Evex’s Weblog

Paddy chose this one, and I think that everyone would agree, whatever their opinion on the book itself, that it was an excellent one to discuss, layered with symbolism and stylistically eclectic. Nicky and I loved it from the start, Ann and Paddy found it difficult to start with but ended up loving it, whereas Dan didn’t think it was all that great. He was definitely in the minority though!

Fevvers, a circus performer with a pair of swan’s wings, is the main character of the book. Throughout the story we are encouraged to question whether her wings are real, with Fevvers using this to add to her mystique as a performer. Nicky, Paddy and myself felt that it didn’t matter. Ann had thought that the wings were fake until she had broken one. Dan felt that the significance of the wings were linked with feelings of power and identity in the relationship that women have with their bodies. Nicky felt that Fevvers had accepted her difference (after a long time) and that this gave her power. Ann disagreed, feeling that her stridency was necessary as she had not fully accepted the way she was.

Paddy asked me a couple of times who, apart from Fevvers, was my favourite character. I found this almost impossible to answer as Fevvers dominated the book so utterly. Even characters who were in large sections of the book seemed to be bit players. We disagreed about the character of Walser, with Nicky and me finding him a little insipid. Paddy found him more fascinating, seeing him as playing the role of the fool who undergoes a transformation while looking for the truth. Ann and Nicky felt that before his experiences with the shaman, he was quite a naive character who was not penetrated by the experiences that he had. Lizzie was another important character, described by Dan as ‘the power behind the throne’ who also represented strong, self sufficient femaleness. However, Paddy found Lizzie’s comment to Fevvers that she was a slave to her freedom quite revealing about their relationship. I’ve got plenty of notes about the roles played by the clowns, the other circus performers, the apes, the spiritualist… but I have to draw the line at some point. The book is far too full of symbolism and hidden meanings to discuss here. People will just have to read it for themselves. And I still haven’t decided on my favourite character.

Carter plays with the concept of time and the narrative throughout the book. I felt that at times it was hard to get lost in the story, as the characters themselves were able to step out of the narrative and the timeline. Fevvers and Lizzie are able to alter people’s perception of time, giving them an element of control of other characters and also on the progression of the narrative. This is part of the magical element of the book that I think a lot of us enjoyed.

Paddy seemed very impressed with the way Carter portrayed shamanism in the book, feeling that she provided all the elements of a lucid description of the essence of shamanism without being ethnocentric. We discussed how the creation of illusion can be misinterpreted as a lie, rather than a necessary element of a shamanic or spiritual function. i felt that the idea of symbolism has been lost a little in our culture, with spiritual ideas being interpreted as either real or false. Ann agreed feeling that we are brought up with this division.  Dan felt that Walser’s journey towards becoming a shaman represented the transfer of power to America with the arrival of the new century. Nicky also felt that the relationship of the shaman and Walser provided lots of comic moments with the disparity between the meanings of Walser’s actions and the shaman’s interpretation of these.

Daniel found the book quite allegorical, picking out symbols representing world events at the end of the nineteenth century. He saw the bears as representative of the upcoming overthrow of the Russian monarchy, and the funereally dressed Madame Shreck as Queen Victoria. I couldn’t pin him down as to the significance of this representation though – it was quite difficult to get him to answer questions when he was in full flow. For Dan, Fevvers’ wings represented the move towards female emancipation happening at this time – women spreading their wings over the world.

This fits into the debate around whether this is a feminist or post feminist work. Ann thought that Carter was writing from an egalitarian viewpoint rather than from a specifically feminist perspective. There is some satire of extreme feminism in the book, but also the strongest characters are women and at times have control of the narrative. We also looked at the symbolism of the kept women in the book. There are two brothels in which women have very different experiences. We noticed that Ma Nelson’s, where Fevvers is brought up, is referred to at times as an ‘academy’, and the women as ’suffragists’, representing them as empowered and in control of their own lives. This is in contrast to Madame Shreck’s freak show style brothel where the women are captive, vulnerable and exploited. We were all fascinated by the panopticon, built by a countess who had murdered her husband, in order to imprison and watch other women guilty of the same crime as they meditate upon what they have done. Paddy found this bit highly symbolic and powerful, especially when the guards took off their hoods and joined with the prisoners to turn the countess’s gaze back at her. Ann saw a contrast in the way that Carter used bodily fluids in this section, compared to the rest of the book. Instead of describing them in a way meant to shock or amuse, the use the prisoners make of them is touching and tender. I thought that it was ironic that the women had attempted to emancipate themselves by killing men, and had ended up imprisoned by other women. Maybe this is a criticism of feminism? Paddy pointed out that many of the encounters Fevvers has with men are about capture, with powerful men attempting to control or even kill her, which could be interpreted as a critique of a patriarchal society and its views on non-conforming women.

Well, I think that I’ve only touched on the main points of our discussion, which in turn only touched on the many themes and ideas running through this complex and interesting book.  It’s ideal for a book group  to read as it generates plenty of discussion.  A definite recommendation!