Lesson Seven
The Libido for the Ugly
--- H.L. Mencken
Aims
1.
2.
3.
To know the author, Henry L. Mencken
To learn the writing technique of
description
To appreciate the language features
Teaching Contents






1. Henry Louis Mencken
2. Description
2. Detailed study of the text
3. Organizational pattern
4. Language features
5. Exercises
Time allocation
1. Background information (15 min.)
2. Detailed study of the text (120 min.)
3. Structure analysis (15 min.)
4. Language appreciation (15 min.)
5. Exercises (15 min)
Henry Louis Mencken
(1880--1956)
American educator, author, critic
*7image-123* Mencken图片
Henry Louis Mencken

His life

He was born and spent most of his life in the
city of Baltimore, Maryland. He was the son of
German immigrant parents. He completed high
school but did not attend university, only
graduated from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute
at 16. He became a reporter on the Baltimore
Morning Herald.
Henry Louis Mencken

A few years later, he joined the staff of
its rival newspaper, the Baltimore Sun
or Evening Sun, first as a reporter, then
as its drama critic and editor, a position
which he held until 1941.
Henry Louis Mencken

He helped to found and edit two literary
magazines which were highly influential
among intellectuals.
The Smart Set
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0895262312/ref=
sib_dp_pt/104-2478532-5338368#reader-page
2) The American Mercury
1)
Henry Louis Mencken

He was a central figure in American intellectual
life during the 1920's. He launched the most
cutting attacks of any writer against America's
middle class culture. He invented the
word"booboisie", combining the two words
"bourgeoisie" and "booby" (an awkward,
foolish person).
Henry Louis Mencken

In caustic, witty essays, he derided
(mock) the institution which supported
the
middle
class.
He
enjoyed
controversy and tried to arouse his
antagonists with his direct and
devastating attacks.
Henry Louis Mencken

1) He hated narrow-minded religion. He
believed strongly in intellectual freedom
and fought all attempts to censor
literature and drama. He felt that the
greatest threat of censorship came from
the country's religion "fundamentalists",
whose opinions were all based on their
interpretation of the Bible.
Henry Louis Mencken

2) He hated commercialism.

3)
He
did
not
support
democracy
because he considered the masses too
ignorant and greedy to exercise it wisely.
His works

Mencken's essays were received with
delight or horror, depending on the
reader's point of view, he was also highly
respected for his literary criticism and he
exerted a powerful influence on
American literature.
His works
The American Language 1918
 Prejudices
(6 vols) 1919--1927
 Happy days
 Newspaper Days
1940--1943 autobiography
 Heathen Days
 25 Books and thousands of articles

Henry Louis Mencken

He was a leading scholar in the field of
language. His monumental book "The
American Language"
is considered an
outstanding work of philology.
"The American Language"
a) It examined the development of the
English language in America,
b) It contrasted English and American
expressions and usage.
"The American Language"
c) It explained the origin of many
American idioms,
d) It traced the influence of immigrant
languages on American English.
"The American Language"

He made a large contribution to the
study of language and particularly
encouraged scholarly study of the
American branch of English.
His Style

He is well-known for his bombastic style
and acid tongue
His Style

He wrote with verve(strong feeling), gusto
(eager enjoyment) and exaggeration. His
exuberant and extravagant use of the
language was so amusing and startling
that even his most violently critical essays
became acceptable to his readers.
His Style

He employed a huge vocabulary and liked
to insert unusual or unexpected words, for
surprise or comic effect, into otherwise
normal sentences. Although his style is
occasionally difficult to read, Mencken is
still considered one of the best and liveliest
essayists of this century.
His Style


Bombastic style and acid language
 exaggeration
 hyperbole
 over rhetorical pompous
Language--- biting \sharp
The literary style

It is typical of description
*http://www.io.com/gibbonsb/mencken/*
Description

Description is painting a picture in
words of a person, place, object and
scene.
Description

It conveys the sensations, emotions
and impressions that affect a writer
experiencing a person, place, object
or idea. The writer describes what he
sees, hears, smells, feels or tastes,
and it often includes his emotional
reactions to the physical sensation of
the experience.
Description

The soul of description:
 minute details, specific concrete words to
appeal to the reader's sense of sight
 smell
 taste
 hearing
 touch
Description

How to develop description?

By space order

Things can be described from a moving
position through space

a fixed position in space
Description
A. The description of a person
1) a person's appearance
2) what the person does, says, how he
behaves to others to reveal the person's
character
Description
B. The description of a place
1) for its own sake, for the purpose of describing
it, such as on a visit to famous scenic places
2) for the purpose of revealing the personality
and character of a person
(A clean tidy room shows the occupant is an orderly
person)
Description
3) for the purpose of creating a feeling or mood

The howling of a chilly wind

The falling of autumn leaves help to build
up a sombre mood and increase the feeling
of depression.
Description
C. The description of an object
 WE have to depend on our senses.
1) You need to mention:
size
color shape
taste
texture smell
---- create a clear visual image
Description
2) You need to tell how it is used if it is
useful


What part it plays in a person's life if it is in
some way related to him
But emphasis should be placed on only one
aspect of the object, such as its most
important characteristics.
Description

D. The description of a scene
 When describing a scene, the writer
should try to create a dominant
impression. So before he begins to
write, he must make up his mind as
to what effect he wants the
description to achieve.
Description

three basic factors:

the setting
the people
 the action

Description

appropriate adjectives and
old
square
young
circular
short
triangular
thin
heavy
fat
large
kind
small
encouraging red
helpful
blue
adverbs
roughly
more or less
not very
fairly
extremely
approximately
about
just
Description

2 kinds of description:
1) objective \ impersonal



realistic
When topic is viewed from an objective point
of view, the writer paints a verbal picture of
the realistic world, like a camera.
factual words
Description

2) subjective \ personal


impressionistic \ emotional
The writer wants to share with the readers a
kind of dominant impression. The dominant
impression may be a sense impression or an
emotion
Description

emotional words


In this lesson, Mencken is very subjective and
personal. His description is strongly
impressionistic and highly emotional.
The dominant impression --- ugliness

Westmoreland is the ugliest place not only in
the US but also in the world.
Detailed study of the text

Libido --


Do you think it is a general word?
No. It is a specific word used in psychoanalysis
It is a technical term in psychology.
(Freudian)
Libido --Meaning –

1.
2.
psychic energy generally

specifically that comprising the
positive loving instincts
the sexual urge

strong desire, great passion, great
lust
Libido --Why does the writer choose this

term?

-- in order to give his subject
scientific coloring.
Why

He wants to demonstrate that what he
describes
has
psychological
and
scientific foundation. Usually, people
love things beautiful, but a group of
people in the US love things ugly for its
own sake (because they are ugly) Why?
There must be some scientific and
psychological reasons.
Pittsburgh –



*http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/ *
*7image-45*
A city in southwest Pennsylvania , It is one of
the most important industrial cities of America,
and a center of rail and river transportation.
Termed the “Steel City” of “Smoky City”, it is
the center of rich bituminous-coal region,
producing also natural gas, oil and limestone,
a large part of US steel and iron is produced
here.
Westmoreland county –

A county on southwest Pennsylvania

Its county seat is Greensburg. It is a
mining and manufacturing region.

*7image-6*
appalling
– causing fear, shocking, terrible,
dreadful
Something that is appalling is so bad or
unpleasant that it makes you fell disgust
or dismay


Some of these people live in appalling
conditions.
desolation – bleakness
A quality of a place which makes it seem
empty and frightening


Empty of people

Lacking in comfort
Here was the very heart …
1.
2.
3.
metaphor:
America
heart --- center of industrial
hyperbole : richest, grandest nation on
earth
antithetical contrast
Contrast

richest grandest region

hideous, bleak, forlorn scene
lucrative
– profitable, money making,
bringing in plenty of money
hideous
– very ugly, filling the mind with horror
bleak
– It applies to landscapes or houses, especially,

suggests a bare or unpleasant prospect.


the bleak, unpainted house that seemed
almost uninhabitable
the bleak, ice-encrusted mountains of the
Andes 安第斯山脉
desolate –
suggests an under populated starkness
1.

eg. only a few farmhouses strung out over
the desolated countryside.
suggests solitariness or friendlessness
2.

eg. a girl left desolate in the strange city.
无依无靠地置身于一个陌生城市的姑娘。
barren
--- suggests a complete absence of life

Barren rocks where the smallest shrub could
find no foothold.
连灌木都无法扎根的贫瘠的岩石堆

Uninhabitable and unfeatured landscape.
joke
--- if you say someone or sth is a joke, you
mean that they are ridiculous and not
worthy of respect.

His colleagues regard him as a joke.
aspiration
---
a person’s aspirations are their
ambitions or desires to achieve
something
unbroken ugliness
--- the ugliness is continuous and
uninterrupted

It is ugly wherever you go and look
agonizing ugliness
--- ugliness that caused great pain to
people who saw it

People could not imagine or
calculate the amount of wealth that
was to be found in this region. And
in this same region there were such
terrible and disgusting houses that
even homeless, mongrel cats would
feel ashamed to live in them.
lacerate
---
to hurt; to tear (the flesh, an arm, the
face) roughly as with fingernails or
broken glass.
pretentious
--- if you say that someone or sth is
pretentious, you mean that they
claim to be important, but you do
not think that they are important.
Para 2

Describe the houses more specifically
How many buildings did the writer describe in
details?
1.
churches, stores, warehouses etc.
= like a man’s face shot away
the houses
2.
a little church
= like a dormer-window on the side of a bare
leprous hill

dormer-window --- a window set upright in a
slopping roof
3.
the headquarters of the veterans of
Foreign Wars
the houses

a steel stadium
= like a huge rat-trap
What impression can you get?

shabby; ugly; hideous
in form
--- in appearance, shape,
geographically
It is thickly settled
--- in this area a great number of people
live closely together, but it doesn’t
give the impression of being
overcrowded.
If there were architects of any ….

It sarcastically emphasizes the fact that
there were no architects worthy of its name
in this region. There were no architects
worthy of the honor or the high standards
demanded of by its profession. If there had
been such architects they would naturally
have built Swiss-type houses which would
lie low and clinging to the hillsides.
Chalet

*7image-78*
Detailed study of the text

All the houses they built looked like
bricks standing upright.
clapboard –

AmE. weatherboard

A type of covering for the outer
walls of a house, to protect the
walls from rain

*7image-9*
dingy --- dirty and faded

these brick-like houses were made of
shabby, thin wooden boards and
their roofs were narrow and had little
slope
pier
--- a pillar of stone, wood, metal
etc. esp. as used to support a
bridge, or the roof of a high
building
preposterous
--- completely unreasonable or
improbable laughably foolish in
manner or appearance

How do people build the house on the
hillside?
How

The houses are compared to pigs
wallowing in the mud. Since these
houses are built on the hillside and set on
brick piers, one side is high and the other
is low. The low sides make them look like
pigs burying themselves in the mud.
perpendicular
--- exactly upright, not leaning to one side
or the other
precariously
--- unsafe, not firm or steady, full of
danger, unstable, hazardous
precariously


The climber had only a precarious hold
on the slippery rock.
Something that is precarious is in a
dangerous state or position because it
is not securely held in place and seems
likely to fall down or collapse at any
moment

它们东倒西歪地挂在不稳定的地基上
one and all
– all the houses, every house
streak
--- if something streaks a surface, it leaves long
stripes or marks of a different color on the
surface ; cover

His moustache was streaked with grey.

The sun is streaking the sea with long lines of
gold.

His face is streaked with dirt .
streak
n. --- line


Her hair had a very pretty grey streak in it.
eczematous –

Eczema
--- an uncomfortable skin disease which
makes your skin itch and become
rough and sore.
Detailed study of the text
All the house here are covered with dirt,
and some paint which is not covered up
by the dirt looks like dried-up scales (鳞
癣) formed on the skin by eczema.


每栋房屋都积上一道道尘垢，在尘垢的间隙
之间，还可隐约见到象湿疹的鳞癣一样的油
漆斑点。
patina = coating
the patina of an object is a fine layer
of something that forms or appears
on its surface


The books were piled high, with a
patina of grey-brown grease.
ridicule and irony

generally refers to the beautiful green
or greenish-blue color. Here Mencken
uses “patina” ironically to describe the
grime of the mills, the dirty smoke
from the mills
long past all hope and caring

an egg that had long past the time when
there was some hope that is might still
be edible, long past the time when
people were still concerned about it. It
was a thoroughly rotten egg.
red brick
---red
brick, even in a steel town, looks
quite respectable and dignified with
the passing of time.

Even in a steel town, old red bricks still
look pleasant.
uremia –

(urene + haima, blood) Greek
color= yellow greenish + black + reddish
award this championship
---sarcasm and irony.
I have given Westmoreland the highest award for
ugliness after having done a lot of hard work
and research and after continuous praying. I
came to the conclusion that Westmoreland had
the ugliest towns and villages only after visiting
and comparing many places not only in the U.S.
but also in other countries and after constantly
praying to God for guidance.
Pullman
a railroad car with private compartments
or seats that can be made up into berths
(a sleeping place) for sleeping. Its is socalled after US inventor, George M.
Pullman (1831-97)
Malarious

--- malaria-stricken area , mosquitoinfested
a disease of hot countries, caused by a
small living thing which enters the
blood when the person is bitten by
certain types of mosquito.
hamlet

--- a small village
tidewater
--- village near the sea affected by the
rise and fall of tides
Northern states

Maine,
New
Massachusetts,
Island
Hampshire,
Connecticut,
Vermont,
Rhode
Detailed study of the text
New England --- industry is declining
Utah, Arizona, Texas --- towns like desert



dark side of all those towns he had visited.

He mentioned those places to show his
correct judgment
Detailed study of the text

Newark --- in New Jersey

Brooklyn --- in New York

Chicago --- in Illinois

Camden --- New Jersey

Newport News --- Virginia
Detailed study of the text

Iowa and Kansas
--- villages are gloomy, abandoned by God

Georgia
– malaria-infested villages


Bridgeport. Conn. ---- Los Angeles
East ------ west
forsake --- abandon , desert

a fairly literary word
if you forsake a person or place, you
leave them when you should have stayed
or stop helping them or looking after
them.


Don’t forsake me in my hour of need!
Titanic – of great strength, size or power
aberrant
--- unusual and not normal, straying
away from the right path

aberrant behavior

~ ideas
uncompromising ---


firm, steadfast , rigid
when people are ~ , they are
determined not to change their opinions
or objective in any way
He was an ~ opponent of the war.
adv. They were uncompromisingly loyal
to certain fundamental values.
inimical
conditions that are inimical to someone
or sth. are hostile and harmful rather
than being friendly and favorable



hostile
unfriendly
in opposition
genius
–
used ironically to mean an evil genius,
having great ability to do evil
hell --
the powers of evil or darkness
grotesquery – n.


Strangeness, ugliness
grotesque
--- strange and unnatural so as to cause
fear or be laughable

very ugly in appearance == hideous

He was rather ~ to look at.
Strangely , unnaturally ugly

仿佛有一些对人类怀有敌意的，力大无
穷的恶魔，施用神工鬼斧的魔术，建造
了这样一些房屋
in retrospect
looking back towards the past 回想起来

His youth was more enjoyable in
retrospect than it had actually been when
he was going through it.
diabolical =
devilish; dreadful = diabolic


extremely unpleasant and annoying

It is used to describe something that
people think is caused by or belongs to
the devil.
concoct –

make sth. by mixing or combining
parts , make sth unusual
para. 6.

The reasons why they love such ugly
houses

Is it because they are igrorant?
insensate --
not capable of feeling

lacking in human feelings
Detailed study of the text

are the houses so frightfully ugly because
the valley is inhabited by a lot of
foreigners who are stupid and unfeeling
like animals and who have no love of
beauty in them?
“But in the American…”

But in the American village and small
town, the drawing power (desire) is
always toward ugliness and in that
Westmoreland valley people have given
in to this desire eagerly or almost
passionately
border upon --be very much like


Your remarks border upon rudeness,
sir! 先生，你的话简直是无礼。

The proposal borders upon the absurd.
该提议似乎荒唐可笑。
masterpiece – irony

It is hard to believe that people built
such horrible houses just because they
did not know what beautiful houses
were like.

Mencken uses “masterpiece” ironically
to say that the houses were so horrible
that no one could build worse ones.
antithesis

Libido for the ugly – libido for the
beautiful --
People in certain strata (social classes
or division) (sing. stratum ) of
American society seem definitely to
hunger after ugly thins, which in other
less Christian strata, people seem to
long for thins beautiful.
less Christian
= pagans – a person who is not a
believer in Christianity
Heathen

Atheist
Christians – long for things ugly


pagans --long for things beautiful


But the Christians are supposed to
have the qualities of love; kindness;
humanity; beauty
put down to
--- state that sth is caused by sth
(attribute to) 归因于

I put his bad temper down to his recent
illness.

His bad temper was put down to his
unhappy childhood.
deface
– damage, spoil the appearance pr
surface

if people deface sth such as a wall or a
notice, they deliberately damage it by
writing or drawing unpleasant or
offensive things on it.
inadvertence --carelessness, heedlessness


you do sth unintentionally without
thinking or without realizing

paying no attention to

by accident
obscene --nasty, dirty, lewd


wanton, lustful, indecent 鄙俗的幽默
感， 低级趣味

it is impossible to attribute the wallpaper
that makes the average American home of
the lower middle class look so ugly to mere
oversight (carelessness) or to the indecent
taste of the manufacturers.
unfathomable --- fml 难以理解

if sth. is ~, it is so strange or
complicated that it cannot be understood
or explained
= baffling
they meet … type of mind
--- these ugly designs in some way that
people cannot understand, satisfy the
hidden and unintelligible demands of
this type of mind.

他们用一些莫名其妙的方式满足了出自这
种心理的晦涩难解的要求。
enigmatical
--- enigmatic – mysterious, puzzling and
difficult to understand

既不可思议，又不足为怪

the love for ugliness of the people in
Westmoreland is
1.
mysterious to many people
2.
common, natural from their point of
view
dogmatic --- opinionated

Theology
--- the study of the nature of God; of God’s
influence on people and of religion and
religious beliefs
appreciable --- considerable
An ~ amount, distance, effect, etc is
large enough to be important or
clearly noticed.

There had been an appreciable percentage
of the university’s expenditure.
adv. The weather had turned grey and is
was appreciably colder.
mellow
--- become soft, warm, smooth esp.
worn so by time, soften
The Parthenon
A beautiful doric temple built in honor of
the virgin (Parthenon)goddess Athena
on the Acropolis in Athena around 5h
century B.C.
帕台农神庙 *image-11parthenon*
for its own sake

--- because it is ugly

for the purpose of ugliness
biology
--- the scientific laws of the life of a
certain type of living thing
biology contains two aspects:

1.
evolution
2.
degeneration
terms

--- conditions or requirements, specific
content
According to the terms of the agreements,
British ships will be allowed to take a limited
amount of fish each year.

根据协议条款的规定，英国船只每年的捕
鱼量是有限的。
---- What are your sales terms?
---- Cash
---- 你们的销售条件是什么？
--- 现金支付。
Provat Docent
--- privatdocent, privatdozent

In German universities, an unsalaried
lecturer paid only by his students’ fees
Pathological sociology --
社会病理学


the study of the disease of human
society
science dealing with the disease of
human society
in obedience to --Soldiers act in ~ the orders of their

superior officers.

军人服从上级军官的命令而行动
libido --emotional energy, sexual desire


a psychoanalytic term describing psychic
energy generally; or specifically basic form
of psychic energy, comprising the positive,
loving instincts and manifested variously at
different stages of personality development

精神能量的一种基本形式，包含积极的爱
的本能，并在性格发展的不同阶段中表现
出来。
passion
--- strong feeling or enthusiasm esp of love, hate or
anger


usually implies a strong emotion that has an
overpowering or compelling effect
He is filled with passion for that girl.
Love
--- warm, kind feeling, fondness, affection




implies intense fondness or deep devotion
and many apply to various relationships or
objects
brotherly love 手足之情
love of one’s work 对工作的热爱
sexual love 性爱
lust --- desire to possess sth



a desire, esp. as seeking unrestrained
gratification, to gratify senses, senses, esp
sexual desire, evil desire
He is filled with the lust of power. 他充满着
权利欲。
~ for money/ gold/ power
hideous –

ghastly, frightful, ugly, grisly, unsightly,
loathsome, uncomely, monstrous, revolting,
unlovely, appalling, misshapen, unseemly,
plain, horrid, repellent, bad-looking,
dirt
– a general word, meaning any unclean matter, as
mud dust, dung, trash, etc.


His clothes were covered with dirt.
How can I get the dirt off the wall?
filth
– very nasty dirt, and applies to that which is
disgustingly dirty; disgusting dirt, obscenity

Go and wash that filth off the floor.
soot
--- black powder produced by burning and carried
into the air and left on surfaces by smoke


You’d better sweep the soot out of the
chimney.
The soot and grime of big manufacturing
town have polluted the air.
grime
--- dirt esp a coating on the surface of sth or on the
body

You look at her face covered with grime and
sweat.
Organizational pattern

Section I (para 1~2)

the general impression of Westmoreland
rich and ugly
Organizational pattern

Section II (para 3~5)

the description of the design and color of
the houses
Organizational pattern

Section III (para 6~8)

the reason and cause why the people in
Westmoreland love such ugly houses
Organizational pattern

Section IV (para 9)

Conclusion
 Mencken is being very critical of the American
race and the American society, which hates
beauty as well it hates truth
Language features:
1.
2.
choice of words
over-rhetorical
images:
metaphors
similes
hyperboles
structure:
repetition
antithesis
parallelism

As far as description is concerned, he
defeats his own purpose by the over
use of rhetorical devices.