April 2001
London, Ontario

A member of the Emily Chesley reading circle recently came into possession of the program of the 1929 Conference of Canadian Classic Onanists. The following are the notes of a paper presented at the conference by one Benedict Whitheredick. Marginalia in the program describes Whitheredick as "an amateur classicist of some note, that being a sour one, like a squeaky bean fart." The unknown note taker further notes the conference participants' puzzlement at Whitheredick' seeming preoccupation with "uncomfortable, scanty female underwear", "hairy Norsemen" and "the male member in its state of repose". A final note states that Whitheredick was overcome with some strong emotion ("besotted" our unknown scribe notes) and had to be removed from the hall before the conclusion of his presentation.

As yet Chesleyan scholars are unaware of the details of Whitheredick's life and the how or why of his apparent regard for Emily. Did he meet Miss Chesley sometime in his youth? Was he abused, perhaps as a child, by a particularly shaggy Northerner? We can but speculate on these questions while noting the sincerity of his feelings and the depth of his regard for Emily Chesley and her labours.

Mythos Canadiensis:
Or the True North Strong with She

Making a definitive statement about the work of a speculative giant such as Emily Chesley is happily beyond the capabilities of any one scholar, but certain aspects of the Chesleyan oeuvre are especially intriguing for classical scholars. This is due to Chesley's exceptional mixture of Greek and Norse mythic elements in her fictional forays. Examples abound in stories such as the "Beastly Bard of Belmont" with its clear equivalent to the myth of the cruel patriarch Kronos swallowing his own offspring to prevent his own ouster. Another would be the Brain Beasts of Blenheim Township the wavy, deadly hair of whose females cleverly plays upon the Medusan snake inspiration. And, at the risk of being exhaustive, the rapacious craving of the forsaken and lonely women in "The Serpent Women of Sigma Six" for the male appendage replicates the annual yearnings of the Amazons of ancient Greece for the fulsome phallic feeling. These obvious, surface mythic elements remind Miss Chesley's readers of the author's wide familiarity with an exceptional range of creative inspirational devices, but they are mere bagatelle's when set next to Miss Chesley's inspired use of mythic elements to portray her most basic notions about human nature.

Miss Chesley's fiction is unique for how she balances the Dionysian world of rough surfeit and spillage with the Apollionic notion of refined equilibrium and continence. Miss Chesley's evocation of the immemorial battle of these competing concepts of human behaviour is explored through her constantly reoccurring character, the unrefined, vulgar and hirsute Norwegian who peoples her tales with feats of sensual excess. Through this usage, the refined Miss Chesley (or Emily as I may be so bold to call her) shows her one frailty. In my estimation her genius betrays a disturbing and troubling tendency to attach itself to the Thor-Herculean model of manhood rather than exploring the, perhaps not so apparent but equally estimable and certainly attractive if they were just given a chance, intellectual representatives of mankind. Although often bespectacled and seemingly without that fervent flair of masculinity which Emily finds so admirable, she would be very surprised should she uncover the totemic regard such males can evidence for a perfect, fecund specimen of feminity. This is the focus of my humble endeavor this afternoon. . . [extract ends here]

--"Scholarship" by Mofkap