RE: JCO: Upon the Sweeping Flood & uplifting fiction

Hi Cyrano:

> I'm in another literary discussion group in which this
> interesting topic recently came up: What are good examples of
> "uplifting fiction?"

I certainly don't want to suggest that all good fiction should have a sad or
ambiguous ending, but my own interests and prejudices are such that when I
see a term such as "uplifting fiction", my first reaction is to think of
Socialist Realism (can you imagine JCO being forced to work under the Soviet
system!). Note that when I say this, I'm describing my own personal
reaction. I absolutely don't mean to suggest that books that leave readers
with a positive feeling must be the moral equivalent of romances set in
tractor factories. I think, though, that I may be a bit like JCO in being
very attuned to how easily things can go wrong. Perhaps that's all the more
reason to benefit from being reminded that sometimes things go well.

SPOILERS FOLLOW RE "WINTERTHURN" & "BELLEFLEUR"

When I tried to think of works by JCO with a "positive" ending, "Bloodsmoor"
and "Winterthurn" were the only things that came to mind at once (and isn't
it like JCO to write a novel in which a couple achieves happiness by means
of axe murder?). On reflection, I'd say that some of JCO's other novels
have a different sort of uplift. For example, in "Bellefleur", you could
say that there's a distinctly positive aspect to the ending, both because
the world is a better place without the majority of the Bellefleur family in
it, and because some of the younger Bellefleurs escape, and have the hope of
living healthier lives than they could have done had they retained their
family connections. Once you start thinking in those terms, some of JCO's
other novels suggest positive elements in the end, if only because terribly
dysfunctional characters are beginning to assert themselves, even if they do
so in unhealthy or ineffective ways; we can imagine that, just possibly,
they may do better later on ("them", "Do With Me What You Will", "Man
Crazy"). But it's hard to think of works by JCO that give a final
impression of "Oh, how nice!"

One author who comes to mind as having great artistic integrity but
sometimes (not always!) providing more positive endings than JCO is Margaret
Drabble. Has your other group considered anything by her? Good luck!

Steve

I was
> trying to think
> which JCO works would best fill the bill. "We Were the
> Mulvaneys" came to
> mind first because -- although a lot of bad things happen in it,
> and at least one
> of the main characters is destroyed by the novel's end -- the other
> characters somehow manage to salvage their lives from the
> precipitating disaster, and
> the book concludes with a low-key happy ending at a family
> picnic. RAPE, A
> LOVE STORY and I'LL TAKE YOU THERE also concern protagonists who
> suffer much
> adversity but remake their lives in a good way by the novels'
> conclusions. Oddly
> enough, JCO's 9/11 story "The Mutants," collected in the book I
> AM NO ONE YOU
> KNOW, show its young woman protagonist surviving disaster and thereby
> "mutating" into a stronger, more aware person.
> The word "uplifting" is tricky. What seems uplifting and
> inspiring to
> one person may seem naive or sentimental to someone else. I
> remember some book
> reviews of "We Were the Mulvaneys" called the ending sentimental.
> Personally,
> I thought WWTM had an unusually happy ending for a JCO book --
> not counting
> the happy endings for Mysteries of Winterthurn and Bloodsmoor Romance.
> But then does "uplifting" necessarily mean happy ending?
> What do you
> think?
>
> In a message dated 9/9/2005 2:37:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> jandsmerritt@earthlink.net writes:
>
> << There's a danger that, in our involvement with whatever we've
> done, under
> circumstances where our emotions are so roiled up by everything that's
> happened, we may feel impatient with those who follow different
> strategies
> from ours (something that sounds very much like a JCO theme). I have the
> greatest respect for your generosity, and you and those your are
> sheltering
> have my strongest hopes that everything will work out as well as possible
> for you all, given the tragic situation. I believe, though,
> that Cyrano's
> advice was not only well meant, but that it does contain
> something valuable
> to think about. I'm sure you're aware of people whose response to the
> hurricane is precisely the opposite of yours. The scammers
> (including, as
> you no doubt have heard, a group of anti-Semitic white supremacists) are
> already trying to take advantage of those who want to help, as well as of
> the victims themselves. Given the prevalence of fraud and other
> crimes on
> the internet, we can't automatically assume that the people advertising
> rooms for the victims necessarily have good motives. No doubt
> most of them
> do, and perhaps all of them do, but it's perfectly possible that some of
> them are looking for helpless people to take advantage of. Life, and the
> internet, repeatedly confirm that JCO doesn't make up her stories about
> monstrous predators purely out of her head. While person to person
> generosity is a particularly wonderful thing when it works, there's
> definitely something to be said for working through organizations such as
> the Red Cross that, whatever their shortcomings, can be expected
> not to do
> any deliberate harm, even when we have no personal knowledge of
> the people
> who work there. >>
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