16; a tidbit about disgrace
November 4, 2009
I wanted to talk about the language and the tone on page 107 of this book. The imagery that the author conveys is striking on this page, and I had a few things underlined that I wanted to quote.
“…Slumped on a plastic chair amid the stench of chicken feathers and rotting apples, he feels his interest in the world draining from him drop by drop. It may take weeks, it may take months before he is bled dry, but he is bleeding. When that is finished, he will be like a fly-casting in a spider web, brittle to touch, lighter than rice-chaff, ready to float away.”
Already, this halfway through the book, David is feeling as if he is beginning this process of erosion or something. It is interesting that the author chose these images to reflect David’s inner self. He caters to the different senses– smell, sight, touch– to construct an overall gloomy picture about David’s downfall.
Another tidbit I liked was the following, which starts on page 107 and continues to page 108:
“..His pleasure in living has been snuffed out. Like a leaf on a stream, like a puffball on a breeze, he has begun to float toward his end. He sees it quite clearly, and it fills him with (the word will not go away) despair. The blood of life is leaving his body and despair is taking its place, despair that is like a gas, odorless, tasteless, without nourishment. You breathe it in, your limbs relax, you cease to care, even at the moment when the steel touches your throat.”
Reading this passage, I can picture it so vividly. This yellow gas- what I’ve always pictured mustard gas to appear as from learning about the World Wars- fills up an empty casing of a body. A black outline of a figure, like something that might be in a science class video. I picture little words, despairs, floating around in the body and the gas filling it up.
I really liked the way the author described these things to link to the beginning of David’s life going downhill. He already, within days of staying with Lucy, feels overwhelmed by despair and hopelessness.
November 8, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I also was drawn to the language and tone of these passages. They were so clear and vivid. I felt like i was there in that moment and could feel the worlds that were written. It gives you a clear sense of how David feels himself breaking down.