First up is A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I'm sure we can all agree that Stephen had his fair share of drastic twists and turns up until now. I really don't see much of a path of him becoming an artist in the future, considering that he's trying to escape from worldly influences (and leaves Ireland because of it...? Like the rest of the world won't have any opinions? He also left his friends and Cranly was like dude you're gonna be lonely and he says "I will take that risk" (Joyce 269) like seriously you sound like some spoiled brat trying to sound cool and manly like "look at me I'm so mysterious and independent and powerful" like boy you'd still be hiding under your bed if it wasn't for the priest -- why didn't you risk getting smitten hmm? You and your pseudo-matcho attitude... ah I'm ranting my apologies; anyways) and that he's actually hoping to fly away from his problems and he'll... just avoid them and become an artist? At least that's what the last line of the book implies to me. I don't think that's how it works though... running away from your problems that is. In essence, I don't really see much of a path to his life. Then again, we could view it as being quite adventurous right? Yea no who am I kidding I totally think he's gonna screw himself over -- but that's just me I may be just a cynical man like Holden.
Speaking of the devil, he's next. I guess I can't really complain all that much about him -- I mean he's failing school and all that and I don't see much hope in him attending a different one after he got kicked out of Pency. That's not what makes his story depressing though; it's not his cynical view of most people nor is it his unrelenting nature to uphold his own justice. In fact, I kind of relate to his own personal sense of justice... so really I like him a lot. Maybe it's because of his way with words but I really feel that I can relate to him (and I think most of our class can agree with me on that point). What was depressing was his interaction with Phoebe near the end of the book. I don't know... after his talk with Mr. Antolini and he finds out that he can't really relate to anyone, he just seemed like he was ready to do things on his own, but then Phoebe like tugs at him and is like "don't leave" or "bring me with you". Then he starts to realize (well he starts to show) how he can actually deeply connect with people with certain people, and how bad it can be to just leave them. The scene where Phoebe is innocently riding on the carousel while Holden watches her... that really hit me. Well, I'm not surprised since it brings up memories of my past... ah..
Last but (definitely) not least we have Esther. I don't have specific examples like the other two books that we've read so far, but I can tell you this: she's depressed, and she makes the reader depressed, and she just gives off a depressing aura. I mean seriously looking at the cover of the book makes me feel depressed. The only thing not depressing about my copy of the book is that it's new and has very few scars on it. How much do you want to bet that someone's gonna try to commit suicide in the near future (and guess who it's gonna be)? Esther feels so cold and distant, even though the language she uses isn't actually that alienating, besides her peculiar way of describing her friends and people in general (which is actually one of the few things so far that gives her some kind of life, or presence I guess? She mostly feels empty to me which actually bothers me more than if I feel like she absolutely despises me). I mean to be fair I kinda did sign up for this when I picked up a book by Sylvia Plath, but you know. Half of me hopes that this book won't make me too depressed, but the other half of me knows it will and is actually kind of anticipating how she will make me feel depressed. I've never actually read a book by Sylvia Plath until I picked up this one, so we'll just have to see what happens...
It's true that both Holden and Esther are depressed--and this depression is tied to some pretty deep disillusionment with their culture and society more generally. But both novels, in my view, are buoyed by humor--which doesn't completely *erase* the "depressing" aspects, and indeed both books have real and urgent things to say about why and how the world is depressing, but the humor does represent a kind of resilience, and ability to resist or talk back to the "depressing" world by at least documenting its absurdities in original and amusing ways. Esther is less obviously funny than Holden--she has fewer punchlines, and isn't trying as hard--but I hope you can see a certain satirical impulse in some of her characterizations, or the way she uses her own disconnection from familiar social rituals to reflect on their grotesque absurdity, often in surprisingly funny ways.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this post. All the books we've read so far are pretty depressing. Although they do a good job of making me self reflect, they tend to leave me feeling rather empty than full. Especially with Esther's suicide attempts, reading the book has become something I need to do earlier in the day, rather than before bed (bad dreams).
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