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Lesson Seven
The Libido for the Ugly
--- H.L. Mencken
Aims 1. To know the author, Henry L. Mencken2. To learn the writing technique of
description 3. To appreciate the language features
Teaching Contents 1. Henry Louis Mencken 2. Description 2. Detailed study of the text 3. Organizational pattern 4. Language features 5. Exercises
Time allocation
1. Background information (15 min.)2. Detailed study of the text (120 min.)3. Structure analysis (15 min.)4. Language appreciation (15 min.)5. Exercises (15 min)
Henry Louis Mencken
(1880--1956)
American educator, author, critic
*7image-123* Mencken 图片
Henry Louis Mencken
His life He was born and spent most of his life in
the city of Baltimore, Maryland. He was the son of German immigrant parents. He completed high school but did not attend university, only graduated from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute at 16. He became a reporter on the Baltimore Morning Herald.
Henry Louis Mencken A few years later, he joined the
staff of its rival newspaper, the Baltimore Sun or Evening Sun, first as a reporter, then as its drama critic and editor, a position which he held until 1941.
Henry Louis Mencken He helped to found and edit two literary
magazines which were highly influential among intellectuals.
1) The Smart Set http://www.amazon.com/gp
/reader/0895262312/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-2478532-5338368#reader-page
2) The American Mercury
Henry Louis Mencken He was a central figure in American
intellectual life during the 1920's. He launched the most cutting attacks of any writer against America's middle class culture. He invented the word"booboisie", combining the two words "bourgeoisie" and "booby" (an awkward, foolish person).
Henry Louis Mencken In caustic, witty essays, he
derided (mock) the institution which supported the middle class. He enjoyed controversy and tried to arouse his antagonists with his direct and devastating attacks.
Henry Louis Mencken
1) He hated narrow-minded religion. He believed strongly in intellectual freedom and fought all attempts to censor literature and drama. He felt that the greatest threat of censorship came from the country's religion "fundamentalists", whose opinions were all based on their interpretation of the Bible.
Henry Louis Mencken
2) He hated commercialism.
3) He did not support democracy
because he considered the masses
too ignorant and greedy to exercise
it wisely.
His works
Mencken's essays were received with delight or horror, depending on the reader's point of view, he was also highly respected for his literary criticism and he exerted a powerful influence on American literature.
His works
The American Language 1918 Prejudices (6 vols) 1919--1927 Happy days Newspaper Days 1940--1943
autobiography Heathen Days 25 Books and thousands of articles
Henry Louis Mencken
He was a leading scholar in the field
of language. His monumental book
"The American Language" is
considered an outstanding work of
philology.
"The American Language"
a) It examined the development of
the English language in America,
b) It contrasted English and American expressions and usage.
"The American Language"
c) It explained the origin of many
American idioms,d) It traced the influence of
immigrant languages on American English.
"The American Language" He made a large contribution to
the study of language and particularly encouraged scholarly study of the American branch of English.
His Style
He is well-known for his bombastic
style and acid tongue
His Style
He wrote with verve(strong feeling),
gusto (eager enjoyment) and
exaggeration. His exuberant and
extravagant use of the language was so
amusing and startling that even his
most violently critical essays became
acceptable to his readers.
His Style
He employed a huge vocabulary and liked to insert unusual or unexpected words, for surprise or comic effect, into otherwise normal sentences. Although his style is occasionally difficult to read, Mencken is still considered one of the best and liveliest essayists of this century.
His Style
Bombastic style and acid language exaggeration hyperbole over rhetorical pompous
Language--- biting \sharp
The literary style It is typical of description
*http://www.io.com/gibbonsb/mencken/*
Description
Description is painting a picture
in words of a person, place,
object and scene.
Description It conveys the sensations, emotions
and impressions that affect a writer experiencing a person, place, object or idea. The writer describes what he sees, hears, smells, feels or tastes, and it often includes his emotional reactions to the physical sensation of the experience.
Description The soul of description:
minute details, specific concrete words to appeal to the reader's sense of sight
smell taste hearing touch
Description How to develop description?
By space order
Things can be described from a moving
position through space
a fixed position in space
Description
A. The description of a person1) a person's appearance2) what the person does, says, how
he behaves to others to reveal the person's character
Description
B. The description of a place1) for its own sake, for the purpose of
describing it, such as on a visit to famous scenic places
2) for the purpose of revealing the personality and character of a person(A clean tidy room shows the occupant is an
orderly person)
Description
3) for the purpose of creating a feeling or
mood
The howling of a chilly wind
The falling of autumn leaves help to
build up a sombre mood and increase
the feeling of depression.
Description
C. The description of an object WE have to depend on our senses.1) You need to mention:
size color shape tastetexture smell---- create a clear visual image
Description2) You need to tell how it is used if it
is useful What part it plays in a person's life if it
is in some way related to him But emphasis should be placed on
only one aspect of the object, such as its most important characteristics.
Description D. The description of a scene
When describing a scene, the writer should try to create a dominant impression. So before he begins to write, he must make up his mind as to what effect he wants the description to achieve.
Description
three basic factors:
the setting the people the action
Description appropriate adjectives and adverbs
old square roughlyyoung circular more or lessshort triangular not verythin heavy fairlyfat large extremelykind small approximatelyencouraging red abouthelpful blue just
Description 2 kinds of description:
1) objective \ impersonal realistic When topic is viewed from an objective
point of view, the writer paints a verbal picture of the realistic world, like a camera.
factual words
Description 2) subjective \ personal
impressionistic \ emotional The writer wants to share with the
readers a kind of dominant impression. The dominant impression may be a sense impression or an emotion
Description emotional words
In this lesson, Mencken is very subjective and personal. His description is strongly impressionistic and highly emotional.
The dominant impression --- ugliness Westmoreland is the ugliest place not only in
the US but also in the world.
Detailed study of the text
Libido --- Do you think it is a general word? No. It is a specific word used in psycho-an
alysis It is a technical term in psychology. (Freu
dian)
Libido --- Meaning –
1. psychic energy generally specifically that comprising the po
sitive loving instincts2. the sexual urge
strong desire, great passion, great lust
Libido --- Why does the writer choose this te
rm? -- in order to give his subject scientif
ic coloring.
Why He wants to demonstrate that what h
e describes has psychological and scientific foundation. Usually, people love things beautiful, but a group of people in the US love things ugly for its own sake (because they are ugly) Why? There must be some scientific and psychological reasons.
Pittsburgh – *http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/ * *7image-45* A city in southwest Pennsylvania , It is one of th
e most important industrial cities of America, and a center of rail and river transportation. Termed the “Steel City” of “Smoky City”, it is the center of rich bituminous-coal region, producing also natural gas, oil and limestone, a large part of US steel and iron is produced here.
Westmoreland county –
A county on southwest Pennsylvania
Its county seat is Greensburg. It is a
mining and manufacturing region. *7image-6*
appalling
– causing fear, shocking, terrible, dreadful
Something that is appalling is so bad or unpleasant that it makes you fell disgust or dismay
Some of these people live in appalling conditions.
desolation – bleakness A quality of a place which makes it see
m empty and frightening Empty of people Lacking in comfort
Here was the very heart …
1. metaphor: heart --- center of industrial America
2. hyperbole : richest, grandest nation on earth
3. antithetical contrast
Contrast
richest grandest region
hideous, bleak, forlorn scene
lucrative
– profitable, money making, brin
ging in plenty of money
hideous – very ugly, filling the mind with horror
bleak
– It applies to landscapes or houses, especially, suggests a bare or unpleasant prospect.
the bleak, unpainted house that seemed almost uninhabitable
the bleak, ice-encrusted mountains of the Andes 安第斯山脉
desolate –
1. suggests an under populated starkness eg. only a few farmhouses strung out over
the desolated countryside.2. suggests solitariness or friendlessness
eg. a girl left desolate in the strange city.无依无靠地置身于一个陌生城市的姑娘。
barren
--- suggests a complete absence of life Barren rocks where the smallest shrub cou
ld find no foothold.
连灌木都无法扎根的贫瘠的岩石堆 Uninhabitable and unfeatured landscape.
joke
--- if you say someone or sth is a joke, you mean that they are ridiculous and not worthy of respect.
His colleagues regard him as a joke.
aspiration
--- a person’s aspirations are their ambitions or desires to achieve something
unbroken ugliness
--- the ugliness is continuous and uninterrupted
It is ugly wherever you go and look
agonizing ugliness
--- ugliness that caused great pain to people who saw it
People could not imagine or calculate the amount of wealth that was to be found in this region. And in this same region there were such terrible and disgusting houses that even homeless, mongrel cats would feel ashamed to live in them.
lacerate
--- to hurt; to tear (the flesh, an arm, the face) roughly as with fingernails or broken glass.
pretentious
--- if you say that someone or sth is pretentious, you mean that they claim to be important, but you do not think that they are important.
Para 2 Describe the houses more specificall
y
How many buildings did the writer describe in details?
1. churches, stores, warehouses etc.= like a man’s face shot away
the houses2. a little church
= like a dormer-window on the side of a bare leprous hill
dormer-window --- a window set upright in a slopping roof
3. the headquarters of the veterans of Foreign Wars
the houses a steel stadium
= like a huge rat-trap
What impression can you get?
shabby; ugly; hideous
in form
--- in appearance, shape, geographically
It is thickly settled
--- in this area a great number of people live closely together, but it doesn’t give the impression of being overcrowded.
If there were architects of any …. It sarcastically emphasizes the fact that
there were no architects worthy of its name in this region. There were no architects worthy of the honor or the high standards demanded of by its profession. If there had been such architects they would naturally have built Swiss-type houses which would lie low and clinging to the hillsides.
Chalet *7image-78*
Detailed study of the text All the houses they built looked like bri
cks standing upright.
clapboard – AmE. weatherboard
A type of covering for the outer walls of a house, to protect the walls from rain
*7image-9*
dingy --- dirty and faded
these brick-like houses were made
of shabby, thin wooden boards and
their roofs were narrow and had litt
le slope
pier
--- a pillar of stone, wood,
metal etc. esp. as used to
support a bridge, or the roof
of a high building
preposterous
--- completely unreasonable or improbable laughably foolish in manner or appearance
How do people build the house on the hillside?
How The houses are compared to pigs wallo
wing in the mud. Since these houses are built on the hillside and set on brick piers, one side is high and the other is low. The low sides make them look like pigs burying themselves in the mud.
perpendicular
--- exactly upright, not leaning to one
side or the other
precariously
--- unsafe, not firm or steady, full of danger, unstable, hazardous
precariously The climber had only a precarious ho
ld on the slippery rock. Something that is precarious is in a d
angerous state or position because it is not securely held in place and seems likely to fall down or collapse at any moment
它们东倒西歪地挂在不稳定的地基上
one and all
– all the houses, every house
streak
--- if something streaks a surface, it leaves long stripes or marks of a different color on the surface ; cover
His moustache was streaked with grey. The sun is streaking the sea with long lines
of gold. His face is streaked with dirt .
streak
n. --- line Her hair had a very pretty grey streak in it.
eczematous –
Eczema
--- an uncomfortable skin disease which makes your skin itch and become rough and sore.
Detailed study of the text All the house here are covered with dirt,
and some paint which is not covered up by the dirt looks like dried-up scales ( 鳞癣 ) formed on the skin by eczema.
每栋房屋都积上一道道尘垢，在尘垢的间隙之间，还可隐约见到象湿疹的鳞癣一样的油漆斑点。
patina = coating the patina of an object is a fine laye
r of something that forms or appears on its surface
The books were piled high, with a patina of grey-brown grease.
ridicule and irony
generally refers to the beautiful green or greenish-blue color. Here Mencken uses “patina” ironically to describe the grime of the mills, the dirty smoke from the mills
long past all hope and caring
an egg that had long past the time when there was some hope that is might still be edible, long past the time when people were still concerned about it. It was a thoroughly rotten egg.
red brick
---red brick, even in a steel town, looks quite respectable and dignified with the passing of time.
Even in a steel town, old red bricks still look pleasant.
uremia –
(urene + haima, blood) Greek
color= yellow greenish + black + reddis
h
award this championship
---sarcasm and irony. I have given Westmoreland the highest award fo
r ugliness after having done a lot of hard work and research and after continuous praying. I came to the conclusion that Westmoreland had the ugliest towns and villages only after visiting and comparing many places not only in the U.S. but also in other countries and after constantly praying to God for guidance.
Pullman
a railroad car with private compartments or seats that can be made up into berths (a sleeping place) for sleeping. Its is so-called after US inventor, George M. Pullman (1831-97)
Malarious --- malaria-stricken area , mosquito-in
fested a disease of hot countries, caused by
a small living thing which enters the blood when the person is bitten by certain types of mosquito.
hamlet --- a small village
tidewater
--- village near the sea affected by the rise and fall of tides
Northern states Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Ma
ssachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island
Detailed study of the text
New England --- industry is declining Utah, Arizona, Texas --- towns like dese
rt dark side of all those towns he had visited. He mentioned those places to show his co
rrect judgment
Detailed study of the text Newark --- in New Jersey Brooklyn --- in New York Chicago --- in Illinois Camden --- New Jersey Newport News --- Virginia
Detailed study of the text Iowa and Kansas
--- villages are gloomy, abandoned by God Georgia
– malaria-infested villages Bridgeport. Conn. ---- Los Angeles East ------ west
forsake --- abandon , desert a fairly literary word if you forsake a person or place, you lea
ve them when you should have stayed or stop helping them or looking after them.
Don’t forsake me in my hour of need! Titanic – of great strength, size or power
aberrant
--- unusual and not normal, straying a
way from the right path
aberrant behavior
~ ideas
uncompromising ---
firm, steadfast , rigid when people are ~ , they are determine
d not to change their opinions or objective in any way
He was an ~ opponent of the war. adv. They were uncompromisingly loy
al to certain fundamental values.
inimical
conditions that are inimical to someone or sth. are hostile and harmful rather than being friendly and favorable
hostile unfriendly in opposition
genius
– used ironically to mean an evil genius,
having great ability to do evil
hell --- the powers of evil or darkness
grotesquery – n. Strangeness, ugliness grotesque
--- strange and unnatural so as to cause fear or be laughable
very ugly in appearance == hideous He was rather ~ to look at. Strangely , unnaturally ugly
仿佛有一些对人类怀有敌意的，力大无
穷的恶魔，施用神工鬼斧的魔术，建造
了这样一些房屋
in retrospect
looking back towards the past 回想起来 His youth was more enjoyable in retros
pect than it had actually been when he was going through it.
diabolical =
devilish; dreadful = diabolic extremely unpleasant and annoying It is used to describe something that
people think is caused by or belongs to the devil.
concoct – make sth. by mixing or combining par
ts , make sth unusual
para. 6. The reasons why they love such ugly
houses
Is it because they are igrorant?
insensate --- not capable of feeling
lacking in human feelings
Detailed study of the text
are the houses so frightfully ugly because the valley is inhabited by a lot of foreigners who are stupid and unfeeling like animals and who have no love of beauty in them?
“But in the American…”
But in the American village and small town, the drawing power (desire) is always toward ugliness and in that Westmoreland valley people have given in to this desire eagerly or almost passionately
border upon ---
be very much like
Your remarks border upon rudeness,
sir! 先生，你的话简直是无礼。
The proposal borders upon the absu
rd. 该提议似乎荒唐可笑。
masterpiece – irony It is hard to believe that people built s
uch horrible houses just because they did not know what beautiful houses were like.
Mencken uses “masterpiece” ironically to say that the houses were so horrible that no one could build worse ones.
antithesis Libido for the ugly – libido for the beaut
iful --- People in certain strata (social classe
s or division) (sing. stratum ) of American society seem definitely to hunger after ugly thins, which in other less Christian strata, people seem to long for thins beautiful.
less Christian
= pagans – a person who is not a believer in Christianity
Heathen Atheist
Christians – long for things ugly
pagans --- long for things beautiful
But the Christians are supposed to h
ave the qualities of love; kindness; h
umanity; beauty
put down to --- state that sth is caused by sth (attrib
ute to) 归因于 I put his bad temper down to his recent
illness. His bad temper was put down to his un
happy childhood.
deface
– damage, spoil the appearance pr surface
if people deface sth such as a wall or a notice, they deliberately damage it by writing or drawing unpleasant or offensive things on it.
inadvertence --- carelessness, heedlessness
you do sth unintentionally without thinking or without realizing
paying no attention to by accident
obscene ---
nasty, dirty, lewd wanton, lustful, indecent 鄙俗的幽默
感， 低级趣味
it is impossible to attribute the wallpaper that makes the average American home of the lower middle class look so ugly to mere oversight (carelessness) or to the indecent taste of the manufacturers.
unfathomable --- fml 难以理解
if sth. is ~, it is so strange or complicated that it cannot be understood or explained
= baffling
they meet … type of mind --- these ugly designs in some way that
people cannot understand, satisfy the hidden and unintelligible demands of this type of mind.
他们用一些莫名其妙的方式满足了出自这种心理的晦涩难解的要求。
enigmatical
--- enigmatic – mysterious, puzzling and difficult to understand
既不可思议，又不足为怪 the love for ugliness of the people in W
estmoreland is 1. mysterious to many people2. common, natural from their point of
view
dogmatic --- opinionated
Theology
--- the study of the nature of God; of Go
d’s influence on people and of religio
n and religious beliefs
appreciable --- considerable An ~ amount, distance, effect, etc is la
rge enough to be important or clearly noticed.
There had been an appreciable percentage of the university’s expenditure.
adv. The weather had turned grey and is was appreciably colder.
mellow
--- become soft, warm, smooth esp.
worn so by time, soften
The ParthenonA beautiful doric temple built in honor o
f the virgin (Parthenon)goddess Athena on the Acropolis in Athena around 5h century B.C.
帕台农神庙 *image-11parthenon*
for its own sake
--- because it is ugly
for the purpose of ugliness
biology
--- the scientific laws of the life of a certain type of living thing
biology contains two aspects:
1. evolution
2. degeneration
terms
--- conditions or requirements, specific content
According to the terms of the agreements, British ships will be allowed to take a limited amount of fish each year.
根据协议条款的规定，英国船只每年的捕鱼量是有限的。---- What are your sales terms?---- Cash---- 你们的销售条件是什么？--- 现金支付。
Provat Docent
--- privatdocent, privatdozent
In German universities, an unsalaried
lecturer paid only by his students’ f
ees
Pathological sociology --- 社会病理学
the study of the disease of human society
science dealing with the disease of human society
in obedience to --- Soldiers act in ~ the orders of their su
perior officers.
军人服从上级军官的命令而行动
libido ---
emotional energy, sexual desire a psychoanalytic term describing psychic en
ergy generally; or specifically basic form of psychic energy, comprising the positive, loving instincts and manifested variously at different stages of personality development
精神能量的一种基本形式，包含积极的爱的本能，并在性格发展的不同阶段中表现出来。
passion --- strong feeling or enthusiasm esp of love, hate or
anger usually implies a strong emotion that has
an overpowering or compelling effect He is filled with passion for that girl.
Love --- warm, kind feeling, fondness, affection
implies intense fondness or deep devotion and many apply to various relationships or objects
brotherly love 手足之情 love of one’s work 对工作的热爱 sexual love 性爱
lust --- desire to possess sth a desire, esp. as seeking unrestrained grati
fication, to gratify senses, senses, esp sexual desire, evil desire
He is filled with the lust of power. 他充满着权利欲。
~ for money/ gold/ power
hideous – ghastly, frightful, ugly, grisly, unsightly, loa
thsome, uncomely, monstrous, revolting, unlovely, appalling, misshapen, unseemly, plain, horrid, repellent, bad-looking,
dirt – a general word, meaning any unclean matter, as
mud dust, dung, trash, etc. His clothes were covered with dirt. How can I get the dirt off the wall?
filth – very nasty dirt, and applies to that which is disgus
tingly dirty; disgusting dirt, obscenity Go and wash that filth off the floor.
soot --- black powder produced by burning and carried i
nto the air and left on surfaces by smoke You’d better sweep the soot out of the ch
imney. The soot and grime of big manufacturing t
own have polluted the air.
grime--- dirt esp a coating on the surface of sth or on the
body You look at her face covered with grime an
d sweat.
Organizational pattern Section I (para 1~2)
the general impression of Westmoreland rich and ugly
Organizational pattern Section II (para 3~5)
the description of the design and color of the houses
Organizational pattern Section III (para 6~8)
the reason and cause why the people in Westmoreland love such ugly houses
Organizational pattern Section IV (para 9)
Conclusion Mencken is being very critical of the America
n race and the American society, which hates beauty as well it hates truth
Language features:1. choice of words 2. over-rhetorical
images:
metaphors simileshyperboles
structure:
repetition antithesisparallelism
As far as description is concerned, he defeats his own purpose by the over use of rhetorical devices.
