Absurdity

There's this insight that we all have into ourselves that we sort of long for another world.

And Gavin, in the very first chapter, the first chapter is titled Absurdity.

Is life without God worth it? You actually quote Blaise Pascal again about...

the cause of man's unhappiness.

And I think that's, so that kind of stuff is, I think, the sort of comedy that's written into the play.

And yeah, I guess the kind of absurdity of the situation.

Absurdity of some, of a relatively simple situation.

Yeah.

And I think that that's the part that is like, it just, it lives in the absurdity for this extended period of time.

Think of its being called drudgery to take care of a clean light airy nursery To wash and dress and care for two or three children; to mend their clothes tell them stories make them playthings Take them out walking or driving And rather than this to wear out the whole live long day extending often deep into the night In endless sewing in a close room of a dressmaking establishment Is it any less drudgery to stand all day behind a counter serving customers Than to tend a doorbell and wait on a table For my part said my wife I have often thought the matter over and concluded that if I were left in straightened circumstances As many are in a great city I would seek a position as a servant in one of our good families "I envy the family that you even think of in that connection," said I.

"I fancy the amazement which would take possession of them as you began to develop among them." "'I have always held,' said my wife, 'that family work, in many of its branches, can be better performed by an educated woman than an uneducated one.' Just as an army where even the bayonets think is superior to one of mere brute force and mechanical training So i have heard it said some of our distinguished modern female reformers show an equal superiority in the domestic sphere And i do not doubt it Family work was never meant to be a special province of untaught brains I have sometimes thought i should like to show what i could do as a servant Well said bob To return from all this to the question What's to be done with her Are you going to my distressed woman If you are suppose you take your distressed woman along And ask her to try it I can promise her a pleasant house A quiet room by herself Healthful and not too hard work A kind friend and some leisure for reading Writing Or whatever other pursuits of her own she may choose for her recreation We are always quite willing to lend books to any who appreciate them Our house is surrounded by pleasant grounds Which are open to our servants as to ourselves So let her come and try us I am quite sure that country air Quiet security and moderate exercise in a good home Will bring up her health And if she is willing to take the one or two disagreeables Which may come with all this Let her try us well said i so be it and would that all the women seeking homes and employment Could thus fall in With women who have homes and are perishing in them For want of educated helpers On this question of woman's work i have yet more to say But must defer it till another time end of chapter 1 what will you do with her The Woman Question Chapter Two Part One Of The Chimney Corner By Harriet Beecher Stowe This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer Please visit librivox.org This recording by Michelle Frye Baton Rouge Louisiana In February 2020 Chapter Two Part One Women's Sphere What do you think of this woman's rights question? Said Bob Stevens From some of your remarks I apprehend That you think there is something in it I may be wrong but I must confess That I have looked with disgust On the whole movement No man reverences women as I do But I reverence them as women I reverence them for those very things In which their sex differs from ours But when they come upon our ground And begin to work and fight after our manner And with our weapons I regard them as fearless anomalies Neither men nor women These women's rights conventions Appear to me to have ventilated crudities Absurdities and blasphemies To hear them talk about men One would suppose that the two sexes Were natural born enemies And wonders whether they ever had fathers and brothers One would think upon their showing That all men were a set of ruffians In league against women They seeming at the same time To forget how on their very platforms The most constant and gallant Defenders of their rights are men Wendell Phillips and Wentworth Higginson Have put at the service of the cause Masculine training and manly vehemence And complacently accepted the wholesale Abuse of their own sex At the hands of their warrior sisters One would think Where all they say of female powers true That our Joan of Arcs ought to have disdained To fight under male captains I think Said my wife That in all this talk About the rights of men And the rights of women And the rights of children The world seems to be forgetting What is quite as important The duties of men And women and children We all hear of our rights Till we forget our duties And even theology Is beginning to concern itself More with what man has a right To expect of his creator Than what the Creator Has a Right "You say the truth," said I.

"There is danger of just this overaction, and yet rights must be discussed because in order to understand the duties we owe to any class, we must understand their rights.

To know our duties to men, women, and children, we must know what the rights of men, women, and children justly are.

When a man can walk up to the ballot-box with his wife or his sister on his arm voting places will be far more agreeable than now And the polls will not be such bare gardens that refined men will be constantly tempted to omit their political duties there If for nothing else_ I would have women vote That the business of voting may not be so disagreeable and intolerable To men of refinement as it now is And I sincerely believe that the cause Of good morals Good order Cleanliness And public health Would be a gainer Not merely by the added feminine Vote But by the added vote of A great many excellent but too fastidious Men Who are now kept from The polls By the disagreeables They meet there Do you suppose that if Women had equal representation With men In the municipal laws Of New York Its reputation For filth During the last year Would have gone So far beyond that Of Cologne Or any other city Renowned for bad smells? I trow not.

I believe a lady Mayoress would Have brought in a dispensation Of brooms and whitewash And made a terrible Searching into dark holes And vile corners Before now Female New York I have faith to believe Has yet left in Her enough of the primary instincts Of womanhood To give us a clean Healthy city If female votes Had any power to do it." "But," said Bob, "you forget that voting would bring together all the women of the lower classes." "Yes, but thanks to the instincts of their sex they would come in their Sunday clothes, for where is the woman who hasn't her finery and will not embrace every chance to show it Biddy’s parasol and hat with pink ribbons would necessitate a clean shirt in Pat as much as on Sunday Voting would become a fete And we should have a population at the polls As well dressed as At church Such is my belief” “I do not see,” Said Bob “but you Will go to the full extent With our modern female reformers.” There are certain neglected truths which have been held up by these reformers that are gradually being accepted and infused into the life of modern society And their recognition will help to solidify and purify democratic institutions They are 1 The right of every Woman to hold Independent property 2 The right of Every woman to receive Equal pay with Man for work Which she does Equally well 3 The right of Any woman to do Any work for which By her natural Organization and Talent She is peculiarly Adapted Under the first head Our energetic Sisters have already By the help of Their gallant male Adjutants Reformed the Laws of several Of our States So that a married Woman is no longer Left the unprotected Legal slave Of any unprincipled Drunken spendthrift Who may be her Husband But in case of The imbecility Or improvidence Of the natural Head of the family The wife if she Have the ability Can conduct Business Make contracts Earn and retain Money for the good Of the household And I am sure No one can say That immense injustice And cruelty Are not thereby Prevented It is quite easy For women who Have the good Fortune to have Just and magnanimous Husbands To say that they Feel no interest In such reforms And that they would willingly Trust their Property to the man To whom they Give themselves But they Should remember That laws are not Made for the restraint Of the generous And the just But of the dishonest And base The law which Enables a married Woman to hold Her own property Does not forbid Her to give it To the man of Her heart If she so pleases And it does protect Many women who Otherwise would Be reduced To the extremest Misery I once knew an Energetic milliner Who had her shop Attached four times And a flourishing Business broken Up in four Different cities Because she was tracked From city to City by a worthless Spendthrift Who only waited Till she had Amassed a little Property in a new Place To swoop down Upon and carry It off It is to be Hoped that the Time is not distant When every State Will give to Woman a fair Chance to the Ownership and use Of her own earnings And her own property Under the head Of the right of Every woman to Do any work For which by Natural organization And talent She is especially Adapted There is a word Or two to be said The talents and Tastes of the Majority of women Are naturally Domestic The Family Is evidently Their sphere Because in all ways Their organization Fits them for That More Than for Anything Else But there are Occasionally Women who are Exceptions to The common Law Gifted with peculiar Genius and Adaptations With regard to Such women There has Never seemed to Be any doubt In the verdict Of mankind That they ought To follow their Nature And that their Particular Sphere Was the One To which they Are called Did anybody Ever think that Mrs Siddons and Mrs Kimble and Ristori Had better have Applied themselves Assiduously To keeping House Because they were Women And woman's Noblest station Is retreat The world has Always shown A fair average Of good sense In this matter From the days Of the fair Hypatia In Alexandria Who We are told Gave lectures On philosophy Behind a curtain Lest her charms Should distract The attention Of two Impressive Young men Down to those Of Anna Dickinson Mankind are not, after all, quite fools and seem in these cases to have a reasonable idea that exceptional talents have exceptional laws and make their own code of priorities.

Now there is no doubt that Miss Dickinson though as relating to her femininity she is quite as pretty and modest a young woman as any to be found in the most sheltered circle has yet the most exceptional talent for public speaking which draws crowds to hear her and makes lecturing for her a lucrative profession as well as a means of advocating just and generous sentiments and of stimulating her own sex to nobler purposes And the same law which relates to Siddons and Kimball and her story relates also to her The doctrine of vocations is a good one and a safe one If a woman mistakes her vocation so much the worse for her the world does not suffer but she does and the suffering speedily puts her where she belongs There is not near so much danger from attempts to imitate Anna Dickinson as there is from the more common feminine attempts to rival the demimonde of Paris in fantastic extravagance and luxury As to how a woman may determine whether she has any such vocation there is a story quite in point A good Methodist elder was listening to an ardent young mechanic who thought he had a call to throw up his shop and go to preaching I feel said the young ardent that I have a call to preach Hast thou noticed whether people seem to have a call to hear thee? Said the shrewd old man I have always noticed that a true call of the Lord may be known by this That people have a call to hear Well said Bob the most interesting question still remains What are to be the employments of women? What ways are there for her to use her talents To earn her livelihood and support those who are dear to her When Providence throws that necessity upon her This is becoming more than ever one of the pressing questions of our age The war has deprived so many thousands of women Of their natural protectors And everything must be thought of That may possibly open a way For their self-support Well let us look over the field Said my wife what is there for woman In the first place said I Come the professions requiring Natural genius authorship Painting sculpture With the subordinate arts Of photographing Coloring and finishing But when all is told These furnish employment To a very limited number Almost as nothing to the whole Then there is teaching Which is profitable In its higher branches And perhaps the very pleasantest Of all the callings Open to women But teaching Is at present An overcrowded profession The applicants everywhere Outnumbering the places Architecture and landscape gardening Are arts every way Suited to the genius Of women And there are enough Who have the requisite Mechanical skill And mathematical education And though never yet Thought of for the sex That I know of I do not despair In seeing those Who shall find in this field A profession At once useful And elegant When women plan Dwelling houses The vast body of tenements To be let in our cities Will wear a more domestic And comfortable air And will be built More with reference To the real wants Of their inmates I have thought Said Bob That agencies Of various sorts As canvassing the country For the sale of books Maps and engravings Might properly Employ a great Many women There is a large class Whose health suffers From confinement And sedentary occupations Who might I think Be both usefully And agreeably employed In a business Of this sort And be recruiting Their health At the same time Then Said my wife There is the medical Profession Yes Said I The world is greatly Obliged to Miss Blackwell And other noble pioneers Who faced and overcame The obstacles To the attainment Of a thorough Medical education By females Thanks to them A new and Lucrative profession Is now open To educated Women In relieving The distresses Of their own Sex And we may hope That in time Through their intervention The care of the sick May also become A vocation Of cultivated Refined intelligent Women Instead of being Left as heretofore To the ignorant And vulgar The experience Of our late War Has shown Us what women Of a high Class morally And intellectuality Can do In this capacity Why should Not this Experience inaugurate A new And sacred Calling for refined And educated Women Why should Not nursing Become a Vocation Equal in Dignity And in general Esteem To the medical Profession Of which it is The right hand Why should Our dearest Hopes In the hour Of their Greatest peril Be committed Into the hands Of Sarah E Gamps When the world Has seen Florence Nightingales Yes indeed Said my Wife I can testify From my Own Experience That the sufferings And dangers Of the Sickbed For the want Of Intelligent Educated Nursing Have been Dreadful A prejudiced Pigheaded Snufftaking Old Woman Narrowminded And Vulgar And more Confident In her own Way Than seven Men can Render a Reason Enters your House at Just the Hour And moment When all Your Dearest Earthly hopes Are brought To a crisis She becomes Absolute Dictator Over your Delicate Helpless Wife And your Frail Babe The absolute dictator Of all In the house If it be Her sovereign Will and pleasure To enact All sorts Of physiological Absurdities In the premises Who shall Say her nay She knows Her business She hopes And if it be Her edict As it was Of one of Her class Whom I knew That each of Her babies Shall eat Four baked Beans the day It is four Days old Eat them It must And if the Baby die In convulsions Four days After It is set Down as the Mysterious will Of an overruling providence I know and have seen women lying upon laced pillows under silken curtains who have been bullied and dominated over in the hour of their greatest helplessness by ignorant and vulgar tyrants, in a way that would scarce be thought possible in civilized society.

And children that have been injured or done to death by the same means.

Because somewhere along the way, pagan social media forgot something enormously important.

Absurdity makes the world go round.

Religion is allowed to contain joy.

Weird, I know.

great.

Absurdity-wise, too.

I

wonder if he would have been more serious.