Mervyn Peake

[Stephen Palmer]

I agree with the stasis/passion thing, especially when you consider Countess Gertrude, and how she falls back into ennui at the end of the chase.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I also think Prunesquallor was the most fascinating character. His outward 'humour' is an act - he's the most serious character, and the only one I think who sees the absurdities of castle life but he has found away to live with them. His thoughts are quite unlike his daft overly flowery speech.

I

Likewise.
And Steerpike of course - a brilliant creation.

 

[Toby Frost]

I agree with a lot of what's been said. While Steerpike doesn't support any cause except himself, he does seem much more modern, because he has no checks on his behaviour - not even a warped sense of right and wrong, as Gertrude does. It seems pretty clear that he would have ended up as a kind of dictator, had he succeeded. Even the Inquisition considered themselves ruled by God - in Steerpike's world, he himself is God. So you could say that he is (to borrow a phrase from an equally immoral but rather less intelligent man), a modern-day villain. I vaguely remember Anthony Burgess saying something about Titus Groan reflecting WW2, but not in a conscious way.

I think Stephen's comments about Prunesquallor are spot on. He's the only person with much self-awareness who is on Gormenghast's side. I too have never met anyone who much liked the Keda bits (a friend of mine reckons that Peake fancied her!). In fact, I think the books drop off whenever we get much distance outside the castle walls.

 

[hitmouse]

Interesting thought, Extol, which brings some focus to my reflection on the book. I think I agree, as Peake revels in Flay when he undertakes his duel with Swelter. When Flay's passion is aroused, he becomes much more interesting, but of course this puts him outside of Gormenghast acceptability.

I also think Prunesquallor was the most fascinating character. His outward 'humour' is an act - he's the most serious character, and the only one I think who sees the absurdities of castle life but he has found away to live with them. His thoughts are quite unlike his daft overly flowery speech.

Spot on about Prunesquallor. He is the the most perspicatious and clever person in the books, but hides it under camp affectation. He also has to put up with a genuinely idiotic sister. Prune is loyal to the Groans but is not truly part of that establishment, unlike Flay and Swelter, for example, who are so much part of the castle that they cannot perceive any other.

It is a bit dangerous to draw too much analogy from these books, but Peake very cleverly describes an elaborate, entropic, and heirarchical system full of obsolete ceremony and procedure, where, to the majority, it does not occur to question or change anything. There is great resemblance here to aspects of British society, particularly in the first 60 years of the 20th century, but still very much present in many places.

 

[Hugh]

[QUOTE="

It is a bit dangerous to draw too much analogy from these books, but Peake very cleverly describes an elaborate, entropic, and heirarchical system full of obsolete ceremony and procedure, where, to the majority, it does not occur to question or change anything. There is great resemblance here to aspects of British society, particularly in the first 60 years of the 20th century, but still very much present in many places.[/QUOTE]

I've always assumed he had significant experience of either/ both a traditional English Public School or/and one of the large regional Psychiatric Hospitals.

 

[hitmouse]

Peake spent his early years in China and then went to Eltham College, a public school particularly for sons of missionaries.

My father, also the son of missionaries, was sent there as a boarder aged about 12, in the 1950s having spent his life up till then in India. He remembers a being completely baffled by a Victorian institution with cold showers and canings, and was so miserable that after a term he persuaded my grandparents to take him back on the boat with them to India.

 

[Danny McG]

Read these back in 1973 when I was 'nobbut a nipper', I think it's high time I set a few days aside to refresh my memory by re-reading.

 

[Hugh]

Peake spent his early years in China and then went to Eltham College, a public school particularly for sons of missionaries.

My father, also the son of missionaries, was sent there as a boarder aged about 12, in the 1950s having spent his life up till then in India. He remembers a being completely baffled by a Victorian institution with cold showers and canings, and was so miserable that after a term he persuaded my grandparents to take him back on the boat with them to India.

Good on your grandparents for taking him back!

And early twentieth century China! An even more layered and nuanced society than the UK of that time!

 

[Extollager]

Here's a piece about Sark, where Peake lived for a while. There is a little about Peake in it. For me, the article was worth looking at if for no other reason than the cat photo, which is now my desktop image.

Sark really is a world apart

A journey into the weirdest and most wonderful of the Channel Islands.

www.spiked-online.com

 

[Toby Frost]

While wandering about in Glastonbury, I found a biography of Peake in a second-hand bookshop. It's called Mervyn Peake's Vast Alchemies, by Peter Winnington, and seems very good. Two things emerge very quickly: firstly, the massive amount of talent that Peake had (he really was quite remarkably talented) and secondly, the important role that Michael Moorcock played in protecting Peake's legacy. I don't really like Moorcock's writing, but his championing of Peake's work seems to have really helped.