I love when you write about Cather! What a wonderful post. I love that you're still attending to the ritual congregations of your former academic affiliation. :) There is transcendence to be found there! Death Comes for the Archbishop is such an incredible novel -- it's always seemed to me like a magic trick, that she wrote this novel that really has no plot, yet it draws you in so completely -- like life, like your own life, but not your own life. I think Cather's empathy for lower classes of people, especially women, had distinct limits. In "Old Mrs. Harris" there's a foot-washing scene where Mandy the "bound girl" (a slave the family brought with them from the deep south) washes Mrs. Harris's feet and Mrs. Harris gains comfort and has her dignity reinforced by the ritual of care, but the story as a whole is unconcerned to a fault with Mandy's mind, life, fate, future, etc. -- in a story about generations of women, we get more insight into the bothers' and husbands' lives and minds than we do into Mandy's. She was an astonishing artist. She was an analyst of magnificent insight who better-understood the life and mind of the creative than just about anyone. She is one of my absolute favorite writers. But yeah she had some sad (and very human) limits.
Thanks! I have a deep well of thoughts on Cather, so this won't be my last. 😊
Yes, my students increasingly struggled with Cather's politics. I think it's clear that she would have had no stomach for woke-ism. She lampoons activists at every turn (Enid Royce is perhaps the most severe example -- also Jim Burden's wife in My Ántonia). But I think this is because Cather was a classicist. Her ideas about humanity had ancient roots, and I share some of her impatience with the superficiality of political trends.
This is not to say that some of her characters and scenes are not cringe-worthy. Sapphira and the Slave Girl is the worst example of what you say about Mandy's character. Mahailey is another such character in One of Ours (rendered sympathetically, but also condescendingly). Certainly Cather idealized some immigrant communities that might have initially been lower-class, but these were often the "good" immigrants (northern Europeans). One of my students wrote a brilliant essay about how Cather embraced racist tropes about eastern Europeans -- in fact, she did not always do the Czechs as many favors as she is given credit for. Check that essay out here: https://tinyurl.com/2p9fvd8h.
What keeps me coming back to Cather is what has allowed her work to endure across the culture wars: a consummate mastery of craft, a fine ear for cadence at the sentence level, and -- as you say -- an unmatched understanding of creativity, imagination, and memory. I really do believe that she could be taught alongside scientific texts in neuroscience classes. The way Jim Burden experiences memory in My Ántonia -- personally, physiologically -- is a perfect example of the "embodied mind."
Well, she's human. I'm a writer, not a critic, and I don't tend to think of her as failing at today's politics so much as failing at a project that she clearly assigned for herself -- or thought she assigned for herself. One of the things that makes Sapphira and the Slave Girl so painful to read is that she fails so hard at doing what she's clearly trying to do. But as Toni Morrison concluded in Playing in the Dark, at least she "tried"? Many of her contemporaries (and ours!) "succeed" only by not trying -- writing stories where lower classes and people of color are simply absent from the stories entirely. You can't hold Cather's human-ness against her. And as Morrison pointed out, at least she tried to face that which was beyond her, leaving some exquisitely written evidence of human transcendence and human failing, often all at the same time! (Thank you for the link to your students' work -- what a wonderful idea, by the way, publishing student work on the University website! I'm going to run that idea past my colleagues!) :)
Well said, especially here: "I don't tend to think of her as failing at today's politics so much as failing at a project that she clearly assigned for herself -- or thought she assigned for herself." That's certainly true of Sapphira -- maybe less so for Archbishop and other works. But I appreciate your point about remembering her humanity.
The Writing Anthology used to be a print publication of exemplary student writing across the disciplines at Central, but we shifted it to its digital form shortly before I resigned, in part, to save it from budget cuts. Maybe you already have a similar publication at Drake?
Fascinating article! Reading about neurotheology, I was reminded of Meghan O'Gieblyn's excellent book "God, Human, Animal, Machine" which goes even further: connecting not only religion and neuroscience research on cognition but also the long and strange saga of computer science and artificial intelligence. I did not realize how many of the metaphors and linguistic flairs used in computing trace from really out there Christian eschatology
PS: "It’s certainly true that listening to three panelists read their research aloud with no visual aids is sometimes stultifying." - I thought academic Death By PowerPoint was bad, listening to people read their work without an accompanying presentation sounds like a new circle of Hell was unlocked X_X
I am grateful that you included your conference paper in this post! I was sorry to have missed your session because I was presenting at the same hour in another room. Reading your thoughts on Latour prompts spiritual calm.
Thank you, Mark! Latour is nothing if not a calming influence :). At times he is almost too serene for my taste. One thing I have enjoyed about my neurotheology research has been the idea that people with seemingly opposite beliefs might actually experience epiphany in the same way. It's making me rethink some of the snarkier aspects of my atheism, wondering how gotcha arguments or strict rationalism might shape the brain, and whether that is preferable to some level of openness to spiritual experience. What is really heartwarming about the idea of universal brain biology is that my devout mother and I might actually share more than we think. Her rituals might be prayer and worship, and mine might be writing and running, but the impacts on our consciousness might be very similar...
Splendid article. I think I will definitely consider reading this novel. And a lot to think about. While the priests' description of finding beauty in Catholicism visually tends to fit the profile of many who would call themselves "cultural Catholics," it's interesting to see these traits in the character of a priest. On the whole, very unusual to see a novel this concerned with Catholicism emerge in Protestant America. I could see why she befriended Sigrid Undset later in life. I guess America does have its Graham Greene. (Feel free to object if that comparison is completely inaccurate)
And good on Cather for being a neurotheological pioneer. I agree with Amy, by the way, that you definitely tend to shine a lot when writing about Cather here.
Felix, given what I know of you from our exchanges, I think you'd really appreciate Death Comes for the Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock. The latter is set in 17th-century Quebec and features a "philosopher-apothecary" named Euclide Auclair and his daughter, Cecile. It is very much a Catholic novel, as well, and even includes a voluntary recluse. There are Catholics in O Pioneers! and One of Ours, too -- quite a lot of richness in her oeuvre.
It's good to know that posts like this are appreciated! There's plenty more where this came from 😊.
What a beautiful and thoughtful essay. I feel the need to re-read Cather. I never really connected with her work, but wonder if I wasn’t too young when I was introduced.
It may have depended on what you were assigned. Cather was very progressive in some ways -- a career woman and a lesbian in the early 1900s -- but also quite conservative in others. I think her work has enough depth to speak to us at different stages of our lives (certainly that's been true for me).
Okay... this post made me re-read Death Comes for the Archbishop, and I think that the example of Fr. Latour and Sana is not really one of those fMRI moments for neurotheology. It is more a dark night of the soul, and a very conscious communion of the bridegroom of Christ (through the priest) and the bride of the Church (through Sada the faithful). I would love to actually write a lot more about this scene in a separate post because it is my favorite scene in the novel.
But to your point, the scene of Latour witnessing Eusabio's drumming and the two boys dancing is probably a better candidate for a neurothelogical event. (For valuable context see this video by Ted Gioia: https://youtu.be/IQpeKZE8iXA) Anyway, at some point I will probably let this topic go... but that point has not happened. Obviously. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I love when you write about Cather! What a wonderful post. I love that you're still attending to the ritual congregations of your former academic affiliation. :) There is transcendence to be found there! Death Comes for the Archbishop is such an incredible novel -- it's always seemed to me like a magic trick, that she wrote this novel that really has no plot, yet it draws you in so completely -- like life, like your own life, but not your own life. I think Cather's empathy for lower classes of people, especially women, had distinct limits. In "Old Mrs. Harris" there's a foot-washing scene where Mandy the "bound girl" (a slave the family brought with them from the deep south) washes Mrs. Harris's feet and Mrs. Harris gains comfort and has her dignity reinforced by the ritual of care, but the story as a whole is unconcerned to a fault with Mandy's mind, life, fate, future, etc. -- in a story about generations of women, we get more insight into the bothers' and husbands' lives and minds than we do into Mandy's. She was an astonishing artist. She was an analyst of magnificent insight who better-understood the life and mind of the creative than just about anyone. She is one of my absolute favorite writers. But yeah she had some sad (and very human) limits.
Thanks! I have a deep well of thoughts on Cather, so this won't be my last. 😊
Yes, my students increasingly struggled with Cather's politics. I think it's clear that she would have had no stomach for woke-ism. She lampoons activists at every turn (Enid Royce is perhaps the most severe example -- also Jim Burden's wife in My Ántonia). But I think this is because Cather was a classicist. Her ideas about humanity had ancient roots, and I share some of her impatience with the superficiality of political trends.
This is not to say that some of her characters and scenes are not cringe-worthy. Sapphira and the Slave Girl is the worst example of what you say about Mandy's character. Mahailey is another such character in One of Ours (rendered sympathetically, but also condescendingly). Certainly Cather idealized some immigrant communities that might have initially been lower-class, but these were often the "good" immigrants (northern Europeans). One of my students wrote a brilliant essay about how Cather embraced racist tropes about eastern Europeans -- in fact, she did not always do the Czechs as many favors as she is given credit for. Check that essay out here: https://tinyurl.com/2p9fvd8h.
What keeps me coming back to Cather is what has allowed her work to endure across the culture wars: a consummate mastery of craft, a fine ear for cadence at the sentence level, and -- as you say -- an unmatched understanding of creativity, imagination, and memory. I really do believe that she could be taught alongside scientific texts in neuroscience classes. The way Jim Burden experiences memory in My Ántonia -- personally, physiologically -- is a perfect example of the "embodied mind."
Well, she's human. I'm a writer, not a critic, and I don't tend to think of her as failing at today's politics so much as failing at a project that she clearly assigned for herself -- or thought she assigned for herself. One of the things that makes Sapphira and the Slave Girl so painful to read is that she fails so hard at doing what she's clearly trying to do. But as Toni Morrison concluded in Playing in the Dark, at least she "tried"? Many of her contemporaries (and ours!) "succeed" only by not trying -- writing stories where lower classes and people of color are simply absent from the stories entirely. You can't hold Cather's human-ness against her. And as Morrison pointed out, at least she tried to face that which was beyond her, leaving some exquisitely written evidence of human transcendence and human failing, often all at the same time! (Thank you for the link to your students' work -- what a wonderful idea, by the way, publishing student work on the University website! I'm going to run that idea past my colleagues!) :)
Well said, especially here: "I don't tend to think of her as failing at today's politics so much as failing at a project that she clearly assigned for herself -- or thought she assigned for herself." That's certainly true of Sapphira -- maybe less so for Archbishop and other works. But I appreciate your point about remembering her humanity.
The Writing Anthology used to be a print publication of exemplary student writing across the disciplines at Central, but we shifted it to its digital form shortly before I resigned, in part, to save it from budget cuts. Maybe you already have a similar publication at Drake?
We don’t, to my knowledge, but I’m going to pursue this! :)
Fascinating article! Reading about neurotheology, I was reminded of Meghan O'Gieblyn's excellent book "God, Human, Animal, Machine" which goes even further: connecting not only religion and neuroscience research on cognition but also the long and strange saga of computer science and artificial intelligence. I did not realize how many of the metaphors and linguistic flairs used in computing trace from really out there Christian eschatology
PS: "It’s certainly true that listening to three panelists read their research aloud with no visual aids is sometimes stultifying." - I thought academic Death By PowerPoint was bad, listening to people read their work without an accompanying presentation sounds like a new circle of Hell was unlocked X_X
Haha -- yes, humanities types are not terribly creative when it comes to presentation mode (with some merciful exceptions).
Thanks for the recommended reading! How interesting that Christian tropes predominate in computer science -- never would have expected that.
I am grateful that you included your conference paper in this post! I was sorry to have missed your session because I was presenting at the same hour in another room. Reading your thoughts on Latour prompts spiritual calm.
Thank you, Mark! Latour is nothing if not a calming influence :). At times he is almost too serene for my taste. One thing I have enjoyed about my neurotheology research has been the idea that people with seemingly opposite beliefs might actually experience epiphany in the same way. It's making me rethink some of the snarkier aspects of my atheism, wondering how gotcha arguments or strict rationalism might shape the brain, and whether that is preferable to some level of openness to spiritual experience. What is really heartwarming about the idea of universal brain biology is that my devout mother and I might actually share more than we think. Her rituals might be prayer and worship, and mine might be writing and running, but the impacts on our consciousness might be very similar...
Splendid article. I think I will definitely consider reading this novel. And a lot to think about. While the priests' description of finding beauty in Catholicism visually tends to fit the profile of many who would call themselves "cultural Catholics," it's interesting to see these traits in the character of a priest. On the whole, very unusual to see a novel this concerned with Catholicism emerge in Protestant America. I could see why she befriended Sigrid Undset later in life. I guess America does have its Graham Greene. (Feel free to object if that comparison is completely inaccurate)
And good on Cather for being a neurotheological pioneer. I agree with Amy, by the way, that you definitely tend to shine a lot when writing about Cather here.
Felix, given what I know of you from our exchanges, I think you'd really appreciate Death Comes for the Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock. The latter is set in 17th-century Quebec and features a "philosopher-apothecary" named Euclide Auclair and his daughter, Cecile. It is very much a Catholic novel, as well, and even includes a voluntary recluse. There are Catholics in O Pioneers! and One of Ours, too -- quite a lot of richness in her oeuvre.
It's good to know that posts like this are appreciated! There's plenty more where this came from 😊.
Those definitely sound like my cup of tea!
What a beautiful and thoughtful essay. I feel the need to re-read Cather. I never really connected with her work, but wonder if I wasn’t too young when I was introduced.
It may have depended on what you were assigned. Cather was very progressive in some ways -- a career woman and a lesbian in the early 1900s -- but also quite conservative in others. I think her work has enough depth to speak to us at different stages of our lives (certainly that's been true for me).
Okay... this post made me re-read Death Comes for the Archbishop, and I think that the example of Fr. Latour and Sana is not really one of those fMRI moments for neurotheology. It is more a dark night of the soul, and a very conscious communion of the bridegroom of Christ (through the priest) and the bride of the Church (through Sada the faithful). I would love to actually write a lot more about this scene in a separate post because it is my favorite scene in the novel.
But to your point, the scene of Latour witnessing Eusabio's drumming and the two boys dancing is probably a better candidate for a neurothelogical event. (For valuable context see this video by Ted Gioia: https://youtu.be/IQpeKZE8iXA) Anyway, at some point I will probably let this topic go... but that point has not happened. Obviously. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯