Fowles II Ch. 15-27 (1.30.2006)

            Last week, we read about sympathetic imagination, "the ability of a person to penetrate the barrier which space puts between him and his object, and by actually entering into the object, so to speak, to secure a momentary but complete identification with it" (882).  As I read this section of The French Lieutenant's Woman, I couldn't help but notice the ties to last week's reading.  When Sarah denies Mrs. Tranter's help, Charles points out that "'no one is beyond help who inspires sympathy in others'" (122).  Is this necessarily true?  Even if someone inspires sympathy in another person, does that other person necessarily understand the situation?  Without an understanding of the situation, is it really possible to truly help another person? 

I also really liked the account of sympathetic imagination given during one of Sarah and Charles' conversations:  "Moments like modulations come in human relationships: when what has been until then an objective situation, one perhaps described by the mind to itself in semi-literary terms, one it is sufficient merely to classify under some general heading (man with alcoholic problems, woman with unfortunate past, and so on) becomes subjective; becomes unique; becomes, by empathy, instantaneously shared rather than observed" (140).  I think this account really personifies the process of sympathetic imagination.

Additionally, this reading strongly related to our course goal of place.  Over the past semester we have discussed the reflection that can be prompted by truly connecting with a place.  How possible is it for a place to also promote action?  For example, the Lyme Assembly Rooms are claimed to be a place that "provoked whist, and gentlemen with cigars in their mouths, and balls, and concerts.  In short, it encouraged pleasure" (127).  What other places can we remember from literature that provoke the same sort of universal action?

Finally, I couldn't help but connect the end of our reading to the message displayed on the UT Tower: "ye shall known the truth and the truth shall make you free" (303).  When Charles seeks help from Grogan, Grogan questions "'Man, man, are we not both believers in science?  Do we not both hold that truth is the one great principle?  What did Socrates die for?  A keeping social face?  A homage to decorum?  Do you think in my forty years as a doctor I have no learned to tell when a man is in distress?  And because he is hiding the truth from himself?  Know thyself, Smithson, know thyself!'" (225).  For me, this passage really allows me to hammer at the idea of truth.  Too often, I have thought of the message on the outside of the tower as a message about academia.  By seeking the truth, we will become free through knowledge.  Seeking the truth, however, also applies to our personal life.  Is it possible to find a truth in Charles' encounters with Ernestina and Sarah?  Is there one right answer to his problems?  How can he go about seeking a truth that doesn't objectively exist?