The Spiritual History of Ice: Romanticism, Science and the Imagination

286 Pages·2003·1.64 MB·English

by  Eric G. Wilson

THE SPIRITUAL
HISTORY OF ICE
Romanticism, Science,
and the Imagination
ERIC G. WILSON
THESPIRITUALHISTORYOFICE
Copyright © Eric Wilson, 2003.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published 2003 by
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ISBN 978-0-230-61971-5 ISBN 978-1-4039-8180-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781403981806
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilson, Eric, 1967-
The spiritual history of ice : romanticism, science, and the
imagination / by Eric Wilson
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. American literature—19th century—History and criticism.
2. Ice in literature. 3. English literature—20th century—
History and criticism 4. Arctic regions—Inliterature.
5. Polar regions—In literature. 6. Antarctica—In literature.
7. Crystals in literature. 8. Glaciers in literature.
9. Romanticism. I. Title.
PS217.I32 W55 2003
810.9’36—dc21
2002032174
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library.
Design by Letra Libre, Inc.
First edition: May 2003
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments v
Abbreviations vii
Introduction Frozen Apocalypse 1
One Crystals 7
Two Glaciers 71
Three The Poles 139
Conclusion Melting and Genesis 217
Notes 221
Index 271
In an age whose dominant philosophy is some one or another of the several
current forms of materialism, the arts cease to perform their normal func-
tion. In ignorance of the language of cosmic analogy (and what else is true
poetry but such a language?) some form of humanism or naturalistic “re-
alism” usurps every field of thought. Works of the past are misread in the
light of this novel opinion, with a consequent distortion of judgment that
necessarily leads to the deposing of what has been thought high and an ex-
altation of what was formerly thought low.
—Kathleen Raine, Blake and Tradition
The cosmos or world soul, according to Plato’s Timaeus, is a perfect living
animal, feeding on its own waste, with no need of eyes or ears since there is
nothing outside to see or hear, that also happens to possess the perfect form:
“a sphere, without organs or limbs, rotating on its axis.” The Republic
presents the cosmos as eight hollow or concentric spheres set inside one an-
other like “nested bowls” with Earth at the center. The celestial axis holds
the Earth still while the three Fates at the North Pole—apex of the Earth
and its interface with the celestial axis and heaven—wheel the spheres and
their attached fixed stars around it.
—Victoria Nelson, The Secret Life of Puppets
I had begun to think that there, at only one of two motionless places on this
gyrating world, I might have peace to solve Vheissu’s riddle. Do you un-
derstand? I wanted to stand in the dead center of the carousel, if only for a
moment; try to catch my bearings. And sure enough, waiting for me was
my answer. I’d begun to dig a cache nearby, after planting the flag. The
barrenness of that place howled around me, like a country the demiurge
had forgotten. There could have been no more entirely lifeless and empty
place anywhere on earth. Two or three feet down I struck clear ice. A
strange light, which seemed to move inside it, caught my attention. I
cleared a space away. Staring up at me through the ice, perfectly pre-
served, its fur still rainbow-colored, was the corpse of one of their spider
monkeys.
—Thomas Pynchon, V.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Certain works that I have read obsessively over the years have in-
spired this book far beyond footnotes: Angus Fletcher’s Allegory,
Barbara L. Packer’s Emerson’s Fall,John T. Irwin’s American Hiero-
glyphics,Edward Kessler’s Coleridge’s Metaphors of Being,Stephen J.
Pyne’s The Ice,Philip Kuberski’s The Persistence of Memory,Joscelyn
Godwin’s Arktos, and Victoria Nelson’s “Symmes Hole, Or the
South Polar Romance.”
Friends and colleagues have also encouraged this book in in-
numerable ways. I am extremely indebted to Philip Kuberski—not
only for his profound book on memory but also for his spiritual
and intellectual guidance, which informed this study from begin-
ning to end. Once again, Marilyn Gaull generously offered her en-
couragement and expertise at all stages—my book would not exist
without her. I am also very thankful for the support of James
Hans, Robert Richardson, Joseph Wittreich, Allen Mandelbaum,
Laura Dassow Walls, Mark Lussier, and Joan Richardson. I have
benefited as well from spirited conversations with Dennis Samp-
son, Jane Mead, Granville Ganter, Pranab Das, and Phil Arnold.
Kristi Long, my editor at Palgrave, has once again been very
patient with my worries as well as an astute critic of my writing. I
can’t imagine working with anyone else. I’m also very thankful for
the expert help of Roee Raz, also at Palgrave. I would like to thank
Gale Sigal, the chair of my department during the years I wrote
this book. She has consistently bolstered my work. Wake Forest
vi (cid:1) THE SPIRITUAL HISTORY OF ICE (cid:2)
University helped me to complete this book by granting me a re-
search leave and summer travel money. The staffs at the Wake
Forest University Library, the New York Public Library, and the
British Library were extremely helpful. I am also very appreciative
of the efforts of William Weber, who expertly and promptly
checked quotations and proofread the text.
Parts of Chapter 1 were published in Nineteenth-Century Prose.
I would like to thank this journal for permission to reprint these
materials. I would also like to thank Harper Perennial for permis-
sion to quote from Thomas Pynchon’s V.in the series of epigraphs
to this book.
I am deeply indebted to Glenn and Linda Wilson and Bill and
Helen Hamilton, who have buoyed me in countless ways. Sandi
Hamilton has endured and nurtured my compulsive researches
from the beginning. She remains the pole star around which my
being turns. Finally, I dedicate these pages to Una, the daughter
whose glorious birth coincided with the completion of the book.
ABBREVIATIONS
AM The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Collected Works of Samuel Tay-
lor Coleridge, vol. 16 (part 1), ed. J.C.C. Mays (Princeton, NJ:
Bollingen Press of Princeton Univ. Press, 2001), 365–419.
CC The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, gen. ed. Kathleen
Coburn, 14 vols. (Princeton, NJ: Bollingen Press of Princeton
Univ. Press, 1969-).
EJ The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson,ed.
William H. Gilman, Ralph H. Orth, et al., 16 vols. (Cambridge,
MA, and London: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1982).
EL The Early Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Stephen Whicher
and Robert E. Spiller, 3 vols. (Cambridge, MA, and London: Har-
vard Univ. Press, 1959–72).
EW The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson,ed. Robert E. Spiller,
Joseph Slater, et al., 5 vols. (Cambridge, MA, and London: Belk-
nap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1971-).
F Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus,ed. Maurice Hindle (New
York: Penguin, 1985).
M Manfred, The Complete Poetical Works of Lord Byron, ed. Jerome J.
McGann, vol. 4 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1986).
MB “Mont Blanc,” Shelley’s Prose and Poetry, 2nd ed., eds. Donald H.
Reiman and Neil Fraistat (New York and London: Norton, 2002).
N Nature: A Facsimile of the First Edition, intro. Jaroslav Pelikan
(Boston: Beacon, 1985).
NH “A Natural History of Massachusetts,” The Portable Thoreau, ed.
Carl Bode (New York: Penguin, 1947).
viii (cid:1) THE SPIRITUAL HISTORY OF ICE (cid:2)
NP The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, The Collected Writings of Edgar
Allan Poe: Volume One: The Imaginary Voyages, ed. Burton R. Pollin,
2 vols. (Boston: Twayne, 1981), 53–210.
PS Shelley’s Prose, or The Trumpet of Prophecy,ed. David Lee Clark (Al-
buquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 1954).
PU Prometheus Unbound, Shelley’s Poetry and Prose: A Norton Critical
Edition, sel. and ed. Donald H. Reiman and Sharon B. Powers
(New York: Norton, 1977), 130–209.
SL The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley, ed. Frederick L. Jones, 2 vols.
(Oxford and London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1964).
SP The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, ed. Neville
Rogers, 2 vols. to date (Oxford and London: Oxford Univ. Press,
1972-).
TJ The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, ed. John C. Broderick (vols.
1–3) and Robert Sattelmeyer (vols. 4-), The Writings of Henry
David Thoreau(Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1981-).
W Walden, ed. J. Lyndon Shanley, The Writings of Henry David
Thoreau(Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1971).
WC A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,ed. Carl F. Hovde, The
Writings of Henry David Thoreau (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ.
Press, 1980).
For Una