happy endings: why? 20 30 40 "the loveliness of the long- distance runner"
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Happy Endings: Why?
20 30 40
"The Loveliness of the Long-Distance Runner"
Outline
Questions20 30 40 Problems Comic Form vs. the More Realistic Solution “Happy” Endings and Beyond"Long-Distance Runner" Introduction Problems Form Solution & “Happy Ending” Context: Stereotypes and
the Author Reference
Questions
How do you relate to the two texts, or either one of them? Are there moments in the texts which resonate with you? Any parts that you like or don’t like?
What do you think are their main messages (about love)? Are they conveyed successfully?
Why are they comedies? What kinds of happy endings
do they each have?
What I can relate to:
Forgetfulness …
20 30 40: Emotional problems –Instability and Loneliness --Lily
Lily: husband’s disloyalty; busy, active but first neglected as a wife/mother and then lonely a divorced woman,
20 30 40: Emotional problems –Instability and Loneliness -- 想想 Against marriage unable to either commit or break up
(with 小齊、 Brian 、 Jack); Pattern: Fight Sex
20 30 40: Emotional problems –Instability and Loneliness --Lily
小潔、 依童、 石哥 : unfulfilled dream of becoming a singer, or twin duo
Comic Form: 20—youthfulness—too much? Beating the
traffic light; Getting 齊喻 to
sign Singing, putting
makeup, drawing (chap 8), etc.
Comic Form: 30 –fighting for the gold fish
Comic Form -- Lily
The ways she tries to solve the problems –asking for a date
Dancing tennis teacher 王教練—
too young Jerry Zhang – Emmy
Emily
The More Realistic: Their Problems Lily Gracefully makes up for her
mistake –another tactic 以退為進
Stays in ambiguities No more phone calls 小潔 : sings but not heard,
only Tong hears it and recorded it once.
Solutions and Happy Endings: Lily
Takes care of a comatose patient–What do you think?
1. Well-intentioned 2. Scenes of family happiness vs. lonely women
—as trite as reality is. 3. Doing facial, celebrating birthday –one-way
communication (self-expression) after all.
Solutions and Happy Endings: Lily
Indulges herself
Beyond the Happy Endings: Women’s Identities
Independence? From one stereotype to another. (knife—armpit
shaving)
“Happy” Ending
Still in the dating ritual—the most important “good morning” said to a man.
Beyond the Happy Endings: Individual Problems – 想想 (1)
Believes in signs, but not her own judgment
Beyond the Happy Endings: Individual Problems – 想想 (2)
(one cell phone = one man) Has to throw off the cell phone to get rid of the influence
Beyond the Happy Endings: Women’s Identities
Mirror reflecting a dependent woman
Beyond the Happy Endings: Lesbianism or Friendship?
Tong: confirms 石哥’ s love, gives the videotape to 潔
(More can be suggested by the cassette tape chap 12; 47:00)
潔︰ a kiss and a smile
Beyond the Happy Endings: Social Context --
Problems of Postmodern Society –
“Family” Fragmentation – not only that of Lily’s, but also 想想’ s mother, Brian’s, 童’ s parents.
Flows of people and information – Flight Attendant + cell phones (43:00)
Spaces of Flows, Fluidity of People and Language Mixture
Major scenes and careers suggest the fluidity of humans and information
Scenes: airport; earthquake and TV report Career – flight attendants (possibly Tong,
too), music production (singers from Malaysia and Hong Kong— 代表「無國界時代」 ), Jerry as 台商 Taiwanese businessman
Language: The use of English names
Chance Encounters in some Spaces of Flows?
Roads, Diners and Neighborhood
Mere coincidence: On the road, dumpling place
小潔 in front of the florist shop Lily has lunch on the side of 石
哥Communication Impossible?
Another Undeveloped Element: Surveillance Camera
"The Loveliness of the Long-Distance Runner“
Introduction
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Alan Sillitoe’s short story, also a 1962 film -- presents a rebellious 17-yr-old young man who arrives at a reformatory, and then joins a race in which he chooses not to win. (ref. Leonardi)
Class Issue Gender and love: Jane
running and Sally at home “The Loveliness of the Long-Distance Runner“
Problems: Conflicts between the Two Lovers
1. Jane –on Marathon Running
2. “like[s] running” –”Space and good feeling” (393)
3. Wants to break her 3.5 hour record.
4. Wants to “run clear of the crowd” and “find someone to run [her] own pace with”
5. “Pace; endurance; deferment of pleasure; patience.”
Sally – Contradictory views on Marathon Running
1. hates it; it is dangerous (e.g. Pheidippides)
2. Also jealous. 3. Thinks her lover “has
the most beautiful body. Because she runs.” (392)
4. “Marathon running is a goddamn competitive, sexist, lousy, thing to do.”
5. Her “devouring her as a sex-object”//competitive running.
Problems: What Jane is up against
Jane – contradictory herself 1. To run for herself – (393-94) once she beat
a sexist before the finish line, hurt her neck and feel bad about it.
2. Solidarity: (394-95) “experience that solidarity, of other people wanting you to do what you want to do.” “In the last few miles the crowd holds you together…This is not a noble hero against the world.”
Runs with a lady – who reduces her pace to let her go ahead
3. Pains 4. More later – sexist ideology
Form –Interior Monologues from Two Distinct Perspectives Sally’s emphasis on
Jane’s body: (393-94) “yards and yards” of leg; “miles and miles of tight, hard, thin muscle”
More contraditions: she “thinks about what
she is not going to think about”
A jogger’s monologue: Part of her meandering
thought [396-97]: Emma her own teacher Sally heart Zulu warrior Jane de Chantal garbage collector garbage person .
physically concrete about pain and fatigue– “Something stabs my eyes with orange” (a cramp in the upper thighs) (397)
297 –divided by 9 A lady no. 297
Alternative letters to show the struggle.
Solution & “Happy Ending”: Sally
Sally’s gradual openness while she is in “tension and inactivity”
1. admits that her love of Jane’s body can be possessive
2. (395 -- ) Examines herself: “I don’t want her to do what she wants to do.” Mind vs. body -- “I will not love her for those
reasons [most beautiful body]; but I will love her because she is tough and enduring and wryly ironic.” (395) “Her mind is clear, careful and still open to complexity.”
3. Accepts the fact that she is involved in the race, though accepting not the same with liking. (398)
Solution & “Happy Ending” Love and Mutual Appreciation between
Sally and Jane Sally – likes both her body and mind; Jane – likes Sally’s mind and worries about her
heart beat –”her mind floats, green with sequinned points of fire” (396), while her own “wears Nike running shoes”
Compromise Jane – “Never, never again.” –not running
again? Sally – “Rejoice, we conquer.” – conquering
what?
Between the Words –Stereotyping or Breaking Stereotypes Re. Phys. Ed teacher: Emma and her father’s
suspicion (395-96) Jane –calls Sally “stubborn bitch” (394), “ my
princess”; herself “the younger son (say person) in the fairy story” (396-97); on a “quest” where the princess should wait for her then admits that she hates the term “princess.” (398 still uses it)
JANE DE CHANTAL–the first jogger? Knows the slow, rich stroke –”Harassed almost to despair by their entreaties, she branded on her heart the name of Jesus, and in the end left her beloved home and children, to live for God alone.” –(source)
Mary Magdalene – “stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment ” (Luke 7:36–50.)
Types and Stereotypes
Used and Critiqued to show the two are just “ordinary” lovers with their limitations and genuine love for each other.
To broaden and mix fields which were separate traditionally: Christianity and Homosexuality; sex-object and true love; mind and body, marathon running and female runners.
"The Loveliness of the Long-Distance Runner“ --Context
Sara Maitland (1950-)-- Daughters of Jerusalem -- A Big-Enough God: A Feminist's Search for a
Joyful Theology "I am a feminist, a socialist, a catholic Christian,
a wife and a mother […] This seems to produce enough conflicts to give me writing material for years to come.“
-- Recently, she is exploring the issue of silence.
Reference
Leonardi, Susan J. “The Long-Distance Runner (The Loneliness, Loveliness, Nunliness of).” Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature13. 1 (Spring, 1994): 57-85