Thursday, May 19, 2022

Alan Moore's Jerusalem: Book 3: Vernall's Inquest: Round the Bend: Line 42

Line 42: "Wye, summertimes she hurdly gnos whatch finny-form she's in at prisent, or if altimately alder not-houses might nut torn out to bye the selfshame plaice, one vurst istabilismend trance-ending innernotional bindaries and filt-wit fausty dactyrs tyin' to gut hauled ov hert sole."

Non-Lucy-Lips Version: "Why, sometimes she hardly knows which funny farm she's in at present, or if ultimately all the nuthouses might not turn out to be the selfsame place, one cursed establishment transcending international boundaries and filled with fussy/Faustian doctors trying to get a hold of her soul."

"Wye"
Wye is a village in Kent. According to Wikipedia, it's name derives from the Old English word for "idol" or "shrine." This is the first word of this sentence so maybe it's just directing the reader to think along religious or small villages in the United Kingdom lines. In railroad terms, a wye is a triangular junction. So maybe we're chugging into a train metaphor.

"summertimes"
"Sometimes," perhaps most often in the "summer" because that's when Lucia will most likely be enjoying the hospital's grounds, Lucia hardly knows where she is. This also suggests that the look of the place transforms in summer (and probably spring but I think we worked through the spring motifs already) and is hardly recognizable from the probably bare and dour grounds in the middle of winter.

"she hurdly gnos"
A "hurdle" is an obstacle which one must get over or past. Here, as she's thinking about the asylum, it probably represents Saint Andrew's Hospital. "Gnos" almost certainly refers to "gnostic" or knowing/knowledge. It's replacing the word "knows" in a clever bit of wordplay.

"whatch"
Lucia hardly knows to "which" booby "hatch" she's been confined.

"finny-form"
Lucia refers to the hospital as a "funny farm." But a "finny-form" could be a fish which she has been compared to previously.

"prisent"
The asylum she is "presently" in is a "prison."

"altimately"
"Ultimately" Lucia might find herself in "alternate" asylums.

"alder not-houses"
I'm not sure why the "alder" for "other" other than her mind is still on the natural beauty of the grounds she's about to explore around the "nut house" which is in no way a real home to her ("not-houses"). Perhaps the alder is mentioned because of its nut-like seeds?

"nut torn out to bye"
Lucia, being mentally ill (the colloquial "nut") has been "torn out" of her life to which she had to say "goodbye."

"selfshame plaice"
Being relegated to a "funny farm" causes Lucia to feel "shame" for her "self" which she might not feel if it hadn't been stigmatized to this degree. A "plaice" is another kind of "finny-form," or fish.

"one vurst istabilismend trance-ending innernotional bindaries"
Lucia sees Saint Andrew's Hospital as the Dead-Dead Gang see it in the previous Book: one establishment composed of all the different asylums across time and space. Lucia especially often cannot tell if she's in Saint Andrew's Hospital or one of the French asylums she spent time in or the place in Switzerland where she was treated by Carl Jung. And her thoughts and perceptions bleed into the space around her, changing it fundamentally so that it becomes all of those places all at once.

"vurst"
Possibly suggestive of "worst" in that they combine to create the worst place mentally and spiritually where a person can be kept. But it also suggests "versed" as in to gain knowledge ("gnos"), just not the kind society would deem beneficial or acceptable. Perhaps "first" as in the "ur" hospital.

"istabilismend"
The place is meant to "stabilize" a patient's mind and to "mend" their mental illness. But perhaps the medication and observations of the staff actually d"istabilis"e their minds.

"trance-ending"
Either the hospital is meant to "end" the "trance" or mental illness of the person deposited within its walls or regular life outside the walls can be seen as a "trance" of rote, meaningless nonsense which mental illness "ends." Schizophrenics would certainly understand the idea of their illness giving them insight and knowledge, waking them from the living trance that the rest of us are in by showing them a different (and more substantial in many ways) reality. It's why they often stop taking medication, seeing it as dulling their senses and cutting them off from their link to all knowledge.

"innernotional bindaries"
A person's inner thoughts could be their "inner notions" which the hospital "binds" with medication. Most of these descriptors of the "cursed establishment transcending international boundaries" describe a place that ultimately "binds" knowledge, knowledge of oneself (inner notions) and perhaps the universe (meditative trances that could bring a person closer to meaning). It binds whatever processes (stabilizes) that cause a schizophrenic to see how it all connects.

"filt-wit"
The hospital and the doctors "filter" the "wit" of patients. More evidence that Lucia feels they are trying to suppress her imagination, beliefs, and insights which her mental illness allows her.

"fausty dactyrs"
This could simply be translated as "fussy doctors" but with the bit at the end of the sentence where Lucia mentions they're trying to take her soul, she might actually mean "Faustian doctors." Although then they'd be Mephistopheles, right? Anyway, the short cut of calling a deal with devil Faustian is what's going on here. "Dactyrs" could be because the doctors are always poking and prodding her with their fingers. It could also just be a reference to Faust, a poem, although I don't know if it were written in dactyls or not.

"tyin'"
I'm sure Lucia has often been restrained by doctors, nurses, and orderlies.

"to gut hauled ov hert sole."
"To gut" can be to eviscerate, metaphorically here (I hope!). The doctors often "hert" or disappoint Lucia. She is often forced or pushed ("hauled") to do things she doesn't want to. Perhaps "hauled ov" suggests "hauled or raked over the coals," something the doctors often to to her to keep her in line when she's acting out or in a terrible mood. All of this leaves her feeling alone ("sole").

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