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The Monster Deems Taylor
This essay on a famous man, whose name is not revealed until almost the end of the piece, is a study of monstrous conceit. Filled with biographical details that keep the reader guessing to the last moment, the essay concludes with a challenging view on the nature of genius: If a genius was so prolific, "is it any wonder that he had no time to be a man?"
Background information: • About the text: • This text first appeared as a radio talk, entitled A Monster. Later it was published with the title Of Men and Music in the United States in 1937. • About the author: • Deems Taylor, American musician and critic
Richard Wagner: German composer, born in Leipzig on 22 May 1813 and died in Venice on 13 February 1883. he did more than any other composer to change music, and indeed to change the art and thinking about it. His works are hated as much as they are worshipped, but no one denies their greatness.
瓦格纳（Richard Wagner，１８１３－１８８３年）：１８１３年５月２２日生于莱比锡。自幼喜爱贝多芬、莫扎特和韦伯的音乐，自学钢琴和作曲。同时，也受莎士比亚、歌德、席勒的戏剧影响，１５岁时就写了一出５幕的诗悲剧，晚年又受叔本华、尼采甚至弗洛伊德等哲学家的影响。１８３３年夏天在维尔茨堡担任歌剧指挥，并开始歌剧创作。１８４０年写成《黎恩济》，１８４１年创作了他的第一部歌剧代表作《漂泊的荷兰人》。１８４３年被任命为德累斯顿宫廷歌剧院指挥。１８４５年演出他根据德国传说所作的《汤豪塞》。１８４９年后，在国外流亡１５年。１８７５年完成了《指环》的全部写作，并于１８７６年８月在新落成的拜罗伊特剧院上演，获极大成功。其著名的作品尚有《罗亨格林》、《特里斯坦与伊索尔德》、《纽伦堡的名歌手》等。其著作有《论德国音乐》、《艺术与革命》、《未来的艺术作品》以及《歌剧与戏剧》等。１８８３年２月１３日逝世。他的音乐戏剧的舞台作品具有极为深远的意义，特点是都是由自己创作的（包括情节、人物、剧词、表现方法和音乐）。他对音乐形式本身从不感兴趣，只把它作为情感的和心理的表现手段而已。他彻底改革了作曲的技术，从而对音乐作为一种艺术的发展具有决定性的影响，并导致表现主义音乐的形成。
Analysis This text can be divided into three parts. • Part I describe a man who seems to have rolled all kinds of demerits into one, a real monster. • Part II clarifies who this monster really is, i.e. a famous musician by the name of Richard Wagner. • Part III justify all the peculiar behaviors of Richard Wagner. He, as “one of the world’s greatest dramatists … a great thinker … one of the most stupendous musical geniuses”, has every reason to be a monster
Part I paragraph 1-9 • 1. Does the man’s appearance, described in the first paragraph, give one any impression of “grandeur”? • No. He is a little man with the sign of illness, sick in both body and nerves. This is by no means an appearance that may bring one a sense of grandeur. Then what makes the man with such a poor look have “delusion of grandeur”? The only explanation is that he is a “monster of conceit”.
Words and expressions • Undersized: too small or smaller than usual, especially because of lack of growth. • Sickly: habitually ill, weak and unhealthy • a ~ person or animal is weak, unhealthy, and often ill • a sickly child / She looked pale and sickly. • especially British English a sickly smell, taste etc is unpleasant and makes you feel sick • A sickly smell clung to his clothes and hair. • a sickly color or light is unpleasantly pale or weak • The walls were painted a sickly green. a pale, sickly moon
Agony: very severe pain • the agony of arthritis (关节炎） • in agony • I was in agony. He groaned in agony. • a very sad, difficult, or unpleasant experience • It was agony not knowing if she would live. • agony of • He was in agonies of remorse （悔恨）. • agony column： a part of a newspaper or magazine in which someone gives advice to readers about their personal problems • agony aunt：someone who writes an agony column
And he had delusions of grandeur: and he had a false belief that he was a man of importance. • delusion: a false belief about yourself or the situation you are in • under a delusion (that) • He is under the delusion that I am going to cheat him. • delusions of grandeur • the belief that you are much more important or powerful than you really are • That sick man is under the delusion that he is Napoleon.
In what way was Wagner physically odd? • He had a short stature with a disproportionately large head. And he had skin diseases.
What are the further evidences of the monster’s conceit? • To prove his conceit, the second para describes him as so egocentric that he cared about nothing but himself; he had such a strong sense of self-appreciation that he saw himself not just as the greatest musician, polemist( 评论家） and philosopher, but also as the world’s finest living poet and playwright. And the third para tells that he never expected criticism or allowed disagreement.
What kinds of grammatical devices are used to emphasize the extreme extent of his peculiar conceit? • inverted sentence: Never for one minute did he look at the world or at people, except in relation to himself. • The superlative forms of adjectives: greatest…most …slightest…
conceit：an attitude that shows you have too high an opinion of your own abilities or importance • synonym conceitedness • He was a monster of conceit.--- He was an unusual person with excessive self-pride. • Monster: an imaginary or ancient creature that is large, ugly, and frightening / someone who is very cruel and evil /an object, animal etc that is unusually large • 音乐的天才
He had never cared about other people and things in this world if they had nothing to do with him. • He was often heard to boast of being a genius with a combined quality of Shakespeare, the greatest English poet and dramatist, Beethoven, the greatest German composer and Plato, the greatest Greek philosopher. • Roll into one: integrate several things or features into one. • She has became his assistant and secretary rolled into one.
William Shakespeare • Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1600-1601) • Othello, the Moor of Venice (1604) • King Lear (1605) • Macbeth ( 1606)
Maddeningly: very annoying • He moved carefully and maddeningly slowly. • Mania: a strong desire for something or interest in something, especially one that affects a lot of people at the same time. • 癖好，狂热 mania for • a serious mental illness
Why did he always take himself as the centre of his conversations? • He believed he was one of the greatest men in the world, a great composer, a great thinker and a great dramatist combined into one. A man of such arrogance cannot help but take himself as the centre of conversations.
He has an extremely strong desire of being right. 他狂热的相信自己总是正确的。 If anyone disagreed with him, no matter how small the sign of disagreement was and how trivial the point was, he would make a lengthy speech for hours to prove himself right...
… in the end his hearer was too tired and surprised to say anything, and would agree with him in order to stop him from talking. • Harangue: verb, to speak in a loud angry way, often for a long time, in order to criticize someone or to persuade them that you are right • harangue somebody about something • He stood on the street corner, haranguing passers-by about the stupidity of the forthcoming war. • N.: a speech addressed to a public assembly.
Volubility: ( derogatory) the characteristic of always being ready to produce a continuous flow of words, or being talkative 滔滔不绝，没完没了 Voluble: characterized by a ready and continuous flow of words; fluent; talkative • Ted’s a voluble speaker at meetings; he doesn’t give much chance to others to say anything. • For the sake of • 1) For the good or advantage of • 2) For the purpose of
Para：If anyone showed slight disagreement with him, he would make a lengthy and aggressive speech for hours to prove himself to be in the right. This would force his dazed and deafened hearers to surrender.
Para: He had never thought whether other people around him would have as great interest in him and his doing as he himself did.他从来不会觉得，对于跟他接触的人来说，他和他的所作所为并不是使人产生强烈兴趣而为之倾倒的事情。 • Vegetarianism: the belief or practice of a vegetarian who does not eat or does not believe in eating meat, fish, fowl, or in some cases, any food derived from animals.
Pamphlets: a very thin book with paper covers, that gives information about something • Cf: leaflet a political pamphlet • at someone’s expense: with someone paying the cost He had his book at his own expense. • At the expense of: causing the loss of He finished the job at the expense of his health.
What kind of versatile man is he? • Besides his activity as a composer and a librettist Wagner wrote an astonishing number of books and articles, in fact about 230 titles. His literary spectrum ranges from theories of opera to political programs. He has been classified as an anarchist and a socialist and, simultaneously, as a proto-fascist and nationalist, as a vegetarian and an anti-Semite… In fact, his name has appeared in connection with almost all major trends in German history of the 19th and 20th centuries.
How does the writer describe him as an emotional person? • He had a mood as changeable as a six-year-old child. For example, he would get mad when something was against his desire, and forget all about it when something pleasant happened. And he would be grieved on one occasion but become merciless on another.
out of sorts: feeling a little ill or upset; in a bad temper • Louise went back to work feeling rather out of sorts. • rave: talk wildly as if mad He raved all night in his fever./ Father is raving against the government again. • to talk in an angry, uncontrolled, or crazy way • rave at He started raving at me. • Raving : crazy
Sink into suicidal gloom: fall into a gloomy state which makes one wish to kill himself. • Sank into: gradually get into a worse condition ~ depression/poverty • Darkly: in a vaguely threatening or menacing manner 态度中带有威胁的 He spoke darkly of trouble to come. • Grief-stricken: overcome with, characterized by, or resulting from great sorrow 极度忧伤 feeling very sad because of something that has happened • The grief-stricken widow refused to leave her dead husband's side. cf: panic-stricken
Callous: not caring that other people are suffering, unkind, without feelings无情冷酷 • We were shocked at the callous disregard for human life. a callous attitude • Shudder: shake uncontrollably from fear, cold, or strong dislike • She shuddered at the sight of the dead body.
…he could be so merciless that even the cruel Roman emperor would have felt fearful. • Paragraph 6-7 • How was he financially supported? Did he earn himself a good living with his great talents?
He lived on others’ money. Through his wife, he found many benefactors, among whom King Ludwig II and Otto ～were two of the most generous ones. In 1864 King Ludwig II, his great benefactor, invited him to settle in Bavaria, near Munich, discharging all his debts and providing him with money. Another generous patron Otto~, whose wife was stolen away by Wagner, supported him economically by buying the publishing rights of his works. However, later it turned out that he had to give up his publishing rights because Wagner had sold them again to others. • Although these benefactors had provided him with a great sun of money and never got any repayment, Wagner kept ling in debts and in a narrow escape from being thrown into jail for debts because he was a lavish spender.
be innocent of : uninformed, unaware, ignorant; not guilty of a crime; not having much experience of the bad things in the world, so that you are easily deceived • He firmly believed that the world had to support him for a living. • Grovel: flatter, be shamefully humble and eager to other people, to praise someone a lot or behave with a lot of respect towards them because you think that they are important and will be able to help you in some way - used to show disapproval
Loftily: in a manner showing belief of being better than other people 傲慢地 • lofty mountains, buildings etc are very high and impressive； lofty ideas, beliefs, attitudes etc show high standards or high moral qualities - use this to show approval lofty ideals of equality and social justice；seeming to think you are better than other people - used to show disapproval • She has such a lofty manner.
Para: He wrote large numbers of letters to his patron begging shamelessly for money, but in a manner that it seemed to be an honor for the patron to be offered the chance to provide his support to him. That’s why he would be greatly offended if the patron refused to take this honor. • By the score: large number of, a great many
Whatever money coming into his hands he spent lavishly like an Indian ruler did. • Rajah: the king or ruler of an Indian state • Pressing: needing to be discussed or dealt with very soon, urgent 紧急，紧迫的 • Poverty is a more pressing problem than pollution. • Survival is the most pressing concern of any new company.
Para 8 • What is his attitude toward love? • It seems that he was a playboy. He divorced his first wife Minna Planer after 26 years’ marriage and stolen way other people’s wives, eg. Jessie, Mathilde, Cosima von ~, the last one was the wife of the conductor Hans Von, and Liszt’s daughter.
Unscrupulous: behaving in an unfair or dishonest way, having and showing no moral principles毫无顾及，不择手段，不道德的 • unscrupulous employers • Infidelity：disloyalty, unfaithfulness when someone has sex with a person who is not their wife, husband, or partner marital infidelity
Para: In his whole life, he had never stopped having affairs with women, who had come and gone like the marching of an army. A lot of women came into his life as a result of his pursuit, and were abandoned by him in the end.
Paragraph 9 • Why do you think Wagner made so many enemies? • The reason for Wagner to have made many enemies is also his conceit, because he could not tolerate anyone who disagreed with him, even over some trivial points like weather. He was under such delusion of grandeur that he would do anything to defeat them in order to defend his image as a perfect genius rather than keep them as friends.
Pull wires: use influence, esp. secretly , from people concerned with something one needs 暗中操纵，在幕后牵线 • He had to pull a few wires to get the job. • He would use influence from as many as possible secretly to meet some man who admired his works and was able and anxious to be useful.他会想法设法见到仰慕他作品的人，允许其使用自己的作品。
Caricature：a representation of a person in literature or art made so that parts of his character appear more noticeable , odd, or amusing than they really are.讽刺 • a funny drawing of someone that makes them look silly • caricature of caricatures of politicians. • Countable a description of someone or something that is only partly true and makes them seem silly • The report presents a caricature of the true situation.
Burlesque： speech, acting, or writing in which a serious subject is made to seem silly or an unimportant subject is treated in a serious way • He was still unsatisfied mocking him, therefore he invited the critic to his house and read him the libretto aloud in front of his friends.
这样嘲弄还不满意，他又邀请这位评论家到他家里，当着他的朋友的面大声朗读这一剧本。这样嘲弄还不满意，他又邀请这位评论家到他家里，当着他的朋友的面大声朗读这一剧本。 • Libretto：the words of an opera or musical play
Part 2 paragraph 10 • Why do you think the writer postpones the presentation of the monster’s name till the 10th paragraph? • Describing the features of this monster first without introducing his name helps the readers draw a picture of Richard Wagner faithful to the reality. Presenting Richard Wagner’s name first may interfere with their objective conclusion on what kind of person Wagner really was. Postponed appearance of Wagner’s name not only holds the reader in suspense, but, more importantly, inspires the reader to find excuses for all the monster’s demerits illustrated previously.
