"If you're not against all this, you're for it"

The quote that is the title of this post is from the musical "Caberet" (recently performed at Kranert). For those of you who are unfortunately unaware of even a musical as famous as Caberet, I will provide a little background. Caberet is set in the years closely preceding WWII and was published about ten years after. It stretches the social bounds on issues such as sexuality and mocks the atmosphere of the 1930s which is filled with racism and, in Germany where the musical is set, the Nazis are on the rise. The quote that pertains to the book we are reading now, The Stranger by Albert Camus, comes from an American novelist as he rebukes his land lady for breaking off her engagement with a Jewish shop owner because she is scared of the Nazis. This quote struck me as particularly relevant to The Stranger and Albert Camus because he held similar beliefs about resisting the Nazis or being passive and he demonstrates his ideas in this book.

Meursault is really the perfect example of if you're not against it, you're for it because he is really not against anything and thus, ends up being for everything. Let's start with a minor example, first of all their is Marie. He's not for marriage or love but because he is not completely opposed to it, he agrees to it. This dynamic may strike the reader as odd but is really very inconsequential. The really obvious and more important point is Raymond and his issues. Meursault thinks writing the letter for Raymond leads to nothing meaningful, thus doesn't care and subsequently ends up leading the poor girl he has no connection to, to an awful encounter with Raymond. This shows how people can be indirectly hurt by one who does not resist a bad thing but rather proceeds passively. Meursault even refuses to get a policeman and remains completely neutral during the scene with Raymond and the girl. Camus even condemns partial resistance as he demonstrates when "the Arab" injures Raymond. Meursault stands by the fight, not becoming physically involved but tries to warn Raymond that the Arab  has a gun. Meursault has good intentions and for the first time makes a choice to become involved in the fight but his only partial involvement was not enough to make a difference. The final and most poignant claim that Camus makes is that being passive and not taking a side can actually cause direct injury to others. This is obviously when Meursault kills "the Arab". Meursault has no personal interest in the man he kills but because he is not against the way Raymond treat the man, he ends up doing permanent, grave damage to the man.

I think this is a really interesting comparison because it implies that many people were unhappy with the Europeans that didn't join the resistance because they thought it was safer to stay on neutral ground. It is also a really interesting moral question. Do you really have to be against something to not be for it? or vice versa? If that is the case, is there anyway that one can stay neutral or is neutral just a wishy-washy cop out position? It's really hard to say and somewhat intimidating to think about. Saying that you must be completely for or against everything in the world is quite a daunting idea. To take away a position of neutrality is to take away the point of view the majority of people choose on most issues. Its like politics. We are pretty much forced to be Republicans or Democrats whether or not we like either side. Weird right?

A variety of thoughts on the Hours

It was extremely interesting how the movie The Hours supported Clarissa's ideas about how people were connected. The most obvious connection is when Richard's mother comes to present day Clarissa's house. Through Richard's mother, Virginia Woolf is connected to the Clarissa living in NYC even though their lives are on separate continents in different time periods. Clarissa (from the novel) marvels at how the most unlikely people are connected by a fine mist of connections.

The music in the hours has received much acclaim. I think the acclaim is well deserved. With such a vast library of possible compositions and the original works of the movie's composer, the time needed to pull together and write a program that is so well-rounded and appropriate for each scene of the movie is extensive. The underlying musical motif that is repeated is appropriately manipulated and powerfully utilized to connect the characters and their downfalls.

Seriously? Leaving your family and running away to being a librarian in Canada is hardly choosing life... Through this choice she is essentially dead to everyone that matters to her and so, its really hard to say that she's choosing life. Like imagine if everyone that you know pretended you were dead and didn't exist.... would you be alive? I guess, technically, but what is life without anyone else. Seriously, she might've just died. Her choice of "life" was necessary for the connections between the plots, so I guess I forgive her.

Not a fan of "The Metamorphosis"

Unfortunately, after I've enjoyed all the books we've read thus far, I do not like The Metamorphosis. Coming into the book I was pretty excited. I had heard about the book and the infamous Kafka but no specifics. (It always puzzled me how so many people knew the title of the book and author but had no clue what it was about. Its just so strange how he is so famous but so unknown.) I sat down to start reading and began. I was puzzled by the first paragraph. I was not amused, not excited, not interested... just puzzled. There are a variety of things that I don't like about the book, from plot to characters and many things in between.

First let me start by talking about the extremely forgivable: tone. For some reason, the voice narrating the story does not appeal to me at all. It is difficult to go into a deep examination about why I don't like it because it is impossible to tell, just by reading one edition, what amount of the tone is from Kafka and what is just translation. That is the issue with translated works, particularly works that tend to employ nuanced language because, often times, words just don't have similar connotations across languages. For example, there is no word in the German language that is synonymous to "convenient". If you look up "convenient" in a English-German dictionary, "convenient" will be translated to "bequem" meaning comfortable. Just think about that though. Comfortable and convenient just aren't the same. So I forgive Kafka and the man who translated Kafka until I can read Kafka in the language he wrote in (so probably forever...).

Secondly, I really don't like the characters, especially Gregor. Gregor is just so pathetic I can't really sympathize with him. In general, I tend not to like spineless characters but for some reason I find him particularly loathsome. His intense, unquestioning submission and desperate need for approval are a HUGE turn-off for me in regards to his character. Those who surround him are also similarly perturbing. Let's start with Grete, who was briefly my favorite character. She starts off as being the only one deciding to do something (this is when she became my favorite). This intelligence is rather short lived though as she soon begins throwing pointless tantrums. Next his mother. She seems passive and emotional to excess. Finally, his father. His father basically sold him to the company to pay of his death, while secretly having enough money to pay off the debt. He also plays a role in Gregor severely injuring himself multiple times but still Gregor seriously desires his approval. It is such a strange unsettling family dynamic.

My third issue is with the plot. Its creepy and frustratingly unrealistic. It annoys me to no end that the characters act as they do. WHY DOES NO ONE THINK ITS WEIRD THAT GREGOR IS AN INSECT? I can't believe no one is asking why. And what happened to that doctor that Grete was going to get? For a while I really wanted him to come but then I realized he'd probably act just like the rest of them and I would just have one more person to dislike. With the scenario that has been set up, Kafka could have written a tear-wrenching tragedy, a hair-raising horror story, a side-splitting comedy, or even some kind of wonky love story but he doesn't. He writes a simple uncomfortable, eerie story.

But here's the thing, that could be exactly what Kafka wants... He could just be trying to alienate the reader and make the reader feel uncomfortable and strange. I think this annoys me too. I don't like being emotionally manipulated by an old German man via his character the bug-man. Or maybe, Nikita said this too, there is some part of the story that goes WAY over my head and I just don't like the book because I'm stuck here reading the book while the book is really presenting esoteric ideas I will never understand. I doubt that. I think that I don't like the book and I won't ever really know Kafka's motives but that's OK because at least its interesting to talk about with others and hear their opinions. Maybe by the end of the book someone will have said something that will change my mind, but I doubt that too.

Humor and Kafka

Personally, I don’t find much humor in The Metamorphosis. We had this discussion in class and I came up with no scenes that I laughed at. I think it’s all creepy. During our discussion in class it seemed that people found the utter absurdity of Gregor’s work ethic and the actions of those around him. Kafka gets a bunch of people to laugh at things that are awful and sad. For example the scene where Gregor is trying to get out of his room and follow the manager. A few people found this scene funny when it is really horribly sad. Gregor is causing himself unimaginable pain to try hopelessly to communicate with the manager and beg for his job back. It’s so terrible… Not only do Gregor’s wounds and efforts prove futile as he doesn’t end up leaving the room but even it they did he wouldn’t be able to communicate with the manager. Seriously, try to imagine desperately wanting to tell somebody something and they can’t understand. No matter how hard you try. They can’t understand. Its an awful thought and a intensely frustrating scenario. I don’t think that Gregor’s work ethic is funny either. It’s pathetic. It’s almost awkward for me as the reader to read about how Gregor pleads for approval. It’s the same kind of awkward that I felt in the first few pages of Mrs. Dalloway, like a, “I don’t know if the character wants me to know all this…” It’s also like if a kid is sucking up to a teacher and the teacher is just ignoring it. You, as the bystander, just want to escape. It’s weird to see someone struggling at personal expense for obviously unattained approval. Anyways, I don’t think The Metamorphosis is funny. Creepy? Yes. Weird? Yes. Funny? Definitely no.

Essay writing woes...

I found it incredibly difficult to write a paper on The Sun Also Rises. I had a lot to say about the book but  I found it a formidable task, condensing my thoughts into one thesis. I really wanted to find one scene and write about it and why it is the most important scene in the novel. This idea crashed and burned. I tried to remember one scene that was particularly germane to the plot and dense enough to write a paper on but none came to mind. I skimmed and skimmed searching for inspiration. I was troubled by trying to write a paper on a certain character as there is little character description in the book and a lot of the information we know about the characters comes from interpreting Hemingway's rare descriptive passages. I guess that that stupid article about not trusting Jake had me nervous and resisting a character analysis. My essay was EXTREMELY close to being about Bill Gorton and what he brings to the story. I just wasn't feeling it though. I finally settled on writing about Cohn and particular passages that pertained to him. I guess it was fine but this essay gave me seriously depressing writers block.

Protect me, Mr. Sarcasm

Sarcasm, irony, and joking are used throughout The Sun Also Rises to protect the emotionally unstable characters of Brett and Bill from painful emotions they both have. Their issues are different but they both create disinterested, foolish images of themselves when they are in public. They also both are forced to drop their facades when a situation they are placed in ends up getting out of hand.

First Bill. Bill is a war veteran who uses irony and jokes to deal with the emotional and psychological side effects of the war. By joking around and not taking things seriously, Bill lessens the possibility of being hurt. He puts on an air of not caring to avoid disappointment, loneliness, other emotional pains he could theoretically face. He is forced to abandon this pretense when Mike starts actually going in on Robert. Bill finds humor in the fight until he realizes it is actually serious. This shows that Bill isn't actually a mean spirited character (though he does love to get under peoples' skin) but rather prefers to keep social issues shallow and inconsequential. Bill also drop his act voluntarily and momentarily in certain scenes he has with Jake

Brett also employs a phony happy- socialite front. In public Brett appears popular, attractive, and contentedly unconcerned. The reader find out shortly after meeting Brett that she is "miserable" and her gayness is only an act. She uses this act to stop people from pitying her and to prevent her troubled feelings about her impossible love for Jake and her problems with her last marriage. Like Bill, Brett also renounces her happy mask deliberately when she is alone with Jake. Eventually, she is forced to renounce her act again when she knows she must part with Romero and call Jake.

This set up of characters is one that pulls the reader increasingly closer to the characters. At least for me, seeing how fake the characters could be made it hard for me to really like them. Then, all of a sudden, when I was finally getting used to these posing characters, they decided to be noble and return to reality when times got tough. This evoked my respect for the characters, just a few pages earlier, I was not enjoying. Hemingway does a really good job of creating emotionally unsettled characters that emotionally unsettle you.