Small World Part Three (p 149-227)

Where can we find a parallel to Persse’s ventures to find Angela? How can we interpret these ventures?

The first parallel I concluded from my reading was to Perceval’s years in search of the grail and the bleeding lance in response to the old hag’s speech. We see Persse in search of something seemingly impossible; to find one person with little to no information. At this point in the text I find myself labeling every desire a character has as the Grail of the story. Almost as if the reader is meant to be searching for an invisible grail. Angelica. The UNESCO chair. Joy. A happy marriage. Whatever it is to whomever, it seems the grail can be translated into several entities of life. To me it seems evident that Angelica embodies Persse’s Grail.

She wanders through the streets of the world as elusively as she slinks through his mind. She carries the same mystery and elegance as the Grail as well as evasiveness. Perhaps Persse isn’t asking the right questions or pursuing the wrong actions. By the end he discovers she is a stripper and evidently a prostitute or some kind of showgirl. All the while he seemingly becomes less and less agitated, or more concealed in his unsettlement over the sin that engulfs his environment. We can see small yet still immature advancements in Persse’s character. All of which leads him to discovering her imaged as a prostitute and ultimately not what he envisions her.

This idea of the object we desire being unsettling upon arrival resonates in Medieval works such as Celestina and even Chrétien’s Grail Quest in which Perceval’s image of knighthood becomes contorted and almost sinful. Ultimately it seems Persse’s venture represent his desire for Angelica, but only in the light he wishes to see her; the innocent and almost helpless. Upon finding he cannot achieve this, instead of approaching her he decides to retire into isolation away form his most basic and primal desire. Yet before embarking on this new journey he states to the stewardess, “You gave me back my appetite for life” (p 208). A peculiar endnote reflecting the manner in which Philip Swallow spoke earlier with Morris Zapp. At this point, having not read ahead I feel like I am at the end of Perceval.

How are we to interpret these side-quests? Particularly Philip Swallows predicament.

These side-quests seem, to me, to represent each professor (or knights) search for their idea of the “holy grail” of the literary, or even their own, world. For example Zapp and the other professor yearning to fill the UNESCO seat represents their vision of this beyond real amazing ideal. It represents their desires and what culminates their achievements. It resembles the ultimate renown the knights yearn for by achieving this Grail quest, in the end it is ultimately masturbatory and a selfish act. Yet we see Philip Swallow diverge from this academic world of knighthood to a place of lust or perhaps love.

Swallow finds his life dull it seems, and at these points in the story he seems to simply settle for his life with Hilary; fueled only by the fire of memory and separate passion. He only begins to question it all upon his hollow visit to Turkey. This peak of his despair and mundane lifestyle burns and cinders to the ground by the fire of his’ discovery that Joy is alive. Then he sets forth on a venture of lust and one could conclude love with Joy. He discovers the child born from his loins and still his heart explodes with desire for a life with only Joy and their child. I find this entire scene although brilliantly written and just as interesting, odd in comparison to Phillip Swallows characterization in the beginning. This love affair is drenched in an aura of utter passion and lust for life. Yet the further I wrap my mind around this idea the more perfect it fits Swallow and his insatiable “appetite for life.” Although one can assume he would eventually grow just as bored with Joy as he did with Hilary, yet I find myself hoping against that conclusion. It is a strange and interesting situation.

At the end he chooses to not tell Hilary, although he clearly had intentions of expelling the situation to her and ultimately divorcing her. Perhaps time will tell the conclusion of their marriage or for the adventurous minded we can perhaps think that he is sparing her emotions form some deep-seated love he still feels for her. Of course, at this point and perhaps further, it is all speculation and interpretation, which is something different to each of us.