Mantissa takes an in-depth look into the mind of a male fiction writer, Miles Green. In Mantissa, Miles Green mind has an explicitly masculine perspective. In the being of the book he struggles with being raped which was a metaphor for writers block. Erato is trying to force him to have sex in terms helps him overcome his writers block. In order to make his ideas come out of his brain they have to come out through the psychical world. In Part II of Mantissa, Erato is disgusted about how Miles is portraying her. Erato turns into this punk rocker with black leather jacket, black boots and she’s just an all around bad-ass chick. On page 54, there’s a conversation between Miles and Erato which points out her rebellion against Miles’ sex scene in Part
“God, if you was only a character too. If I could just rub you out along with your piddin’, pansy, paper puppets.”
She wipes her mouth angrily with the back of her wrist. He leaves a little silence.
“You realize you’re behaving just like a man?”
“And what’s that s’posed to mean?”
“Instant value-judgments. Violent sexual prejudice. To say nothing of trying to hid behind the roles and language of a milieu to which you do not belong.”
“Oh belt up.”
Suddenly this goddess which was portrayed in Part I is now a man-hating punk. A traditional muse is seen as having a passive position whereby the demands of the male figure is met. Erato rejects this idea of the muse, after all the “birth” of the novel reinforces the idea of the women as main creative influence behind the birth of the novel. Without women there would be no births, without a muse there would be no novel. If it weren’t for Erato Miles would have nothing to write about and nothing to inspire him.
Erato pathetically attempts to have her independence but fails because the control lies within the artist. The only control which Erato has is over Nurse Cory which I think represents Miles’ unconscious mind. It’s only Miles unconscious mind that Erato can manipulate. Fowels represents Erato as being a beautiful, young, attractive, women who soul purpose is to provide Miles with physiological development. Fowels makes Erato the main principle for Miles’s novel, without Erato there would be no book. There would be nothing would inspire Miles to write the book if Erato weren’t there.
Throughout Mantissa there is a power-struggle between the two which creates a sexual energy. Even though Erato bounces back and forth between a radical feminist and a sexual goddess, she always seems to be under the control of Miles and Miles seems to be under her control at times. Through her sexual persuasion, Erato realizes that she can achieve anything she wants. But I don’t think she really has any true power because the only way she can gain anything is through her dignity. She is able to inspire him but only through the cost of her pride. She may be the driving force for Miles novel but in the end she has to true power, only influence.
2 comments:
I think Erato always has the majority of control, and if at times it seems that Miles has control, with a little manipulation, Erato regains control and both Miles and the reader are aware of that. However, I love the point you make when you say that without Erato there would be no novel; Miles would be void of inspiration. Wouldn't this reflect Erato's constant control?
I agree with the idea that Erato really has the control, because without her, Miles would not have any power to control in the first place. Although she is seen as a feminist throughout most of the piece, there are a few soft moments where she just wants Miles to love her and take care of her.
When she is Japenese, and Miles just wants her to comply with everything he wants, she rebels by dissapearing into thin air. However, we then see Dr. Delfie again, except this time she is brown and Nurse Cory is white. Erato turns herself into one of Miles' fantacies at the very end of the book. How are we supposed to take this? Does Erato really win in the power struggle? Or is this scene depict her giving into Miles?
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