Je Ne Sais Quoi: Dealing in Subterfuges

Over there on the right, in the list of links to other sites, you’ll find a category called “Je Ne Sais Quoi.” Per the American Heritage Dictionary online at the Bartleby site, this phrase — literally, in the original French, something like I know not what — means, “A quality or attribute that is difficult to describe or express.”

I came up with that category because every now and then I come upon a site which is so striking — in its writing or conception, not necessarily its look — that I know I’ll want to revisit it from time to time, if not daily, just to see what its proprietor might be up to at the moment. Often, these sites lead me (through their blogrolls, especially) to other such sites, and I come to realize that the site I first found isn’t unique at all. It may not even be the “best” (whatever that means) of its type. But the first one goes into the Je Ne Sais Quoi basket anyway, where I expect it to stay.

The very first site for which I couldn’t figure out a decent other category, and hence came up with this one, was the “Dealing in Subterfuges” blog, written by the pseudonymous “Jordan Baker” — perhaps (but not probably) coincidentally, a character in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

Here‘s what the Cliff’s Notes site says about the original JB:

Professional golfer of questionable integrity. Friend of Daisy’s who, like Daisy, represents women of a particular class. Jordan is the young, single woman of wealth, admired by men wherever she goes. She dates Nick casually, but seems offended when he is the first man not to fall for her charms. Although she is savvy, she comes off as somewhat shallow in her approach to life.

One of those on-line “study aids” sites, enotes.com, says she is “an important feminist character” and adds:

From a modern-day perspective, The Great Gatsby’s Jordan Baker seems a bit ordinary – a typical modern woman. To the novel’s original audience, however, Jordan’s behavior and attitude place her one step away from scandal.

As for the blog title itself, “Dealing in Subterfuges,” the following is from the end of Gatsby:

Perhaps some unbelievable guest would arrive, a person infinitely rare and to be marveled at, some authentically radiant young girl who with one fresh glance at Gatsby, one moment of magical encounter, would blot out those five years of unwavering devotion… [This young girl] wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage, and given this unwillingness I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuge when she was very young in order to keep that cool insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard jaunty body.

You get the idea, I think: the Dealing in Subterfuges blog is written by a woman with — cliché alert!– attitude. Indeed, “attitude” seems hardly to do it justice. (What does “attitude,” “class,” “brains,” and “great writing” add up to, after all? See? Je ne sais quoi.) “Cool insolent smile” pretty much sums up the online Jordan Baker’s preferred (albeit not only) persona.

A recent post there, one about weddings, is typical. I’ll let you enjoy the entire post at your leisure, but for now, the following is a classic “Jordan Baker” paragraph:

I’m not going to go into my feelings on registries here, mostly because they’re too conflicted. I vacillate between being totally opposed to them (what, you think you get a prize for getting married? Your love won’t be complete without the Virginia Punch Set from Crate & Barrel? You’re not going to make it for richer or for poorer on your grandmother’s china? Your father can’t afford three yonge goattes and halfe of his layndes, so your friends have to dower you?) and being in favor of them for entirely selfish reasons (if I ever get married, one of my friends or near relations had goddamned well better show their love for me with a KitchenAid stand mixer).

I don’t know which phrase in that rant made me laugh the most. But I’m pretty sure it was the Chaucerian “yong goattes and halfe of his layndes,” which caught me completely by surprise and, with its lilting, genteel effect, ensured that the closing parenthesis would truly unhinge me.

Reading between the lines of her blog entries over the last few months, I gather that this “Jordan Baker” is a teacher of English, somewhere in the Washington DC area.  Wherever she is, whatever she does for a living, I hope she’s taking good care of her writing — as well as her insolence. God knows, the woman has a gift.