Marie Heller CmLit120U Writing Assignment #2 Past, Present, and Eternal Selves: Systems of Remembering in The Hearing Trumpet

The mundane interpretation of the verb remember is the first given by the Oxford English Dictionary: To recollect; to think about, reflect on (remember, v.1). In psychology, remembering is the recalling of stored information, which we call memories. But as there are differing states of consciousness, it could be argued that there are different systems of remembering past events or even oneself. Through the many lenses of remember, we can discern in Leonora Carringtons The Hearing Trumpet three different systems of selfexamination that are explored and exemplified both by the characters and the text itself. * I. Remembering as Self-Policing (Past)
Knowing the rules and remembering the rules are two completely different things. Simon Travaglia

The first system of remembering encountered in The Hearing Trumpet is explicitly labeled as such and deemed the most important practice in the Gambits many vague lectures of Inner Christianity. The system is that of Self-Remembering, a rather nebulous concept that is never defined except as something that we must strive to keep present through all our daily activities (Carrington, 36). While the definition for Self-Remembering is never explicitly given, Dr. Gambit does mention the goal or result of Self-Remembering, saying, We Remember Ourselves in order to try and create objective observation of Personality (Carrington, 37). This seems to define remember as a manner of self-reflection. Self-Remembering, as explained by Dr. Gambit, sounds like an insightful mindfulness of ones own actions throughout every moment, even when playing board games or listening through a hearing trumpet. This system deals primarily with reflecting on past actions and thus the past self in order to discern and eliminate ones vices (greed, sloth, lust, etc.) and seems largely well-intentioned, if comically mystical. However, one of the more modern definitions of the word remember reveals a less spiritual and more controlling aspect to the Gambits system of remembering. The third definition of remember is certainly something Leonora Carrington would have heard growing up in an aristocratic British household: to recall ones manners or what is appropriate or right (remember, v.1). To remember oneself can also mean to critique ones own actions in comparison to what is considered the norm, to remember ones manners, and particularly for women of the time: dont forget to act like a lady. In an old womans home full of bearded crones, this sort of remembering is a great approach for keeping everyone in line. Remember yourself is a reprimand to behave with decorum and conform to expectations. But the Gambits

Self-Remembering goes a step furthernot only is the Institution telling you to remember your manners, but you must keep track of them yourself. In Inner Christianity the women must turn themselves from subjects to objects, to be observed and analyzed for betterment not just by Dr. Gambit, but by themselves. Eating too much, not tending to daily chores, and defying authority are not very ladylikewhat better way to enforce rules upon a woman than to make her police her own actions and personality? So it is that the seemingly mystical system of remembering ones past self is actually used as a tool of control by the institution instead of a true method of spiritual awakening. It is important to note Leonora Carringtons disdain for institutions when examining the system of remembering used by the Gambits. It is restrictive and authoritarian, much like the walls that keep all the old women in place. Ultimately, both the crones and the text find this system of remembering inadequate. Doubtless, part of its inadequacy is its capacity for abuse and control; for instance, Mrs. Gambit justifies saving money on kitchen expenses and thus half-starving the women as prohibiting the vice of greed. After the women stand up for themselves and succeed with the hunger strike, the Gambits are almost instantly forgotten. The fall of the institution, and thus their system of remembering, occurs simultaneously with the death of the Gambits when the building collapses. In this way the main characters and the text itself condemns Self-Remembering as a system of self-policing and shame. II. Remembering as Re-Living (Present)
But the thing about remembering is that you don't forget. Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

The second method of remembering in The Hearing Trumpet is almost exactly opposite to the way memories are typically conceptualized. In playing with states of consciousness and the thin lines between senility, insanity, and sanity, Carrington has Marian Leatherby not only recollect past events in memoir passages but relive them. These memoir passages and, as we find out in the end, the story itself exemplify a system of remembering the past by experiencing it in the present. If the Gambits method of remembering is for the present self to observe and analyze the past self, then Marians system of remembering is for the present self to inhabit and interact with the past. In the first memoir passage, Marian literally walks from reality back into a memory: Force of habit rather than my own capacity carried me home and sat me down in my back yard. Strangely enough I was in England and it was a Sunday afternoon (Carrington, 20). This quote shows how the transition is essentially seamless, save for the hinting use of strangely enough. In the present system of remembering, Marian is able to examine the memories and act of remembering itself. ... I cant even remember your name. I remember your white flannels better than I can remember you. I remember all the things I felt about the white flannels but whoever made them walk about has totally disappeared (Carrington, 23). By reliving her memories, Marian (or, arguably, Carrington) is able to examine the relations between memory and the self-- if she only remembers the man as a pair of white flannels, does that mean she is only a pink linen dress with no sleeves in someone elses mind? Unlike the Gambits Self-

Remembering, Marians remembering arises organically and unbidden, sparked by certain cues like Margraves postcard, for instance. Additionally, Marians remembering is deliberately juxtaposed to that of the Gambits, particularly at the climax of the novel when Marian literally meets herself in Hell. She chooses to descend into the tower: The woman who stood before me was myself. True, she was less bent than I and so her form seemed somewhat taller. She may have been a hundred years older or younger, she had no age. Her features were identical to my own but her expression was much gayer and more intelligent. Her eyes were neither dim nor bloodshot, and she carried herself with ease (Carrington, 172). The present system of remembering enables Marian to truly see herself as she wants to be in the future, as a more confident, whole person. At the very end of the novel, we learn that this entire tale has been a remembrance by the new Marian, who has actually been our narrator the entire time, not the past Marian. In this sense, the entire novel itself is Marian re-living and retelling the story of her past self and how she came to be her present self. Effective self-reflection is thus attributed by the text to Marian Leatherbys system of remembering, instead of strict and conscious self-analyzation. III. Re-membering as Divine (Eternal)
Remembering that man is indeed the microcosm, the universe in miniature, the Divine Dance of the future should be able to convey with its slightest gestures some significance of the universe. Ruth St. Denis

The final system of remembering deals with a slightly different version of the term weve been defining up until this point. The second entry in the Oxford English Dictionary for remember is actually the hyphenated re-member. It is upon this word that the third system heavily relies. The entry reads, To put together again, reverse the dismembering of (re-member, v. 2). This system of re-membering deals with the realization of the divine being reunited with the self. The text itself is a re-membering of the story of Dona Rosalinda Alvarez Cruz della Cueva through the painting, the book given to Marian by Christabel Burns, and the end of Marians tale itself. The story of the Holy Grail is re-membered, as the Goddess worshipping Christabel claims the myth had been taken by those of the Vengeful Father God; the Holy Grail is re-membered into a pagan, feminine icon possessed by Hekate and Zam Pollum. (One could even joke that, by reclaiming the Holy Grail quest for femininity, the text de-members the Grail myth.) The divine is literally reunited in the character of Marian Leatherby after she meets herself in Hell and jumps into then drinks the soup broth. Holding the mirror at arms length I seemed to see a three-faced female whose eyes winked alternatively. One of the faces was black, one red, one white, and they belonged to the Abbess, the Queen Bee and myself (Carrington, 176). Marian bridges the occult gap between the human and the divine by drinking the broth of her own self and so, when she looks in the mirror, she is able to see the many incarnations of the divine within herself. This system of remembering is also symbolic in that it indicates she had the divine within herself the whole time-- she just had to realize it (i.e., meet her true self).

This re-membering of Marian and the text is perhaps the most effective form of remembering exemplified or explored by Carrington, as it achieves the mystics goal of reunion with the divine while simultaneously meeting an individuals desire of self-actualization. * All three of these systems-- past, present, eternal or Gambit, Marian, the text-- use remembering as a way to interpret and examine the self all for different means. SelfRemembering is a form of control and oppression meant to induce shame and rigid conformity to expectations, and thus is found inadequate in the search for Truth or the Self. The second and third systems are more similar and debatably more successful in their aims to realize the self and the divine and to reconnect what was otherwise fractured and separated in the Self. Ultimately, The Hearing Trumpet uses remembering as a way to examine and practice the methods by which one can recall memories and interpret the self. As Marian Leatherby herself says, Time, as we all know, passes. Whether it returns in quite the same way is doubtful (Carrington, 26). Works Cited Carrington, Leonora, and Pablo Weisz-Carrington. The Hearing Trumpet. Boston: Exact Change, 1996. Print. remember, v.1. Third edition, December 2009; online version March 2012. <http:// www.oed.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/view/Entry/162133>; accessed 01 April 2012. An entry for this word was first included in New English Dictionary, 1906. re-member, v.2. Third edition, December 2009; online version March 2012. <http:// www.oed.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/view/Entry/162134>; accessed 01 April 2012. An entry for this word was first included in New English Dictionary, 1906.