Nights spent on Nights at the Circus

When I first started reading Nights at the Circus, I was intrigued by the vivacity of the characters and the descriptions and quirks; however, as I progressed through the book, intrigue shifted to confusion, which in turn shifted to frustration, intermingled with bits of curiosity and joy. I will explain.

The book was not an easy read at times. I probably read mindlessly over many Christian and Greek references because I, the average reader, have minimal knowledge of this part of history, and therefore minimal knowledge of their relevance. The language that Carter uses at times is also difficult to follow, and reading parts of this book without a dictionary beside it requires more intuition than actual understanding.

When told to read the book as a base for theory rather than as a novel, I started to pick up on themes throughout the stories. The abundance of femininity, whether questionable, subverted, backwards, picturesque, or freakish, is cleverly written and sneakishly presented. The "cage" theme is notable, but I am still questioning its importance and its subjective, contextual meaning. Performance is a huge and hugely interesting theme that brings about the base for many of the other themes, such as femininity and gender. Despite these depthy premises, I found the most interesting reads (the joy and curiosity) to be the subverted characters and carnivalesque moments.

My favorite piece is what comes after "The child's laughter is pure until he first laughs at a clown" on page 138. Carter subverts the clown and his performance to no end when she reveals their contempt for the audience's laughter at their role, profession, humiliation and invented faces. She goes on to subvert the clown's audience on 176 saying, "The clowns. See them as a band of terrorists," suggesting their bizarre appearance works to make them seem "on the safe side of terror" and that laughter at their acts stems from the suppression of fear instead of curiosity and ambition for a fun time. It is refreshing to read a concept that is turned so completely backwards and upside-down, and these backwards moments are the ones that lend the most information to the audience about the style of the story, if it can be read as one, and the character of the individuals beyond their roles and performances.

These moments made it almost bearable to read on through the allusions and awry, wordy, broken-up descriptions of which many seemed (seemed, to me, for now...) to serve mere descriptive purposes in the end.