Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Echoes

On page 42, Zampano is in the midst of a discussion on echoes and their importance in the Navidson Record. In footnote 49, he uses two Spanish passages to make his point – seemingly identical passages, the second of which he describes as an “exquisite variation” to the original. This frustrates Johnny Truant a lot, as he tries to figure out the difference. In his footnote, the following passage is found:

“I’m sure the late hour has helped, add to that the dim light in my room, or how poorly I’ve been sleeping, going to sleep but not really resting, if that’s possible, though let me tell you, sitting alone, awake to nothing else but this odd murmuring, like listening to the penitent pray – you know it’s a prayer but you miss the words – or better yet listening to a bitter curse, realizing a whole lot wrong’s being ushered into the world but still missing the words, me like that listening to the way by comparing in his way both Spanish fragments written out on brown leaves of paper, or no, that’s not right, not brown, more like, oh I don’t know, yes brown but in the failing light appearing almost colored or the memory of a color, somehow violently close to that, or not at all, as I just keep reading both pieces over and over again, trying to detect at least one differing accent letter, wanting to detect at least one differing accent or letter, getting almost desperate in that pursuit, only to repeatedly discover perfect similitude, though how can that be, right? If it were perfect it wouldn’t be similar it would be identical, and you know what? I’ve lost this sentence, I can’t even finish it, don’t know how – ”

We get the feeling that in this moment, Truant is trying to channel Zampano, and by “comparing in his way” he hopes to find the difference that he was referring to. A brief mention of the past when he describes the paper as “in the failing light appearing almost colored or the memory of a color” also works to highlight this relationship, of Truant and Zampano being somehow connected. It is almost as if Truant is becoming an echo of Zampano himself, or at least trying to. He cannot, however, truly tap into this connection, which is seen in the difficulty that he has with Zampano’s words and the effects that they begin to have on him.

Truant keeps rereading both fragments, trying to find a physical difference between the two. What Truant seems to miss is the importance of the emotion behind the words. In the Greek story of Echo, “Echo colours the words with faint traces of sorrow (The Narcissus myth) or accusation (The Pan myth) never present in the original” (41). This is what Truant should be looking for. Rather than looking for the “exquisite difference” between the physical words of the Spanish pieces, he should be examining the emotion underneath, for here lies the real difference. The question of course becomes how the second author put the “sorrow, accusation, and sarcasm” in, if there are no additional words. Zampano sees these emotions, and sees the second as an echo of the first. It seems as if Truant doesn’t notice this at all, until he makes an important comment – “perfect similitude, though how can that be, right? If it were perfect it wouldn’t be similar it would be identical…” So it does seem that Truant is picking up on a very subtle difference between the two fragments, one that cannot be found within the physical text of the authors. He can’t seem to wrap his mind on it though, as here he loses his train of thought and begins to really lose it.

Like the hallways in Navidson’s house, Zampano’s words are leaving Truant lost. The closer he becomes to figuring them out, the more he physically begins to feel their effects – by smelling the rotten smell, tasting the bitter taste, or having the impression that he’s gagging, vomiting, or soiling his pants. Perhaps his reaction to the Spanish fragments shows us the reason why this is happening. Perhaps he is missing something very important about Zampano’s writing, and it is therefore rejecting him, which is executed in a very strange psycho-physical way. He hasn’t been allowed to fully comprehend the words of the old man, and neither are we as readers. The difficulty of the passage that we encounter mirrors the difficulty that Truant is dealing with in Zampano’s words.

5 comments:

Adam Johns said...

Poor you, picking a passage we discussed thoroughly in class! When revising, you can incorporate (some) of what we talked about, or you can feel free to go in a completely different direction.

Scott said...

Hey Heather, sorry for the delay, I just got back into Pittsburgh. I'm going to head to the library shortly to get the book, then i will comment on your essay by tonight(tuesday)

Scott said...

Clearly I'm not aware what was discussed during class. I find your analysis very fascinating. I was pretty confused with the text and I found certian parts of your essay very insightful. "It is almost as if Truant is becoming an echo of Zampano himself, or at least trying to." Myself I never would have thought of this being a possibility. Also the way you point out the distinction between the emotion used in the passages. You really go deeply into what this could mean about inter-character relations. In the final paragraph im not sure if you meant to start 2 sentances with the same word or not(perhaps), however I feel it really helps your argument, similary to King's "I have a dream" or Obama's "Yes we can."

Heather Friedberg said...

On page 42, Zampano is in the midst of a discussion on echoes and their importance in the Navidson Record. In footnote 49, he uses two Spanish passages to make his point – seemingly identical passages, the second of which he describes as an “exquisite variation” to the original. This provides a huge amount of frustration for Johnny as he tries to figure out the difference. In his footnote, the following passage is found: “I’m sure the late hour has helped, add to that the dim light in my room, or how poorly I’ve been sleeping, going to sleep but not really resting, if that’s possible, though let me tell you, sitting alone, awake to nothing else but this odd murmuring, like listening to the penitent pray – you know it’s a prayer but you miss the words – or better yet listening to a bitter curse, realizing a whole lot wrong’s being ushered into the world but still missing the words, me like that listening to the way by comparing in his way both Spanish fragments written out on brown leaves of paper, or no, that’s not right, not brown, more like, oh I don’t know, yes brown but in the failing light appearing almost colored or the memory of a color, somehow violently close to that, or not at all, as I just keep reading both pieces over and over again, trying to detect at least one differing accent letter, wanting to detect at least one differing accent or letter, getting almost desperate in that pursuit, only to repeatedly discover perfect similitude, though how can that be, right? If it were perfect it wouldn’t be similar it would be identical, and you know what? I’ve lost this sentence, I can’t even finish it, don’t know how – ” While this rambling may be difficult to decode, it brings about very import themes of the entire novel, which are brought out partly from the difficulty itself. The reader must work to understand, just as Johnny must work to understand Zampano’s manuscript.

We get the feeling that in this moment, Johnny is trying to channel Zampano, and by “comparing in his way” he hopes to find the difference that he was referring to. A brief hint of the past when he describes the paper as “in the failing light appearing almost colored or the memory of a color” also works to highlight this relationship of Johnny and Zampano being somehow connected. It is almost as if Johnny is becoming an echo of Zampano himself, or at least trying to. He cannot, however, truly tap into this connection, which is seen in the difficulty that he has with Zampano’s words and the effects that they begin to have on him.

Johnny keeps rereading both fragments, trying to find a physical difference between the two. This is an impossible task, because there is no physical difference that he can see with his eyes. Zampano was blind, and apparently saw something that Johnny is now missing, suggesting that the difference in the passages is not purely physical. The fact that Zampano was blind can be in fact the key to “seeing” what he saw, and Johnny is blinded by his ability to physically see. What Johnny seems to miss is the importance of the context behind the words. Johnny’s mention of the prayer or curse seems a little ironic. He says that “you know it’s a prayer but you miss the words” – which is the opposite problem here. What he’s doing now would be the equivalent of hearing the words without realizing that it’s a prayer. In the Greek story of Echo, “Echo colours the words with faint traces of sorrow (The Narcissus myth) or accusation (The Pan myth) never present in the original” (41). The words are colored with emotion, giving them a new context. Rather than looking for the “exquisite difference” within the physical words of the Spanish pieces, he should be examining the emotion and context underneath, for here lies the real difference. Zampano sees the second as an echo of the first.

It seems as if Johnny doesn’t notice a difference at all, until he makes an important comment near the end – “perfect similitude, though how can that be, right? If it were perfect it wouldn’t be similar it would be identical…” So it does seem that Johnny is picking up on a very subtle difference between the two fragments, one that cannot be found within the physical text of the authors. He can’t seem to wrap his mind on it though, as here he loses his train of thought and begins to really lose it. Here again the echo symbolism occurs – as only an echo of Zampano, Johnny can’t comprehend everything that Zampano understood, or “see” everything that he “saw”, but only traces.

Like the hallways in Navidson’s house, Zampano’s words are leaving Johnny lost. The closer he becomes to figuring them out, the more he physically begins to feel their effects – by smelling the rotten smell, tasting the bitter taste, or having the impression that he’s gagging, vomiting, or soiling his pants. His reaction to the Spanish fragments is just one of the many times that this happens. It is almost as though he is missing something very important about Zampano’s writing, and it is therefore rejecting him, which is executed in a very strange psycho-physical way. He hasn’t been allowed to fully comprehend the words of the old man. He must work to understand Zampano as we must work to understand Johnny.

Adam Johns said...

Scott - As you acknowledge, the fact that you weren't in class makes your response inherently more difficult. Taking that into consideration, you did fine.

Heather - Your decision to focus initial on the parallelism between Johny and the reader is certainly a good one - I wonder if you'll continue to develop that parallel?

In the second paragraph, of course, you are pointing out that Johny, in turn, is parallel to Zampano. Note (by the transitive property), that the reader, therefore, is equivalent in some way to Zampano.

Your analysis of Johny's difficulty is really smart and interesting, and far from obvious (in a good way).

Incidentally, if Johny both sees and does not see the difference between the two texts, as you say/imply, what precise difference is he failing to grasp/?

"He must work to understand Zampano as we must work to understand Johnny." -- here you almost, but not quite, do the transitive property thing, and think about our parallelism to Z as well as J. It's good without that, of course - but to me, that's the missing part of the equation.