I should arise now and find the golden way
where pastel greens embrace with images of death
and antediluvian firefly's make sparks on mountains old.
Where crests of waves sparkle with rapturous applause
and white haired men recite Gilgamesh's epic with vigour and delight.
Their wife's preparing supper from past forgotten bones.
O joyous time O golden time, prepare me for my sleep.
To sample love and speak its name a fantasy lies deep.
Within the hearts of common men each desperate for their share.
A beating heart which beats no more with passion but with hate
A silent scream which echoes far within satanic circles.
Jim Hendrix suggested, `every city in the world always has a gang, a street gang, or the so-called outcasts.`
ReplyDeleteHow apt is the final part of this statement in regard to literature? How many times have we opened a book to discover that our narrator, protagonist is, shall we say unhinged. But we must relate this form of breakdown not to a defect in the mind, neither to the upbringing endured by our anti-hero; but simply because of his or her environment. Authors have long written allegorical pieces where the protagonist is driven to despair due to the suffocation of the city.
My first encounter with a literal concrete jungle was when I read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Stevenson utilizes London as his backdrop of vice and murder. A secret city where back alleys and the London fog mask hidden doors leading to dens of inequity hosting the seedier side of humanity. Much in the same way as Stevenson himself and of course Edinburgh’s infamous villain Deacon Brodie roamed the streets after dark of `Auld Reekie.`, protagonists, villains and anti heroes have wandered the streets of metropolises for centuries. The city is alive, a real living breathing entity and one can either live in harmony with it or attempt to fight its influence ultimately leading to downfall. `In each of us there are two natures at war, the good and evil,` and by permitting the city to cast its shadow over us evil will prevail.
Let’s move from fin de siècle literature and leap forward 70 years and 5000 miles to New York in 1945. We as readers encounter one of the most famous anti heros ever to grace the pages of a novel. Enter Holden Caulfield the 17 year old narrator of the bildunsroman Catcher in the Rye. Holden spends at least three nights in New York, a city with a population of over 20 million. With a city so overpopulated the reader would expect that Holden must encounter someone whom he can relate to. Salinger informs the reader that Caulfield’s time is spent drinking to combat the loneliness the city offers. Holden visits the city’s natural history museum where he remarks that the models of Eskimos haven’t changed since he was a kid, Salinger is emphasising the fact that although the city prides itself on development and progress nothing in- fact has altered, time has stood still in this giant metropolis, suffocating anyone who dared remain stationary for any length of time. In-fact the only humans Holden encounters during his stay are perverts and adults whom Holden respected but are indeed depraved. The Catcher in the Rye empowers the reader to sympathize with Holden and his much anticipated epiphany’s in regard to the his realization that the city corrupts.
More to follow
Caulfield as is Hyde is the stereotypical literary `other`. Hovering around in a bookish universe with no claim to sovereinginty. They are outcast on the fringes of society, alienated definitely demonized by `normality `. When in fact the practitioners of normality are indeed masking their very own otherness.
DeleteYou make some good points. I agree with the general thrust of your argument. However, underlining it all, I'm sensing the old saw:
ReplyDeleteNature 'V' Nurture.
You suggest that the author attributes the environment as the main cause of the otherness and alienated state of his characters. I'm not so convinced that that is the case. At least I think there are other factors to consider.
City bad, nature good seems to simplistic to me.
The examination of the conventional notion of normality is a rich vein for the author - one which is tapped with a multitude of variations in treatment. But the issues don't change so much.
The old question is what is real? what is Normal? What is human? The answer tends to be that it is subjective to some degree - but there is also the issue of cultural and social influences...which is a very significant aspect of our condition -ing.
I take the view that the 'author' gets the cosmic joke of humanity and anyone who gets this insight is cursed and blessed as other and transformed into an outsider...