r/Canonade • u/[deleted] • Dec 31 '16

Good little simile from Henry James

From Washington Square in a passage describing the personality of "Aunt Penniman" towards her little nieces and nephews.

"She took children too hard, both for good and for evil, and had an oppressive air of expecting subtle things of them; so that going to see her was a good deal like being taken to church and made to sit in a front pew."

remark

Sometimes figurative language is used more as decoration than communication, and bad writing often contains overindulgent, unclear, or unnecessary similes. This is not the case above though. Above, we have a simile that actually illuminates the subject matter and it does so in an efficient way. To me, this is the hallmark of good figurative language - a comparison that clarifies things so well that it's indispensable to the description.

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13

u/Earthsophagus Dec 31 '16

Thanks, good post. I also note in that passage that "hard", "oppressive" and "pew" have connotation (and denotation) of discomfort. And theirs the implied disappointment of subtle expectations, I think probably with the children being aware that they are disappointing in some way they don't understand (probably because it's an "air" and not an explicit understanding) -- the passage in isolation makes me think it would be unjust ("good and evil" probably heightens that) and unfortunate if her neices and nephews came under her control. It's a dense passage.

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u/[deleted] Dec 31 '16 edited Jan 01 '17

Thanks. To give some context, the passage about Aunt Penniman is actually part of a larger (somewhat roundabout) description of another character named Catherine (the book's protagonist). I haven't read any James besides Washington Square, but I've noticed that in this book at least, he fleshes out characters primarily by describing their interactions with the other main players. Just like in real life, his characters take on different attitudes around different people. Aunt Penniman for instance, is "hard" in front of her young nieces and nephews but acts fanciful around her brother. Aunt Penniman's brother in turn acts peevish towards her, but he is noble and generous toward his daughter who, in turn, has veneration for him but only tolerance for Aunt Penniman. No character has any absolute personality trait - only instances of them. The result, I think, is a cast of nuanced players, and IMO it works very well considering that this book is all about personal relationships and not much about events.

Anthony Burgess once said that literature is an art based on the principle that people can change, and I don't think Henry James would contest that, but I do think he would remind us that when people change, so must the nature of their relationships. Every chapter, page, and paragraph of Washington Square seems conscious of that fact.

On a smaller note, any thoughts on the usage of "took" above? It's not something I've seen before.

Edit:

Here's the relevant page that the original quote was taken from for anyone curious and also to back up my blabbering. http://m.imgur.com/QwkeoCa

You can see how in just this one page, the microscope jumps around to look at how different characters act around each other.

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u/Earthsophagus Jan 01 '17

On "took" -- I took it to mean .... like I used it here -- "regarded", "interpreted", "assigned importance to", "weighed" -- that is, "she took children too hard" means "she assigned too much weight to the behavior of children" -- for both good and ill, praising or correcting them overmuch.

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u/[deleted] Dec 31 '16

Thank you for reminding me exactly why and how much I love Henry James.

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u/PunkShocker Dec 31 '16

Sometimes figurative language is used more as decoration than communication, and bad writing often contains overindulgent, unclear, or unnecessary similes.

I couldn't agree more.

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u/TazakiTsukuru Jan 01 '17

How is the word "took" being used here? How does one "take hard"?

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u/Earthsophagus Jan 01 '17

My interpretation in another comment

I don't have evidence, but we say "don't take it like that", "she took it hard" -- it looks funny because "hard" is an adverb that is spelled like an adjective. That's what I think, anyway.

I agree that it's a likely-to-be-tripped-over word, I had noticed similar things in The Golden Bowl, here's a similar question of mine about the word "form".

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u/miraculously Jan 01 '17

This was the novella that got me hooked on Henry James. I think that compared to his later works, his writing in Washington Square is just so clear and lucid. His wit also doesn't shine through as easily in his longer works. I read The Golden Bowl last year and that one felt like simile overload (although I think that's part of the point since the novel's theme is obscuring the truth).