Deconstruction_at_Bat

8/7/2019 Deconstruction_at_Bat

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The Col lected Works of David Lavery 1

DeconstructionatBat:Baseballvs.CriticalTheory

inNorthernExposuresTheGraduate

Howcan you h i t and th ink a t the samet ime?

Yog i Berra

I thought you were beyondauthor ia l re ference.

Professor Mart in in The Graduate

In December 2004 an admired co l league and I c rossed paths on campus. We

had not seen each other in weeks , and as wecaught up on

persona l and profess iona l news, the sub jec t turned to the then

recent ly deceased Jacques Derr ida . Everyonewhoknowsme i s

aware , or so I thought , that I was not a fan . Had I not g i ven a ta lk

severa l years ago ent i t led The French D i sease: EuropeanMemes

and the In fec t ion of Western Thought? Was I not fond of

quot ing (as I do aga in) Dav id Lehmans query in Signof theT imes: Deconstruction

andtheFal l of Paul DeMan ,

Howto exp la in the cachet of deconstruct ion , the way i t has in f i l t ra ted publ i c

d i scourse? At the c rudest l eve l o f i t s appea l , the word announces the wr i ter s

knowingness : I mh ip to whats h ip . I knowwhats happening in theworld of

b ig ideas. A Los Ange lesbased sc reenwr i ter namedMark Horowi tz , t ry ing to

exp la in the current French enthus iasmfor mov ies s ta rr ing

Mickey Rourke , p laces the deconstruct ion c raze in the

perspect i ve of a constant war betweenthe U .S . and

France. In Horowi tz s words , Wesent themJerry Lewis ,

so they reta l i a ted by sending us deconstruct ion and

Jacques Derr ida . . . . Deconstruct ion conforms to an

Amer i can preconcept ion of the cerebra l French in the sameway that Jerry

Lewis in The Nutty Pro fessor represents a Frenchmans impress ion of an

Amer i can type.1

1 David Lehman, Signs of the T imes: Deconstruct ion and the Fa l l of

Paul DeMan, Poseidon Press, 1991, p. 22.


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Sowhenmy co l league proceededto mourn the loss of the l a te Boa Deconstructor 2

a s the pass ing of one of the great pub l i c in te l lec tua l s o f our t ime, I d id , I w i l l admi t ,

a lmost lose i t . Pub l i c in te l lec tua l? Howcould such a wor ld c lass promulgator of the

indec ipherab le be deemeda pub l i c in te l lec tua l? Horns locked, both of us a b i t

shocked a t the an imos i ty wehad conjured, webacked away and changedthe sub jec t .

Nodoubt you are wonder ing what a l l th i s has to do wi th Northern Exposure . I

began here because I wanted you to know, up f ront , that I have a dog in th i s f i ght

andby f i ght I meana s i xth season ep i sode of NorthernExposure ent i t led The

Graduate .

NorthernExposure (19001995)was a lways a supremely l i terary te lev i s ion ser ies . In

the Season Three ep i sode C i ce ly (3 : 23 ) , for example , we learn that Franz Ka fka

once v i s i ted the sma l l A laskan town, where he was f i r s t insp i red to wr i te

Metamorphos i s . In Season F ive s Una Vol ta in L ' Inverno (5 : 17 ) , septuagenar ian

store owner Ruth AnneMi l ler sets out to learn I ta l i an

so she can read Dante s Div ineComedy i n the or ig ina l .

Season S i x s Up R iver (6 : 8 ) evokes Conrads Heart o f

Darkness (not to ment ion i t s c inemat i c re imag in ing in

Apoca lypse Now) , with Ed Ch ig l i ak p lay ing Harry

Mar low/Benjamin Wi l l a rd and Joe l F le i schmanas Kurtz .

And f romf i rs t ep i sode to l ast , morn ing DJ Chr i s

Stevens rad io monologues a re fu l l o f re ferences to

great wr i ters and th inkers . As Robert J . Thompsonhas

observed,

Somet imes NorthernExposure wasn ' t just l ike read ing

a goodbook , i t ac tua l l y presented people read ing good

books . Throughout one ent i re ep i sode [Season Twos

War and Peace ] , for example . . . Chr i s Stevens . . .

reads passages NorthernExposure Spec ia l I ssue 7 f rom

WarandPeace. In the meant ime, accord ing to the

producers ' p lot synops i s , the res idents of C i ce ly

exper ience To l stoyesquen ightmares and

2 Geoffrey Hartmann, Preface , Deconstruct ion and Cr i t ic ism, ed.

Harold Bloom, et a l , Cont inuum, 1979, pp. i -v i i i .


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Dostoyevsk ian pass ions . Chr i s , an inte l lec tua l d i le t tante whoseemedto be

tak ing a l l o f h i s on a i r rambl ing patter f roma co l lege sy l l abus , went a long

way in g i v ing the show i ts cerebra l i f somewhat se l f important veneer . At one

t imeor another dur ing the course of the ser ies , Chr i s madereferences to

works by Hege l , K ierkegaard , Kant , N ietzsche, de Tocquev i l l e , Je f ferson,

Whi tman, Baudela i re , Melv i l l e , Shakespeare , Jung , Jack London, Edna St .

V incent Mi l l ay , and many other authors . Nonerd , Chr i s was just as f luent w i th

RaymondChandler or Def Leppard , but i t was h i s perpetua l namedropping

and passage c i t ing f romthe Great Books that seemedto announce, as [ John]

Fa l sey and [ Joshua] Brand [ the ser ies c reators] had of ten boasted, that

Northern Exposurewasn ' t wr i t ten for the mass aud ience. 3

Nos ing le insta l lment of NorthernExposure seemed less d i rec ted to a mass aud ience

than The Graduate , wr i t ten by SamEgan and d i rec ted by James Hayman, an ep i sode,

very near the end of the ser ies run , concernedwi th Chr i s defense of h i s thes i s , in

part ia l fu l f i lment of an M.A. in a Univers i ty of A laska extens ion program. Indeed, the

intendedaudience for The Graduate would seemto be not someonewi th a N ie l sen

box but the facu l ty of an Eng l i sh department . Chr i s has , i t seems, penneda

deconstruct ion i st/post co lon ia l read ing of the Ernest Lawrence Thayer c lass i c Casey

a t the Bat and f inds h imse l f forced to nav igate the Scy l l a and Charybdi s of h i s

openly adversar ia l committee members . Professor D ick Schuster , a t rad i t iona l

l i terary scholar who ( in h i s ownwords) wants to t reat a poemas a poemandnot

just a code, d i s l i kes read ing present i s t po l i t i ca l impl i ca t ions into a poemf rom1888 ,

and refuses to grant a d ip loma for g l ibness , nor even erud i t ion . Prof . Aaron Mart in ,

on the other hand, an advocate for in terpret i ve f reedom and hermeneut i c l i cense ,

i s a young Turk , impressed by the candidate s out lawsta tus (a h igh school dropout ,

Chr i s had once donehard t imeback in West V i rg in ia ) and pred i sposed to the thes i s

understanding of the b ig guy a t the p la te as a combinat ion N ietzscheanbbermensch

and emblemof Amer i can mani fest dest iny . As Chr i s ora l s beg in , we get a taste of the

oppos ing forces .

At the outset , Professor Schuster reminds Chr i s that brev i ty i s the sou l o f

w i t , and Mart in counters h i s sen ior co l leagues quotat ion of A lexander Popeby

evok ing Dorothy Parker s Brev i ty i s the sou l o f l inger ie . In response to Schuster s

3 Robert J . Thompson, Televis ion s Second Golden Age: From Hi l l Street

Blues to ER, Cont inuum, 1996, pp. 164-65.


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quest ion , Chr i s successfu l l y def ines ob jec t i ve corre la t i ve , ident i f i es T . S . E l iot as

the source of the term, and rec i tes Wi l l i amCar los Wi l l i ams Red Wheelbarrow as an

example . Then Mart in asks a quest ion that would seem l i ke a parody i f i t weren t

f r i ghten ing ly representat i ve : In what way does the re la t i v i smembodied in Melv i l l e s

dua l i ty of ev i l presage the mora l ambigu i t ies of twent ieth century co lon ia l i sm?

Heavenhe lp us , Schuster groans , but Chr i s answers in the sp i r i t o f the quest ion ,

proc la iming rad ica l not ions about the whole paradox of co lon ia l i sm, the benevolent

imper ia l i s t , the hubr i s o f the f i r s t wor ld , the mar ine corpora l w i th a Z ippo in Nam

whohad to burn downthe v i l l age in order to save i t .

Though I cannot be abso lute ly certa in , I would venture to say that th i s may

have been the f i r s t , and perhaps the on ly , t ime ob jec t i ve corre la t i ve was ever

d i scussed in pr imet ime. I t may a l so have been the network te lev i s ion debut of the

word presage. At th i s po int , however , tens ions a re on ly s immer ing . Noone i s tak ing

Chr i s to task for h i s mang led metaphorshowprec i se ly does one br ing a g reat whi te

wha le to i t s knees ?or h i s ideas . Prof . Mart in i s p leased, deeming Chr i s rant r i ght

on , and Professor Schuster b i tes h i s tongue, not yet ready to go to war .

NorthernExposurewas, of course , an ensemble dramedy , and The Graduate ,

l i ke every ep i sode, exp lores mul t ip le s tory l ines , one of which serves to counterpoint

Chr i s thes i s defense . Magg ie OConnel l outb ids Maur i ce and becomesowner and

propr ietor of the towns on ly mov ie theatre and immediate ly h i res C i ce ly s c inephi le

Ed Ch ig l i ak as in house f i lmconsu l tant . Drool ing over mov ie cata logs , capt i vated by

the prospect of sc reen ing Diabol ique, Last YearatMarienbad, The Ita l ianStrawHat,

Mr. Hulots Hol iday, B lueAngel , andEyes wi thout a Face , but c lue less about the

ac tua l mov ie tastes of h i s fe l lowc i t i zens , Ed s programming choices prove unpopular ,

and Magg ie must f ina l l y put her foot down, overru l ing Ed s taste for obscure c lass i c s

and cu l t f i lms. DumbandDumber i s ordered, and in the f ina l mov ie theatre scene

Forrest Gumpi s pack ing them in .


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Casey at the Bat

by Ernest Lawrence Thayer

The Out look wasn't bri l l i ant for the

Mudv i l le n ine that day :

The score stood four to two, with but one

inn ing more to p lay .

And then when Cooney d ied at f i rst , and

Barrows d id the same,

A s ick ly s i lence fel l upon the patrons of the

game .

A straggl ing few got up to go in deep

despair . The rest

Clung to that hope which springs eternal i n

the human breast ;

They thought , i f on ly Casey cou ld get but a

whack at that -

We'd put up even money , now, with Casey at

the bat .

But F lynn preceded Casey , as d id a lso Jimmy

Blake,

And the former was a lu lu and the latter was

a cake;

So upon that str icken mu lt i tude grim

melancholy sat ,

For there seemed but l i tt le chance of

Casey's gett ing to the bat .

But F lynn let drive a s ingle , to the

wonderment of a l l ,

And Blake, the much desp is-ed , tore the

cover off the bal l ;

And when the dust had l i fted , and the men

saw what had occurred ,

There was Jimmy safe at second and F lynn a-

hugging th ird .

Then from 5,000 throats and more there

rose a lusty yel l ;

It rumbled through the va l ley , i t ratt led in

the del l ;

It knocked upon the mountain and recoi led

upon the f lat ,

For Casey , mighty Casey , was advancing to

the bat .

There was ease in Casey's manner as he

stepped into h is p lace;

There was pride in Casey's bearing and a

smi le on Casey's face.

And when, responding to the cheers , he

l ight ly doffed h is hat ,

No stranger in the crowd cou ld doubt 'twas

Casey at the bat .

Ten thousand eyes were on h im as he rubbed

his hands with d irt ;

F ive thousand tongues app lauded when he

wiped them on h is sh irt .

Then whi le the writh ing p i tcher ground the

bal l i nto h is h ip ,

Defiance g leamed in Casey's eye, a sneer

curled Casey's l i p .

And now the leather-covered sphere came

hurt l ing through the a ir ,

And Casey stood a-watching i t i n haughty

grandeur there.

Close by the sturdy batsman the bal l

unheeded sped-


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"That a in't my sty le ," sa id Casey . "Strike

one," the umpire sa id .

From the benches , b lack with peop le , there

went up a muff led roar,

Like the beat ing of the storm-waves on a

stern and d istant shore.

"K i l l h im ! K i l l the umpire !" shouted someone

on the stand;

And i ts l i ke ly they'd a-k i l led h im had not

Casey ra ised h is hand .

With a smi le of Christ ian charity great

Casey's v i sage shone;

He st i l led the r is ing tumult ; he bade the

game go on ;

He s igna led to the p itcher, and once more

the spheroid f lew;

But Casey st i l l i gnored i t , and the umpire

said , "Strike two . "

"Fraud !" cr ied the maddened thousands , and

echo answered fraud;

But one scornfu l look from Casey and the

audience was awed .

They saw h is face grow stern and co ld , they

saw his muscles stra in ,

And they knew that Casey wou ldn't let that

bal l go by again .

The sneer i s gone from Casey's l i p , h is teeth

are c lenched in hate;

He pounds with cruel v io lence h is bat upon

the p late .

And now the p itcher ho lds the bal l , and now

he lets i t go ,

And now the a ir i s shattered by the force of

Casey's b low.

Oh, somewhere in th is favored land the sun

is sh in ing bright ;

The band i s p lay ing somewhere, and

somewhere hearts are l i ght ,

And somewhere men are laughing, and

somewhere chi ldren shout ;

But there i s no joy in Mudv i l le - mighty

Casey has struck out .

"Phin"


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In the ep i sodes t i tu la r s tory l ine , someth ing qu i te s imi la r

t ransp i res as Chr i s Stevens abandons h i s e l i t i s t deconstruct ion i st

inc l inat ionsDenis Donoghue, a f ter a l l , once descr ibed

deconstruct ion as a sad a t tempt by the academyto deve lop i t s own

avantgarde1

in favour of more t rad i t iona l c r i t i ca l assumpt ions . H i s

convers ion beg ins a t a d inner party , hosted by the a lways pompous

p lutocrat Maur i ce Minn i f ie ld , a t which the cu l ture war erupts and

Chr i s committee members cometo b lows.

After Mart in and Schuster h i t up Maur i ce for endowing a cha i r ( c lear l y an

ongoing d i scuss ion) , ta l k turns to Derr ida and Barthes , and the death of the author (a

moment in l i terary h i s tory pra i sed by Mart in as a re leaser of a l l the h iddenmeanings

bur ied in a text ) , and Chr i s expresses for the f i r s t t imemisg iv ings about h i s

postst ruc tura l i s t way of approach ing l i tera ture , wonder ing what happens to beauty

i s t ruth , t ruth beauty (Keatsfrom Odeon a Grec ian Urn ) under such an ep i steme.

Banter betweenMart in and Schuster becomes inc reas ing ly confrontat iona l , and th i s

t ime i t s persona l . To the former s accusat ion that h i s sen ior co l league c l ings to o ld

ideas in order to remain department cha i r , Schuster responds wi th sarcast i c g lee

You better get used to those facu l ty apartments . WhenSchuster sco lds Mart in that

You and your car jack ing protg . . .have put 2000 years of accumulated knowledge

into a rhetor i ca l Oster i zer and gr inded i t a l l i n to ob l i v ion . he character i zes

Schuster s o ld fash ionedmindset as b igotry w i th panache. As Chr i s looks on in

wonder , they go for each other s throats but a re separated by the powerfu l

Minn i f ie ld , whoangr i l y (and h i l a r ious ly ) reminds them Gent leman, i t s on ly

l i tera ture

Ear l i er Chr i s had of fered a toast to academia : in a wor ld of ever more

compromise and pett iness , the l ast re fuge for ideas and idea l i smfor the i r ownsake .

At Maur i ce s Chr i s beg ins to rea l i ze h i s na ivet and sees for the f i r s t t imethat the

host i l i ty c r i t i ca l theory has spawnedmay be a sub l imat ion of such non inte l lec tua l

petty matters as whoholds the department cha i r , or secures the of f i ce w i th a

w indow, or gets the best hous ing . As the c l i ch wea l l knowhas i t , the compet i t ion i s

so f ierce because the rewards a re so sma l l .

1 Denis Donoghue, The Strange Case of Paul DeMan, New York Review

of Books, 12 October 1989, pp.32-37.


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Van Gogh, Beethoven, Thoreau, Emerson, Poe, Shakespeare

Not surpr i s ing ly , bear ing wi tness to such a spectac le , even i f i t s on ly about

l i tera ture , causes Chr i s to have bad dreams.He f inds h imse l f in a war zone, l ead ing a

p la toon that inc lude so ld iers namedBeethoven, Van Gogh, a Nevermore ut ter ing

Poe, and Shakespeare , under f i re f roma sn iper . The rad io br ings news that the

sn iper has taken out the ent i re Transcendenta l 45th , inc lud ing Emerson, Thoreau,

and Fu l ler . A toobrave Shakespeare , d i s t raught over the death of Poe, i s h imse l f

gunneddownandd ies ut ter ing the famous l ast words I t i s a fa r , fa r more better

th ing I do . An angry Chr i s goes a f ter the sn iper , on ly to come faceto face wi th

h imse l f .

Te lev i s ion doesn t get any better , or any more l i terary , than th i s .

Shakespeare , o f course , gets a l l the best l ineshis They got Edd ie! l ament uponthe

death of Poe, h i s anachroni st i ca l l y fa ta l quotat ion of D i ckens ATale of TwoCit ies .

But i t i s Chr i s whocomesaway terr i f i ed but en l i ghtenedby h i s dreamshatter ing

ourobor i c recogn i t ion that the canonterminat ing sn iperandtake note howwel l the

metaphor worksis rea l l y h imse l f . The next day , Chr i s in the Morn ing i s a l l about

h i s doubts . As Ray Char les wa i l s the appropr ia te ly t i t l ed Te l l meWhat I Say in the

background, Chr i s acqua ints a l l o f C i ce ly (and the te lev i s ion aud ience as wel l ) w i th

h i s growing methodolog i ca l concerns . You ana lyse someth ing too muchyou just

gr ind i t in to dust , he has cometo th ink , wonder ing i f h i s whole pursu i t o f a degree

may have beena misgu ided venture : I should never have openedthat matchbook.

Weare look ing for people who l i ke to th ink . But such mus ings a re , in fac t ,

rhetor i ca l , for Chr i s has concocted a newp lan for h i s thes i s defense .

Anyonewhohas beenaroundun ivers i t ies for a t imehas probably heard

Academic Legends about theses and d i sserta t ion defencestheone mak ing the

rounds when I was work ing on my M.A. , for example , about the doctora l cand idate a t

the Univers i ty of Minnesota who lost h i s lunch a l l over the conference tab le . Thes i s

and d i sserta t ions have even foundthe i r way into f i lms. In I rv in Kershner s TheEyes

of LauraMars (1978) , for example , re leased the year I f in i shed my ownd i sserta t ion ,

a ser ia l k i l l e r i s revea led to be a detect i ve (p layed by TommyLee Jones) dr i ven to


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psychopathy by h i s inab i l i ty to even f in i sh h i s t reat i se . Ear l i er in the decade, in

R i chard Rushs forgotten semi c lass i c Gett ing Stra ight (1970) , E l l iot t Gould p lays a

deeply confused graduate s tudent namedHarry Ba i ley who inadvertent ly br ings to

h i s thes i s defense a t Berke ley a ho l lowedout book f i l l ed wi th pot and then, as r iots

erupt outs ide and h i s committee becomesembroi led in a debate over Les l ie F ied ler

esque ideas about the homoerot i c subtext of The Great Gatsby , goes nuts . After

ins i s t ing that the major verse form in Eng l i sh i s , in fac t , the l imer i ck (and rec i t ing a

part i cu la r l y profane one) , Ba i ley jumpsup on the conference tab le and br ings the

defense to an end by p lant ing a s loppy k i ss on the l ips of h i s committee cha i r .

Gett ing Stra ight i s c lear l y one of The Graduate s ancestor texts . A i r ing as i t

d id in March 1995 , i t i s not , however , comeback to the ra f t , Huck , honey ideas that

a re i t s antagoni st but deconstruct ion and postst ruc tura l i sm, and Chr i s Stevens i s no

Harry Ba i ley . For there i s method in h i s madness . As Professors Mart in and Stevens

awa i t the candidate s a rr i va l , about to dec la re h ima noshow, they a re summonedto

a snowcovered baseba l l d iamond for a f i e ld test , i f you wi l l , o f h i s new, much less

esoter i c , understanding of Casey .

What s the meaning of th i s? Schuster asks , appropr ia te ly enough, as they

a rr i ve a t Minn i f ie ld F ie ld , and Chr i s , punning , rep l ies that he wants to take another

swing a t Thayer s meaning . To Mart in s surpr i sed re jo inder , I thought you were

beyondauthor ia l re ference, Chr i s asks h imto take a bat and go to the p la te . As

Chr i s rec i tes the poemf rommemory , Mart in goes downon st r i kes three snow

covered p i tches l a ter , the l ast twowhi f f s , just l i ke the Mighty Casey . St r id ing toward

h i s vanqui shed examiner , Chr i s in tones Thayer s f ina l l i nes :

Oh, somewhere in th i s favored land the sun i s sh in ing br ight ,


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Theband i s p lay ing somewhere , and somewhere hearts a re l i ght ;

And somewhere menare l augh ing , and somewhere ch i ldren shout ,

But there i s no joy in Mudv i l l emighty Casey has s t ruck out .

Po int ing to Mart in s s tomach, he exp la ins That s what Casey a t the bat i s about

that fee l ing in your gut .

I thought you were beyondauthor ia l re ference, I t s one of those metamedia

moments that make a prose ly t i ser for te lev i s ion , espec ia l l y what I have beenca l l ing

of l a te te lev i s ion c reat i v i ty , squ i rmwi th joy on my couch potato couch. Mi rror ing in

i t s deve lopment i t s antecedent media l i tera ture and the mov ies , both s lowto

d i scover the author/auteur and then surpr i s ing ly anx ious to f in i sh h imof f , te lev i s ion ,

you see , i s supposed to be made in anonymi ty . Only now, as wespeak , a re TV auteurs

emerg ing . Only noware webeg inn ing to recogni ze the c reat i ve humanbe ings who

make te lev i s ion , a medium, near ly everyoneagrees , supremely f r iend ly to the wr i ters

whoproduce such br i l l i ant fa re as The Graduate whi le to i l ing l a rge ly in obscur i ty . I

knownext tonoth ing about SamEgan, i t s author , which doesn t seemqui te fa i r ,

s ince he seemsknowa lot about meabout us . But I do knowth i s : l i ke mehe

be l ieves that deconstruct ion has had i t s turn a t bat , i t s inn ings even, and has now

struck out .

Deconstruction_at_Bat

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