To promote his recent release, The Prince of Cats (look at it hanging out on my bookshelf!), my friend Daniel has given us a guest post. Without further ado…
Everybody Loves a Critic
I make sure everyone around me always knows I have a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature; mostly because it’s the only achievement to my name, really. The issue begins when people ask me what use it is – that’s when keeping a smoke bomb for a hasty exit in your coat pocket comes in handy.
My head is now stuffed with knowledge on different schools of thoughts. Shockingly, there’s rarely a situation where this saves the day (my comic book script for Thinker-man has so far been rejected by every publisher – apparently name-dropping philosophers is not a superpower). My education has provided me with one party trick, though, which I will share with you now.
For this purpose, we’re going to use a story I assume many are familiar with: The Ugly Duckling, by my fellow countryman, Hans Christian Andersen. Should you be unfamiliar with it, here’s the quickest of recaps. A giant duckling hatches along with a bunch of normal ducklings. The others despise him for being different and abandons him. After surviving a harsh winter, he sees a pair of beautiful swans in spring. He is resigned to them treating him as the ducks did, but surprise, surprise. The ugly duckling, who was never a duckling to begin with, has grown into a swan himself.
A child might think this is a story about ducks and swans, but the erudite among us are far more astute. Obviously it’s all metaphors for something else, but what? That depends on who you ask.
A biographer would say this is the story of Andersen himself. Born in poverty, feeling like an outcast for being different, he eventually rose to fame as a writer.
The social realist sees the lower social classes reflected in the duckling, and how their life is nothing but travail. Obviously he died during winter, and the swans are angels taking him to Heaven; the only kind of respite that these poor people can ever hope for.
Nonsense, argues the New Critic. You cannot look outside the text itself. This is an impersonal metaphor about man vs. society (duckling against ducks), man vs. nature (duckling against winter), and with a final reconciliation between man vs. man (old and new swans).
The structuralist sees a dichotomy between ducks and swans. Either must live according to their own patterns, metaphorically expressed in the flight patterns of either fowl at the start and the end of the story.
The deconstructivist chimes in, claiming that the structuralist is only half-right. Obviously, the story makes it clear that ducks and swans cannot co-exist; they are doomed to oppress one another. The only question is, which bird will oppress the other.
The Marxist would like to return to what the social realist said. It’s true that the duckling reflect the proletariat, while the other ducks are the bourgeoisie. Actually, the story is a reflection of the superiority of the working class, if only they will unite.
The feminist wonders why in all these interpretations, the duckling is always a metaphor for men.
What can we learn from all this? Well, if you know more than one literary critic, don’t invite them to the same dinner.
Daniel E. Olesen writes fantasy books. His latest book, The Prince of Cats, is a light-hearted tale of thieves in an Arabian setting and has just released. His first book, The Eagle’s Flight, is available as a free download. Check his site for more info on either: www.annalsofadal.net
