Cat

1
Cats Eye ppt 2

• V WRINGER (continued)

2
The Wringer

• A whole person could go through the wringer and
  come out flat, neat,completed, like a flower
  pressed in a book.
• No longer a person, but no longer suffering.

3
EXCUSES

• Uses helping mother to avoid play.
• Church with the Smeaths another place to be
  judged
• Is it wrong to be right? How right should I be,
  to be perfect?
• Elaine is a failure here as she doesnt bring
  other members of her family.
• My failure to produce these other members of my
  family tells against me.

4
Mr Smeath

• Uses Elaine conspiratorially
• Elaine thinks its funny. Dont you Elaine?
• He is a squat, balding, flabby man, but still a
  man. He does not judge me.
• Cordelia contemptuous of her ignorance (what a
  stupe)
• Mr Smeath and Stephen are the outrageous, the
  subversive...Of Grace and Mrs Smeath, of tidy
  paper ladies pasted into scrapbooks. Cordelia
  ought to be on this side too. Sometimes she is,
  sometimes she isnt. Its hard to tell

5
Wind in the Willows

• Elaine dreading the play doesnt know play
  etiquette.
• Cordelia is a weasel, cant tell her from all the
  other weasels.
• She could be anywhere.
• Cunning, duplicitous creatures

6
Christmas

• A Barbara Ann Scott doll puts it back in
  tissue does not want it watching her.
• Mr Banerji to dinner.
• Elaines father offers refuge in the shared world
  of biology.
• Wild things are elusive and wily and look out for
  themselves. I divide the people I know into tame
  and wild.
• Cordelia is wild

7
Babysitting

• Brian Feinstein, never cries, but gives mother
  thinking time.
• Paid in nickels instead of quarters
  counts/sorts money into piles of cut-off heads.
  Control?
• Harrassment Grace Feinstein is a Jewish name.
  
• Kike is not a word we use Cordelia
• Elaine does not feel secure in herself, and this
  uncertainty extends to Brian
• Brian is not safe with me.

8
Name calling

• What rhymes with Elaine pain
• Jew baby
• Whats a man who catches bugs?
• Elaine feels betrayed her Dad.
• Brian not safe with her.
• I have only a limited ability to say no.159

9
Buying love

• Spends nickel heads on lollies for friends.
• In the moment just before giving, I am loved.
• There will be no end to imperfection
• Criticised no matter what she does.
• Starts to throw up
• I feel safe, small, wrapped in my illness as if
  in cotton wool.
• Another physical side-effect of the bullying,
  and a way to escape the torment.

10
SPRING

• The buds turn yellow, the skipping ropes come
  out.
• Menace hinted at in the fate of the lady in the
  skipping rhyme. Twenty-four skiddoo...is it the
  end of her altogether? Why is Elaine not sorry
  for her?
• The marbles return.
• Her own experiences and mindset influences the
  way she interprets the world. They sound to me
  like ghosts, or like animals caught in a trap
  thin wails of exhausted pain.

11
Her blue cats eye

• The eye part of it, inside its crystal sphere, is
  so blue, so pure. Its like something frozen in
  the ice.
• Cordelia notices her playing with it in her
  pocket.
• Protects Elaine.
• Sometimes when I have it with me I can see the
  way it sees.
• She can observe the world at a distance, as an
  artist rather than as a victim
• I can see people moving like bright animated
  dolls...I can look at their shapes and sizes,
  their colours, without feeling anything else
  about them. I am alive in my eyes only.

12
Leaving Toronto for summer

• Toronto a smear of brownish air on the horizon,
  like smoke from a distant burning.
• Elaine feels relief my throat is no longer
  tight and her body starts to heal.
• Whilst the girls condemn her for saying
  nothing, away from Toronto, Elaine can lapse
  into wordlessness.
• I can be free of words now

13
VI CATS EYE

• Her mother cooking Pressure Cooker series
• Wanted her timeless. There is no such thing.
• These pictures of her, like everything else, are
  drenched in time.
• Earth Goddess - hilarious in view of her
  mothers dislike of housework.
• Elaine claims it was not a work about feminine
  oppression it was only my mother cooking but
  the painting does seem very deliberate, with her
  mother fading out of the home in which she didnt
  enjoy cooking, and fading into the camping
  environment in which she seemed more at home.

14
LADY

• This is none of my business.
• Shes only drunk. ... What does he mean only?
• Dont leave me. she says. Oh God. Dont leave
  me all alone.
• Im a sucker, Im a bleeding heart. Theres a cut
  in my heart, it bleeds money.
• I walk away from her, guilt on my hands,
  absolving myself
• She sees Cordelias eyes. Foreshadows the fact
  that she did not help Cordelia.

15
The Fall return to city

• Cordelia harsher, more relentless.
• Shes backing me towards an edge
• Miss Stuart popular, new teacher.
• Cats eye in pocket, with the help of its power I
  retreat back into my eyes.
• Wants to become invisible. Fantasises about
  death, what Cordelia might make her do.
• I dont want to do these things, Im afraid of
  them...I hear her kind voice inside my head. Do
  it. Come on. I would be doing these things to
  please her.

16
Mothers intuition

• Muffin making
• You dont have to play with them, my mother
  says. There must be other little girls you can
  play with instead.
• Elaines Mum is independent walks in ravine by
  herself. She does not inhabit the house, the way
  other mothers do.

17
Mums advice

• Sticks and stones will break my bones but names
  will never hurt me.
• Dont be spineless.
• Sardines no backbones.
• I wish I knew what to do ...Now I know what
  Ive been suspecting as far as this thing is
  concerned, she is powerless.
• Mother seems unsympathetic, but she too is out of
  her depth

18
Mr Banerji

• Cordelias pocket mirror to get Elaine to see
  her bitten lips.
• Bridge parties
• Fellow feeling with another
• outsider
• But if he can deal with whatever it is thats
  after him, and something is, then so can I.

19
Royal visit

• Princess Elizabeth to Toronto to drive past
  mud- mountains.

• Elaine hopes that something will happen for me on
  that day. Something will change.

20
Art at School

• Miss Stuart likes art.
• Students draw what they do after school.
• Elaine draws blackness, night. Miss Stuart so
  darruk.
• She doesnt say Ive drawn the wrong thing.
• Miss Stuarts touch glows briefly, like a
  blown-out match. Another outsider has offered
  Elaine understanding/sympathy.

21
Valentines Day

• Boys are my secret allies.
• Carol 10 3/4yrs
• Growing breasts
• Lipstick
• Just wait till your father gets home
• Carols father gave it to her good belt, buckle
  end, right across the bare bum.
• Girls can play at being women, but only to a
  certain degree. (Valentines yes make-up no)

22
Conversat

• Open day at the Zoology Dept.
• Elaine faints.
• Fainting is like stepping sideways, out of your
  own body, out of time or into another time. When
  you wake up its later. Time has gone on without
  you. It is a way for her to move through life
  without the pain.
• Can make herself faint.
• My eyes are open but Im not there.

23
VII Our Lady of Perpetual Help

• In Jons bed when a woman throws a bag of warm
  spaghetti, sauce included over them.
• Elaine admires the courage of her bad manners.
  Honest, direct. It got things over with.
• I was a long way, then, from being able to do
  anything like it myself.

24
SUNDAYS

• Overhears Mrs Smeath talking to Mildred.
• Mildred You dont think theyre being too hard
  on her?
• Mrs Smeath Its Gods punishment. It serves her
  right.
• I hate Mrs Smeath, because what I thought was a
  secret, something going on among girls, among
  children, is not one. It has been discussed
  before, and tolerated. Mrs Smeath has known and
  approved.

25
Found out

• She doesnt flinch, she isnt embarrassed or
  apologetic.
• Her bad heart floats in her body like an eye, an
  evil eye, it sees me.
• Elaine decides to stop praying God is on Mrs
  Smeaths side. God is not Our Father at all.
• Elaine cant forgive Mrs Smeath
• Ostracised by group, finds picture of Virgin
  Mary. The Seven Sorrows
• Decides to pray to the Virgin. A kindred spirit,
  but also subversive more Catholic that
  Protestant.

26
Foul play

• Cordelia throws Elaines stupid hat in ravine.
• Ordered to retrieve it Then youll be forgiven.
• Elaines not sure what will happen if she
  refuses. Something terrible.
• Up to her waist in ice cold water, counts to 100.
  The girls run.

27
Vision

• Cold and shock sets in as lies on
• her back beside the creek.
• Nothing hurts any more.
• Sees Virgin Mary. She has been heard.
• Mother approaches, running.
• Telling the truth about Cordelia is still
  unthinkable for me.
• 2 days off school.

28
Revenge

• Cordelia I think Elaine should be punished for
  telling on us, dont you?
• I see that I dont have to do what she says, and,
  worse and better, Ive never had to do what she
  says. I can do what I like.
• They have pushed her too far. She sees that its
  a game, and she refuses to play.

29
Breaking free

• I keep walking...Nothing binds me to them. I am
  free.
• They need me for this, and I no longer need them.
  I am indifferent to them. Theres something hard
  in me, crystalline, a kernel of glass.
• After real trauma, Elaine has been hardened and
  is impervious to school yard torment.
• She refuses to play with them.
• Invincibility is appealing. Reading her
  brothers comics, she would like to have
  superpowers.

30
VIII HALF a FACE

• Elaine visits Catholic churches searching.
• Especially sought out the statues.
• Statues of the Virgin Mary approached with hope,
  always disappointed.
• They were dolls dressed up, insipid in blue and
  white, pious and lifeless.
• She is looking for a different version of iconic
  womanhood (apart from the Smeaths and catalogue
  ladies).

31
Mexico

• Sees a Virgin of lost things.
• This Virgin is real, has a purpose.
• What has Elaine lost?
• Ben finds her on the floor.
• So?
• Comparison of Cordelia at 12/13 with her
  daughters the same folded arms, the same
  immobile face, the blank-eyed stare. So?
• How can you respond to someone who feels no
  remorse for her action.

32
FORGETTING

• Ive forgotten things, Ive forgotten that Ive
  forgotten them.
• I am happy as a clam hard-shelled, firmly
  closed.
• Closed against the past/memories of torment.
• It is talked about only euphemistically bad
  time.

33
Cordelia falls apart

• Perdie Shes turning into a hardrock...Youll
  flunk your year again.
• Pressure from parents. Overshadowed by
  impressive and grown-up sisters
• Cordelia starts pinching things from stores.
• Its as if shes won a prize
• Compensating for the absence of positive feedback
  at home.

34
Mum doesnt give a hoot

• Fairly indifferent to home furnishings
• Its as if, like a cat, she cannot see things
  unless they are moving.
• Wears what she likes.
• Taken up ice-dancing.
• Embarrassing for to a teenager. But the idea of
  not giving a hoot is appealing.

35
Brainy brother

• Plays chess with friends.
• Little communication.
• Brother studies.
• A lot of the time my brother doesnt seem aware
  of me.
• He remains a presence in her life though. The
  bond is still there.

36
Two-dimensional universe

• Stephens influence he doesnt want me to be a
  pin-headed fuzzbrain.
• Visualizing infinity - Klein bottle, Mobius
  strip.
• Were limited by our own sensory equipment. Time
  is a dimension. We cant separate it from space.
  Space time is what we live in.

37
STEPHEN

• He says that if we knew enough, we could walk
  through walls as if they were air...and travel
  through time, back into the past.
• Cordelia thinks Stephen is a brain and that if he
  werent so cute hed be a pill.
• Pill a person who is tiresome/boring
• Teaches canoeing at boys summer camp. The
  precise descriptions of his letters contrast with
  Cordelias hyperbolic language.

38
IX - LEPROSY

• Headline for article CROTCHETY ARTIST STILL HAS
  POWER TO DISTURB
• Picture of Cordelia Half a Face
• Did we ever see Cordelias true self?
• Significance of the mask in the background? A
  trophy?
• Im not afraid of seeing Cordelia. Im afraid of
  being Cordelia. Because in some way we changed
  places, and Ive forgotten when.

39
Parodies

• Smeaths in our rendition of them are charmless,
  miserly, heavy as dough, boring as white
  margarine, which we claim they eat for dessert.
• Now Elaine and Grace have changed places. Elaine
  now taunts alongside of Cordelia.
• This is for me a deeply satisfying game. I cant
  account for my own savagery.