Review The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie Formulated By Muriel Spark Format Printed Matter

“It occurred to Sandy, there at the end of the Middle Meadow Walk, that the Brodie set was Miss Brodie's fascisti, not to the naked eye, marching along, but all knit together for her need and in another way, marching along.
That was all right, but it seemed, too, that Miss Brodie's disapproval of the Girl Guides had jealousy in it, there was an inconsistency, a fault, Perhaps the Guides were too much a rival fascisti, and Miss Brodie could not bear it, ”

One commonly featuring theme with all the governments of last century that have gone wrong whether they were fascists, ultranationalists, communalists, communist, anticommunists is that they all paid special focus on education of children.
And it is only to be expected, children are highly impressionable and, a simple application of Butterfly effect or any of psychological theories except Humanism, shows what an effect a small change early on can have on ones life those early stages are the perfect opportunity for anyone wanting to play God:

“Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life.
”

And Fascism basically means allowing one man to play God, But this book is not about politics, not unless you see it as an allegory, It is about education.

And so, the questions arises, what should children be taught and who should teach them Ideally, I dare say that they should be taught how to live a life before they are taught how to earn a living which might include teaching them about selfdiscovery, sexeducation and how to be good parents, how not to let yourself be influenced by propaganda, how to check if you are prejudiced against some section of society, a habit of putting oneself in others shoes etc.
The list is too long and as you can see literature can help with several of them, A wellwritten novel with racism or sexual violence, for example, can be used to teach how these tendencies work in society how to put oneself in victims shoes, clothes and skin and how one must be guard oneself in being cause of and suffering from such things.


What we really do though, is we play defensive, and dont want anything too 'dangerous for children's stupid heads to be a part of their education.
And so anything even remotely out of Disney world is excised out of books,

And what about teachers We cant censor teachers but we have an ideal for them, which they must follow, Now, in my mind, the image of this ideal teacher is that of a sentinel of discipline and traditions, yearning for good old times a strict and, if I may dare use the word, sexless old thing with no sense of humor you remember prof McGonagall Exactly.
Now you cant expect every teacher to be an old woman, and so, what we do is we socialize teachers to act in that way while their students are observing them.


And, so, you see in school/college corridors, young teachers

pretending to be angry at a behavior in their students which they had enjoyed only a few years ago or might still enact back home since most of them are terrible actors, I dont know how come most students dont see through them, I for one was never fooled.
Thanks!, scorning at the very jokes they might themselves find funny, and asking students to follow rules they themselves see injustice in In this one scene in the third book, McGonagall refuse to sign Harrys permission to visit the Hogsmeade, though she felt sorry since he was the only in.
whole class not allowed to, for no mistake of his,

Now Miss Jean Brodie is no fan of this McGonagallism school of playacting, she is a rebel the only good thing about her and she does seem to believe in teaching children about lifestyle choices.
Unfortunately, her syllabus is highly dependent on her whims and she happens to be in her prime,

“Ones prime is elusive, You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur, You must then live it to the full, ”

And since she isnt wearing McGonagall masks, the personal life of this narcissist woman directly affects her students, She loses her initial idealism in a desperate effort to enjoy her life and ends up using her girls as pawns, causing a permanent damage in life of at least one, Sandy.
You may make sure that the person teaching isnt racist, communalist or have some undesirable political philosophy, but they will have much going in their personal life.
And unless the teachers are maintaining socalled respectable distances, you cant save a student from their personal life, Now this might serve for the meek to want to argue in favor of sticking to safety of oldfashioned McGonagallism, but I dont agree and my excareer as class rebel and classclown obviously has nothing to do with that.


One of the best and most humorous books I have read this year, Of Mussolini,
Don't Preach
To a Teeney
Where You Teach

"it's only possible to betray where loyalty is due"

Sandy, now Sister Helena of the Transfiguration, is the omniscient narrator of the story looking back at her time in thes at a Catholic grade school in Edinburgh, Scotland, time spent as part of the set of six girls who their teacher Miss Brodie called her "creme de la creme.
" Ms. Sparks used a number of flashforwards to most effectively and methodically convey the ultimate betrayal of Miss Jean Brodie by one of the set, which ruined Miss Brodie's teaching career.
Miss Brodie died the year after the end of World War II without knowing which girl did the deed, though the mystery obviously bothered her during the decade prior to her death.


Ms. Brodie was smart, snod, unconventional and a bit daft, holding potentially harmful sway over the set who she taught off and on from their tenth year to their sixteenth, providing lessons on her love life, her travels particularly to Italy, a great deal of art history and on fascism and her smite with Benito Mussolini.
Ironically, it wasn't her questionable methods outside the classroom such as providing a place for one girl thento pose nude for a male artist to paint her, then suggesting the same girl athave an affair with a married teacher as a sort of surrogate to requite Ms.
Brodie's love for him that led to Ms, Brodie's fall, but the profascist views she espoused,

While I found the book had a certain charm and I understand the reasons for its popularity upon its publication in, I think this is among those books whose literary force has been somewhat dulled by the novel being dated.
Nothing infuriates people more than their own lack of spiritual insight

There are very few books which get hold of you from the very first line, for the words are refined with such a surgical precision that you may realize, any sort of modification would come as superfluous and redundant.
The authors, who may control the great literary baton to such an effect that there seems to be a pleasing unison between mind and words, are one of the most endangered species.
For one always overdo something until one refines it, But there are a few authors who seem to control the mind of readers through an unseen but profound string of narrative which they pull along or otherwise as and when they please.
Many a times, we see that people digress much, though sometimes intentionally, to put forward their views which may be clouded, However, we have intellectually unclouded authors such as Muriel Spark who are not prone to descriptive digression, and are able to find the kind of symmetries, echoes and reflections that are a manifestation of the naturally poetic vision.
For poetry doesnt necessarily mean impasto or excrescence, but an infinite unpackability, with which the work of the cleanlined writer is richly pregnant, Spark is one of those authors who neither seduced by nor convinced of the seductive effects of nimiety or explication, Partly this is because she is a poet, and partly it is because she makes characters who are at once individuals and archetypes, It is also because she is technician of the highest order, The restraint and control of the technique render the creation not flat but right,



The Brodies set were small girls firstly under the glamour of a woman who herself was glamorized by Fascism, by romantic death, by war, by myth, by the old songs, and of course by what she refers to as Goodness, truth and beauty.
Miss Brodie, who always said of herself that she was in her prime, was in love with Mr, Lloyd, the art master, but he was married, so she gave him up, Instead she had a love affair with Mr, Lowther, the music master. He tired of her amp married Miss Lockhart, the science teacher, After that, Miss Brodie concentrated on the eventuality of a love affair between Rose, one of her set, who modelled for Mr, Lloyd. She derived a vicarious pleasure from this, She confided in Sandy, another member of her set, We see Brodies determination to instill a love of art and beauty in her pupils, witness her defiance of educational orthodoxy and learn of her relations with a raffish art teacher and a shy music master.
We are also reminded of Brodies unstinting admiration for Mussolini, She is also, we are reminded, a charismatic fascist, She finds a vibrant charm in fascism, which according to her, carries an air of art, Although Brodie claims education is “a leading out of what is already there in the pupils soul”, she is actually a rigid dogmatist, firmly announcing that Giotto is the greatest Italian artist, and even a classroom pimp in her attempt to manipulate the sexual progress of her girls.
One of the novels achievements is the spare but realistic way that Spark maps out their sexual awakening, When first her set is devised, the girls are ten years old and on the verge of raising questions about their own sexualities, Miss Brodies hubristic desire for a heightened life the easiness with which lies come to her her cultural snobberies and limitations her desire for control and victory, reflects her faults.
Miss Brodie plans to control and manipulate the lives of her girls Brodies set, But you realize that Spark actually controls the narrative of the book through girls of Brodies set, We see a constant struggle of individuality of the girls of Brodie's with the collective identity of the set, to come out of the influence of Miss Brodie and to realize life on their own.


You are very fortunate in Miss Brodie, I could wish your arithmetic papers had been better, I am always impressed by Miss Brodies girls in one way or another, You will have to work hard at ordinary humble subjects for the qualifying examination, Miss Brodie is giving you an excellent preparation of the Senior school, Culture cannot compensate for the lack of hard knowledge, I am happy to see you are devoted to Miss Brodie, Your loyalty is due to the school rather than to any one individual,


The use of time to control the narrative of the book is second to none, which is not streamofconsciousness but the use of flashbacks and flash forwards, it is one of the delicious discomfitures offered by the work of Spark her swiveling proleptic use of time.
We see that the book keeps on moving to and fro in timeline as if the movement between the present and future is intercepted by uncertainties of the past, the glimpses of a tree is seen before sowing of seed.
This technique allows for certain, characterforming pieces of information to be revealed at opportune moments, rather than as they might have become apparent if the narrative was to follow a traditional chronology.
The author of the book cleverly uses duplication while moving effortlessly through time, the trick is quite masterfully used to manipulate the memory of the readers in way so that narrator does not leave his/ her readers and always guides the reader as he/ she wants.
This unique technique of Spark does not forclose upon suspense but rather tightens its momentum which underlines her might as an author, Spark also used laughter as one of the means of getting reality of the inescapable across her readers, The mortal relief in the universe is of laughter, Miss Brodie resorts to the rhetorical tricks and poses of staginess, the children resort to the self dramatizing and internal escape of daydreaming, There is an omnipresent third person narrator who controls the narrative of the book right through the end, One of the girls from the Brodie's set happens to write a book about metamorphosis of Brodie's set from commonplace, It is a coming of age psychology book about morality, it sows the seeds of skepticism in the mind of reader and you are bound to think whether this very book is the book which she writes, that's very smart and unique of Spark.




All of us have at least one such teacher who made us much of what we are, I came under influence of such a teacher aroundyears ago, he exposed me to classical literature and philosophy especially existentialism, nihilism and absurdism.
It underlines the power of this great book whose themes being, in their concrete specific evocation of the commonplace, wonderfully transfigured, unforgettable and universal, The book is technically beyond praise, The pressure it exerts upon mind is controlled by a guiding spirit that reveals to us the moral universe while affording the refreshment of laughter and revelation.
It is one of those deceptively thoughtful books which leave you baffled and sort of words with its undercurrent of themes which demand a careful study of the characters perhaps disquieted but not really with the intent to reread it, for you vividly remember what has transpired through the pages of this book but you are not sure whether you understood it the way it should have been or everyone has his/ her own understanding.
And probably Im not sure too whether Ive done justice to the book, for Ive not felt such helplessness to express what I feel,

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