Natalie’s Blog

It’s easy to dismiss H.D.’s (or anyone’s) visions as self-deception or mental instability.  But by the end of our reading for today, I was wondering how her account of finding the “real” signet-ring came across to readers *1*.  For me, her telling us, “I went back to assure myself that I had not, at any rate, ‘dreamt’ the signet-ring” (99) is compulsion to be sympathetic to the strength of her visions and how they can at times overpower her *2*.

She seems to be losing control of what she sees, and considering what she says earlier in the text *3*, she seems to want to have visions come without her control.  By going to psychoanalysis sessions, she takes an active role in getting to the core of the repressed, but she embraces the effortlessness with which these realizations come.

I then wonder what that says of her as a darling lunatic.  To what degree is knowingly giving herself to the power of visions an assertion of control?  Of feminine submission to a male psychoanalyst who guides her sight?  Or of female submission to Pound, whom she says also guides her sight *4*.  I don’t want to make it sound like she valued only men’s guidance, because lots of people, including women like Bryher, Frances Gregg, and of course Helen, shaped her behavior, but as we said when reading Asphodel, she does give a lot of power to her male mentors.

These thoughts bring me back to a comment I made way back in January on Leighton’s Bridge to the Blog, in which I discuss my unfortunate inability to cease pitying ED for her seemingly overwhelming separation from people and the world.  And I don’t exactly pity HD for her visions (as she valued them), but I think there’s a similar relinquishing of control between the two of them.  I also wonder(ed) how much ED knew she was making the reader of her letters pity her, and to what degree that is really crafty or really dishonorable as a woman and/or feminist.  Leighton’s Bridge and all the comments that followed speculate to what ED subjugates herself, so maybe some of those points could tie into HD’s subjugation…

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*1* By readers, I suppose I mean us, critics, and whoever else had access to it, but I’m not really clear on the history of this text’s availability, other than it’s hard to get a copy now.

*2* As a sort-of side-note, I appreciate that she puts quotes around “dreamt,” I think to signify that she doesn’t quite have a word that explains exactly how the vision of the ring would have come to her.

*3* Here’s just one example: “I do not want to become involved in the strictly historical sequence.  I wish to recall the impressions, or rather I wish the impressions to recall me.  Let the impressions come int heir own way, make their own sequence” (19).

*4* Again, just one example.  Refers to the signet-ring vision: “It was odd to think, at this very late date, that is was Ezra Pound who helped me interpret this picture” (97).