{"id":2830,"date":"2015-03-15T15:30:14","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T20:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/?p=2830"},"modified":"2022-07-20T17:39:43","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T22:39:43","slug":"review-of-cosmic-defiance-updikes-kierkegaard-and-the-maples-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2015\/03\/15\/review-of-cosmic-defiance-updikes-kierkegaard-and-the-maples-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of COSMIC DEFIANCE: UPDIKE’S KIERKEGAARD AND THE MAPLES STORIES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CosmicDefiance\"<\/a>There\u2019s been talk among Updike scholars that there isn\u2019t enough critical attention paid to the poems, short stories, and minor novels, and that there\u2019s perhaps too much of an emphasis on autobiographical criticism. For them, David Crowe\u2019s 352-page study, Cosmic Defiance: Updike\u2019s Kierkegaard<\/em><\/strong> and the Maples Stories<\/strong><\/em>, should provide a welcome change.<\/p>\n

Crowe, a full professor at Augustana College and a graduate of Luther College, includes Updike\u2019s oft-quoted excerpt from Midpoint<\/em>\u2014\u201cPraise Kierkegaard, who splintered Hegel\u2019s creed \/ Upon the rock of Existential need; \/ Praise Barth, who told ho saving faith can flow from Terror\u2019s oscillating Yes and No . . . . \u201d\u2014but concentrates his study on the Danish philosopher and theologian.<\/p>\n

At first reading, it seemed slow going in the first chapter, which is really a compressed summary of all that Crowe covers in the rest of the book, peppered with language like \u201cas we will later see.\u201d But a rereading of it yields a number of to-the-point summary statements that frame Updike in numerous ways that haven’t hitherto been proposed.\u00a0 Chapter 1 may pose a similar first-read obstacle if one breezes past the concepts and assumptions and conclusions that can feel too general, without enough quotation to anchor them. But again, a rereading of the text proves fruitful. After that the intro and first chapter, though, Cosmic Defiance<\/em> becomes practically indispensable.<\/p>\n

Crowe treats the Maples stories as a whole in his first three chapters, including a useful timeline of the Maples’ relationship. Chapters 2 and 3\u2014\u201cThe Neighbor-Love Problem for the Rather Antinomian Believer\u201d and \u201cKierkegaard\u2019s Marital Ideality and Updike\u2019s Reality\u201d\u2014also offer discussions that center on broad thematic concepts but with more detail. And with Chapter 4: \u201cIdentity transformation and the Maples Marriage,\u201d Crowe really hits his stride, integrating basic discussions of Kierkegaard\u2019s philosophies with\u00a0 specific discussions of Updike\u2019s stories that make you see those stories differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Kierkegaardian terms,\u201d Crowe writes, \u201cRichard typically acts out his commitment to the aesthetic, behaving as badly or charmingly as he wishes while he seeks out adventures of sexual and social gaming (rotations), while Joan typically acts out the ethical, keeping her good manners intact and engaging in parental or civic concerns. Richard in his way and Joan in hers are thus fending off full consciousness of their existential situations. Neither has faced up to mortality or made the leap into eternal relations with God. Occupying these two differing spheres,\u201d he writes, referring to Kierkegaard\u2019s three spheres of existence (the aesthetic, the moral, and the religious), \u201cdoes not necessarily indict a deep incompatibility. On the contrary, the two can make each other a special project, in a social rather than existential sense\u2014Richard helping Joan to broaden her freedoms and realm of pleasures, Joan helping Richard to behave more properly.\u201d Crowe offers thought-provoking discussions such as this as the rest of his monograph unfolds, with each chapter focusing on a group of related stories:<\/p>\n

Chapter 5\u2014Oh But They Were Close: \u201cSnowing in Greenwich Village,\u201d \u201cWife-Wooing\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapter 6\u2014Fathoms Deep in the Wrong: \u201cGiving Blood,\u201d \u201cTwin Beds in Rome,\u201d \u201cMarching Through Boston\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapter 7\u2014The Etiquette of Adultery: \u201cThe Taste of Metal,\u201d \u201cYour Lover Just Called,\u201d \u201cWaiting Up,\u201d \u201cEros Rampant\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapter 8\u2014Frightened People Discussing: \u201cPlumbing,\u201d \u201cThe Red-Herring Theory,\u201d \u201cSublimating,\u201d \u201cNakedness\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapter 9\u2014Consecrated Unhappiness: \u201cSeparating,\u201d \u201cGesturing,\u201d \u201cDivorcing: A Fragment\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapter 10\u2014Reality is Sacred: \u201cHere Come the Maples,\u201d \u201cGrandparenting\u201d<\/p>\n

Because Crowe tackles more than a single story in every chapter, we never lose sight of the bigger picture\u2014the arc of their collective narrative and what that narrative represents. For the most part, Crowe stays clear of the fact that Richard was based on John and Joan was based on Mary Pennington Updike, and that the Maples stories are as autobiographical as Updike\u2019s fiction gets. That he stays focused on the religious and philosophical elements is a strength, as readers familiar with Updike\u2019s work and the Adam Begley biography will be fully aware of the autobiographical underpinnings.<\/p>\n

In Chapter 6, Crowe posits that \u201cUpdike updates Kierkegaard, making his views on Christian marriage more relevant to contemporary practices in America than to 19th<\/sup> century Danish ones. Updike also comes very close in these stories to violating his stated artistic ethic of withholding judgment of his characters. He invites us to judge Richard harshly for indulging in shockingly selfish and hurtful tirades against his wife and caustic comments about his children.\u201d As Crowe concludes, \u201cIn these stories Updike attends closely to Richard\u2019s and Joan\u2019s complex states of mind as they contemplate love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Maples stories teach us what it feels like to spend decades yearning for faith, yet to fear that faith so much\u2014or the freedom it confers, or the God who offers it, or the offended reactions of others\u2014that it seems better to live a life of determined distraction, to submit instead to personal compulsions, habits, and convoluted projects. The stories also teach us what it feels like to love, both selfishly and selflessly. In their intricate, diachronic way, the Maples stories hold out hope for the leap of faith, for blessed identity transformation, and for the freedom to perform genuine works of love,\u201d Crowe writes.<\/p>\n

In the end, though readers may need to backtrack to those early broad discussions of \u201cUpdike\u2019s Kierkegaard,\u201d Crowe offers a fascinating study of the stories that may well become the most taught of Updike\u2019s. And Cosmic Defiance<\/em> is a welcome addition to the dialogue on Updike and religion that began with the Hamiltons, then continued in earnest with George Hunt\u2019s John Updike and the three great secret things: Sex, Religion, and Art, <\/em>James Yerkes\u2019 edited anthology on John Updike and Religion: The Sense of the Sacred and the Motions of Grace,<\/em> and Marshall Boswell\u2019s John Updike\u2019s Rabbit Tetralogy: Mastered Irony in Motion<\/em>. When Crowe gets into textual analysis, he presents readers with one of the fullest and most provocative discussions of the Maples stories to date.<\/p>\n

\u2014James Plath<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been talk among Updike scholars that there isn\u2019t enough critical attention paid to the poems, short stories, and minor novels, and that there\u2019s perhaps too much of an emphasis on autobiographical criticism. For them, David Crowe\u2019s 352-page study, Cosmic … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2830"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5620,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830\/revisions\/5620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}