Bodies That Matter by Butler Judith

Author:Butler, Judith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 1993-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

Here the third person narrative voice and that of the Old Boys begin to merge, leaving imprecise who regards Jessica as a “languid bit of a thing.” From the start, however, Tommy holds Jessica in contempt, and it appears that whatever the fondness between them, there is from the start a persistent repudiation—the working of prohibition in desire, the working of a prohibition in desire that necessitates the sacrifice of desire. Earlier Tommy herself claims that it is difficult to find women with whom she could speak in Southdown, for they seem only to be concerned with “babies and salads”; and Miss Jessica’s toiletries are an occasion for bafflement and a certain turning away. Jessica is devalued not only by the narrator and the Old Boys, but by Tommy herself; indeed, there is no textual evidence for this sweetness and kindness. Throughout the course of the story, Jessica becomes increasingly degraded by Tommy. The judgment of the Old Boys is reiterated as Tommy’s own judgment; indeed, her degradation appears to be both the condition of Tommy’s desire, the guarantor of that desire’s transience, and the narrative grounds for the sacrifice of her that Tommy eventually enacts.

Jay Ellington appears to constitute his desire for Jessica on the occasion of Tommy’s bringing her into town. Displaced at the bank by Tommy, who seems able to amass capital more effectively, Jay develops his interest in Jessica at the same time that he loses control over his bank’s assets. His investors, the Bohemians again, arrive at the door one morning, and Jay wires Tommy to save the day. Significantly, Tommy has saved enough in her own bank to make the loan which will vouch for Jay’s bank; she arrives with the cash and avoids a closing; she acts as his guarantor and his signatory. Indeed, Tommy now signs for both her father and Jay.

Jay is under siege by the Bohemians, and Tommy, sustaining some unspoken affiliation with them, has the peculiar power to turn back the demands that would deplete him of his resources. Tommy “saves” him, not only from losing the bank, but from losing Jessica as well. Tommy directs him to the place in the road where he left the girl, and advises him to leave quickly to retrieve her. In Cather’s story, the success of capital appears to require the sacrifice of homosexuality or, rather, an exchange that Tommy enacts of homosexuality for capital, a self-absenting of Tommy’s desire which acts as the guarantor for both the solvency of the bank and the future of normative heterosexuality. Tommy “saves” and fails to spend, holds back both money and desire, but enhances her credit, strengthening the power of her signature. What will be owed this name? And if Tommy sacrifices Jessica, what does she receive in return?

But before we consider this curious exchange, let us return to the triangular scene in which Jessica’s desire becomes the site of a consequential speculation. In fact, her desire is figured as inscrutable, and although the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.