Angela Carter
The surrealist novelist's novelist. (The Bus 6.49)
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED (2.38) 9 FEBRUARY 2023
The Stop
Angela Carter (1940–1992) was one of the 20th century’s ‘boldest and most original writers.’ A writer of journalism, essays, short stories, poems and novels, her work embodies a wide range of themes and influences - from ‘gothic fantasy, traditional fairytales, Shakespeare and music hall, through Surrealism and the cinema of Godard and Fellini.’ Described as ‘funny, sexy, frightening and brutal,’ her work was always informed by her ‘keen, subversive intelligence.’ Throughout her career, Carter was interested in ‘unpicking the mythic roles and structures’ underpinning human existence, and in particular the many ‘myths of gender identity.’ Though respected during her lifetime, at her death her reputation shifted from cultish to canonical and she acquired the ‘status of a great novelist and feminist icon’ her work continues to enjoy today.1
Born in Eastbourne to Hugh and Olive Stalker, to avoid wartime bombing Angela Olive Stalker spent her early childhood with her grandmother in Yorkshire. Returning to South London at the end of the war, she was a ‘spoiled and zealously sheltered’ child - especially by her neurotic mother who ‘indulged her with so many edible treats that by the time she left primary school she was extremely overweight.’ During adolescence, her mother’s obsessive terror that something would happen to her daughter if let out of sight, meant that even ‘well into her teens’ Angela wasn’t allowed to go into the bathroom alone and was forced to keep the door open. At 17 she rebelled: she decided to lose weight and was put on a diet so rigorous she lost nearly 4 stone (55 pounds) in six months - a process that led to anorexia. She also ‘took up swearing and smoking’ to annoy her socially conservative parents, and started choosing her own clothes, usually the tight-fitting black garments considered a ‘sign of depravity in the late 1950s.’
Turning down a place at Oxford, Carter chose to work as a journalist with the Croydon Advertiser where she met Paul Carter. A chemist and amateur folk musician, Paul introduced her to the English folk revival scene and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and his proposal of marriage became a way out of the toxic relationship with her parents. When her husband was offered a lectureship at Bristol, she moved with him and took a degree in medieval literature in 1965.
Carter published her first novel, Shadow Dance, in 1966 and quickly produced The Magic Toyshop (1967) and Several Perceptions (1968). This last novel – ‘heavily imbued with elements of gothic fantasy and horror’ and ‘shot through with the libertarian energy of the 1960s’ - won the prestigious Somerset Maugham award. The award came with a condition requiring the funds be used for foreign travel, so she left what had become an unhappy marriage and set off for Japan. She settled in Tokyo,2 broke up with her husband by letter, met and moved in with a 24-year old Japanese man with whom she lived for a year and then left him for a 19-year-old Korean man she met while working at a hostess bar. Her two years in Japan were ‘among the most crucial periods’ of her life, and she wrote two of her ‘most dazzling’ books - The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr Hoffman (1972) and Fireworks (1974) - while there. Japan imbued her with a ‘new sense of personal independence’ which in turn inspired a new artistic freedom that - expressed by these novels and The Passion of New Eve (1977) - solidified her interest in a ‘sinister form of science fiction.’
Her experiences in Japan also inform The Sadeian Woman (1979), a ‘controversial work of cultural analysis’ rooted in the intensified feminism she developed while working in the Japanese hostess bars. In this examination of the work of the Marquis de Sade, Carter argues - contrary to popular opinion - that ‘unlike other pornographers,’ de Sade actually claimed the ‘rights of free sexuality for women … [by] installing [them] as beings of power in his imaginary worlds,’ an understanding closely informing The Bloody Chamber (1979). One of her most successful books, Carter created a collection of ten ‘fiercely subversive tales’ by drawing out the ‘latent sexual and violent content’ of traditional fairy- and folk-tales such as Bluebeard and Red Riding Hood. Nights at the Circus (1984) won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize3 and her last novel, Wise Children (1991) tells the story of twin chorus girls Dora and Nora Chance and their bizarre family, ‘bringing together high and low culture, with elements of music hall and Shakespeare.’ She died of lung cancer in 1992.
The Detour
Today’s Detour is to a rather hypnotic video (20:56) in which a model maker demonstrates how to make a steam engine locomotive model out of nothing but cardboard, straws and glue. With a gentle soundtrack accompanying the relaxation inherent in this sort of enterprise, it’s very calming and worth a look - even if you skip through a bit to allow yourself to get back to reality.
The Recommendation
Today’s recommendation is Angela Carter’s 1972 novel, The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman. Though not as popular as The Bloody Chamber or Wise Children, it is considered one of the finest surrealist novels of the 20th century. A satirical novel of magic and sex, the novel is a ‘dazzling’ story about the ‘quest for truth, love and identity’ as told through the adventures of Desiderio, an employee of an unnamed South American city which is undergoing a bizarre reality attack from Dr Hoffman’s machines. In love with the Doctor’s daughter, Albertina - who happens to be be made of glass and appears to exist only in his dreams - Desiderio embarks on a search for her and in the process battles against unreality, time and space warping, cannibals, centaurs and acrobats - all while trying to prevent his city from being ‘ridden with madness, crime and sexual excess’ in Hoffman’s attempt to reduce it to a ‘chaotic state of emergency.’ Yes, it is a deeply odd novel, but - if it’s of your persuasion - one to read.4
The Sounds
Today’s playlist is a collection of five great, darker tracks with a (tenuous) connection to each other and today’s Stop: ‘Caroline Says I’ (Lou Reed, 1973), ‘Disorder’ (Joy Division, 1979), ‘Watching Alice’ (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, 1988), ‘Nightclubbing’ (Iggy Pop, 1977) and ‘Sound and Vision’ (David Bowie, 1977). Enjoy!
The Thought
Today’s Thought is a quote from Angela Carter’s novel Nights at the Circus (1984):
‘Anxiety is the beginning of conscience, which is the parent of the soul but is not compatible with innocence.’
If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:
And that’s the end of this Stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!
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Until the next Stop …
Carter’s British obituaries received more space than any others that year ‘except Francis Bacon, Willy Brandt and Marlene Dietrich,’ and within three days of her death her publishing house had sold out of her books. In the year after her death, the British Academy received 40 doctoral research proposals into her work, compared with a total of three on the entirety of 18th century literature. My awareness of Carter was limited until I moved to the UK, but I’ve since read a couple of her books - including today’s Recommendation - and plan on reading more. Sources for today’s Stop include: Angela Carter (Biography Review) The Guardian, Angela Carter (Britannica) and Angela Carter (British Library).
She described Tokyo as ‘the most absolutely non-boring city in the world.’
In 2012 it was declared the ‘best book to have ever been awarded that prize.’
I discovered this book through The Guardian’s ‘1000 Novels Everyone Must Read’ list published 2009. It wasn’t on the list, but Carter was and an unsuccessful trip to the local Waterstones to buy the one that was meant I picked up Dr. Hoffman instead - which I’m very glad I did. That list, by the way, is excellent - and one I occasionally return to when looking for the next book to read. Divided into categories - State of the Nation, War, Comedy, etc.- it was originally published in the Book Review over several weeks, but the complete list can be found here: 1000 Novels (Guardian).
Grand. I'm getting on the bus.