LITR 5731 UHCL Multicultural: Colonial-Postcolonial lecture notes

LITR 5831 Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Lecture Notes

Man Who Would be King notes

Partition video

1.39 maps on walls

4. Man Who Would be King: How does the story typify colonial attitudes but also offer surprises in relations b/w colonizer and colonized?

1.45 require to see Books and Atlases

1.47 any place where they fight a man who knows how to drill men can always be a King

1.55 t won't help us to know the names of their tribes. The more tribes the more they'll fight, and the better for us

1.57 they're an all-fired lot of heathens, but this book here says they think they're related to us English

2.36 Dravot gives out that him and me were Gods and sons of Alexander, and Past Grand-Masters in the Craft, and was come to make Kafiristan a country where every man should eat in peace and drink in quiet, and specially obey us. Then the Chiefs come round to shake hands, and they was so hairy and white and fair it was just shaking hands with old friends. We gave them names

2.38 Nobody is going to be shot or speared any more so long as he does well, and I know that you won't cheat me because you're white people—sons of Alexander—and not like common, black Mohammedans. You are my people and by God,' says he, running off into English at the end—'I'll make a damned fine Nation of you, or I'll die in the making!'

5. Compare to Robinson Crusoe in novelistic style and relations of colonizer-colonized? Role of technology (esp. guns)? (Consider also rifle in George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant" (1936).

[1.78] I felt the butt of a Martini*, and another and another. [*Martini-Henry rifles, used by British Army]

2.19 the boxes with the guns and the ammunition

2.22 fair men—fairer than you or me—with yellow hair and remarkable well built. [<blend of colonizer / colonized physiology] Says Dravot, unpacking the guns—'This is the beginning of the business. We'll fight for the ten men,' and with that he fires two rifles at the twenty men, and drops one of them at two hundred yards

2.22a he lifts them up and shakes hands all round

2.22a as though he was King already. . . . half a dozen big stone idols. Dravot he goes to the biggest—a fellow they call Imbra—and lays a rifle and a cartridge at his feet,

6. The mystique of the British Empire remains powerful for its former colonies. How does this mystique express or reveal itself in Man . . . King? Compare & contrast Lucy & A Small Place.

2.80 'An Emperor am I,' says Daniel, 'and next year I shall be a Knight of the Queen.'

7. Speaking of mystique, again Biblical narratives including millennialism and even crucifixion appear. How can such world-narratives be discussed respectfully as a background or motivation for western colonialism / imperialism?

Lucy

8 Book of Revelation

72 on last legs, disappear from the earth [millennial]

88 ruins

118 the end, the ruin

122 break apart, holding together

129 mansion in ruins, sugar industry in Caribbean

156 he loved ruins . . . sad, gradual decline

Transnats may not buy into end of world, but changing of world

one world dies, another is born

Man

1.22 Native States were created by Providence in order to supply picturesque scenery, tigers, and tall-writing. They are the dark places of the earth*, full of unimaginable cruelty

2.24a Dravot says,—'Go and dig the land, and be fruitful and multiply,' [Genesis 3:23 & 1:28] which they did, though they didn't understand. Then we asks the names of things in their lingo—

2.25 'They think we're Gods.'

2.25c 'Occupy till I come:' which was scriptural [Luke 19:13].

2.76 Ruin and Mutiny

2.97 what they did to Peachey between two pine trees? They crucified him, Sir, as Peachey's hand will show.

8. What use to colonial-postcolonial studies of the "white tribe" of Er-heb besides obvious racism? What mistakes does Daniel make following from his assumptions about whiteness?

2.22a he lifts them up and shakes hands all round

9. As ever, gender becomes entangled with racism in cross-cultural studies. How are women regarded in this and other colonial texts?

[2.53] "'Do you remember that Bengali woman I kept at Mogul Serai when I was a plate-layer?' says I. 'A fat lot o' good she was to me. She taught me the lingo and one or two other things; but what happened? She ran away with the Station Master's servant and half my month's pay. Then she turned up at Dadur Junction in tow of a half-caste, and had the impidence to say I was her husband—all among the drivers in the running-shed!'

2.50 "'The Contrack only lasted till such time as we was Kings

'You go get a wife too, Peachey—a nice, strappin', plump girl that'll keep you warm in the winter. They're prettier than English girls, and we can take the pick of 'em. Boil 'em once or twice in hot water, and they'll come as fair as chicken and ham.'

[2.52] "'Who's talking o' women?' says Dravot. 'I said wife—a Queen to breed a King's son for the King. A Queen out of the strongest tribe, that'll make them your blood-brothers,

Man Who Would be King notes

1.1 Brit flavor to motto, command, challenge, "if"

1.1-1.2 freemasonry immediately--sense of closed community, people who know code

1.3 intermediate class

1.21 conspiratorial, blackmail?

1.22 impersonating correspondents

the caste

nobody cares a straw for the internal administration of Native States so long as oppression and crime are kept within decent limits

Native States were created by Providence in order to supply picturesque scenery, tigers, and tall-writing. They are the dark places of the earth*, full of unimaginable cruelty

1.23 a funny little, happy-go-lucky, native-managed railway

1.28 the consciousness of having done my duty was my only reward.

1.32 the Empires and the Kings continue to divert themselves as selfishly as before

1.36 two men in white clothes

no mistaking the eyebrows of the one or the beard of the other.

1.38 the Contrack [contract] doesn't begin yet, Peachey, so you needn't look—but what we really want is advice. We don't want money. We ask you as a favor, because you did us a bad turn about Degumber."

1.39 maps on walls

1.41 We have been all over India, mostly on foot. We have been boiler-fitters, engine-drivers, petty contractors, and all that, and we have decided that India isn't big enough for such as us."

1.42 "The country isn't half worked out because they that governs it won't let you touch it. They spend all their blessed time in governing it, and you can't lift a spade, nor chip a rock, nor look for oil, nor anything like that without all the Government saying—'Leave it alone and let us govern.' Therefore, such as it is, we will let it alone, and go away to some other place where a man isn't crowded and can come to his own. We are not little men, and there is nothing that we are afraid of except Drink, and we have signed a Contrack on that. Therefore, we are going away to be Kings."

1.45 require to see Books and Atlases

1.47 any place where they fight a man who knows how to drill men can always be a King

1.49 We have come to you to know about this country, to read a book about it, and to be shown maps. We want you to tell us that we are fools and to show us your books." He turned to the bookcases.

1.51 "As big a map as you have got, even if it's all blank where Kafiristan is, and any books you've got. We can read, though we aren't very educated." [“blank” places on maps or globes anticipates Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: ]

1.52 volume INF-KAN of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and the men consulted them. [Kipling himself consulted an article in this volume for information about Kafiristan (http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_wouldbeking_notes.htm)]

1.53 We was there with Roberts's Army [Second Afghan War, 1878-80].

1.55 t won't help us to know the names of their tribes. The more tribes the more they'll fight, and the better for us

1.57 they're an all-fired lot of heathens, but this book here says they think they're related to us English

1.59 We're two harmless lunatics

1.61 "Next week we shall be hard at work ourselves, thank you,"

1.62 Contrack a greasy half-sheet of note-paper

1.63 not, while this matter is being settled, look at any Liquor, nor any Woman, black, white or brown

1.67 great four-square sink of humanity

168 priest and servant

[1.72] "From Roum [Rome?] have I come,"

[1.78] I felt the butt of a Martini*, and another and another. [*Martini-Henry rifles, used by British Army]

1.83 Brother. . . . I slipped a small charm compass [Masonic emblem] from my watch-chain and handed it up to the priest.

1.84 last time we'll shake hands with an Englishman these many days

1.87 The two, then, were beyond the Border.

part 2

[2.1] The wheel of the world

2.2 there crept to my chair what was left of a man. —this rag-wrapped, whining cripple who addressed me by name, crying that he was come back.

[2.4] "Don't you know me?"

2.8 I was the King of Kafiristan—me and Dravot—crowned Kings we was!

2.11 Tell me all you can recollect of everything from beginning to end.

2.12 Keep looking at me, or maybe my words will go all to pieces. Keep looking at me in my eyes and don't say anything."

2.13 stigmata?

2.17 Dravot took off all his clothes and mine too, and said we would be heathen

these mountains, they never keep still

2.19 the boxes with the guns and the ammunition

2.22a he lifts them up and shakes hands all round

as though he was King already. . . . half a dozen big stone idols. Dravot he goes to the biggest—a fellow they call Imbra—and lays a rifle and a cartridge at his feet,

2.24 every morning Dravot sat by the side of old Imbra, and the people came and worshipped. That was Dravot's order. Then a lot of men came into the valley, and Carnehan and Dravot picks them off with the rifles

'Now what is the trouble between you two villages?' and the people points to a woman, as fair as you or me, that was carried off, and Dravot takes her back to the first village

[cf. Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court]

2.24a shows them how to scratch a line with a spear right down the valley, and gives each a sod of turf from both sides o' the line.

Dravot says,—'Go and dig the land, and be fruitful and multiply,' [Genesis 3:23 & 1:28] which they did, though they didn't understand. Then we asks the names of things in their lingo—

2.25 'They think we're Gods.'

picks out twenty good men and shows them how to click off a rifle, and form fours, and advance in line

[Paragraphs 2.24-2.25: Dravot & Carnahan imitate colonialism by organizing and militarizing dispersed or hostile peoples, and by increasing productivity.]

2.25a we blooded 'em with a kid before letting 'em into the new Kingdom. That was to impress the people

unless the people wants to be killed they had better not shoot their little matchlocks; for they had matchlocks [early rifle].

2.25b teaching the men how to drill

2.25c 'Occupy till I come:' which was scriptural [Luke 19:13].

2.27 string-talk letter

2.29 a lot of pending cases about land

2.30 I am the son of Alexander* by Queen Semiramis, and you're my younger brother and a God too! [cf. Duke and Earl in Huck Finn]

I've got the key of the whole show, as you'll see, and I've got a crown for you!

gold, turquoise, garnets, amber

2.32 fight no more. The *Craft's the trick

Billy Fish gave me the Grip [Masonic handshake

A God and a Grand-Master of the Craft am I, and a Lodge in the Third Degree I will open, and we'll raise the head priests and the Chiefs of the villages.' [*The Craft = Masonic lore]

2.34 The temple of Imbra will do for the Lodge-room.

2.37 ten priests took and tilted over the Grand-Master's chair—which was to say the stone of Imbra. The priest begins rubbing the bottom end of it to clear away the black dirt, and presently he shows all the other priests the Master's Mark, same as was on Dravot's apron, cut into the stone.

2.37a bangs the butt of his gun for a gavel

not in any way according to Ritual, but it served our turn. We didn't raise more than ten of the biggest men because we didn't want to make the Degree common. And they was clamoring to be raised. [cf. Scientology]

2.40 they loved Dan. He was the best of friends with the priests and the Chiefs; but any one could come across the hills with a complaint and Dravot would hear him out fair

2.41 bribed the Colonel of the regiment

we turned out five hundred men that could drill . . . Even those cork-screwed, hand-made guns was a miracle to them. Dravot talked big about powder-shops and factories

[2.42] "'I won't make a Nation,' says he. 'I'll make an Empire! These men aren't niggers*; they're English! Look at their eyes—look at their mouths. Look at the way they stand up. They sit on chairs in their own houses. They're the Lost Tribes, or something like it, and they've grown to be English. [*The English in India sometimes used this racial slur against Indian peoples, among whom the light-dark color code may descend from the Aryan invasion.]

2.42a take a census in the spring

[paragraphs 2.41-2.42 & 2.46 show Dravot planning an empire and modernizing his colonized peoples through industrialization, accounting (census), population growth, the politics of global empire, and imperial administration]

2.42b 'we shall be Emperors—Emperors of the Earth!

Rajah Brooke

I'll treat with the Viceroy [royal representative of British monarch in India] on equal terms. I'll ask him to send me twelve picked English—twelve that I know of—to help us govern a bit.

we'd be an Empire. When everything was shipshape, I'd hand over the crown—this crown I'm wearing now—to Queen Victoria on my knees, and she'd say: "Rise up, Sir Daniel Dravot."

2.44 You're a first-class Commander-in-Chief, and the people know you; but—it's a big country, and somehow you can't help me, Peachey, in the way I want to be helped.'

2.46 can't you see, Peachey, we want cleverer men than us now

2.48 I want a wife

2.50 "'The Contrack only lasted till such time as we was Kings

[2.52] "'Who's talking o' women?' says Dravot. 'I said wife—a Queen to breed a King's son for the King. A Queen out of the strongest tribe, that'll make them your blood-brothers,

2.54 'These women are whiter than you or me, and a Queen I will have for the winter months.'

2.56 looking like a big red devil. The low sun hit his crown and beard on one side and the two blazed like hot coals

2.57 ask the girls. That's how it's done at Home, and these people are quite English.'

2.59 How can daughters of men marry Gods or Devils? It's not proper.'

2.61 Besides, you two know the Mark cut in the stone. Only the Gods know that. We thought you were men till you showed the sign of the Master.' [more Masonic business]

2.62 All that night there was a blowing of horns in a little dark temple half-way down the hill, and I heard a girl crying fit to die. One of the priests told us that she was being prepared to marry the King.

2.72 Up comes the girl, and a strapping wench she was, covered with silver and turquoises but white as death, and looking back every minute at the priests.

[2.74] "'The slut's bitten me!' says he, clapping his hand to his neck, and, sure enough, his hand was red with blood.

'Neither God nor Devil but a man!' I was all taken aback, for a priest cut at me in front, and the Army behind began firing into the Bashkai men.

2.76 Ruin and Mutiny

2.77 The valley was full of shouting, howling creatures, and every soul was shrieking, 'Not a God nor a Devil but only a man!'

2.80 'An Emperor am I,' says Daniel, 'and next year I shall be a Knight of the Queen.'

2.86 Why didn't you stick on as Gods till things was more settled? I'm a dead man,' says Billy Fish, and he throws himself down on the snow and begins to pray to his Gods.

2.90 it's my blasted nonsense that has brought you to this. . . . I'll go and meet 'em alone. It's me that did it. Me, the King!'

2.96e old Dan fell, turning round and round and round twenty thousand miles, for he took half an hour to fall till he struck the water, and I could see his body caught on a rock with the gold crown close beside.

2.97 what they did to Peachey between two pine trees? They crucified him, Sir, as Peachey's hand will show.

2.100 the dried, withered head of Daniel Dravot [cf. cannibalism?]

2.105 the nearest missionary, asylum