Holy Moses! ... Holy Hannah ... and Zen Bhuddism?

A very few might recall the rock n roll connection to The Insolent Boy and, in fact, the novel has been called many things: a 20th Century Anne of Green Gables, James Joycean, Holden Caulfeld(esque), a re-telling of the prodigal son and so on. A little has been made of the bad boy character, Selwyn and implausible storyline ­ though the novel did make a top ten books list in 2001.

However few have made any mention of the religious connection in the reviews or have noted the specific biblical references in the novel. So this is an attempt to try and show a little of what might be there in terms or spirituality or religious intention. First of all, Selwyn is raised by the rector and his wife, accurately called 'tea and biscuits' by one reviewer. The rector is 'stern' and 'moralizing'. In this sense the orphaned Selwyn can be compared to red-headed Anne: he is adopted into an east coast Protestant household. However where Anne Shirley charms and uses her feminine pluck to get ahead, Selwyn alarms and mistakenly and tragically loses his way. We are warned of his delicate temperament in the opening passage as the rector and Bee discuss the future of the orphaned child:

Bee stood in the larder... "Selwyn is too sensitive to be with other children," she said.
The old rector sipped and cradled his drink. "We don`t want to spoil him, Gwendolyn. If we isolate him from other children we may spoil him."
"But he` s so awkward, Hugh. And he has a temper. The other children may be brutes to him."
"Or he them," the rector replied, puffing on his pipe.

After the disastrous Christmas Pageant scene, Selwyn starts to refer to those who are closest to him using animal analogies. Is this because he is beginning to lose faith fellow human beings? The piano teacher Miss Jess is a 'broody hen' and even himself, he refers to as a little 'wood tit' as if a caged or imprisoned budgy, opening its mouth to sing. As the difficult passages unfold and Selwyn looks for a release from his interior confinement, his interest in girls is heightened and he views them as 'arch angels' who might guide him to a place of spiritual peace. As his romanticized homemaking and sense of belonging are rekindled by his infatuation with the beautiful Nancy Mason, he plots his courting, whilst spying on her with the rectors old military telescope. But this too is doomed to failure - he ends up with the fat girl in the hay barn, instead. In fact, in the wake of this failure, he develops a close friendship with his pet rabbit, confiding his secrets and personal concerns to it and it is here, in the absence of any spiritual guidance that he begins to lose his way. The references to the rabbit and birds are intentional. It is as if his animal instincts for survival and self defense negate his human compassionate side. The little dog gets skewered by a pitch fork, Selwyn`s own temporary house, the hay barn, collapses around him. This is clearly stated and the effects of his paranoia and displacement are comic. Of course they colour the prose but Selwyn is unable to see his fellow human beings in a positive light. He views people in the same way as animals and it is his search for this which takes him to the end of the novel and his epiphany in the church with Charlene at the end.

Other instances of religious and biblical references occur in the book. When the old rector dies, and Selwyn loses a father figure, albeit a stern one, Selwyn and Bee quote from the book of Psalms. Psalm 121, A Song of Ascents is quoted (Chapter 9):

The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade
at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day
nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and for evermore.

It is as if in a sense the old rector and Bee have conspired to guide the life of the wayward boy. This psalm is meant as a note to their continued prayers and hopes for him. Their prayers have guided him through childhood, after all.
(Chapter 4)

Now I lay me down to sleep
Pray the lord my soul to keep
If I die before I wake
Pray the Lord my sould to take.

Naturally, the spritual quest continues and after Selwyn is accused, rightly or wrongly of arson, his rebellion continues and he runs away from the things he loves - Bee and Charlene. Selwyn soon finds himself with a rock band till Selwyn acts rashly in the face of an unspeakable act and finds himself in prison, where he takes up painting to soothe his confused mind. He takes comfort in the words of a Zen Bhuddist who befriends him (Chapter 45):

"These paintings are moral. Examine the themes of corruption and evil, the moth, hovering, about to plan her destructive eggs, the worm writing into the shiny red core of the apple, the fly buzzing. All the images go back to Adam and Eve. They speak of corruption, impregnation, of evil. Zen has no restrictions or determinants. It is about the self, getting to understand the self, being as one alone. That is why your art flourishes here. There is no one to tell you what you cannot do..."

Ultimately, Selwyn ends up in the Annapolis Valley of his birth, in a church pew at Lent listening to the Gospel of St. Luke, where Christ healed ten lepers and only one came back to thank him. It is here that he has his epiphany with child Hector and Charlene at the end. But if you are interested in what that might be, you have to go and read the book, though it is available in libraries across Canada, and in Britain at the British Library.

John Stiles

John stiles is the author of three books including The Insolent Boy. All are published by Insomniac Press. Nightwood Editions will publish John`s second novel Taking the Stairs, in 2007.

Tid bits, thin n that.

Some things tid bits you might not know about the book. 1. The book is set in the Annapolis Valley and some of the peripheral characters, in the church at the end: Mr. George Spy, the Macintosh Family are named after apples which are native to the Annapolis Valley. 2. Some of the hits in the American Charts are references to childhood incidents in the Annapolis Valley, the scouts, Torpedo Hen, Lumsden dam and so on. 3. Gwendolyn (Bee) is based on many people but perhaps most strongly on a maiden aunt, who is written a little about here. 4. The cover of the book is a rabbit, D2 who belonged to a friend of my girlfriend, (now wife!) in Toronto. 5. The photo was taken by Paul in his east end studio and he also took the author shot. 6. The design of the book was by Marcus Robinson who started up lit mag Pagitica in Toronto and it is rumoured is developing feature films there. 7. Clark in the book may or may not be based on Corby Lund and members of the ills may be based on the smalls. More on that here. 8. The diary in the book is taken almost word for word from the diary I wrote when I spent time with the smalls in Europe. 9. This is a story. A first novel. It was meant to be more funny than mean but ended up more mean than funny. The Georgia Straight once said "If Brute ambition were enough to get a body through John Stiles would have written a masterpiece." Still it aint bad is it? There`s more on it here if interested.