Feathery Language

The riddle of a delicate malapropism:

The tone of the story is one of Feevers uneducated voice of poverty with a cross of mystical undertones; in some cases the usage of “misused” and feathery language tends to read like a riddle. It open door ways in which the reader must determine from Feevers “Oracular proof” the truth to the unbelievable tale. Wesler remarks in a passage on 43 that he was a “prisoner to her voice. The voice could almost have had its source not within her throat but in some ingenious mechanism or other behind the canvas screen. The voice of a fake medium at a séance.”

The reader, like Wesler, becomes a “kaleidoscope equipped with consciousness” where the “the rest of the riddle you must answer at the appointed hour.” As the Wesler describes the performance of Feevers, as one in which occurs "in slow motion.. the suspension of disbelief."(17). Carter seems to be making a comparison about the impermanent and deceptive nature of illusion in relation to divine law. The essence of the world crafted by Carter is one between life and death, a moment, like the clock set to midnight that the dark angel stands beyond, is one where time stands still. This moment, perhaps the loss of Fevvers virginity, will be for Feevers, a time when the “clock outside will correspond to that registered by the stopped gilt clock inside. Inside and outside [will] match exactly, but bother [will be] badly wrong."(53)

Perhaps, “Nights at the Circus” then is a critique then on the temporary pleasures of desire and "ludric play", where the circus is only a “permanent display of the triumphs of man’s will over gravity and rationality.” The novel encapsulates an esthetic of unfinished suspense and surprise through the embodiment of Feevers who views her body as the “abode of limitless freedom” (34).

I recently went to the Whitney and they had a piece called the circus by Alexander Caldert. I found it related to the mechanical motions of time bring embraced by the novel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6jwnu8Izy0