The Power of Narration

Telling stories is part of human nature.  When trying to make sense of the world, it's easiest to take events and sequence them.  By plotting these events, people are then able to give it a story.  Stories exist in our beliefs, history, morals, and songs.  Our need to hear and tell stories has never changed; in "Beloved" by Toni Morrison and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer, characters suffer from painful memories of past tragedies, ultimately displaying the need for narration of the horrors they suffered.

In "Beloved," Sethe struggles with her thoughts of Sweet Home and tries repressing the trauma of her past.  When Paul D shows up, Sethe slowly begins to talk more about her past with Beloved and shows that the act of story telling can be therapeutic. In a conversation with Denver, she asks, "What were you praying for, Ma'am?" "Not for anything. I don't pray anymore. I just talk," (Morrison 43). Sethe goes onto talk about rememory; something from the past a person can still bump into in the present. "If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place--the picture of it--it stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world," (Morrison 43). Morrison's discussion of rememory is a term to describe something I never knew how to explain but understood--history is amongst us, so if people still experience things of the past, the need to narrate such events will remain as well.  Sethe begins to try and say the once unspeakable circumstances of her life, and with that comes the painful act of revisiting the past and addressing it's stories.

Similarly, in "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" three different narratives are given that display more examples of painful narratives being shared.  Oskar's grandfather becomes unable to speak after losing the love of his life, Anna.  Instead he resorts to daybooks and tattoos for his everyday communication.  He then also writes letters to his son, whom he has never met. In these letters he tells a series of stories to his son; the fact that he never receives any of these still do not prove useless.  For it is in the writing he finds a way to give narration to the pain he has suffered and is able to reconnect with his wife and grandson.

Repressing thoughts and feelings of pain, can only lead to innate suffering.  The stories of the past can weigh a person down if not expressed. It's a burden no one should carry, but instead share.  Narration provides a voice to what can seem unspeakable tragedy, therein providing a way for people to better understand themselves as well as others.

Tragedy and the Late 20th Century Novel

The books we have discussed an analyzed in this class in many different ways have explored the themes of man-made tragedy in American Society that have scaled from the Cold War to the most recent and still very much sensitive 9/11 tragedies. Although focusing on very different aspects of American history and American society, the protagonists of Don DeLillo’s White Noise and Jonathan Safran Foer’s ‘Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close’ have many differences but share a common ground: the fear of death through extreme tragedy out of their control.

                “The airborne toxic event” that occurs in ‘White Noise’ soon turns into “the black billowing cloud” the use of language within this passage highlights the increase of fear amongst the general public in an event that they have no control in that is manipulated by the media in order to create a reaction. Throughout the passage the media produce symptoms of illness that are allegedly caused by the “black billowing cloud” is this real or is this simply the media creating a placebo effect?  Within this chapter Jack loses his sense of control, he believes that disaster does not happen to people like him, he desperately desires his dark gown and glasses that infuse his masculinity and make him feel protective, nor do things happen in places such as Blacksmith; his small college town. DeLillo’s ‘White Noise’ conveys this idea of ‘the modern death’ the idea that as technology advances, so does our chances for different forms of mortality, for instant toxic pollution and terrorist attacks, however that also means there is are new ways to prolong life.

However, Oskar portrays a very different outlook towards tragedy and death, due to the loss of his father in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center he has developed many different coping mechanisms that in many ways hold him back from living his life, these including the rules. Rules such as not going into a large building past the ninth floor and also the idea of being able to tell if a loved one is in ambulance and if so how serious the incident is, the fear of tragedy repeating in ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’ haunts Oskar and his life for the majority of the book.  It is through his coping mechanisms such as his book “Stuff That’s Happened To Me” and his engagement with The Blacks that helps him overcome these fears of immediate tragedy and the fear of losing another significant other and that allows him to communicate his emotions that bring him closer to his mother and grandmother.

Overall, both authors comment upon how our society now lives in a culture of fear due to the events and tragedies of the 20^th and 21^st century.

Foer/Pynchon on Artificiality and the Authentic

Pynchon served as a great introduction to the postmodern problem of distinguishing between the authentic and the artificial.  Pynchon playfully toyed with the concept in inventive ways, primarily by making the reader as lost in discerning authenticity as Oedipa Maas.  For instance, Pierce Inverarity’s estate included a resort which contained an artificial lake that possessed the actual remains of dead sailors and sunken ships at its bottom.  Later on, Oedipa finds an important clue for her investigation of the Trystero in the form of an inscription on the lake which made some reference to a battle that may have occurred there.  Pynchon obviously does not remind us that it is an artificial lake, and the reader is left guessing as to which clues are valid and which are not.  Jonathan Safran Foer also addresses this issue of authenticity versus artificiality, but he does so in a much more transparent manner.  For instance, when Oskar’s father tells the Sixth Borough bed-time story, he is silent on the actual reality of the Sixth Borough, but mentions that “there is an abundance of clues that would give the wanting believer something to hold on to (221).”  At this moment and at other times, Oskar’s father essentially implies that the content is really not so important as long as the approach is conducted in an energetic, inquisitive manner.  At one point he tells Oskar to “never stop looking.”  While this would seem to contradict Pynchon’s postulation of general indeterminacy, The Crying of Lot 49 actually does provide a series of metaphors elaborating on how one must go about sorting through the chaotic mess that is modern civilization.  Maxwell’s Demon, for instance, represents one such metaphor for active engagement with the world in order to parcel out its difficulties.  It is interesting that this so neatly coincides with Thomas Schell’s advice.  I wrote a lengthy portion of my Pynchon paper detailing the importance of “mental work” for Oedipa and her attempt to sift through the modern world/Inverarity’s estate.  It is very surprising that Foer provides almost the same advice through the voice of his most sagacious character.  Furthermore, it is important to note that Oskar embodies this advice to a far greater degree than Oedipa, and this may explain the closure he finds and that constantly eludes Oedipa.

Identity in Contemporary American Novels

                One thing that I enjoyed about the literature we’ve read throughout the course is the treatment of identity.  Contemporary American literature has taken on issues of race and multiculturalism and drawn attention to whiteness in a way that hadn’t been addressed before and still need addressing today.  This can be seen in Tropic of Orange which looked at the complex connections between several individuals in Los Angeles and Mexico.  Each person was a composite of various stereotypes but with their own individuality emerging through.  Tropic of Orange draws attention to a struggle which sees people have difficulty reconciling their personal identity with the identity that is applied to them by others.  This can be seen in again in Woman Warrior while the narrator attempts to find her identity in both a Chinese and American context.  These novels are significant because they don’t treat race as a simplistic issue.  Race is presented as part of a person’s identity, particularly in the way that others perceive them but not as the only way in which the character can be understood.  Race is portrayed as an inregal part of the way a person is shaped though defining a person only by their ethnicity is can be at conflict with the individuality of the character.  This can be seen in the character of Emi in Tropic of Orange who frequently says outrageous things that mock multiculturalism in spite of the fact that she is a part of it.  The girl in Woman Warrior’s identity is driven by her rejection of her mother’s values despite the profound influence that they have on her.  These narratives are important to the American landscape because they represent the uniqueness of the American people.  Yamashita and Kingston both portray race’s complexity rather than simply understanding white as a neutral quality while ethnicity as completely in control of a person’s sense of self.  These authors demonstrate this issue through the construction of their characters who represent these problems of identity which are increasingly relevant to contemporary Americans.  This is especially true of women who did not have as many opportunities to have their voices heard before the feminist movement in the 1970’s.  I enjoyed reading novels in which the subject matter seems even more relevant to cultural identity today than it was when the authors wrote were writing. 

The Confusing Distortion of Imitations and Originals in DeLillo's White Noise and Morrison's Beloved

One intriguing aspect of the late twentieth-century American novel is the strong emphasis on the imitation, often more so than on the original.  In Don DeLillo’s White Noise and in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, there is a particularly pronounced postmodern confusion between what is original and what is imitation, and this indistinctness creates chaos for the characters as they struggle to understand who their authority figures are. 

In White Noise, for instance, the Blacksmith SIMUVAC crew is in charge of simulating evacuation in case of a real emergency.  When there is a real emergency, though, in the form of the “black billowing cloud” (DeLillo 115), SIMUVAC “use[s] the real event in order to rehearse the simulation” (DeLillo 139).  This blurs the lines between what is real and what is simulation, because as long as the SIMUVAC people are actually evacuating people from a dangerous situation, they are not performing a simulation, but rather executing the actual evacuation.  By naming the evacuation as a rehearsal for the upcoming simulation, however, SIMUVAC privileges the simulation over the authentic emergency, creating a disorienting tension between the SIMUVAC team and the actual evacuation team as the primary authority figures.

            A similarly disorienting blurring of the real and the imitation occurs in Beloved, but on a more personal level, between Sethe and Beloved.  As Beloved spends more time with Sethe, Beloved becomes more and more like Sethe, imitating the way she talks, laughs, walks, gestures, and sighs (Morrison 241).  This imitation becomes so intense that it becomes “difficult for Denver to tell who [is] who” between the women (Morrison 241).  These similarities are not troubling as long as it remains clear that Sethe is the mother – the original face and personality – and Beloved is the imitation.  As soon as Sethe becomes compliant to Beloved, however, and allows Beloved to bully her into submission whenever she tries to assert herself (Morrison 242), the clear distinction between Sethe’s original actions and Beloved’s imitative ones becomes muddled.  It is at this point that the fusion of the two women’s identities becomes chaotic and upsetting because no one in 124 knows who holds authority in the house anymore.  Denver becomes confused and upset to see the mother who has been her primary authority figure her whole life serving the young woman Beloved (Morrison 242), but although she is familiar and comfortable with having Sethe as her main boss, she soon acknowledges that Sethe is no longer a responsible mother.  At the same time, though, Denver refuses to behave as a subordinate to “a girl not much older than herself” (Morrison 242), so she rejects taking orders from Beloved, either.  As a result, with Sethe and Beloved locked in an indistinct relationship in which neither is entirely leader nor entirely follower, Denver becomes disoriented and unsure of who to turn to for guidance.  

            In both White Noise and Beloved, the confusing inversions and distortions of originals and imitations leave characters disoriented and unsure of whom to turn to for guidance.  

Is this the real life, or is it just fantasy?

Surrealism is a major theme in late 20th century literature. All of the novels we read and discussed in class this semester have some aspect where reality is skewed. Perhaps the two most prominent examples of this are Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and Morrison's Beloved. 

In Pynchon's novel Oedipa goes through several scenes that sound as though they are described by a drug induced high (which is slightly in keeping with the post-war time period in which the book was set). These scenes make the audience, as well as the characters themselves, question reality. In the book Oedipa climbs a ruin at a lagoon after stealing a boat--this could be interpreted as something fantastical that can happen in a fiction novel but as Oedipa herself has said, it could simply be one of her hallucinations. The fact that these things happen and it is left ambiguous as to the reality of the situation is an example of surrealism as a theme. Even when Oedipa is having her hallucinations one could argue as to whether even these are real. The audience and Oedipa seem to have no idea.

Morrison's novel offers even more fantastical characters and situations. The idea that Beloved is in fact Sethe's baby daughter (grown up and turned into an emotional succubus no less) is an example of surrealism. The ambiguity as to who or what Beloved really is fits the theme I've been discussing. Even Denver's going deaf after hearing a simple question could be questioned as real or unreal. The book builds off these surreal scenes and characters and even the ending, Beloved possibly being pregnant and disappearing, leaves the audience as well as characters questioning the reality of the events. The fact that at the end of the novel everyone in the town seems to forget about the events involving Beloved also seem to speak to the surreal aspect of the book. It seems to make one question whether Beloved ever existed at all or was only a metaphor or figment of imagination.

The theme of surrealism and defining what is real and what is not is something that we covered in all of the novels we read this semester. The ambiguity as to what is happening helps to keep the reader and characters guessing.

Letters: Pynchon and Foer

 Letters and the act of physical written communication that they represent have been a concern of several of the texts we have read this semester. In the contemporary world, letters have become relics, antiquated remnants in an age of communication that is largely electronic, immaterial. Letters are physical, and the letter exists in a liminal space between author and recipient; in fact, it seems to contain a piece of the person who has written it, and we might all acknowledge the humanity inherent to the form. Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close each present different treatments of the letter, Pynchon’s postal service identified with esoteric conspiracy, Foer’s with the unspoken words at the core of the individual.

Stamps become a mark of the absurd, arbitrary conundrum that is the postmodern condition in The Crying of Lot 49. Pynchon’s novel was, however, published in 1965, a time when the letter was still a major mode of communication between individuals. Conspiracy, or allegations of conspiracy, surround postal systems, paranoia attached to the most benign, the everyday—which may have something to do with historical context: the Cold War, McCarthyism, the Reds, an unknown enemy hiding behind every corner, in the most simple form of the everyday: the letter, the mail, the post. Are papers carried around by a man who appears to be homeless really a subversive act of postal sedition, a manifestation of the W.A.S.T.E. system or the nefarious Trystero? The novel is particularly concerned with control of communication, eavesdropping in said communication, and the dissemination and exchange of information between individuals. What does it all mean—something? Nothing? A third of the way through the novel, this quote appears, in the context of a farcical play: “It is about this point…that things really get peculiar, and…ambiguity begins to creep in among the words” (Pynchon, 55). Ultimately, no answers will be provided.

Foer provides a divergent characterization of letters; Pynchon is unrecognizable. In Foer’s novel, letters fill coffins—letters constitute the individual, and allow him or her to express things impossible in speech. Within a letter, Oskar’s grandmother recalls a letter her own grandmother wrote, at a time when Oskar’s grandmother was accumulating such letters: “The letter she gave me was sixty-seven pages long. It was the story of her life” (Foer, 79). The memory of this letter is embedded in the letter Oskar’s grandmother has written to Oskar, which is the story of her own life. Oskar’s grandfather writes letters he is unable to send, and, in one letter, confesses (it is a confession) the trauma which has destroyed his life: he is a survivor of the Allied Forces’ Bombing of Dresden, one of the great atrocities of World War II. This experience has cost him his voice. Letters, somehow, seem to bridge the gap between something and nothing. These letters are far more than an object for literary delight, and the form of the letter is embedded into the narrative itself. Letters, for Pynchon, are absurd, arbitrary instances of communication in a world the substance of which is disappearing; for Foer, letters are far different: an instance of something amidst a sea of nothingness.  

Form in the 20th Century - Extra Credit

To say that I grew up in a revolutionary generation would be somewhat accurate.  To the extent of my memory, some of the greatest advances in technology, social issues, and modern life have come to pass when I was in my early years.  This fact does not go by the wayside when it comes to literature and modern novels.  In fact, I’ve come to realize through this class and others in my past education that the definition of a novel just has to include at least a little wiggle room when it comes to form.  Too much creativity would be lost if the concept of form hadn’t morphed with the times.

Reading works of pure artistry like Beloved, Woman Warrior, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I’ve come to realize that many important 20^th century novels, and even 21^st century novels in the case of Foer, have forms that require the reader to firstly pay much more attention to the speakers at the present moment, and secondly to realize what the form is saying about the larger novel as a whole.  For example, in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, there are three sections that all start with the phrase “I am Beloved and she is mine”.  It takes several additional lines of reading to realize which woman in the novel is speaking, Beloved, Sethe, or Denver.  The mystery upon starting these sections, however, was enough to grab me and make me want to read it again when I was done.  Each of these three women who speak in this somewhat confusing section all have such a distinct way of telling stories and have such different lives throughout the novel that once identified are easy to tell apart, but starting each of the sections with the same phrase is one of many items Toni Morrison uses to indicate something greater about her novel and the subject matter. 

Form is one of the hallmarks of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  The pictures, smashed together words, colorful scribbles, flip books, and other mechanisms present in the novel all contribute so greatly to the larger story that it would be difficult to imagine the novel without them.  Oskar Schell’s character depends so greatly on his book of “Stuff That Happened to Me”, a scrapbook of pictures and letters he collected throughout his short life, and with these displays of pictures in the actual novel, the reader has the opportunity to feel like they are going through the motions with Oskar as he goes through them; they are going on this epic journey right alongside him.  Although this is technically a 21^st century novel, Foer uses form to the utmost power he can and it revolutionized the novel and made it so much more affecting to read.