THE STATE OF LETTERS ESCAPE AND ESCAPISM VARIETIES OF LITERARY EXPERIENCE ROBERT B, HEILMAN res ms a ae i, cei ye SES r hea pe Er em eo, Ac nk term in ion from related terms ancient (escape) and modem ee es eee rie erm ae Source aie iiaeetcitnes Sates bree peered Seem inn wend aes Peo nee Scetes S ESSE gee lil wcll Sone eee ee te Sabena eer ‘The simplest ion implied by escape literature is much older eee a eee gee oy tance Sg bem le ees si eee og cs ne arte oe er ae Shiota remy ce teat ct fel engi Oy poe en ert ia aces Tet te ee ee Soe ee eee reuse es neo pe Be ety eee ees Cotas cue oe ah oat na ae Se ore cee eee eaten peop eg ee ig ee reo ence cae I a ey lo acy weed yobs Seis tee ae tut iat ake the broads possible perspective and thik of exc erature Tato phase of tho grett perennial hua att of tecnpe A Historian Could wate istry of expe, he would Rat iit hotnteonne nd (or dernd) tis of men ooking safety from many dangers, I shall rly onthe vary uefa440 ‘THE STATE OF LETTERS evidence of aitionaries that either record changes in meaning. ot roveal changes by what they include or do not inchide. If we run through any historical detonary we find tht escape has long meaat ‘departure from tangible souroct of distress end disaster! nccidents, threats, epidemics, unfriendly animals, premature death in various forms; enemies of whatever hind were given to besetting ‘ws al, cast and towers, prison camps: itary action, amiss, ai booby traps, duel, pursuits, hres, foods. These terms expand and gecaionally update the base dentin of evap inthe Funk sed Wagnalls unabridged dictionary of 1925; the whole arena of action recorded there is physica. Since then we have seen new variants of the old pattems-new physi fights from oppressom, sadists an power, and offical murderer; we have learned about escape routes, “ndergrounds, mass emigration, the hazardous penetration of intr ‘ational curtains rel and sinfster deeds. $0 the lxico- ‘7uphic record of escape takes on some new hes. Anyone will thnk ‘oF escape mechanism, escape hatch, escape valve. ‘There Is also “es, ‘ape velocty"=the speed needed to go beyond gravity. “Ext velocity 175 ey “scape welt” bt capi ot pe he wn ring metaphor, T inode: inevitably the counter idea of retait, ‘constraint, unfiendly puluck: the eth as prison, gravity es prison, We al scm to be geting a more seasitive dread of the experience Aescrbed by Wordawortht “Shades ofthe prisonhouse begin to close! ‘pon the growing Boy.” ‘Tn fact the point that noes emphasis is that escape has become popular IF we call an event an escape, we testify that i s ‘epoca dnteesting, ‘Newspapers regularly feature stores on “my tape Bom, ae" Ainay tnplng ow ive Hany logs reveals the publishers conviction that escape sels. As early as 1026 there yas an cseape “irom the Primitive perhaps then a Victorian bias toward the cvilized stil helped mould'« buying public, In, 1040 there was an escape “from Feat” (shades of FDR), and the book did ‘well enough to be essued in 1958. In 1041 the ttle phrase was “Erm Freedom the book reappeared in 1968, perhaps meant to appeal to ‘the revolutionaries of that era, In 1058 ie was "from Hell’ here the Second metaphor doubtless referred to some circumscribed evil, but {teso tnages an extensive realm to be free from. In 1961 we learned hhow to eaape “fom Autharity", that was about tho tne T attended ‘conference of professors and. professionals of various sorts who, in isang an aie aati theme, managed dred many fin ea oF theory by asocating it with “author.” At the end of the ‘ecade someone was helping us excape "from Power’~an understand- She getaway in 1985, though the book probably meant power inTHE STATE OF LETTERS 441 ‘lfce rather than inthe strets. Soon after, a rush of escape tiles gives usa clue to various historical moments: 1970, “from Addiction”; 1971, “hom Marriage", and 1972, not only "hom Anarchy” but also “rom tho Dolfs Houe’=from monarchy or worse, doubles. Escape, os: ‘eipe, escape: the point is nat what isin the books but what thelr ‘dat jackets promise. Since publishers have noses fr title that sell, we may be sure of tho chain of the escape metaphor. Has the Age of Anxiety been une Gergoing a metamorphosis ato the Age of Claustrophobia or the Age ‘of Paranoia? Do we sense needlessly enclosing walls everywhere? Or mins foes ‘surounding Hemming wy imprint e- Diving us of ficedoms with wich we ate, or believe we should be, fendowed? Do we create these forces, or enlarge them, by an act of imagination? Does the apparently intensifying pasion to escape re veal a malfunctioning in the world? Or perhaps in ourselves? A {etion something like this was raled by the Pimes Literory Sup plement in January 1952. “Is escape Iteratre{here, stories about es. Se ae eH ae sare of “Ment valu the “only-a few" of such stories are of “Hterary valve, reviewer wonders whether we readers of escapo stories tre not in. {ying ourselves “withthe heroes toa greater extent than we vedlize” ‘Then he asks a key question, “Do we all regard ourselves as prisoners and do we all wish to break out?” If so, ho adds ely, we have problem: “For us the land of freedem wo wish to reach is pot so Clearly determined as it was for them.” “The irony of escape as value, even though the whenee and the whither remain vague, i finely reflected in the te “Escape from Destiny” (1967). "Ther the whole sry. If we escape from destiny, ‘we are freed fom al preses and etsint: Nothing determine oF, better, nothing is opt, presumably, personal ‘wil adbbing now liberties fromm moment to moment. Estead of & compulsory fate, there is only an omnipotent I contiually choosing ‘in unrestricted freedom and always with a “Hght to" whatever fs chosen, (As Gere Hino tracuntly ober, we “ave yet tom ta absolute bert [ike able power] may a cent shoohtely™) Unrestricted freedom means feedom without end, too; ‘one of these days someone is gong to crystallize the greatest and "Te Bah Mca Gena! Callow of Printed Bock it a suriingly sal number of “scape” i: “rom be Paneth (130, "a ‘Tod (1885, tom War-Tine Prem Care” (189) W ch nts ar vl, ‘Termipit conde thatthe eae not more depy rote i te Aerie ‘Cesc tan in the Eni Thr won be Maton ndentadae a ‘Sony te wBeh ont mgt wee map