Agee's Judgment

I agree with David about Agee’s perhaps unfair analysis of the Ricketts, especially as concerns their fireplace, where Agee’s true opinion of the family seems to come to a head. His descriptions of the “intricate splendor” drip with sarcasm and judgment (174); and who would describe a sloppily assembled collection of calendars as a “bas-relief” (a sophisticated art term) of “white pulp” (a not very sophisticated medium)? The Ricketts are decidedly unfancy and undeserving of such a portrayal, and Agee’s insistence on describing them and their fireplace in this manner only mocks them.

The list, too, aside from confusing the reader, characterizes the Ricketts as some troop of senseless magpies who collect magazine spreads obsessively and indiscriminately: from images of extravagant meals and wealthy men to those of other poor families, ironically, by a supposedly cozy fireplace. Agee firmly establishes that the Ricketts’ fireplace is less than cozy, given that part of the wall behind it is missing and many of the windows are broken and poorly patched.

There are also phrases that, out of context, make little sense, such as “They Satisfy, Mexico Mexico, The Pause that Refreshes,” and so on (176). But in the footnote Agee reveals a telling fact: “These are in part by memory, in part composited out of other memory, in part improvised, but do not exceed what was there in abundance, variety, or kind.” In other words, everything he has just listed is to be doubted; their mantel may not be as ridiculous as it appears on the page, but it’s hard to get that impression out of your mind once Agee forces it in.

Of course, I could just be projecting my own cynicism on Agee’s writing. After all, he is not against teasing the Gudgers for their “carefully labored and inexpert” mantelpiece, “scarred with matches” and filled with a hodgepodge of cheap items (151-52). It just seems that the Ricketts get a rawer deal, as though life weren’t difficult enough for them. The arrangement of the magazine pages, the only art they can afford, is careful, deliberate; and Agee matches this in his diligence of recording it, only to reveal later that he probably made up half of it. But what does it matter – we get the impression, he says.