Read Online Belle Moral: A Natural History by Ann-marie MacDonald - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Ann-marie MacDonald
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Nay, pet –
P EARL . Dismissing my work as if it were just another lady-like “accomplishment” on a par with playing the pianoforte, “mind you don’t get
too
accomplished, dear, and frighten the young gentlemen away –
D R R EID. Pearl, I’m eager to hear of your insights into the ear.
F LORA . Don’t encourage the lass.
P EARL [to F LORA] . If you can’t stomach science, go back to your elves and pixies and –!
D R R EID. Now, Pearl, don’t be too hard on your auntie, she is of another generation.
F LORA [to D R R EID] . So are you.
P EARL
[almost feverish with excitement]
. Doctor, I have indeed been vouchsafed a fresh insight into the ear which I am longing to share with you.
D R R EID. I am longing to receive it.
P EARL . You claim it is more than a freak, meaningless –
D R R EID. Not meaningless, no. Indeed, no, no, no, it is pregnant with meaning.
P EARL . What kind of meaning?
D R R EID . Pearl. Even now there are those among us whose bodies function as evolutionary Trojan Horses, concealing traits that harken back to a common ancestor. Not only of man. But of every mammal on Earth.
P EARL . You think the ear is a throwback?
D R R EID . I think it likely.
P EARL . Victor’s fit proves the ear is canine –
D R R EID . Victor’s fit proves that he
perceived
the ear to be canine. As such it may say more about him than about the ear. Indeed, is the fit merely one side of the phobic coin? Heads: an unwholesome fear of canines in particular. Tails: an unwholesome identification with animals in general, witness his new-found vegetarianism.
P EARL . We’re all of us animals.
D R R EID . Touché, my dear; we differ in degree only, not in kind. But if Man does not cast off the vestiges of his animal origins, he can only revert; back to the beast.
P EARL . But how do we know which vestiges to cast off? We are all changing – evolving – even now, in this drawing room. Life teems at the uncertain line between species, and who’s to say it’s a line at all, perhaps it’s more of a … blur. The bones of my hand withwhich I take up a pen or wield a paint brush are the same that propel a bat to fly, a horse to gallop, a whale to swim. Darwin said “we shall never probably disentangle the inextricable web of affinities between the members of any one class.”
D R R EID . That doesn’t mean we should not try.
P EARL . Of course not, but what is it we are supposed to glean from these endless variations? –
[wonderment]
apart from an odd disequilibriating sense of déja vue; such as when we gaze upon the countenance of a great ape.
A beat
.
F LORA
[likewise in wonderment]
. I’ve seen the photo of those monkeys drinking tea in the London Zoo. All got up in top hats and bonnets. I’ve never been so disequi-liberated.
P EARL . Perhaps Victor’s phobia is an effect of his overheated mythopoetical faculty; it having rendered him susceptible to a deep recognition of animal kinship.
A beat
.
D R R EID . Intriguing.
P EARL . Canines, of course, are invested with supernatural significance in many cultures including our own, frequently as psycho-pomps.
F LORA . Who?
D R R EID . Guides between this world and the next.
P EARL . Guardians at the gates of the Underworld. Witness the Greeks with their three-headed dog, Cerberus, who was soothed by music; the Egyptians with Anubis, an imposing creature with the head of a Jackal and the body of a man. Often depicted carrying baked goods.
F LORA . Baked goods?
W EE F ARLEIGH
enters, carrying tray with tea, and piled high with pastries
.
W EE F ARLEIGH . Baked goods.
P EARL . For the journey into the afterlife. What is the secret these mythic creatures keep?
[Takes a pastry.]
F LORA . Who? The apes or the pompadours?
P EARL . And how are we to winkle it out of them? What is the –
[taking a bite]
. What’s this?
W EE F ARLEIGH . A madeleine. Small, rich gateau, baked in a shell-shaped tin.
F LORA . A what?
P EARL . A biscuit. Only
P EARL . Dismissing my work as if it were just another lady-like “accomplishment” on a par with playing the pianoforte, “mind you don’t get
too
accomplished, dear, and frighten the young gentlemen away –
D R R EID. Pearl, I’m eager to hear of your insights into the ear.
F LORA . Don’t encourage the lass.
P EARL [to F LORA] . If you can’t stomach science, go back to your elves and pixies and –!
D R R EID. Now, Pearl, don’t be too hard on your auntie, she is of another generation.
F LORA [to D R R EID] . So are you.
P EARL
[almost feverish with excitement]
. Doctor, I have indeed been vouchsafed a fresh insight into the ear which I am longing to share with you.
D R R EID. I am longing to receive it.
P EARL . You claim it is more than a freak, meaningless –
D R R EID. Not meaningless, no. Indeed, no, no, no, it is pregnant with meaning.
P EARL . What kind of meaning?
D R R EID . Pearl. Even now there are those among us whose bodies function as evolutionary Trojan Horses, concealing traits that harken back to a common ancestor. Not only of man. But of every mammal on Earth.
P EARL . You think the ear is a throwback?
D R R EID . I think it likely.
P EARL . Victor’s fit proves the ear is canine –
D R R EID . Victor’s fit proves that he
perceived
the ear to be canine. As such it may say more about him than about the ear. Indeed, is the fit merely one side of the phobic coin? Heads: an unwholesome fear of canines in particular. Tails: an unwholesome identification with animals in general, witness his new-found vegetarianism.
P EARL . We’re all of us animals.
D R R EID . Touché, my dear; we differ in degree only, not in kind. But if Man does not cast off the vestiges of his animal origins, he can only revert; back to the beast.
P EARL . But how do we know which vestiges to cast off? We are all changing – evolving – even now, in this drawing room. Life teems at the uncertain line between species, and who’s to say it’s a line at all, perhaps it’s more of a … blur. The bones of my hand withwhich I take up a pen or wield a paint brush are the same that propel a bat to fly, a horse to gallop, a whale to swim. Darwin said “we shall never probably disentangle the inextricable web of affinities between the members of any one class.”
D R R EID . That doesn’t mean we should not try.
P EARL . Of course not, but what is it we are supposed to glean from these endless variations? –
[wonderment]
apart from an odd disequilibriating sense of déja vue; such as when we gaze upon the countenance of a great ape.
A beat
.
F LORA
[likewise in wonderment]
. I’ve seen the photo of those monkeys drinking tea in the London Zoo. All got up in top hats and bonnets. I’ve never been so disequi-liberated.
P EARL . Perhaps Victor’s phobia is an effect of his overheated mythopoetical faculty; it having rendered him susceptible to a deep recognition of animal kinship.
A beat
.
D R R EID . Intriguing.
P EARL . Canines, of course, are invested with supernatural significance in many cultures including our own, frequently as psycho-pomps.
F LORA . Who?
D R R EID . Guides between this world and the next.
P EARL . Guardians at the gates of the Underworld. Witness the Greeks with their three-headed dog, Cerberus, who was soothed by music; the Egyptians with Anubis, an imposing creature with the head of a Jackal and the body of a man. Often depicted carrying baked goods.
F LORA . Baked goods?
W EE F ARLEIGH
enters, carrying tray with tea, and piled high with pastries
.
W EE F ARLEIGH . Baked goods.
P EARL . For the journey into the afterlife. What is the secret these mythic creatures keep?
[Takes a pastry.]
F LORA . Who? The apes or the pompadours?
P EARL . And how are we to winkle it out of them? What is the –
[taking a bite]
. What’s this?
W EE F ARLEIGH . A madeleine. Small, rich gateau, baked in a shell-shaped tin.
F LORA . A what?
P EARL . A biscuit. Only
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