research log

Article Topic: Needs to be on a topic related to Melmoth (like bearing witness for example) as there are not many articles on this book yet. Please use an article from JSTOR. Also please use this type of format with the article youy pick that relates to Melmoth by Sarah Perry. No outside sources other than the one at jstor.

This is a sample log entry.
Date: 8/27/21
Stewart, Victoria. “The Auditory Uncanny in Wartime London: Graham Greene’s The Ministry of Fear.” Textual Practice 18.1 (2004): 65-81.
Summary: Stewart focuses on sound in The Ministry of Fear and argues that it is both a crucial feature of the “uncanny” and a central part of Greene’s novel (Stewart, “The Auditory Uncanny” 66).
Quote: “Only belatedly does Rowe fit together cause and effect, and realize that Mrs. Bellairs has mistaken him for another; such a delay, as I have already indicated, is characteristic of how both perception and understanding function in Greene’s novel” (Stewart, “The Auditory Uncanny” 69).
My Commentary: Part of this, I think, can be tied to RADAR. Perception isn’t enough. What is also needed is interpretation of the data. This process is not immediate and may help explain why Rowe experiences a delay in comprehension. He has to interpret the data he is given both auditory (Mrs Bellairs words) and contextual (the attempt to reclaim the microfilm from his house).
Question about quote and article: Sound delay is significant to understanding perception in the novel. But why this delay?
Quote: “Rowe’s telephone calls are largely cries for help rather than intimate social exchanges. However, the novel also occasionally conveys the sense of the telephone as a magical or uncanny instrument. […] Rowe takes some comfort from the very sound of the telephone bell, which signals sameness and continuity (although even this is, to some extent, undercut by his wondering about the sausage roll” (Stewart, “The Auditory Uncanny” 70).
My Commentary: Telephone serves multiple purposes in The Ministry of Fear, but it is not a tool used for social connection, as readers might expect. Instead, the telephone is tied to emergencies. In the novel it is also used to determine whether a house still stands after a bombing. If the phone rings, the house is still there, suggesting that life might still reside there as well. This is the uncanny part.
Question about quote: Could the telephone also be connected to RADAR — the process of sending out waves to determine if an object is there?

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