Woman artist’s proper millionaire
Yet as if to prove it right or wrong there is another ideal marriage about to happen for nobody else but Leila. A whole chapter is devoted to the way this ‘proper’ marriage starts and the way it ends up. The XXII chapter opens with the most appropriate name and motto as if to introduce Mr. Right Man, the would-be husband of Leila, as ‘The Proper Millionaire’. He is the one who could most ‘happily’ tune in the album of Calvin Carter I Ain’t Got You, 1955.
I got an Eldorado Cadillac/with a spare tire on the back-/ I got a charge account at the Goldblat’s/ but I ain’t got you. XII/201
The proper millionaire is always referred to as Danny Doland from Dallas. The persistent triple D-alliteration may ironically conjure up the most ‘affectionate’ feelings towards someone who could drive a Porshe and be ‘tall, fifty, funny, and absolutely loaded’. Danny Doland from Dallas could as well be ‘the answer to a ten-year-olds’ prayers’, i.e. Leila’s twin daughters, who are eager enough to ask their Mom to marry him. Yet it is no mistake Leila has been ‘madly in love’ with Danny Doland from Dallas, which somehow spoils our concept of a business marriage. Yet what we experience is the cynical Jong’s account of what eventually went wrong. Danny Doland from Dallas who collected everything was on the top of it all willing to consider acquiring Leila, as well. And so he tried. And thus he failed. Leila proves she could not resist either his straightforward properness nor his being a millionaire. Being about to find her own inner-self Leila is absolutely furious to realize her life as a part of that collection, ‘the right art collection’.
On these grounds, it is perfectly enough for the woman artist to make up her sane mind and go home. Yet, at this final point Jong’s irony is still playing some tricks on Leila. Leila finds herself realizing her own despair at the most proper place - properly drunk, alone at the huge wine cellar of Danny Doland from Dallas. The revelations are linger around and make Leila drive home. This comes at just the right time for the famous woman artist to be picked up as a news-item, as a news-myth by making a hot headline in the New York Post or Time Booked for drunk driving in the Berkshires, noted artist Leila Sand pleaded guilty to charges of operating a vehicle under the influence 216/XII
Leila is stone cold sober enough at this point to rationalize and mock the press media myth-making tricks. What is more her social unadaptability motivates her to say ‘No’ to Lionel, a rich collector, money-addict and Andre’s close friend. Leila says ‘No’, although he is offering her twice her fee for a painting - and with no commission and ‘a nice little chance to beat the IRS’. We must note that this is the only instance where Leila’s art is literally appreciated in financial terms. The abundance of moneywise remarks are quite subversive in terms of the popular perception of the strong, influential woman artist. For a moment Leila is ‘tempted’ to accept it since she is experiencing the ‘cash-flow problems all artists experience now and then’. For a moment Leila is tempted to act like all artists do but she is also aware of her own principles which are far from ‘morality or patriotism’. Her woman artist ‘genes’ prove to be more stubborn. The woman artist in her appears stronger once again. She knows that Lionel is using her to beat Andre, that once again she is caught in a ‘male power play’ and Leila is definitely motivated to act on the side of all women artists, growing weary of their mythological status of being passive pawns in the male battles.
... and the truth is I don’t want to give Lionel this satisfaction. I’m sick of the way men use women as pawns in their battles with each other - and I don’t want to be manipulated even if it puts money in my own pocket. p.242/XV
What is even more annoying is Lionel’s clear disregard for Leila’s works. He barely ever looked at them. His abusing attitude finds its ridiculous explanation: ‘Paintings that good you don’t have to look at’, says Lionel. 242/XV.
It becomes evident that both Lionel and Andre - Leila’s dealer - are the symptoms of ‘everything wrong with the art biz’. They know nothing about art and had no idea what they liked, nothing but what sold and the more it sold for, the more they liked it. What is especially true of Andre could be easily transferred to Lionel as his double. It seems that Erica Jong’s narrative is fond of running parallels as if to double the trouble. For the sake of sharp contrast Jong is juxtaposing Andre and Van Gogh as polar opposites.
Andre will never be [Van Gogh] and therefore hopes he can either buy or destroy: inner fire, inner certainty, the driving force of a genius. 251/X. By the close of our ‘social review’ on money matters and women artists we could be pretty sure that buying an artist is equal to destroying her/him. This is made obvious by the either...or linkage and the first and only usage of the word genius in the text, referring to a male genius of van Gogh, though. The powerful play of the recurrent inner semi-rhyme liked/died is also very explicit of the wrongdoings of art business. If it sold a lot and the artist died, Andre liked it best of all. His idea of a perfect artist was a dead artist - preferably one who had died at the height of his fame. Hence the abuse of artists by art/money dealers as a pressing issue is deliberately exposed to subtle social critique in Jong’s narrative.
Perhaps it is no longer so weird that an artist is virtually an outcast and a rebel in such a society. We will be soon scrutinizing all the novelistic evidences that will further advocate this outcast life-style of artists. Although it is primarily adhering to the views and myths about artists of Romanticism but we will find out that they are however applicable to Post-modernism as well. The novelty is certainly the introduction of women artists who are quite eager to aspire to the realm once reserved to Kubla Khans only.
Copyright © : Iliyana Nedkova,1996-7
N.Paradoxa : Issue No.6, 1998