Was anyone else expecting to get an illusion to Pinocchio in the passage about J.P. Morgan's nose on page 139? I was waiting, and waiting and it didn't come.
I checked it out, and the story was written in 1883, so it would have been a valid reference by the time of the novel. And the movie by Disney came out in 1940, so Doctorow's 1970s audience should have been as familiar with it as we are today.
It is completely appropriate since every time "he made an acquisition or manipulated a bond issue or took over an industry, another bright red pericarp burst into bloom."
It isn't exactly the same, but every time Morgan makes another business deal his nose gets uglier and larger just like Pinocchio's nose grows every time he tells a lie.
So why no Pinocchio?
Why does Doctorow use Nathanial Hawthorne's "The Birthmark" instead?
Okay, I guess Hawthorne is a little bit more highbrow than Pinocchio. And the moral of Hawthorne's story does fit Doctorow's point about Morgan's in-humanness a little bit better.
But still, he could have at least thrown in one little line about Pinocchio. It would have been so perfect!
2 comments:
I think there's no question that Doctorow would have been familiar with the Pinocchio story (at least in its Disney version), and I agree that the reference to Morgan's nose is an allusion--and he doesn't *need* to include a line about Pinocchio for that to be the case. (It should have come up in class, though--if you were thinking of it, you should've been the one to say it!) From a realist/naturalist/historical perspective, the proposition that Morgan's nose grew more red and bulbous as his wealth accumulated is preposterous--clearly this is merely the progress of his condition, and it would have happened regardless of his wealth (rhinophyma is a chronic condition, and its "progress" is not connected to wealth). But from a fictional/metaphorical/mythological perspective, it's maybe a handy way to slyly suggest, via Pinocchio, that his wealth hasn't always been gained by the most honest means. (And, yes, it's characteristically "postmodernist" to do so through such a "lowbrow" analogy, and such a self-consciously comical or ludicrous manner--a fictional tweak on the historical record.)
I agree with you in that I think Doctorow's portrayal of J.P. Morgan's nose has a striking resemblance to the tale of Pinocchio. When I first read that passage I knew the description of the nose reminded me of something, but I couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. Now I realize it was Pinocchio. So thanks for triggering my memory!
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