Mosquitoes - Youth v Old

There were so many artist-types wandering the city streets, engaging in critical discussions on the major institutions – I honestly had to remind myself a couple of times that I was not reading “Another Country” or “Giovanni’s Room.” And of course Gordon’s appreciation of a male physique on a female plane just made it all the more James Baldwin-esque.

But I am pretty sure the similarity between a James Baldwin novel written in the 60s and this prologue, written in the 20s, is totally irrelevant. It is only my own lack of exposure to the bohemian lifestyle that makes me see the link at all. In fact, come to think of it, Margaret Atwood’s “Cat’s Eye” involves characters immersed in the artist’s lifestyle, and obviously Maugham wrote of such things. Come to think of it, a lot of authors covered this kind of lifestyle in their writing.

I guess my point (for I’m just going to go ahead and pretend I have one) is that this is not something I would have expected William Faulkner to write. I am pretty sure I feel this way because it is so “urban.” New Orleans is no backwater town. But, of course, Mrs. Maurier’s niece is still compared to a poplar. Gordon is a hawk.

Which brings me to the real point of my response: youth versus old age. Or, at least, the coming of old age.

I feel that what Faulkner wishes to convey about youth in this prologue is so complex that it would be too difficult to attempt to explain (if, indeed, I even fully understood it – I don’t) at midnight. And I’ve already wasted so many words on irrelevant nonsense. But I will do my best.

The prologue is introduced with a very poetic explanation of what I interpreted to be a description of mosquitoes. In the spring, when they first appear, the mosquitoes are young, fragile enough to easily kill. But, by August, when they are fat with blood, they become “cunning” and “lustful” as they make their way “toward the moon of decay and death.” A life cycle is therefore being presented.

This can be tied in very easily to our characters.

“Spring and the cruelest months were gone, the cruel months, the wantons that break the fat hybernatant dullness and comfort of time; August was on the wing, and September – a month of languorous days regretful as woodsmoke. But Mr. Talliaferro’s youth, or lack of it, troubled him no longer. Thank God.”

When discussing “Soldiers’ Pay,” the idea of beauty as a reminder of decay was presented. In the above quote from “Mosquitoes,” Spring seems to be cruel because of its very wantonness – that is, its frolicsome and youthful nature. In the case of Mr. Talliaferro, wantonness would be depressing because he himself is no longer young. But, now that Spring is over, his “youth, or lack of it, troubled him no longer.” In fact, we find him in August, feeling in good spirits. This quote immediately ties the reader into the description previous to the prologue. Because Mr. Talliaferro thrives on August, it would appear that he is somehow related to the near-death, vengeful version of the mosquito.

Mrs. Maurier is another aged character, and her recognition of the disparity between her own age and the youth of her daughter and Gordon is made very clear by Faulkner: “Mrs. Maurier sighed, feeling her age, the imminence of dark and death. She seemed not only unable to get new men any more, but to hold to the old ones, even…Mr. Talliaferro, too…age, age…”

Interestingly enough, when Mr. Talliaferro and Mrs. Maurier are around Gordon, they feel the sting of the mosquitoes.

As for youth, Gordon’s statue of a young, flat-chested virgin is revered by Mrs. Maurier’s niece, as well as by Mr. Talliaferro, who says: “Do you see what he has caught? Do you see? The spirit of youth, of something fine and hard and clean in the world; something we all desire until our mouths are stopped with dust.” And Gordon and the niece themselves possess some of the qualities of Faulkner’s faun: unselfconsciousness, comparisons to things of the natural world – hawks and poplars, for example. Clearly, youth is presented as the ideal, what is hungered for. In a way, it would seem the mosquitoes should be munching on the younguns. But obviously Faulkner has his reasons.

And as for the bohemian lifestyle group versus the upper-class “scorn-for-milk-bottles” group? I am assuming this is showing a similar contrast as that between youth and old age. But, at the end of the prologue, the author, Fairchild, does get attacked by mosquitoes. So what does that mean?

I am very excited to discuss this prologue in class. I can’t wait to find out all of the hidden, clever layers I did not understand.