Happy Endings: Why?

20 30 40

"The Loveliness of the Long-Distance Runner"

Outline

Questions20 30 40 Problems Comic Form vs. the More Realistic Solution “Happy” Endings and Beyond"Long-Distance Runner" Introduction Problems Form Solution & “Happy Ending” Context: Stereotypes and

the Author Reference

Questions

How do you relate to the two texts, or either one of them? Are there moments in the texts which resonate with you? Any parts that you like or don’t like?

What do you think are their main messages (about love)? Are they conveyed successfully?

Why are they comedies? What kinds of happy endings

do they each have?

What I can relate to:

Forgetfulness …

20 30 40: Emotional problems –Instability and Loneliness --Lily

Lily: husband’s disloyalty; busy, active but first neglected as a wife/mother and then lonely a divorced woman,

20 30 40: Emotional problems –Instability and Loneliness -- 想想 Against marriage unable to either commit or break up

(with 小齊、 Brian 、 Jack); Pattern: Fight Sex

20 30 40: Emotional problems –Instability and Loneliness --Lily

小潔、 依童、 石哥 : unfulfilled dream of becoming a singer, or twin duo

Comic Form: 20—youthfulness—too much? Beating the

traffic light; Getting 齊喻 to

sign Singing, putting

makeup, drawing (chap 8), etc.

Comic Form: 30 –fighting for the gold fish

Comic Form -- Lily

The ways she tries to solve the problems –asking for a date

Dancing tennis teacher 王教練—

too young Jerry Zhang – Emmy

Emily

The More Realistic: Their Problems Lily Gracefully makes up for her

mistake –another tactic 以退為進

Stays in ambiguities No more phone calls 小潔 : sings but not heard,

only Tong hears it and recorded it once.

Solutions and Happy Endings: Lily

Takes care of a comatose patient–What do you think?

1. Well-intentioned 2. Scenes of family happiness vs. lonely women

—as trite as reality is. 3. Doing facial, celebrating birthday –one-way

communication (self-expression) after all.

Solutions and Happy Endings: Lily

Indulges herself

Beyond the Happy Endings: Women’s Identities

Independence? From one stereotype to another. (knife—armpit

shaving)

“Happy” Ending

Still in the dating ritual—the most important “good morning” said to a man.

Beyond the Happy Endings: Individual Problems – 想想 (1)

Believes in signs, but not her own judgment

Beyond the Happy Endings: Individual Problems – 想想 (2)

(one cell phone = one man) Has to throw off the cell phone to get rid of the influence

Beyond the Happy Endings: Women’s Identities

Mirror reflecting a dependent woman

Beyond the Happy Endings: Lesbianism or Friendship?

Tong: confirms 石哥’ s love, gives the videotape to 潔

(More can be suggested by the cassette tape chap 12; 47:00)

潔︰ a kiss and a smile

Beyond the Happy Endings: Social Context --

Problems of Postmodern Society –

“Family” Fragmentation – not only that of Lily’s, but also 想想’ s mother, Brian’s, 童’ s parents.

Flows of people and information – Flight Attendant + cell phones (43:00)

Spaces of Flows, Fluidity of People and Language Mixture

Major scenes and careers suggest the fluidity of humans and information

Scenes: airport; earthquake and TV report Career – flight attendants (possibly Tong,

too), music production (singers from Malaysia and Hong Kong— 代表「無國界時代」 ), Jerry as 台商 Taiwanese businessman

Language: The use of English names

Chance Encounters in some Spaces of Flows?

Roads, Diners and Neighborhood

Mere coincidence: On the road, dumpling place

小潔 in front of the florist shop Lily has lunch on the side of 石

哥Communication Impossible?

Another Undeveloped Element: Surveillance Camera

"The Loveliness of the Long-Distance Runner“

Introduction

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Alan Sillitoe’s short story, also a 1962 film -- presents a rebellious 17-yr-old young man who arrives at a reformatory, and then joins a race in which he chooses not to win. (ref. Leonardi)

Class Issue Gender and love: Jane

running and Sally at home “The Loveliness of the Long-Distance Runner“

Problems: Conflicts between the Two Lovers

1. Jane –on Marathon Running

2. “like[s] running” –”Space and good feeling” (393)

3. Wants to break her 3.5 hour record.

4. Wants to “run clear of the crowd” and “find someone to run [her] own pace with”

5. “Pace; endurance; deferment of pleasure; patience.”

Sally – Contradictory views on Marathon Running

1. hates it; it is dangerous (e.g. Pheidippides)

2. Also jealous. 3. Thinks her lover “has

the most beautiful body. Because she runs.” (392)

4. “Marathon running is a goddamn competitive, sexist, lousy, thing to do.”

5. Her “devouring her as a sex-object”//competitive running.

Problems: What Jane is up against

Jane – contradictory herself 1. To run for herself – (393-94) once she beat

a sexist before the finish line, hurt her neck and feel bad about it.

2. Solidarity: (394-95) “experience that solidarity, of other people wanting you to do what you want to do.” “In the last few miles the crowd holds you together…This is not a noble hero against the world.”

Runs with a lady – who reduces her pace to let her go ahead

3. Pains 4. More later – sexist ideology

Form –Interior Monologues from Two Distinct Perspectives Sally’s emphasis on

Jane’s body: (393-94) “yards and yards” of leg; “miles and miles of tight, hard, thin muscle”

More contraditions: she “thinks about what

she is not going to think about”

A jogger’s monologue: Part of her meandering

thought [396-97]: Emma her own teacher Sally heart Zulu warrior Jane de Chantal garbage collector garbage person .

physically concrete about pain and fatigue– “Something stabs my eyes with orange” (a cramp in the upper thighs) (397)

297 –divided by 9 A lady no. 297

Alternative letters to show the struggle.

Solution & “Happy Ending”: Sally

Sally’s gradual openness while she is in “tension and inactivity”

1. admits that her love of Jane’s body can be possessive

2. (395 -- ) Examines herself: “I don’t want her to do what she wants to do.” Mind vs. body -- “I will not love her for those

reasons [most beautiful body]; but I will love her because she is tough and enduring and wryly ironic.” (395) “Her mind is clear, careful and still open to complexity.”

3. Accepts the fact that she is involved in the race, though accepting not the same with liking. (398)

Solution & “Happy Ending” Love and Mutual Appreciation between

Sally and Jane Sally – likes both her body and mind; Jane – likes Sally’s mind and worries about her

heart beat –”her mind floats, green with sequinned points of fire” (396), while her own “wears Nike running shoes”

Compromise Jane – “Never, never again.” –not running

again? Sally – “Rejoice, we conquer.” – conquering

what?

Between the Words –Stereotyping or Breaking Stereotypes Re. Phys. Ed teacher: Emma and her father’s

suspicion (395-96) Jane –calls Sally “stubborn bitch” (394), “ my

princess”; herself “the younger son (say person) in the fairy story” (396-97); on a “quest” where the princess should wait for her then admits that she hates the term “princess.” (398 still uses it)

JANE DE CHANTAL–the first jogger? Knows the slow, rich stroke –”Harassed almost to despair by their entreaties, she branded on her heart the name of Jesus, and in the end left her beloved home and children, to live for God alone.” –(source)

Mary Magdalene – “stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment ” (Luke 7:36–50.)

Types and Stereotypes

Used and Critiqued to show the two are just “ordinary” lovers with their limitations and genuine love for each other.

To broaden and mix fields which were separate traditionally: Christianity and Homosexuality; sex-object and true love; mind and body, marathon running and female runners.

"The Loveliness of the Long-Distance Runner“ --Context

Sara Maitland (1950-)-- Daughters of Jerusalem -- A Big-Enough God: A Feminist's Search for a

Joyful Theology "I am a feminist, a socialist, a catholic Christian,

a wife and a mother […] This seems to produce enough conflicts to give me writing material for years to come.“

-- Recently, she is exploring the issue of silence.

Reference

Leonardi, Susan J. “The Long-Distance Runner (The Loneliness, Loveliness, Nunliness of).” Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature13. 1 (Spring, 1994): 57-85