Annotations and Explications of
The Collapsing Castle


Chris


Back to Haydn Middleton



by Chris

Selection 11: Pick any method of "doing things with the text" from Pope's The English Studies Book and outline how you would do this with the Collapsing Castle.

As far back as seventh grade I can remember my English teachers assigning short journal entries in which I was supposed to change the ending to one of my favorite stories. This always seemed easy enough- I would usually just change a couple of lines at the end of a story or maybe put in a different character to add a new twist, and that would usually satisfy the assignment. According to Rob Pope in The English Studies Book, adding a different twist to the ending of a story in this manner is a legitimate example of textual intervention. However, Pope introduces another form of textual intervention in Me English Studies Book that could lead to more drastic changes in a story's outcomedramatic intervention. According to Pope, dramatic intervention is a "change in the direction of a scripted drama or transcribed conversation by intervening in a single move or exchange (267)." This change could place an entirely different emphasis on a story or cause a piece to branch out into something entirely different.

While reading Haydn Middleton's The Collapsing Castle, I was somewhat bothered by the introduction of one of the key characters. I felt that if this introduction had been carried out in a different manner, the book would have taken on a decidedly different tone. Using Pope's concept of dramatic intervention, I have explored how a single change in the introduction of this character would alter the emphasis of the novel.

That character in question is Adrian Osterburg, a teacher of literary studies who gradually becomes the downfall for seemingly everything in the life of the novel's main character, Daniel Seagrief, Osterburg is introduced very early in the story when he and Daniel meet while teaching classes in the same facility. Though The Collapsing Castle remains intriguing to the last page, Osterburg's introduction, especially an explanation of his physical appearance, may reveal much- perhaps too much- about the rest of the story. The description given by Middleton of Osterbu rg's appearance instantly links him to the violent supernatural images seen by Daniel's love interest, Eppie, at the beginning of the story and throughout the book. We know from his very introduction that he has some sort of power over Eppie, and the uneasy way in which Daniel reacts to him during their first encounter indicates that Osterburg may also have a power over him, too. Though his character does not become more directly involved with the Daniel until later in the story, I couldn't help reflecting on him during much of the first portion of the novel. as introduction indicates to the reader that a large portion of the story will be eventually centered around him.

Now, with Pope's dramatic intervention in mind, what if Osterburg had not been introduced directly to Daniel so early in the story? One realistic possibility would be that Daniel could have been introduced to Osterburg's character through word of mouth. That is, Daniel could have heard of Adrian Osterburg through students or other colleagues without a physical meeting at such an early point in the story. This type of character introduction would have taken a great deal of emphasis off of Osterburg durin g the first half of the book and would have allowed more attention to the relationships between Daniel and his wife and Daniel and Eppie without so much speculation on how Osterburg was involved with them. This change in Osterburg's introduction would mak e the reader
aware of the character and that he would play a part in the story's evolution, but it would make Osterburg seem less ominous from the very beginning, which would allow for more irony and surprise as Daniel finally does come face to face with Osterburg and slowly begins to realize how much impact the man has on his life.

In this case, only the emphasis on a character is changed to create a different effect as the story progresses- the direction of the original text would remain the same. Daniel and Osterburg could meet officially through their weekend trip- perhaps Dani el received an invitation through word of mouth or perhaps they could first talk over the phone before actually meeting. Perhaps Osterburg could have extended an invitation to his weekend excursion to all members of the faculty where both he and Daniel ta ught, and Daniel could have excepted on a whim. Whatever the case may be, the characters would have to meet by this point so that the direction of the story would remain the same. Altering it any further would be a different and more drastic type of drama tic intervention.


Works Cited






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