pala 2007 gansai kadai university osaka martin gliserman ... · slide #1: the slide shows the heart...
TRANSCRIPT
PALA 2007 GANSAI KADAI UNIVERSITY OSAKA Martin Gliserman, PhD, PsyA Rutgers University, USA [email protected] THE HEART IN ONE HUNDRED NOVELS, 1719-1997
The Facets of the Heart
This slide show—a graphic analysis—focuses on HEART as it appears in one hundred
neo-canonical Anglophone novels from 1719 to 1997. Methodologically, HEART has been taken
out of its larger narrative context and displayed in more local grammatical-rhetorical moments
the better to see its many facets and enable the construction of its place in the text’s semantic
web. First, we look at two charts that shows HEART historically on its own and then HEART in
relation to the rest of the BODY in the corpus over the course of roughly two hundred eighty
years. In this glimpse of the stability and shifts of the body in the corpus we can literally see a bit
of the transmission of culture. Next, we look at a map of the qualities and attributes of HEART
that emerge from examining the particular local hearts of the corpus. Last, we will look at the
heart in four specific novels to see the range, depth and dynamics it has, and to see how the
individual writer shapes the heart to connect with both the wider culture and the text’s core
redundancies. In examining the heart, we watch the construction of feelings over time. d how it
can placed in a semantic web.
The slides stand in relation to larger questions about reading, texts and the nature of
brain/mind—I am interested in how we read and why we read, and what it is we are reading
when for example we read a novel. The nature of this project is partly a cyborg reading—a
reading I could conceptualize but not execute without a machine mind. It’s not the same as
reading a novel for the kind of relationship it was “meant” to be, one on one. In that respect there
is something perverse about this cyborg reading. The machine might not cogitate but it has a
range of ways to help us think our thoughts, and given its organization (which must somehow
refract our own neural organization), it also changes the way we can think. We are all potential
savants. The circuits I map out here seem to be connected to the neurological. They make writing
a tracery of the bio-logical/neuro-logical, if we look at writing outside the box, and see it as not
only narrative but webular. Writing is a completing in process. When the writing is read, it is
meant to be mapped onto/into the reader, remembered. The mapping in the mind is not a strict
memorization-only, there is as well a shadow of spaces and figures and interactions in non-
narrative patterns.
My idea of “the novel” is that the narrative is a cover up for an information package; the
narrative is a way for the information to get to the neural circuitry. In order for the information to
get effectively implanted, it needs to not only be sequential but redundant. The nature of
language is that outputting and inputting are done one character/word at a time, in sequences that
are syntactically fairly locked in. However, the nature of memory and brain processing is not
only linear but also webular, hierarchically and horizontally interconnecting. Language is a virus;
it spreads by contact and neural permeation. So, what a text “really” is, is a redundancy web. I
will focus on a small redundancy–HEART–as a way to demonstrate the larger question of textual
information.
I am cutting through the syntax, suspending it for the time being, in order to look at the
emerging patterns of semantic affinities. So, from the twelve million words of the corpus of one
hundred Anglophone novels, the process involved culling all the words in the texts naming the
body, and then looking at the heart in the context of all those other names in this system of
cultural transmission that we call the novel. Looking at the semantic families in turn helps us see
how the heart narrative is embedded in the overall narrative–it is at once dispersed and
interspersed–dispersed throughout the novel (like riffs in music and colors in paintings and film)
and interspersed with other redundancies of the novel to give us its particular coherence and
chaos. The single “narrative” we call the novel is in fact a collection of narratives, the petite
narratives that join to make a grand narrative. The collection of the grand narratives in a corpus
will offer us yet more narratives.
This notion of the text as an information virus involves the idea of an unconscious
domain of mind as that idea as been collectively and pluralistically defined in the twentieth
century not just by Freud, but by Whorf, Chomsky, and Pinsky, Watson and Crick, by
Bertalannfy, Thomas Kuhn, Bateson, Hofstadter and Wolfram, and by Thomas Ogden, Daniel
Stern and Elaine Scarry—to name a few (see bibliography). Everywhere there is a domain of
unseen rules and metarules for making and making meaning, and for destroying. In this
particular work I’m interested in the semantic unconscious, the set of word-family relationships
that emerges from examining the semantic pool of the text. I unhook the syntax of the narrative
and let the words move into families and then see what set of relationships there are among the
families and among the members of these families. If a novel is a form of memory, a potential
memory maker, than it might be built just as neurologists are now saying memory is built–with
“neuronal cliques” that make connections both vertically and horizontally. And what we find out
about meaning is that it’s both locally cohesive and globally open to interpretation; meaning is so
clear and so elusive; meaning is a dynamic set in motion by affect.
SLIDE #1: The slide shows the heart in chronological order from Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in
1719 to Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things in 1997. It shows how much the heart shows up in
relation to all other parts of the body for each of one hundred texts. The heart is a relatively small feature
of the named body, but its purely statistical status does not translate simply to its value. As with all
aspects of the text, the heart plays a role in the general redundancies, especially regarding AFFECT.
The heart is used most in the earlier phases of the history of the novel, until mid to late nineteenth
century; in the twentieth century heart drops right after Joyce’s Portrait, as if WWI has killed it off. It
never regains its momentum though it does play an important role in a group of African American novels,
particularly Baldwin’s Go Tell it on the Mountain (1952); this role culminates in the embedded narratives
about the heart in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. The gradual and steady decline of the heart may be because
we have been living in heartless times, or times when heart is too vulnerable to reveal—Oprah keeps it
alive. To survive one needs nerves. If heart had once been a primary conveyor of feelings, we have found
other ways to get at feeling, including feelinglessness—not a single heart, e.g., in The Sun Also Rises.
Perhaps future research into AFFECT in this corpus will show shifting ways of expressing feelings,
emotions and states--the twentieth century decline of HEART is also coincidental with the development
of psychoanalysis as a process of expressing and interpreting. Perhaps what the heart is not expressing is
being acted out. The chronological decline from 1719 to 1997 raises questions that in the years to come I
hope to have some viable hypotheses to account for.
SLIDE #2: The second chart contextualizes the heart in the body as a whole, looking at the body
here in 19 segments from the head to the foot (including blood, sweat and tears, etc.). This slide allows us
to see, quantitatively, how the heart sits in the body, and how it looks, in the position, over time. The
heart line is a gold band that begins seven sections from the bottom.
TEXTRAYS ©2007 martin gliserman
Percent of HEART in BODY
0.00%
0.05%
0.10%
0.15%
0.20%
0.25%
0.30%
0.35%
0.40%
1721 Robinson C
rusoe1724 R
oxana1726 G
ulliver's Travels1743 Pam
ela1744 D
avid Simple
1749 Fanny Hill
1749 Tom Jones
1759 Tristram Shandy
1764 Castle of O
tranto1766 Vicar of W
akefield1771 H
umphry C
linker1778 Evelina1780 O
ld English Baron
1791 Charlotte Tem
ple1796 The M
onk1798 W
eiland1803 N
orthanger Abby
1816 Emm
a1818 Frankenstein1819 Ivanhoe1826 The Last of the M
ohicans1845 Sybil, or the Tw
o Nations
1847 Jane Eyre1847 W
uthering Heights
1848 Vanity Fair1848 Tenant of W
ildfell Hall
1850 The Scarlet Letter1851 M
oby Dick
1852 Uncle Tom
's Cabin
1853 Bleak H
ouse1853 C
ranford1857 B
archester Towers
1861 Silas Marner
1861 Cloister and the H
earth, The1868 The M
oonstone1869 Little W
omen
1879 The Egoist1894 H
uckleberry Finn1885 R
ise of Silas Lapham1891 Tess of the D
'Urbervilles
1891 Picture of Dorian G
ray 1893 The O
dd Wom
en1895 The R
ed Badge of C
ourage1896 C
ountry of the Pointed Firs, The1897 D
racula1899 H
eart of Darkness
1899 The Aw
akening1900 The H
ouse Behind the C
edars1900 Sister C
arrie 1901 K
im1901 O
ctopus1903 The A
mbassadors
1903 The Way of A
ll Flesh 1905 The H
ouse of Mirth
1906 The Jungle1906 M
an of Property1908 R
oom w
ith a View1908 C
ircular Stair Case, The
1910 The Getting of W
isdom1912 The A
utobiography of an Ex-Colored M
an
1913 Sons and Lovers1915 The G
ood Soldier1916 Portrait of the A
rtist as a Young Man
1918 My A
ntonia1919 W
inesberg, Ohio
1920 This Side of Paradise1922 B
abbitt1922 U
lysses1925 M
rs. Dallow
ay1925 The G
reat Gatsby
1926 The Sun Also R
ises1927 To the Lighthouse1928 Q
uicksand 1928 The Sound and the Fury1931 The G
ood Earth1940 N
ative Son1945 The C
atcher in the Rye
1947 Invisible Man
1948 The Heart of the M
atter1949 N
ineteen Eighty-Four1952 M
artha Quest
1953 Go Tell It O
n The Mountain
1954 Lord of the Flies1955 Lolita1957 The A
ssistant1958 Things Fall A
part1962 O
ne Flew O
ver The Cuckoo's N
est1967 Portnoy's C
omplaint
1969 Blind M
an with a Pistol
1969 Them1969 The O
ptimist's D
aughter1972 Surfacing1977 C
eremony
1978 Kathy G
oes To Haiti
1980 Midnight's C
hildren1984 The B
one People 1984 W
hite Noise
1988 Beloved
1990 Middle Passage
1997 The God of Sm
all Things
19 Body Clusters, 1721-1997
Rob
ins o
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augh
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h y G
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a iti
Wh i
te N
o ise
The
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e Pe
ople
Bel
oved
Mid
d le
Pass
age
The
God
of S
mal
l Th i
n gs
head/body
hair/body
face/body
mind/body
visual-aural/body
oral-nasal/body
neck/body
voice/body
shoulder-arm/body
hand/body
structural/body
ero-repro/body
organ-emotion/body
hip-thigh/body
leg-knee/body
foot/body
form/body
system/body
excretion/body
SLIDE # 3 is a general map of qualities and functions of heart–the slide is an abstraction
of the particular maps of each particular novel. The heart generally is used to express emotion–
no great surprise there. The emotion can be directly expressed and named as being located in the
heart, or the emotion is expressed in some metaphoric way concerning the space and motion of
the heart–i.e., we gather the emotion from the motion/direction/weight of the heart. The heart’s
physiology can be connected to affect, a direct physical register in response to which emotions
kick in. The heart also functions at times like another intrapsychic space–a place of
thought/reflection and judgment. As a noun heart is subject to being modified (adjectival); there
is a spectacular display of modification in Richardson’s Pamela in which the adjectives carry a
complex array of moral judgments (good heart, pure heart, malicious heart, black heart). Last, I
call attention to the idea that the heart, like other bodily zones, is likely to have its own
narratives, something that Toni Morrison’s novel shows us with great clarity and power, as she
shows us Baby Sugg’s heart as it emerges, as she uses it , as it is broken, and as it dies.
Heart DimensionsCardiographs
AffectsEnjoyment joyDistress AnxietyFear
Motion/ movementLeap-sinkSwell-contractWarm-chill
SpatialIn, intoUp, downAround
PhysiologicalRhythmIntensity
Intrapsychic
Interpersonal External actionIntrude, impinge
Sooth
JudgementPositive
Negative
SLIDE #4. MRS. DALLOWAY provides us with a tidy example of a range of affects and
functions—it has a low quantity/density but a rich array. Moreover, it poses a useful
contradistinction between HEART and BRAIN, between affect and the rational, in a way that
reverses the general tendency of the masculine to overvalue the rational mind and undervalue the
affective basis of the rational. "'What does the brain matter,' said Lady Rossiter, getting up,
'compared with the heart?'"—a comment that reverberates with the trauma of the text.
The first branch is the heart itself, as an organ of the body. In Woolf’s novel the heart has been
damaged by illness; and one is reminded of it about four times. In this branch, a physical feeling
might not be an emotion waving through the body, but a body sensation that gives rise to
emotion or amplifies it. It is not meant to be metaphoric, but it is also metaphoric (being in a
literary text). The “something wrong” is also psychological—a scene of trauma, seeing her sister
killed by a falling tree. The second branch--affects--is also physiological, and yet the heart here
is also a metaphoric heart, or a holonymic heart, i.e., a heart that is part of the physiology of
breathing, breathing a part of a physiological response to the ecological moment we find
ourselves in. The instances of affects are each expressive of other aspects of the heart, for
example, its spatial presence--"in the depths of her heart"--as a way of indicating something of
the archeology of affect and relationship. On the third branch we find the heart as place with
consciousness if not language, a vessel something like mind, a place with articulated affects. The
next branch--metaphoric extensions--offers the idea of life being akin to a body with its own
heart. The spatial branch calls attention to way the heart is given a geography. Last, the heart is
seen in the branch as setting or displaying one's core character, by genetic temperament and/or
training and socialization.
MRS. DALLOWAY 'S HEART
AFFECTSinterest, excitement, joy
fifty five, in body...but her heart was like a girl's of twenty...liked nothing better than doing kindnesses, making thehearts of old ladies palpitate with the joy of being
distress, anxiety, fear in the depths of her heart was an awful fear
MOTION/MOVEMENTlike an arrow sticking in her heart the griefeating her heart our because that nice boy was killedalmost broke my heart
INTRAPSYCHIC
fear no more says the heart, fear no more says the heart,committing its burden to some seaunder the pressure of an emotion which caught her heartbut in her heart she felt, all the same, he is in love
METAPHORIC EXTENSIONS
an emptiness about the heart of life [life as body and the heartof life's body --where we live--is/can be empty--splendid morning too. Life the pulse of a perfect heart, lifestruck straight through the streetsSPACE
[Conversion] had her dwelling in Sir William's heartloathed from the depths of her heart
pitied and despised them from the bottom of her heartdespised Mrs. Dalloway from the bottom of her heart
CORE CHARACTERsaid Sally,Clarissa was at heart a snob
PHYSIOLOGICAL
heart affected by influenza [physical feeling might notbe an emotion waving through the body, but a bodysensation that gives rise to emotion.
glides into the recesses of the heart and buriesitself in ring after ring of sound
It was her heart, he rememberedexcitement....knew it was bad for her heartthat dilation of the nerves of the heart itself
INTERPERSONALEXTERNAL ACTIONalmost broke my heart
JUDGEMENT[peter says of Hugh]: he had no heart, no brain, nothing but manners
Cold, heartless, a prude, he called herhollowness; at arm's length they were, not in the heart;
"What does the brain matter," said Lady Rosseter, getting up, "compared with the heart?"
SLIDE #5 ROBINSON CRUSOE I think of Defoe’s novel as an Ur-novel, as a text that
later novels are connected to; he’s always part of any analysis. Robinson Crusoe has a heart
narrative: the heart is primarily filled with anxiety until Crusoe reaches a point of spiritual
connection, when he understands his dependency, his guilt and need for reparation—his spiritual
autobiography is played out in the heart of the novel. But, in a wonderfully Defoe moment, the
peak experience in relation to the heart is the radical fluttering of the heart when he discovers
how much money he has. It is a moment that is so exciting that he might not have survived the
excitement had he not been bled. The heart in Defoe’s novel oscillates between the anxiety of
leaving and asserting autonomy, and the relative calm that comes of domestic stability and
dependency (on God) that in turn arise from recognizing one’s guilt, one’s place in the hierarchy,
and accepting one’s punishment. That might be its basic story of how the heart reflects the
grand narrative.
CARDIOGRAPH: ROBINSON CRUSOE
ENJOYMENT JOY
cheered my heart
I would go with all my heart
Now I looked back upon my desolate solitary island as the most pleasant place in theworld, and all the happiness my [[heart]] could wish for was to be but there again.
my heart was...comforted
And this thought clung so to my [[heart]] that I could not be quiet night or day, but I must ventureout in my boat on board this wreck; and committing the rest to God's providence I thought....
It is impossible to express the flutterings of my very heart when I lookedover these letters, and especially when I found all my wealth about me....
leave them upon the island. "I should be very glad of that,"says the captain, "with all my [[heart]]."
bring the two men he spoke of to make it their own request that he should leave themupon the island. "I should be very glad of that," says the captain, "with all my [[heart]]."
DISTRESS ANXIETY
he [father] was so moved that he broke off the discourse, and toldme his [[heart]] was so full he could say no more to me.
Then all hands were called to the pump. At that very word my [[heart]], asI thought, died within me, and I fell backwards upon the side of my bed
my heart...dead within me
with heavy hearts, like men going to execution
But here I had like to have suffered a second shipwreck,which, if I had, I think verily would have broke my [[heart]]...
O my powder! My very [[heart]] sunk within me when Ithought that at one blast all my powder might be destroyed,on which, not my defence only, but the providing me food,
now I took a survey of it, and reduced myself to onebiscuit-cake a day, which made my [[heart]] very heavy.
... the anguish of my soul at my condition would break out upon me on asudden, and my very [[heart]] would die within me, to think ....how I was aprisoner, locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean...
my heart began to fail me
my very heart would shrink
My heart trembles with fear
I had greatly scrupled the lawfulness of it to me; and my [[heart]] trembled at thethoughts of shedding so much blood, though it was for my deliverance.
When I came to the place, my very blood ran chill in my veins,and my [[heart]] sunk within me, at the horror of the spectacle.
AROUSE GRATITUDE,RECOGNIZE DEPENDENCY
and I began to suggest that God had miraculously caused this grainto grow without any help of seed sown, and it was so directed purelyfor my sustenance on that wild miserable place.
This touched my [[heart]] a little, and brought tears out of my eyes...
God had delivered me, but I had not glorified Him; that is to say, I had not owned and been thankful for that as a deliverance; and how could I expect greaterdeliverance? This touched my [[heart]] very much; and immediately I kneeled down, andgave God thanks aloud for my recovery from my sickness.
It was not long after I set seriously to this work [of reading the Bible daily], but I foundmy [[heart]] more deeply and sincerely affected with the wickedness of my past life.
I threw down the book; and with my [[heart]] as well as my hands lifted up to heaven, ina kind of ecstasy of joy, I cried out aloud, "Jesus, Thou son of David! Jesus, Thouexalted Prince and Saviour, give me repentance!"
Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my [[heart]] was not onlycomforted, but I was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly to Godfor deliverance. When I had done praying, I took up my Bible, and
"Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, and He shall strengthen thy [[heart]];wait, I say, on the Lord." It is impossible to express the comfort this gave me.
I forgot not to lift up my [[heart]] in thankfulness to heaven; and what heart could forbear to blessHim, who had not only in a miraculous power provided for one in such a wilderness, and in such adesolate condition, but from whom every deliverance must always be acknowledged to proceed?
I seriously prayed to God...[to] enable me to instruct savingly this poor savage, assisting, by His Spirit,the [[heart]] of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light of the knowledge of God in Christ...
COURAGEANTI--DISTRESS
took heart, and would have me let him go ashore
they took heart and came to the shore
I had not heart enough
till my kid grew an old goat; and I could never find it inmy [[heart]] to kill her, till she dies at last of mere age.
WISHAccordingly I spent some time to find out the most retired parts of the island; and I
pitched upon one which was as private indeed as my [[heart]] could wish for.
SHOCK... I do not wonder that they bring a surgeon ...to let...blood that very moment they tell him of it,that the surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the [[heart]], and overwhelm him:
SHAMEBut to return to Friday. He was so busy about his father that Icould not find in my heart to take him off for some time....
ATTRIBUTES
Motion/ movement
my heart...lifted up to heaven
my heart trembled/s
my heart sunk within me
flutterings of my heart
WEIGHTheavy heart
SPACE
full [of emotion, of future grief]
my heart would shrink
could not find it in my heart
assisting, by His Spirit, the [[heart]] of the poor ignorantcreature to receive the light of the knowledge of God
could not find in my heart
LIFE'S BODILY CORE
my heart as I thought, died within me
my [[heart]] was, as it were, dead within me..with fright
not drive the animal spirits from the [[heart]]
EMOTIONAL COREmy heart began to fail me
broke my heart
Intrapsychic
found my heart ...affected with [my] wickedness
take/took heart
this thought [of finding a survivor] so clung to my heart
will all my heart
had not enough heart
all the happiness my [[heart]] could wish for...
as private indeed as my [[heart]] could wish for
Interpersonal/ External action
negativesuprise...drive the animal spirits from the heart
positive
touched my heart
cheered my heart [weather conditions]
Upon this [reading in the Bible]...my [[heart]] was not only comforted, but Iwas guided and encouraged to pray earnestly to God for deliverance.
spiritual
this touched my heart very much
...He shall strengthen thy heart
After this I had been telling him how the devil was God's enemyin the [[hearts]] of men, and used all his malice and skill to defeatthe good designs of Providence, and to ruin the kingdom of Christ
lift up my heart in thankfulness
what heart could forbear to bless him
CARDIOGRAPH. ROBINSON CRUSOE 2.mmap - 6/17/2006 - Martin Gliserman
SLIDE #6: Samuel Richardson’s Pamela brought female vulnerability and sensibility into
a different zone than that visited by Defoe’s Moll Flanders or Roxana. The heart is a focal organ
of AFFECT in Richardson’s novel—it expresses a great deal of distress, and speaks of sources of
negative words and actions that impact the heart.
SLIDE #7: ADJECTIVES AND VALUE This slide shows one of the ways that values
can be inscribed in a text—by defining the heart, Richardson is defining core values, good and
evil. Presented in this slide are the adjectives used to modify heart.
CardiographThe Heart: Pamela
AFFECTS
MOTION/ MOVEMENT
INTRAPSYCHICSPATIAL
INTERPERSONALEXTERNAL ACTION
JUDGEMENT
"Power and Riches never want Tools to promote theirvilest Ends, and that there is nothing so hard to beknown as the Heart of Man!"
PAMELA HEART ADJECTIVES
DARK SIDE TOWARD OTHERS
angry
bad
black
corrupt
dastardly
deceitful
false
guileful
hard
perverse
poisonous
presumptuous
profligate
rancorous
trecherous
vicious
wicked
worst
DARK SIDE FOR SELF
contradictory
desponding
dismal
faulty
foolish
frail
heavy
lumpish
poor
puny
sad
soft
uneasy
ungovernable
wretched
POSITIVE
bold
cheerful
considerate
determined
fond
glad
grateful
humble
indulgent
innocent
kind
pretty
proud
sensible
thankful
unguilty
unpracticed
ARETE
benevolent
bountiful
honest
generous
honorable
noble
pure
true
worthy
SLIDE #8: BELOVED The HEART of Beloved is intense and richly complex—it
bespeaks the core of being, as well as a range of affects and states; it represents the heart as an
organ with qualities of space and motion that in turn define affect; the heart is also an
intrapsychic mind; and the heart-as-being is vulnerable, to attack and to loss.
SLIDE #9 BELOVED HEART NARRATIVES In this last slide I have taken the
mentions of the heart and put them into narrative sequences for each of the major characters, and
what shows up is that each character has his or her own heart narrative. Looking at any of these
narratives but particularly Baby Suggs’ shows us how character is built–that is, character is
composed of an ever growing series of petite narratives. If we look at the top right branch, we
find the statement that guides us to the meaning of the text’s heart–this occurs in Baby Sugg’s
famous sermon in the clearing where she says: “and the beat and beating heart, love that too.
More than eyes or feet. More than lungs that have yet to draw free air. More than your life-
holding womb and your life-giving private parts; hear me now, love your heart. For this is the
prize” (my emphasis). That statement stands out like Sally Seton’s in Mrs. Dalloway in that it
addresses the heart and tells the reader directly what its value is. If the heart is the prize, we are
instructed to look at each character’s heart, to see some important affective information. As we
move down Baby Sugg’s branch we can follow the narrative of her heart from its awakening to
its great work of healing and then to its newest shock and eventual demise. When she was no
longer a slave at Sweet Home she discovered her heart and used it for the community, and her
heart had agency which she uses to urge others in that direction, by having all their feelings; that
agency is destroyed in the trauma that follows and after nine years, Baby Suggs departs.
THE HEART OF BELOVED
AFFECT
Now he [Paul D.] had added more: new pictures [Halle bythe churn] and old rememories that broke her heart.A whip of fear broke through the heart chambers as soonas you saw a Negro's face in a paper.Two niggers lost? Paul D thinks his heart is jumping . . .They must havefound Paul A and if a whiteman finds you it means you are surely lost.He knows he will never see her again, and right then and there his heart stopped.
MOTION/MOVEMENT
Sethe's heart stood up at the thought of beingleft alone in the grass without a fang in her headDenver felt her heart race [in response to Beloved's eyesopening wide and her seeing "no expression at all."Denver's heart stopped bouncing and sat down--relievedand easeful like a traveller coming homehis face...smoothed her heart down [Sethe in response toPaul D and his experiencing of radical painNothing was out there that this sister-girl did not provide inabundance: a racing heart, dreaminess, society, danger, beauty.Her faith, her love, her imagination and her great big old [[heart]]began to collapse twenty-eight days after her daughter-in-law arrived.Baby Suggs grew tired, went to bed and stayed there until her
big old heart quit. Except for an occasional request for colorshe said practically nothing...She fixed on that and her own brand of preaching, havingmade up her mind about what to do with the[heart that startedbeating the minute she crossed the Ohio River.Her heart kicked and an itchy burning in her throat made her swallow
all her saliva away. She didn't even know which way to go.... Denver stood on the porch in the sun and couldn't leave it.Her throat itched; her heart kicked...
SPATIALin that tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to beIt would hurt her to know there was no red heart bright as Mister's comb beating in him
INTRAPSYCHIC
"The dark, dark liver--love it, love it and the beat and beating heart, love that too.More than eyes or feet. More than lungs that have yet to draw free air. More than yourlife-holding womb and your life-giving private parts, hear me now, love your heart.For this is the prize."... now nine years after Baby Suggs, holy, proved herself a liar, dismissed her greatheart and lay in the keeping-room bed roused once in a while by a craving for colorand not for another thing.. And he tried. Held his breath the way he had when he ducked into the mud;steeled his heart the way he had when the trembling began. But it was worse thanthat, worse than the blood eddy he had controlled with a sledge hammer.But she held her heart still, afraid to form questions: What about Sethe and Halle; whythe delay? Why didn't Sethe get on board to?Her marrow was tired and it was a testimony to the [[heart]] that fed it that it tookeight years to meet finally the color she was han- kering after. [Stamp Paidreevaluating his judgement of Baby Suggs.]...just grieving and thinking about colors and how she made a mistake. That whatshe thought about what the heart and the body could do was wrong. Thewhitepeople came anyway. In her yard.
He didn't know if it was bad whiskey, nights in the cellar, pig fever, iron bits, smiling roosters,fired feet, laughing dead men, hissing grass, rain, apple blossoms, neck jewelry, Judy in theslaughterhouse, Halle in the butter, ghost-white stairs, choke- cherry trees, cameo pins,aspens, Paul A's face, sausage or the loss of a red, red heart.
She believed in her heart that, except for her husband, the whole world (includingher children) despised her and her hair.
SPOKEN
"Beloved." He said it, but she did not go. She moved closer with a footfall hedidn't hear and he didn't hear the whisper that the flakes of rust made eitheras they fell away from the seams of his tobacco tin. So when the lid gave hedidn't know it. What he knew was that when he reached the inside part hewas saying, "Red [[heart]]. Red heart," over and over again. Softly and then soloud it woke Denver, then Paul D himself. "Red heart. Red heart. Red heart."
PHYSIOLOGICAL
racestopped bouncing
racinghad crunched through a dove's breast before its heart stopped beating. Because he was a man...Next she felt a knocking in her chest and discovered some- thing else new: her own heartbeat.Had it been there all along? This pounding thing? She felt like a fool and began to laugh out loud.Mr. Garner looked over his shoulder at her with wide brown eyes and smiled himself. "What'sfunny, Jenny?" She couldn't stop laughing. "My heart's beating," she said.... By the time she faced him, looked him dead in the eye, she had something in her arms thatstopped him in his tracks. He took a backward step with each jump of the baby heart until finallythere were none. "I stopped him," she said, staring at the place where the fence used to be. "Itook and put my babies where they'd be safe."
She understands it all. I can forget how Baby Suggs' heart collapsed....The ribbon of smoke was from a fire that warmed a body returned to her--just like it
never went away, never needed a headstone. And the heart that beat inside it hadnot for a single moment stopped in her hands.
The dollar value of his weight, his strength, his heart, his brain, his penis, and his future.
JUDGEMENT
in my heart it don't mean a thing [differentiatingone's child as a child/grown up]
[an overseer] brought her the news, more from a wish tohave his way with her than from the kindness of his heart.
INTERPERSONAL
she had nothing left to make a living with but herheart--which she put to work at once.
she became an unchurched preacher, one whovisited pulpits and opened her great hear to thosewho could use it.
Uncalled, unrobed, unanointed, she let her great heartbeat in their presence.... Baby Suggs, holy, followed by every black man,woman and child who could make it through, took hergreat heart to the clearing
In the silence that followed, Baby Suggs, holy, offered up tothem her great big hear.
Saying no more, she stood up then and danced with her twistedhip the rest of what her heart had to say while the othersopened their mouths and gave her the music.In the Clearing, Sethe found Baby's old preaching rock and
remembered the smell of leaves simmering in the sun, thunderousfeet and the shouts that ripped pods off the limbs of the chestnuts.With Baby Suggs' heart in charge, the people let go.
They [Stamp Paid and Baby Suggs] fought then. Like rivals over theheart of the loved, they fought. Each struggling for the nursing child.
Young and deft with four children one of which she delivered herselfthe day before she got there and who now had the full benefit ofBaby Suggs' bounty and her big old heart.She went instead to the gravesite, whose silence she competed withas she stood there not joining in the hymns the others sang with alltheir hearts.
Now, too late, he understood her. The heart that pumped out love,the mouth that spoke the Word, didn't count.She had done everything right and they came in her yard anyway.And she didn't know what to think. All she had left was her heartand they busted it so even the War couldn't rouse her.
"Aw no. Hey. Lay off Denver, Paul D. That's my heart. I'm proud ofthat girl. She was the first one wrestle her mother down. Beforeanybody knew what the devil was going on."
HEART NARRATIVES
Baby Suggs
Crawling already baby
Paul D
So she [Denver] anticipated the questions [from Beloved] by giving blood to thescraps her mother and grandmother had told her--and a heartbeat.
Beloved Heart Narratives
Baby Suggs
Next she felt a knocking in her chest and discovered some-thing else new: her own heartbeat. Had it been there allalong? This pounding thing? She felt like a fool and began tolaugh out loud. Mr. Garner looked over his shoulder at herwith wide brown eyes and smiled himself. "What's funny,Jenny?" She couldn't stop laughing. "My heart's beating," shesaid.she had nothing left to make a living with but
her heart--which she put to work at once.she became an unchurched preacher, one who visited pulpitsand opened her great hear to those who could use it.Uncalled, unrobed, unanointed, she let her greatheart beat in their presence.... Baby Suggs, holy, followed by every black man,woman and child who could make it through, took hergreat heart to the clearingIn the silence that followed, Baby Suggs, holy, offered
up to them her great big hear.Saying no more, she stood up then and danced with her
twisted hip the rest of what her heart had to say while theothers opened their mouths and gave her the music.
In the Clearing, Sethe found Baby's old preaching rockand remembered the smell of leaves simmering in the sun,thunderous feet and the shouts that ripped pods off thelimbs of the chestnuts. With Baby Suggs' heart in charge,the people let go.Young and left with four children one of which she deliveredherself the day before she got there and who now had thefull benefit of Baby Suggs' bounty and her big old heart.Now, too late, he understood her. The heart that pumped
out love, the mouth that spoke the Word, didn't count.She had done everything right and they came in her yardanyway. And she didn't know what to think. All she had left washer heart and they busted it so even the War couldn't rouse her.She understands it all. I can forget how Baby Suggs' heartcollapsed....
He didn't know if it was bad whiskey, nights in the cellar, pig fever,iron bits, smiling roosters, fired feet, laughing dead men, hissing grass,rain, apple blossoms, neck jewelry, Judy in the slaughterhouse, Hallein the butter, ghost-white stairs, choke- cherry trees, cameo pins,aspens, Paul A's face, sausage or the loss of a red, red heart.Her marrow was tired and it was a testimony to the [[heart]] that fed it thatit took eight years to meet finally the color she was han- kering after.[Stamp Paid reevaluating his judgement of Baby Suggs.]But she held her heart still, afraid to form questions: What about Setheand Halle; why the delay? Why didn't Sethe get on board to?... now nine years after Baby Suggs, holy, proved herself a liar,dismissed her great heart and lay in the keeping-room bed rousedonce in a while by a craving for color and not for another thing.Her faith, her love, her imagination and her great big old [[heart]]began to collapse twenty-eight days after her daughter-in-law arrived.Baby Suggs grew tired, went to bed and stayed there
until her big old heart quit. Except for an occasionalrequest for color she said practically nothing...She fixed on that and her own brand of preaching, havingmade up her mind about what to do with the[heart thatstarted beating the minute she crossed the Ohio River.
Paul D
The dollar value of his weight, his strength, hisheart, his brain, his penis, and his future.
"Beloved." He said it, but she did not go. She moved closer with a footfall hedidn't hear and he didn't hear the whisper that the flakes of rust made eitheras they fell away from the seams of his tobacco tin. So when the lid gave hedidn't know it. What he knew was that when he reached the inside part hewas saying, "Red [[heart]]. Red heart," over and over again. Softly and then soloud it woke Denver, then Paul D himself. "Red heart. Red heart. Red heart."
He didn't know if it was bad whiskey, nights in the cellar, pig fever, ironbits, smiling roosters, fired feet, laughing dead men, hissing grass, rain,apple blossoms, neck jewelry, Judy in the slaughterhouse, Halle in thebutter, ghost-white stairs, choke- cherry trees, cameo pins, aspens, PaulA's face, sausage or the loss of a red, red heart.
. And he tried. Held his breath the way he had when he ducked intothe mud; steeled his heart the way he had when the trembling began.But it was worse than that, worse than the blood eddy he hadcontrolled with a sledge hammer.
It would hurt her to know there was no redheart bright as Mister's comb beating in him
in that tobacco tin buried in his chestwhere a red heart used to be
A whip of fear broke through the heartchambers as soon as you saw a Negro'sface in a paper.
Two niggers lost? Paul D thinks his heart is jumping. . .They must have found Paul A and if awhiteman finds you it means you are surely lost.
The Crawling Aleady Baby
... By the time she faced him, looked him dead in the eye, she had something in herarms that stopped him in his tracks. He took a backward step with each jump of thebaby heart until finally there were none. "I stopped him," she said, staring at theplace where the fence used to be. "I took and put my babies where they'd be safe."
The ribbon of smoke was from a fire that warmed a bodyreturned to her--just like it never went away, neverneeded a headstone. And the heart that beat inside ithad not for a single moment stopped in her hands.
Heart as Core
"The dark, dark liver--love it, love it and the beat andbeating heart, love that too. More than eyes or feet. Morethan lungs that have yet to draw free air. More than yourlife-holding womb and your life-giving private parts, hearme now, love your heart. For this is the prize."
Sethe
Now he [Paul D.] had added more: new pictures [Halleby the churn] and old rememories that broke her heart.
He knows he will never see her again, andright then and there his heart stopped.
his face...smoothed her heart down [Sethe in responseto Paul D and his experiencing of radical pain
Denver
Denver felt her heart race [in response to Beloved's eyesopening wide and her seeing "no expression at all."
Denver's heart stopped bouncing and sat down--relievedand easeful like a traveller coming home
Nothing was out there that this sister-girl did not provide inabundance: a racing heart, dreaminess, society, danger, beauty.
Her heart kicked and an itchy burning in her throat made her swallow allher saliva away. She didn't even know which way to go.
... Denver stood on the porch in the sun and couldn't leaveit. Her throat itched; her heart kicked...
CLOSING: As with other research, the material discerned here with this cyborgian reading helps
us ask more questions than it answers. Nonetheless, overarching cultural narratives can be
garnered from the corpus work to show us historical trends that we can further investigate so as
to at least witness cultural transmission and individual innovation. That is, we may, as cyborg
readers, zoom-in to look at how any given writer transmutes cultural information into his or her
own particular metamorphic heart. Thus the heart begins its journey in this corpus with
Robinson Crusoe by showing up as an organ that registers events or incoming information that
can shock one, or sooth one. The heart’s emotional rhythm seems to be about experiencing and
managing trauma and anxiety, including being overwhelmed at one’s good fortune. In Virginia
Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Sally Seton, Clarissa’s good friend in adolescence and early adulthood,
pre-marriage, asserts, late in the novel and in their lives that virtues of the heart matter over those
of the brain. The matter of trauma, however, is expressed on an entirely different register. Last,
in the novel that nearly closes the corpus, Toni Morrison’s, Beloved asserts the prime importance
of the heart in one of the central scenes of the text, when Baby Suggs, holy, uses her heart on
behalf of the community, and tells them to value the heart over all other parts of the body which
she is trying to help them reclaim—it is “the prize” she says. Each novel has its own heart print.
The particular webs of heart in each text will fit in with other facets of the text’s patterns of
redundancy—Crusoe’s anxiety in the face of the forces of death, Clarissa’s excitement (and
underlying anxiety) about the idea of death, or Baby Suggs’ despair over all the losses that
ultimately overwhelm the heart, break it.
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