Hello Anne. I am very pleased to again visit the site and see such engaging and recent conversation regarding Whittemore. I am only disappointed that I am joining, really reacting to, the discussion so late.

Anyway, the notion of historicizing Whittemore's world seems to me the first major step in situating his novels into some kind of ideological framework. It seems, too, a huge undertaking. His apparent knowledge and intentional weaving of the most obscure historical facts is still relatively unresearched. I suspect that each of Whittemore's characters, whether some historical archetype or synthesis of several historical figures, or an image of someone close to him, or formerly close to him, or Whittemore himself, conceals some relevance to a factual, documented individual. Each setting too, a situation crafted with an actual, but often manipulated historical event close in mind. That the characters and events often do not interact chronologically is only further testament to his craft. This, along with his rhetorical references to other works and his denunciation of, yet direct application of modern and contemporary theorists, Whittemore's world seems to reflect the random and chaotic (yet historically influenced) ideals as evidenced in Strongbowism. To consider the task of historicizing all four (or five) novels is enough discussion, or material for a website, for the present.

Again, I really enjoyed your and Jean-Daniel's discussion surrounding the creation of a website dedicated to historicizing Whittemore's world. I would be delighted to contribute.

Take care,
Joseph