Fact or Fiction?

            The extract Narrating taken from How Fiction Works, by James Wood gives a detailed analysis of the various writing styles of fictional literary works such as first or third person. While such in depth analysis is interesting to a point, I personally feel that too much analysis can distract and destroy the sheer joy of losing ones self in a piece of fiction, which the author surely composed for the readers unapologetic pleasure and not analytical post mortem. However, studying literature compels us not simply to enjoy but dissect each written word and of course there is merit in doing so. After all in doing so we stretch our minds and invite debate that challenges us beyond the simple thought of did we like the piece of fiction or not?

            Woods recalls the writer Sebald had once revealed to him that “Any form of authorial writing where the narrator sets himself up as a stagehand and director and judge and executor in a text, I find somehow unacceptable.” Therefore for writers such as Sebald third-person omniscient fictional works are a form of fraudulent writing and that first person narration is “ more reliable than unreliable and third person “omniscient” narration is generally more partial than omniscient.”  I think it matters little whether the author uses first or third person narrative style as long as the writer is prolific enough to connect with the audience. We need to be able to get under the skin of the character, feel what he feels, be privy to his most private most thoughts and therefore the style adopted to achieve this is secondary. However, is it wrong as Woods criticizes that the author uses language or thoughts which may not be fully the character’s but some of his own. Some of this was analyzed by Zamyatin in On language where he questions if the author is playing the lead role as an actor or is he the director? Often writers need to research or use language true to the characters background such as low class uneducated colloquialisms when the author may be high class. But essentially some of the author will creep into his works as it is difficult to totally remove himself when he is so closely involved in the creation. After all are not writers allowed a certain poetic license? They after all are not writing about factual events for historical archives, so surely we the reader can cut them a little slack and forgive them. As Woods states, “thanks to free indirect style, we see things through the character’s eyes and language but also through the author’s eyes and language. We inhabit omniscience and partiality at once. A gap opens between author and character, and the bridge- which is free indirect style itself-between them simultaneously closes that gap and draws attention to its distance.”

Woods use many extracts from varying fictional authors such as Austin’s Pride and Prejudice and James’s ‘What Maisie Knew’ to effectively illustrate his points. Using my own analysis having just recently read ‘ The Road ‘ by McCarthy which is written in free indirect style and in third person :it is interesting to note that McCarthy tells his tale using a very diary documented way of writing without revealing the innermost thoughts of his two protagonists which he simply calls the man and boy. This style allows himself to be emotionally detached from his characters but at the same time the reader is more so moved by their plight and feels their pain in the unspoken words. McCarthy is simply a spectator of the events and not a judge or executioner which allows the reader to assess the situation free of the authors entanglement. This increases the shock value of the novel and allows the reader to become more involved as our minds question, ponder and debate on a subconscious level.

            Again whatever the style taken the job of the author is to engage the reader to such an extent that fiction becomes fact. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, but often fiction is stranger than the truth!

What's Love Got To Do With It?

            The extract taken from Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale is a quiet reflection of the private musings of the protagonist. After the proposal from the Commander to have private and secret liaisons with himself, she ponders over her previous life which included immature and now foolish hopes of romantic love with a man. Written in first hand simple narrative she allows her mind to wander and allows the reader into her private thoughts and past experiences which she cleverly expresses by the use of her tone, diction and well developed metaphors.

            Atwood employs tone of her voice to show her quiet acceptance of the new predicament. Her tone is matter of fact and shows no bitterness towards her past or her present. Though the reader is made privy to her private musings, her tone shows that her narrative is not directly spoken for the benefit of the reader, but more to herself to release her thoughts and analyze without bias what she believed love to be. Her mental voice shows no emotion, and is without joy or malice and without pre-planning she allows her train of thought to freely meander without any conclusion. Her tone however, shows some sadness in her reflections of her life with her lover and we can almost hear her sigh in her quiet reflections. In fact the beginning of the extract commences with that she does not need to reveal her thoughts to the reader or to herself but to do so is a form of therapy to accept a situation she cannot challenge or change. Her tone is of resignation and quiet despair.

            Further Atwood’s potent use of diction as a clever play of words to elaborate further on her private most thoughts. She uses the latin quote, which translates to, do not let the bastards get you down to almost laugh at her predicament as how can she’ fight’ the system which she has no control over. Her musings on “falling in love” uses a play of words on “falling.” As she reflects that a woman falling in love is a weakness in which there is loss of emotional control that makes a woman both easy to manipulate and control. Romantic love is an illusion a childish daydream that does not always translate well in reality. She takes comfort in putting aside these daydreams and sees that perhaps a business deal with the Commander is perhaps a better situation in which she can benefit without pain or heartache. She needs to justify her new situation and relationships without moral misgivings. After all in her past, “ I loved you” would also become past tense showing that love does not last and may be transient and we may look back on it as a human failing, “dumb thing to do”  a “frill” or “whim” or “incarnation.”

            Atwood’s utilization of metaphors and similes to further bring home and illustrate her thoughts. For example, “ a creature from outer space” and “like a mutant” is how she visualizes women who fall in love who seem no longer to be part of the real world as they lose sense of reality and become inebriated by the potency and strength of their feelings. Further, “we are falling women” illustrates that being in love is akin to the physical act of falling where the part prior to landing can be exhilarating but the landing can be painful. Also, “love, like heaven” is used to show that being in love is something we work towards or aspire to but sometimes only experience fleetingly as constant true love is as hard to attain as heaven is. This is further elaborated by, “love is God” as we all worship this heady emotion but often this remains elusive as God is.

            The extract capitalizes on the fact that the protagonist has come to terms with her new situation and has accepted her lot in life and realizes that she cannot escape or fight her new life. In fact she feels she does not need to share her thoughts with the reader or herself but does so to act as a form of therapy and to clear the cobwebs from her mind. Also the musings of her past loves help to justify that love is an unnecessary emotion that she can live without. She is filled with self doubt and recalls how she would wonder if her husband Luke even loved her at all. Thus she is able to embark on her business sexual relationships with the Commander or later on with Nick without moral obligation or guilt.

Be Careful What You Wish For. You May Just Get It!

            The article Blame it on Feminism questions the theory that women are not better off despite the success of the women’s movement which has made great strides and yet made women no happier. Yes, while improvements have been made without a doubt since let us say Victorian times, women still have a long way to go. This is because women are still the minority in the ladder of success in any field and though fifty percent of the world’s population is women, the other half still holds the majority of power. Men who believe they created women from the rib of Adam, still give minorities a token gesture towards equality. So while America has seen its first African American president hailing change. Hillary Clinton was reduced to making speeches on, how there were at least cracks on the glass ceiling, and Sarah Palin was reduced to defending her accent and fashion sense. The fact is that despite a few success stories average women still make less than their male counterparts and lower level jobs such as receptionists and secretaries are still seen as female domain. The point is women are still considered as being tied to the kitchen sink despite their success stories and still expected to keep on their traditional roles as mother and homemaker while holding down demanding jobs. Men are not expected to or expect to part of this and still expect a hot meal after a days work. The idea of the superwoman is further enhanced by ads that show women juggling work and home with ease adding to women’s woes.

            Of course the idea that career women have missed the boat in terms of husband and child bearing adds to women’s miseries. Men who do not fight a biological clock and who are portrayed as distinguished as they age face none of these concerns. However, on the positive front women are in more control of their bodies and with the advent of IVF treatments and egg freezing they are able to concentrate on their careers and put childbirth on the backburner till a much later date. The backlash of this is still the stigma and labels that society assigns to women of a certain age who are still single, which just adds to the pressure in a viscous cycle, until women are back to where they started from. But the question remains is, are these pressures brought upon women themselves or by men? Are women paying for the price of their success or have they still to taste true victory? Can women have it all, or can you never have your cake and eat it too. After all while women make demands of equality and equal rights they still expect men to hold the door open for them and pay for dinner. Little girls still dream of their perfect wedding as they play with their Barbie dolls and never about their dream jobs. They dream about their dream home but not their dream office. Women have made strides in liberation but they cannot be truly free until they themselves let go of some notions holding them back along with the support of men otherwise they will need to be careful what they wish for they may just get it!

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall who’s the fairest of them all? The Beauty Myth Busted.

           The Article The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf explores how women have evolved in society. While they have fought for freedom and equality with the feminist movement and fought for the right to vote and have rights over their own bodies and the like, they still remain shackled in society by male dominance. Women while achieving so much like becoming prime ministers, doctors , lawyers etc still have not been able to break the glass ceiling. They still have to justify their existence and are criticized for not being married or if married not bearing children. If they bear children they are criticized for leaving the children in daycare and when they return home they are expected to be superwomen who look after home and hearth. Men have none of these pressures. So women have not yet reached true freedom and are bound by archaic almost stone age ideals that women are the home makers and have a limited use to society. On top of all this women have beauty to contend with. Men want to keep women in their place and dominate them by giving them insecurities and competition among their peers to deal with which is propagated by images in the media. A woman may become an executive but her most pressing thought when she wakes up is to check the scales and wonder if she can afford to eat that doughnut. While men spend a minimum amount of time on getting dressed a woman has to apply war paint before she can face the world. A woman needs to be beautiful and present her best face forward to be of value. A woman needs to be sexually attractive to hook a man where a man can be hardly the stereotype of good looks or charms he just need to be successful with a big checkbook to secure women by his side. Are women at fault here, that they put so much value on their looks, or are they simply victims.? Well the other side of the coin is that beautiful women are often not taken seriously. It as if genetics has deposed that a woman can only be blessed with brains or beauty but never both. Darwin would tell you this is not the case but at times a beautiful woman feels she can rely on her looks alone and lets her brains fall by the wayside thus helping to propagate the myth. If women are feminists they are portrayed as ugly, butch and man haters and possibly lesbians. When these women protest against the demeaning of women in beauty contests, society wonders why beautiful women never protest with banners. Why is it the ugly stereotype that does not possess the beauty in the first place protest ?  Again does this stem down to competition, jealousy and of course insecurity. Women have a cross to bear and are always fearful of their lack of perfection or losing their looks to age. Images are plastered on billboards of youth, beauty and vitality, creations of Photoshop. And yet women fall for this fantasy and dream of attaining this perfection, thereby losing self control and self esteem. And yet men are allowed to age gracefully and even are described as distinguished in old age while women are has been old hags. Biology plays a part as men remain fertile into old age while women fight a biological clock. As long as you are fertile, you are both desirable and of use to society. Menopause signals that women need to be sent out to retirement homes and so women fight the clock, preserve youth by any means and of course lie about their age. Instead women should be celebrating that the burden of female problems has ended with menopause and herald a new era in liberation. Older men on the other hand are thought of as being socially and financially stable and sexually experienced and therefore age like old wine but women age like withered up peaches. Were men threatened by women’s freedom and liberties that have fought so hard to obtain that they created the obstacle of beauty, to reassure and maintain their dominance? And when will women stop asking themselves, “mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all?”

23” Waist is a Waist of Time

The articles, Klaus Barbie and other dolls I’d like to see, and Teen Mags; How to get a guy, Drop 20 pounds and Lose Your Self-Esteem, both written by women take a personal and researched viewpoint of the pressures of being an adolescent teenage girl in modern times; where being thin, white and pretty are the key requirements to success and happiness. Both viewpoints rue the fact that such shallow benchmarks of perfection lead to low self-esteem demean females and propagate women as second class citizens in a male dominated world.

            This situation was fictionally depicted in Margaret Atwood’s futuristic novel, The Hand Maids Tale, which took an extreme case of where we are heading, where women will be reduced to the nothing state of a womb for sale whose minds are no longer of consequence. How seriously and how affected are young girls by unrealistic ideals of perfection, such as Barbie dolls or airbrushed models? Well, surely this all depends on the peer pressures faced and the home upbringing and environment. Some impressionable or gullible young things will fall prey to the whims of society, leading to low self image and self loathing. Many will become victims of eating disorders such as anaeroxia nervosa and bulimia which could lead to hospitalization or even death. If these women survive, they will never be fruitful in society, failing as mothers and wives and will ultimately pass their insecurity and vanity to their daughters, and therefore the cycle continues. Others are able to take the pressures in their stride and are able to rise against it, leading fulfilled adult lives of success, independence and self confidence. But exactly how important are our looks. Well from an early age girls quickly realize that being cute or pretty allows them to manipulate and take short cuts. It is hard to reprimand or scold a pretty toddler that pouts prettily with puppy dog eyes. Yes, sometimes women are not the manipulated ones as the articles suggest but at times can be the manipulator. Other times women reach adult hood only to find that they are condemned for their “too pretty, or too sexy looks, which may not be artificially created but genetic and still are blamed for. Pretty women complain they are never taken seriously in the workplace, are deemed stupid and any success is cribbed about as due to sexual favors being given to the boss ! Unfortunately, there are women who use their looks unfairly to their advantage and revel in the illusion of stupidity for personal gain of a rich husband or a lucrative glamorous career. These women pass on burdens to the pretty women who simply work hard and strive for success and do not depend on their good looks. However, what happens to the women who society deems as fat and ugly? Well they can climb the ladder of corporate success unhindered and not care about their physical failings, or spend a lifetime at the gym and fad diets which makes them miserable and offers no change in their waistlines. The life we lead is our own and our choices are our own, but self respect for ourselves and others and, peace of mind is far more valuable commodities than perfect legs and a 23” waist. Our focus should be on longer time frame such as the development of our minds and souls as looks are transient and temporary.

            The articles also touches on the racist ideals of the Aryan super race of white blondes, as widely used as the role model in magazines and dolls. I think that today this backward mindset has come leap and bounds as other races are now accepted as successful and beautiful ideals (case in point, Michelle Obama), but I feel that taking the steps of having a transgender doll etc is taking things a little too far. Allow little girls to have their girly fantasies of being a princess. As long as there is a balance in their lives such as sports and a strong education system at home as well as school then intelligent, stable women can make the right choices in adult hood, understand the pitfalls and grow out of shallow daydreams. After all it is possible to use Mother Teresa and Hannah Montana as role models simultaneously as both have a place in society and women should want to grow up like a little piece of each.

            The moral of this story is as the song lyrics show, “learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.” No one is perfect, but only when we learn to love ourselves, can we give love to others. Be happy as obsessing over a 23” waist is a complete waist of time!