This song played over and over as I read The Unnamable.
When I first started reading The Unnamable, I felt consumed by a dark uncertainty. It wasn't exactly depressing or terrifying, but it definitely seemed dark and confusing. The longer I read, the less sure of anything I became, but the more I allowed a kind of cold, strange beauty to wash over me. This is difficult work, but it's worth reading because, at its core, it's gorgeous. But there is a darkness. There is a deep, strange darkness to this novel that, if you let, permeates you and causes you to question things.
There's a great lyric from a Neutral Milk Hotel song entitled "In an Aeroplane Over the Sea" in which Jeff Mangum sums up the great mystery of life:
There's a great lyric from a Neutral Milk Hotel song entitled "In an Aeroplane Over the Sea" in which Jeff Mangum sums up the great mystery of life:
"What a beautiful face/ I have found in this place/ That is circling all around the sun/ And when we meet on a cloud/ I'll be laughing out loud/ I'll be laughing with everyone I see/ Can't believe/ How strange it is to be anything at all."While I'm not sure that the head in the jar/Molloy/Malone/Mahood is necessarily laughing at the absurdity of existence (actually, it/he is probably crying constantly), I do believe that the inherent strangeness of living is the very thing being discussed. Existence is hard, it's terrifying, it's beautiful, it's ugly, it's meaningful, it's empty. It's everything we ascribe to it and none of those things. And perhaps there is no point. But perhaps Becket, Molloy, Malone, Mahood, the jar all believe that the point is to search for a point even if no such point exists. And thus, it is simply strange to be.
Once again, I forgot to hit "Publish." Hence, this was saved as a draft on Thursday, not published til I checked it now.
sdjfkddjks NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL. Okay, now that I'm done with that, I agree that the Unnameable was a bitch to get through, but in the best way possible. This view pretty much sums up all of Beckett's novels for me: they make me want to curl up and die, but in a good way. I do wonder if the dark and absurd humor the head/Beckett finds in his own existence is a sort of confronting mechanism, because the truth is too grim as it is? I know that the humor makes it an easier pill for me to swallow, anyway.
ReplyDeleteI second the enjoyment of Neutral Milk Hotel! I also really like the idea of the point of life being the search for the point of life. That does seem to be a common Beckett theme. Many of the characters are searching for things, and it's quite possible that those things don't exist. It reminds me of this quote: “Life is a journey, not a destination.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson Maybe there is no destination, but the search is what really matters.
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