"What do you see, Madam" by Djuna Barnes, author of Nightwood (1917)

"Her world held rows and rows of dusty caned chairs, and over these, like migrating robins, the pink anatomy of the chorus -- hips thrown out against the painted drop, listless eyes that saw only supper, a new step, and once in a while, some other things. Mamie Saloam could go where she willed. She could stoop or look up because Mamie breathed true ambition and heroic drudgery.

When she passed the boundaries of decency, it was a full run for your money; when she went up in smoke, those original little pasty pans of Egypt became chimney pots. If Helen of Troy could have been seen eating peppermints out of a paper bag, it is highly probable that her admirers would have been an entirely different class." From "What Do You See, Madam?"

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes is a classic of modernism.  She has a cult like following, perhaps more talked about than anymore read.  I have not yet read Nighfwood but would like to one day.  I am today to be able to share with my readers a very interesting, no doubt a little shocking for 1920, one of her stories that can be read online.  Barnes was fascinated by the demi-monde world of New York City, in an era where the Bowery was a theater district, of sorts and the line between actress and prostitute was a bit blurry.  

Mamie is a young actress, playing the part of Salome in the story of John the Baptist.  This drama was popular as it gave theater managers an excuse for having women do sultry dances in brief outfits.  Theaters were policed by public decency groups.  Mamie is just beginning to feel the power of her sexuality.  It is when she glances at herself, from the back, in a mirror that she realizes she won't have to "eat cod from a paper bag" any more.  When the ladies of The Decency League comes in the manager of the theater asks them "What do you see, Madam?"

"What Do You See, Madam" is a very well done story.  It lets us see how Mamie feels.  I would have liked to have been front row center on Mamie's opening night and I could have told my wife I was at a theatrical performance of a biblical story.  

Link to the story on The Lodestar Quarterly  

(1917 is my guess of first publication date, if you have details, please leave a comment.

Please share your experience with Djuna Barnes with us.

Djuna Barnes was born on the 12th of June 1892 in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York. She began her career as a reporter and illustrator for magazines, under pseudonyms such as Lydia Steptoe, and Gunga Duhl, the Pen Performer. In the 1920s she lived in Paris with her lover, the sculptor and silverpoint artist, Thelma Wood. She was a member of the influential coterie of mostly lesbian women that included Natalie Barney and Janet Flanner. Although she wrote many plays, short stories, and poems, she is best known for her novel Nightwood, written in 1936. She died in 1982.  from Lodestar Quarterly Mel u

"What Do You See, Madam" by Djuna Barnes

"What Do You See, Madam" by Djuna Barnes (1932, 6 pages)


" If Helen of Troy could have been seen eating peppermints out of a paper bag, it is highly probable that her admirers would have been an entirely different class."  Djuna Barnes

I was looking at a very interesting and new to me web page this morning, Modernist Women.   It has great pictures  of Woolf, Mansfield, Rhys, Bowen  and numerous other writers, among them Djuna Barnes.

My second question to myself was (after I wondered how to pronounce her first name) what qualified her to be listed among the great women writers of the 20th century.   Of course I Googled her.

Djuna Barnes (1892 to 1982-New York City) is known now only for Nightwood (1936).    She has achieved the status of a minor cultural icon.    Barbara Harris, co-author of The Joy of Lesbian Sex (1977) said that the work of Barnes was  "practically the only available expression of lesbian culture we have in the modern western world since Sappho."    Barnes was once a very well known and highly regarded literary figure.   She was a friend of T. S. Eliot and James Joyce.   She lived a very long time and had a very interesting life.   Wikipedia has a very well done article on her life and works.   Her life reminded me a bit of Jean Rhys in that she descended into isolation and alcoholism in the closing years of her life.   Like Rhys,  one would have to say she profited by her looks in her early years and felt a sense of abandonment as she became older.  


I was happy to see that the winter 2005 issue of Lodestar Quarterly had one of her short stories online.    "What Do You See, Madam"  is about the back stage life of a dancer New York City in the roaring 1920s:

The Bowery, which is no place at all for virtue or duplicity, had seen Mamie try on her first fit of sulks and her first stay laces. They knew then that her pattern was Juno, her heritage Joseph, and her ambition jade. At the age of ten she had learned to interpret Oscar Wilde.

Mamie grew up in the theaters of New York city and had no illusions as to why men came to see her dance the role of Salome.    Unfortunately the Board of Decency has been advised that her performances may cross the line!     As the story opens the board is on their way to see her do a private show just for them.    I will not tell more of the plot here.    


"What Do You See, Madam" has some good lines.

When she passed the boundaries of decency, it was a full run for your money; when she went up in smoke, those original little pasty pans of Egypt became chimney pots.

It is worth the time it takes to read it.   I am glad I was able to sample her work.    She is for sure a GLBT icon right below Collete and Wilde.   


If you have read other works by Djuna Barnes, please leave your experience in a comment.


Mel u