sandpipers motivations, the validity and legitimacy of the bird searching for food is still evident. The “millions” of grains of sand are mixed together with the rich, almost delectable “quartz grain, rose, amethyst”. Bishop said that there are many morals in animal lives, and it is crucial to study them out by “devotely and minutely watching the animal”. Moore, too, believes that animal morality exists, but the ability to understand this requires being able “devotedly” to observe the animals. This anxiety is present in Bishop’s poetry. Bonnie Costello says that Moore always attached value to facts while Bishop attaches fear, yearning, and uncertainty. The “illegal” fire balloons appear to “rise toward a Saint” from a human perspective. However, they cause havoc comparable to hellfire for the animal kingdom. In “In a Waiting Room”, anxiety towards external value turns into crisis. Bishop’s precision in this scene is frightening, but unlike Moore it is not the result from existential angst. Bishop’s description of “shadowy brown knees”, which the narrator refers to as an expression of his/her fear of losing values, is a result of an exact analysis of the world that was made after carefully studying a National Geographic magazine. The narrator experiences a dream-like sequence in which he/she feels the waiting room is “beneath big black waves”. This is even though the crisis is undoubtedly a result of the scientific precision.
Before I discuss the magic realist elements found in Bishop and Moore, let me first examine their supposed contradiction between scientific precision and their mysterious, arguably miraculous poetry. Jeanne Heuving says that Moore’s poems are a 20th Century version of Torodov’s Fantastic. She defines it as the “fear experienced by someone [the reader] who is only familiar with the laws and confronts an apparently supernatural situation”[13][14]. Moore’s poetry does occasionally make explicit reference to the supernatural. In the first piece, “Diligence Is to magic as progress Is to flight”, Moore blurs the line between thing and language. “Speed is not in Her mind inseparable with carpets.” This is Torodov’s fantastic. It is impossible for the reader to differentiate between the description of thoughts by the narrator or the supernatural entity that is the “magic Carpet”. Moore’s mysterious “darkly inexplicable dimension” is not restricted to poetry that incorporate the supernatural. Torodov, however, cannot limit her fantastic to poems such as “To a Snail”. Bishop has been criticized by critics for being surrealist. That’s understandable considering she once stated that “Dreams… catch an peripheral vision of whatever, although one can’t really see it all, it seems enormously crucial”; many of her poems resemble verbal reconstructions from dreams. The Weed is an example of the impossible. Bishop writes that “I dreamed I was dead and meditating // I laid on a bed, or grave.” The vivid imagery in “The Rooted Heart” is always linked to the psychology behind the narrator. He/she has become physical through his thoughts, much like Moore’s narrator in ‘Diligence Is to Magic. Progress Is to Flight.’ “It lifted itself all dripping with wet // (with my thoughts). Max Ernst once described the sensation of being overwhelmed by the number of images and photos in a catalog. The same happens with ‘The Weed,’ which moves around the world while keeping the surrealist photographic precision. Bishop creates a “new landscape” that is not related to the objects she depicts. Her poems are full of the magic, uncanniness, and displacement of surrealist works. Bishop’s magic is not restricted to the realms human psychology. Richard Mullen says that while her landscapes may have dreamscape-like qualities, they also show an extraordinary appreciation for the natural environment. [15]. Bishop’s work is not unlike surrealists who believed there were only “objects and subjects” and did not care about the external world.
Mullen views Bishop as a surrealist poetry writer. These limitations, which Mullen regards as weaknesses, may be used as a strength in a magic realistic analysis of Moore’s poems. Franz Roh, a German painter, created the movement. His fascination with the psychoanalytic concepts and unconscious was the inspiration for it. Like the surrealists magic realism didn’t seek to portray the inner mind of humans. Instead, magic realism could reveal its secrets through careful analysis. Roh said, “mystery is not confined to the representational world, but it hides within itself.” [16]. Magical realism, as loosely defined, does not include a play between supernatural and uncanny. Instead, by analyzing reality closely, the extraordinary and uncanny can be seen in the external world. The leaking oil, a common image that is not romantic, transforms into a piece of art in Bishop’s novel “The Fish”. It is vivid and realistic, with emphasis on repetition. The Roh-style conception of magic realism is also evident in the way that Moore presents animals as literalized metaphors. Moore’s snail is not an allegory, but it is possible to show the accuracy of Moore’s presentation. Morality is self-evident in the animal kingdom. William Spindler created a typology of magic realism that corresponds with Roh’s conception. The first category, I believe, is best compared to that of Bishop and Moore. Here, magic “is understood in the sense conjuring, producing unexpected effects by the arrangement natural objects through tricks, devices, or optical illusions”. “Filling Station” by Bishop is a vivid example of how cans are arranged. However, it produces an effect similar to synaesthesia. The sibilances and sounds of “so”, give the cans an auditory, visual, and audible presence. Metaphysical Magic Realism in literature is found in texts that induce a sensation of unreality. Verfremdung is a method that allows a familiar scene to be described as though it were something brand new and unknown. However, this technique does not deal with the supernatural. In Filling Station’, the regular petrol station is transformed into a reminder that everyone loves them all. Spindler claims that this creates an uncanny atmosphere, and the impersonal presence [19] – Moore’s poetry is notable for this uncanny atmosphere. This is evident in ‘Silence, where the majority of the poem consists of quotes. It is clear that the scientists’ precision evokes a magic-like feeling, similar to Roh’s.
Moore and Bishop both have a poetic style that is scientifically precise, but their devotion to the practice reveals a deeper mystery to their poetry. Moore’s sense dislocation is due her playfulness using scientific and rational modes of thinking. Bishop’s anxiety towards finding external values manifests itself through dreamlike imagery. Some critics appeal to surrealist or fantastical influences to explain this mystery. I argue, however, that magic realist – as it was originally conceived – is Bishop and Moore’s method of writing. This mode of writing is representative of a modern magical thinking where the’magic’ is discovered through scientific approaches to understanding the world.
Endnotes/Reference List:
[1] Frazer, James George. The Golden Bough PalgraveMacmillan, London, 1990. [2] Ibid[3] Dwivedi, Amar Nath. TS Eliot. Atlantic Publishers & Distribution, established in 2003, specializes in publishing and distributing books. [4] Bowers, Maggie Ann. Magic (al) Realistic. Routledge, 2013. [5] Hall, Donald. “The Art of Poetry V: Marianne Moore.” Paris Review (7 (1961) : 41-66. [6] Hawley John Charles, Ed. Reform and counterreform: dialectics in the Word in Western Christianity Since Luther. No. 34. Walter de Gruyter, 1994. [7] Cecire, Natalia. “Marianne Moore’s precision.” Arizona Quarterly. A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory. 4 (2011): 83-110. Schulze’s work, The Web of Friendship: Marianne Moore and Wallace Stevens, is referenced twice in this document [8, 9]. The University of Michigan Press published a book in 1995. [11] Ibid [12] Costello, Bonnie. “Marianne Moore’s friendship with Elizabeth Bishop.” Twentieth Century Literature 29, no. 2/3 (1984): 130-149. [13] Heuving, Jeanne. Omissions are not accidental: Gender in Marianne Moore’s Art. In 1992, the Wayne State University Press released a publication. [14] Todorov, Tzvetan. The fantastic: An approach to literary genres from a structural perspective. Cornell University Press published a book in 1975. [15] Mullen, Richard. “Elizabeth Bishop’s Surrealist Succession.” American Literature 54. 1 (1982): 63-80 [16] Roh, Franz. “Magic Realism: Post Expressionism” Magical Realism History, Theory, and Community (95): 15-31. [17] Spindler, William. “Magic Realist: A Typeology.” Forum for Modern Language Studies, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 75-85. Oxford University Press published this work in 1993. [18] Ibid [19] Ibid
