To Test an Idea: Menippean Satire in Lawrence Durrell's Avignon ...

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Riley 8Jim Nichols in “Ah the Wonder of My Body: The Wandering of My Mind: Classicism andLawrence Durrell’s Literary Tradition,” claims that for Durrell “all knowledge is a well from whichindividuals draw, and such knowledge is neither inherently evil nor good but specific to thesituation, the persons, and their demands” (Nichols 452). Therefore, the reader must take intoaccount the effects of the knowledge characters receive.If Durrell’s ideas were divorced from the characters that affirm them, these ideas would formstable systems, making the Avignon Quintet a work of diluted philosophy. However, Durrell is firstand foremost a fiction writer. To illustrate the contrast between philosophy and Menippean satire,Bakhtin argues that, unlike Plato’s dialogues, in Menippean satire “complex and extensive modes ofargumentation [. . .] fell away, and there remained essentially only naked ‘ultimate questions’ withan ethical and practical bias” (Problems 117). Thus, Menippean satire often ridicules stable,systematic accounts of reality.Menippean Satire questions any abstract system’s claim to truth because ideas about truthchange within different contexts. Durrell writes, “So it is with ideas, and with the words we use toexpress them. Existing singly, they also have the power to modify, and form greater wholes in othercontexts” (Key 3). Durrell goes on to write “The relations we see, or think we see, between ideas,are only useful if we use them as spring-boards from which to jump into reality ourselves” (Key 39).If those ideas are adhered to dogmatically as an eternal Truth, they hinder rather than help thecharacters construction of the self and surrounding reality. In Monsieur, Sylvie senses this dangerwhen she warns Akkad about Piers’ temperament: “Akkad, don’t encourage Piers to take all thistoo seriously [. . .] He is far too quixotic, far too extreme. It would be very dangerous forsomebody with his type of temperament” (Monsieur 150). Piers refutation is that he would “go tothe stake for this,” which illustrates Sylvie’s point.
Riley 9Piers has an intellectual temperament that leads him to intense theoretical study ofGnosticism, a major ideology questioned by the text. But though Piers devotes himself to thetheoretical study, he does not adhere to core principles of Gnosticism. The Gnostics supposedlyshun the world of matter for a more poetic existence. Akkad labels all Judeo-Christian religions asa form of slavery to matter: “The presiding demon is the spirit of matter, and he springs fullyarmed from the head of classical Judaism of which all European religions are tributaries. Theprince is usury, the spirit of gain, the enigmatic power of capital value embodies in the poetry ofgold” (Monsieur 144-45). However, shortly after his studying, Piers goes on a pleasure cruise withthree of his friends. Bruce is shocked by the abundance of Piers supplies: “you would have thoughtwe were mounting an expedition to Polynesia to judge by the quantity of the stores which heordered” (Monsieur 154). Despite all of Akkad’s theoretical expositions, Akkad is not an ascetichermit but a successful businessman who accepts and thrives in a world he claims is evil. Hisblatant participation in the world of matter undermines his discourse on the spirit. First describedas a “merchant-banker,” Akkad is “equally at home in four capitals and four languages” (107).Sometimes he looks like “a fattish sluggish pasha, wallowing in riches like a Turk,” other times“[b]eautifully dressed by London with a buttonhole and a silk handkerchief” (107). Akkad’schameleon like existence may suggest that the theoretical underpinnings of Gnosticism,particularly the binary between Judaism and Gnosticism, may only be a helpful myth rather than adogmatic truth. Indeed, after his theoretical exposition of Gnosticism, the nature of truth isentirely put into question. Akkad tests Piers’ faith by inserting a fake article about how the entiresect was created by criminals in order to take advantage of gullible tourists. Piers is relieved to findthat Akkad planted the article, but seems to miss the greater point Akkad tries to make. Akkadfully admits that there are aspects of the article that could be considered true: “you could question
Page 1 and 2: To Test an Idea:Menippean Satire in
Page 3: Riley 3Though none of the works of
Page 6 and 7: Riley 6meta-commentary on Blanford
Page 10 and 11: Riley 10many things about our group
Page 12 and 13: Riley 12narrow path between reality
Page 14 and 15: Riley 14this inconsistency in anoth
Page 16 and 17: Riley 16money in its physical aspec
Page 18 and 19: Riley 18According to Affad, the kno
Page 20 and 21: Riley 20Sutcliffe the man, psychoan
Page 22 and 23: Riley 22Works CitedAlastrué, Ramó
Page 24: Riley 24Example of Shakespeare.”

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