A Conversation with David Shields B (7-12) Mimesis means mimicry.

7.  Narrative began a lot earlier.

8.

9.  As my father frequently feels compelled to point out when I point out the unoriginality in anything- “There are no original thoughts.”  And as I’m quick to point out to him, “Yes Dad, but that doesn’t mean they have to be repeated word for word.”

10.  See #9

11.  How are you defining storytelling?  Fiction acknowledged as fiction?  I have a problem with referring to the Vedas of 1,400 b.c. being the earliest stories told.

12.

Slaughterhouse Five Soap

I had a visceral reaction to anything Holocaust related when I was a preteen and teenager.  I don’t know why; I’m not Jewish (unless you count by injection *rimshot*).

Yeah, an anal sex joke probably isn’t the most tasteful lead-in to this, but still:

When the film came out, I saw it.   Once.  That was enough.  I know all the controversy behind the inaccuracies and bias in the film, but still, it was powerful- and I had been affected by the Holocaust long before that.  And amidst all the horror of the showers, the medical experiments, the work camps, the lampshades, what stuck with me as worst was three things: the teeth, the soap, and the candles.  I even had a hard time watching Fight Club, for those of you who remember the scene in that film where Tyler Durden explains how soap is made.

To the point, like I said, this is the first time in almost twenty years I’ve looked at Slaughterhouse, and I’m reading Chapter Five when Billy sits down at a table for the prisoners of war and

A Conversation with David Shields (1-

1.-  I have such a distaste for Fitzgerald, but have enjoyed your book so much, that I’m going to have to read The Crack Up on your recommendation.  Also, Your discussion of reality is going to be central to my introduction to postmodernism course at GHP this summer.

2.  How do you leave out Colbert?  How?

3. Post-poostmodernism?

4.

5.  I do not understand minus the novel.  I think I should, but is the character just a character without the structure of narrative binding him?

6.  I love the term literary montage.  I am putting together a class activity with the prologue to Moby Dick, which I have decided is a poem.   As to the rags and the refuse, as Septimus Hodge says,

We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind.  The procession is very long and life is very short.  We die on the march.  but there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it.  The missing plays of Sophocles will turn up piece by piece, or be written again in anothr language.  Ancient cures for diseases will reveal themselves once more.  Mathematical discoverie glimpsed and lost to view will have their time again.  You do not suppose, my lady, that if all of Archimedes had been hiding in the great library of Alexandria, that we would be at loss for a corkscrew?

Two passages from Slaughterhouse Five

Wow.  It’s odd getting to the point where I can say “I last read xxxx twenty years ago.”  Having said that,

Remember Slaughterhouse Five?  The last time I read it was almost twenty years ago, but given that it was one of the choices I offered for summer reading, and some students read it, I thought, you know Jobie, you might wanna look at it again.  So this is my first reading as “an adult.”  I have two passages that struck me in the last two days- one political; one personal.  P

Political:  Some of you may have been following the MO Controversy.  One of the arguments being used for banning the book, at least in some reports I’ve read, have less to do with language and sex than they do with pacifism.  Well, to be honest, if that were the case, one need look no further than this fun tidbit from chapter one:

I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee.

The  coverage of Bin Laden’s death comes to mind.   Vonnegut’s next paragraph:

Sisters Brothers wrap up (3 of 3)

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”- Mahatma Gandhi

Not only do I happen to share a birthday with Gandhi, but I very much share this sentiment as well.  I don’t know where I came up with it, or why I share it- I’m not particularly interested in animal rights; I’m not a vegetarian.  I don’t oppose hunting or testing on animals, and yet there’s something about this quote I inherently agree with.

I’ve been thinking a lot about animals in literature as a result of The Sisters Brothers.  Eli’s horse, Tub, is a character as major as any other, especially as a looking glass for Eli’s compassionate side.  More on that in a minute.

This last June, in the best vacation of my life (even though I’ve been to NYC many, many times), I saw War Horse.  I was underwhelmed; hoping for more.  That’s not to say that the puppetry wasn’t spectacular, but the ending was just so… flat.  Nevertheless, it too made me think about this concept of animals.  The first act of War Horse is phenomenal- it really speaks to the ability of our animals, our pets, as manifestations of the best emotional states we have within us.  For those of you who have seen it, consider the parallel relationships Joey (the horse) has both with the boy Albert and the German officer, Mueller.   It is one thing to see boys in love with their horses (no Equus jokes, please), but it is another to see the “good side” of the “bad German” come out when his animal is threatened.  We sympathize with Mueller- he may even in fact be the third protagonist- because of the sympathy he has for Joey the horse.   Take a look at some of this puppetry:

More, from Planet of the Apes and Sisters Brothers  after the jump.

The Sisters Brothers wrap up (2 of 3)

Either I’m a bigger believer in Reader-Response theory than I thought, or the Universe has an uncanny knack of throwing books & art at me at exactly the time I need certain books and art to be thrown at me.  Here’s a nice little sentence that cut me up, as Eli is getting frustrated watching his brother & a crime boss get drunk:

When a man is properly drunk it is as though he is in a room by himself–there is a physical, impenetrable separation between him and his fellows. [Chapter 29]

Yes, but isn’t setting  up that separation sometimes the point of drinking?  For me it is.

Eli asks a whore,

‘Why does anyone [feel low]?  It creeps up on you from time to time.’

‘But you were glad the one moment, then suddenly not.’ [Ch. 30]

My few regular readers know how much this exchange probably hit me.  Eli’s solution- rob the whorehouse owner of all his money, beat him over the brain with a pistol, and bury the money under the stove in the basement.

I’ll call that “Plan B” for dealing with chronic depression.

Eli helps another character to see a path without being able to see it himself, and the character illuminated by Eli realizes

‘I am a man who needs to rebuild, and the first thing I will work on is my sense of purpose.’ [Ch. 34]

Now, I don’t need to work on a sense of purpose, but even with re-starting this blog (for the second time), I am indeed trying to rebuild, trying to make some changes in my own life, but starting on the inside, not the outside.  It’s a cool sentiment whose triteness doesn’t make it any less true.

Finally (and although there’s one other passage I’ve highlighted, I’m not going to put it in here- too personal), there is one of my favorite lines in the book.  It is definitive, but delusional.  It is like the smoker who keeps one last cigarette.  In Chapter 47, Eli decides that even if the murder of the Commodore won’t be his final murder,

this will be the final era of killing in my lifetime.  [emphasis DeWitt's]

What a neat bit of self-rationalization.  How many of us have said “okay, this is the BEGINNING of the END” regarding anything- one more potato chip, one more hour of the Cosby Show marathon, pretending to pass out in order to receive CPR from one more firefighter…

The book didn’t give me a lot to go on as a whole, but some of the little passages and sentiments here led me to some nice self-reflection.

The Sisters Brothers wrap up (1 of 3)

Said & done, not bad.  Very tight language.  Violent but minimally graphic. For fans of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven.  The narrator, Eli Sister, tries to go through a distinct change; this is the central theme of the novel.  Whether or not he achieves it I’ll leave up to you.  Key passages & comments after the jump:

Lonesome Dove & Sisters Brothers

Of course, _Lonesome Dove_ is one of my favorite novels, and after a body-burning scene a few moments ago, I realized that, in many ways, following Charlie & Eli Sister is like following the Suggs brothers, Dan in particular as Charlie, through Lonesome Dove. I even realized that one of the actor’s faces is on Herman Warm in my mind, and now Charlie is Gavin O’Herily

On the Quality of Semen in “The Sisters Brothers”

From Chapter 13:

‘Rag!’ said the old man, and again the pregnant girl emerged to hurl a steaming cloth over the counter, and again she returned, saying nothing.  Wiping his forehead, Charlie smiled.  ‘That your woman, old man?’

‘She is,’ he said proudly.

‘That your child in her belly?’

His face puckered to a scowl.  ‘You doubt the quality of my seed?’

‘I had no plans to discuss your seed.’

Re: the final line:  Clearly, Charlie doesn’t spend any time in gay chat rooms or on nifty.org.

The Sisters Brothers- doesn’t this sound like Dylan?

I saw the Booker Longlist today; one of the selections was a Western:  The Sisters Brothers.  It was a western, so I thought I’d take a look at it.  Sort of feels like the anti-Pinkertons; it reminds me of their portrayal in Caleb Carr’s The Alienist, only instead of cops, they appear to be hit-men.  This may change as I get further into the book.  In particular, a ballad sung by one of the brothers struck me- the images conveyed made the ballad sound like it could have been one of Bob Dylan’s.  A cursory internet search didn’t turn up the song anywhere, so I don’t know if Dewitt made it up for the book or not.  Lyrics after the jump.