87 - Mock Epic
Edward Lear's flirtations with grandeur, reviewing Dune Part Two (2024), and recent wine notes
86 – Mock Epic
I
They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter’s morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, ‘You’ll all be drowned!’
They called aloud, ‘Our Sieve ain’t big,
But we don’t care a button! we don’t care a fig!
In a Sieve we’ll go to sea!’
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.
. . .
V
They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,
To a land all covered with trees,
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,
And a hive of silvery Bees.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,
And no end of Stilton Cheese.
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.
VI
And in twenty years they all came back,
In twenty years or more,
And every one said, ‘How tall they’ve grown!’
For they’ve been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,
And the hills of the Chankly Bore;
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;
And everyone said, ‘If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,—
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!’
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.
- from “The Jumblies” by Edward Lear
An uncontroversial Odyssey, I hope. Something interesting about Lear is that his narrative fundamentals are pretty solid. There are odd moments in the scansion, and of course it’s all intentionally silly, but between the balladic repetition and the sense of picaresque progression, this is hitting the right notes even if you don’t like the funny side (which I do).
The Jumblies are an inversion of the heroes of the epic journey – they’re idiots but they manage to succeed exponentially, and thereby draw everyone else into their idiocy. The epic hero is often fated or doomed to pursue their aim, whether to a triumphant or tragic end; the Jumblies here decide one day to go to sea, with no set aim and with an obviously stupid plan.
They get to the Western Sea and the land that is presumably beyond. They reach, we might say, the Happy Isles – where Ulysses desires to travel in Tennyson’s poem. The West is the place of adventure, mystery, and perhaps rest for the old European, and especially the Anglophone; the Carthaginians sought discovery beyond the Pillars of Hercules, the Britons located their lost paradise on an island beyond Cornwall and Brittany, the Americans rode west til they found the far sea. The Jumblies are fine heroes in that tradition.
The parody or pastiche goes deeper than the idea of a sea journey, with the inversion of the heroes being legitimate idiots. We see this clearly in the last two verses. Consider:
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,
And a hive of silvery Bees.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,
And no end of Stilton Cheese.
This is a silly list, and may seem to be merely a silly list, but it strikes me as rather like an epic catalogue. Homer uses this device several times, most famously with the ship list and description of the two armies in Iliad II. Virgil uses this in the Aeneid to describe the enemies of the Trojans in Italy, and Spenser gives us a rather wonderful catalogue of trees (discussed in our number on the first canto of the Faerie Queene, New Scrapbook 42). The silvery Bees certainly put me in mind of something else in Virgil.
Lear was self-educated, so we cannot know for sure what his exact extent of classical knowledge was, but he knew Plutarch and some Latin historians (we know this from gags in his work). I see no reason not to see a catalogue in a mock epic as an intentional reference. The contents are what’s notable, in a way – they arrive and buy supplies, though how they hope to subsist is unclear. They can’t milk the jack daws or pig, at least, though with honey and a large stock of cheese they might get by with only a few dicky tummies.
I am also struck by
And every one said, ‘How tall they’ve grown!’
For they’ve been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,
And the hills of the Chankly Bore
These are lands of adventures, apparently, and the way Lear coins his nonsense words gives us an echo of other things: “Torrible” is terrible/torrid, whilst Chankly Bore sounds somewhere between Wiltshire and Mycenean Greece (though I can’t think of a Greek word containing χανχ, it just has – to me – a slightly exotic sound).
It takes some skill to make up good fantasy names – you can find plenty of bad ones at your local library – and it’s a genuine sign of the value of Tolkien’s philological background. Lear is not on that level, but he comes up with good “funny” fantasy names. Jumblies and Chankly Bore, Quangle Wangle as a sample from other poems – it’s in a tradition that continues on to Tove Jansson. It is a delight in words and names that might exist – that follow the groove of the tongue – but do not, and are thereby obviously silly. It’s the reference to the nearby meaning (Torrible, Jumblies). Lear’s metre is usually acceptable, but it’s the suggestive vocabulary and the silly but “imaginable” images that give him poetic power.
After Lear’s little Callimachean flirtations, of course, there aren’t really any epics in English poetry. Chesterton’s Ballad of the White Horse is the obvious exception. David Jones – In Parenthesis and Anathemata – comes closest after that, as far as I can think. Other long poems (e.g., Four Quartets) are not dramatic or narrative pieces. There are surely some I am missing – tell me in the comments.
Dune: Part 2, d. Villeneuve (2025)
This is a strong followup, if not perfect, and rounds out the original novel’s story – albeit with one major change.
I think you can separate what’s going on, and what needs reviewing, into three main buckets: “visuals” (camera work, effects, etc) with sound appended though not neglected, the acting, and the plot and action.
This looks great, and plenty of it is traditional camera angles, lighting, and scoring. This is a deeply atmospheric film – especially in the desert. In fact much of the real value here is when we are with Paul (Timothee Chalamet) in the desert. The landscapes used – most notably in Jordan and the Namib – are stunning, and well used. The production and editing bring together the desert landscapes and cave interiors as a cohesive, living whole. The CGI on the worms is decent, though scenes with several of them feel a bit weightless – there is a struggle with volume.
There are some good Harkonnen and Corrino effects and sets to. The overexposed, grey arena where Feyd Rautha fights Atreides prisoners; the Baron’s weird vat; the Padishah Emperor’s gardens – these are all great.
The cast is strong. Timothee Chalamet has – if he hadn’t already – made his reputation once and for all with these films. His range, his ability to go from gentleness and even fear to ferocity and command, his connection with other actors, his excellent practical work in fights – this is a masterful performance. Casting a slim and young-looking man for Paul was right, but risky – he’s going to become the Reluctant Galactic Mohammed, he needs to be able to be scary and imperial, too. Chalamet bridges the gap excellently.
Stellan Skarsgard as the Baron, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Josh Brolin as Atreides swornman-turned-pirate Gurney Halleck, Dave Batista as Glossu Rabban, Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Rebecca, Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother Mohiam – these are all at least solid.
I liked Christopher Walken as the Emperor. He’s very nearly a cameo, honestly, but his facedown with Paul with his surpassing composure and dignity in the face of disaster – a disaster he’s caused – make this a perfect casting. Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha has a larger part, and is equally perfect as the sociopathic but almost perversely noble younger nephew of the Baron. He is cruel and fey but his sense of honour and endeavour in combat are fresh choices (from Villeneuve and Butler) and make Feyd Rautha a worthy “final boss”.
Zendaya as Chani is a complex topic, and this connects to the major changes to the plot surrounding the character. In the book, Chani both fears and accepts Paul’s call to destiny, to his fulfilment of humanity’s racial destiny – but here she is the main voice criticizing it, without much fear and with a lot of anger. She is (essentially) an irreligious sceptic who also rather understandably resents the loss of her lover. Zendaya is excellent in the blossoming relationship with Paul, and effective in her action scenes, and certainly never gives less than her best at the material given her, but the direction of the character sets her up for partial failure. There is a joke about Zendaya frowning in all her parts, and this character arc gives her a lot of opportunities to do that. A more layered and vulnerable performance may have suited better – though that may be Villeneuve’s fault rather than Zendaya’s.
The plot largely follows the back half of the book’s, with some expansions and some cuts. We lose Thufir Hawat, captured by the Harkonnens and turned to their service (his scenes were filmed but cut); we gain more screentime for Irulan and the Emperor, so we actually know who they are (this isn’t a problem in the book, partly because of the device of using Irulan’s later history writings as chapter epigraphs). The biggest change is a significant emphasis on tension between Chani and Paul, first over the issue of “religion” – is Paul a legitimate messiah/prophet sent to lead humanity to its destiny, or the mere product of sinister manipulation? – and finally over Paul’s proposed marriage to Irulan. These both suit a modern sensibility, where neither is a problem in the same way in the book. Paul’s coming Jihad is tragic in one sense, but inescapable, and hardly to be rationalised away by Chani; the marriage is to increase Paul’s chances of galactic success, and, though again bittersweet, directly parallel to Duke Leto and Lady Jessica’s relationship. Violent religion and concubinage are not precisely fitted to modern mores, and so must be at least questioned (so Villeneuve thinks, anyway).
I’m not sure if this is a problem per se, and the main plot is preserved, but the damage done to Chani is, I think, damage to the film as a whole. A minor gripe, though, perhaps.
There is – and this is more indistinct – a slight sense that everything is blurring together by the final quarter. The effects are good, but there are a lot of them; suddenly we are moving through plot beats quickly; we are not getting the pregnant scenes earlier, but nor are we really seeing the birth of their consequences clearly.
In summary, this is a really quite good film – but perhaps a step down from the first part.
4/5
Recent Wines
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Chianti Classico 2023 (Denominazione di Chianti Classico Controllata e Garantita): Holiday wine. This was a pretty respectable Sangiovese, without any very strong regional feel. Slightly perfumed, dark nose, with an astringent and acidic red berry palate – good for food. Pleasant drinking. 6.5/10, 13.5%
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Touraine 2024 (Appellation Touraine Controlée): Holiday wine. Made by Pierre Chainier. An indifferent and watery Sauv Blanc. Some acid, but not much; some white fruit, but not much. Drinkable. 5.5/10, 12%
Zephyr Gewurztraminer 2024 (Marlborough): Gingery spice and rosewater on the nose, and a pretty full, even robust palate with lychees and other fruit salad-y tropical fruits. A little uncontrolled – often a problem for Antipodean Gewurz, where the climate emphasizes the flavour and not the structure or acidity. Decent fun, though. 6.5/10, 13.5%
Famille Hugel Classic Riesling 2024 (Appellation Alsace Controlée): We’ve had this before in these pages. This is a half-bottle, which is a convenient size to finish in a night with my wife. This is a clean wine, full but fresh – where a Mosel Kabinett is often light on the palate with the same finish, Hugel offer quite a full palate with golden apples and a little white grape. It finishes very smoothly, very brightly, with just a little sparkling “sugar” – you get this even with dry Rieslings from Alsace sometimes, a feature perhaps of the grape. It doesn’t taste sweet, but has the same sort of fizz that you might get with sherbet. Anyway, this is a reliable, good wine. 7/10, 12%
Doennhoff Kreuznacher Kroetenpfuhl Riesling Kabinett 2023 (Pradikatswein Nahe, VDP Gross Lage): This was a surprising disappointment from a strong winemaker. There is a little spice on the nose, and certainly some sharp white fruit on the palate, perhaps even hints of minerality, but the palate lacks concentration. It is not so extreme as to merit the damned adjective “watery”, but “diffuse” is not unfair. It has acidity to brace against this weakness, but this is very limiting. Perhaps opened too early – this could probably go another 5-10 years – but I’m sceptical. 6/10, 8.5%