I want to focus on the concept of language and its consequences as presented in the novel. Coetzee undresses these issues through a remodeling of a conventional form of story-telling (The fairy tale) to document the severity of what language can create especially when in opposition to that which can exist without the use of language and stand outside of it, which in this book I saw as desire. The contest of desire vs. language presents an interesting dynamic. It reminds us that one (language) is a development of our own manufacture and the other (desire) is an intrinsic, organic element of our biological make-up that is beyond our ability to produce or even completely understand. This contention results in a mythification, a pre-destination of sorts that serves as a guide to correct living. Furthermore it demands a specific skill-set (the ability to speak correctly with this framework)) that inevitably divides and thus creates a class of those who can and those who can't.
In this work I see elements of the fairy tale being sift through a deconstructionist sieve and then played out (hence the repeating sciences). The idea of sexism that haunts this book is not a pre-meditated attempt by the author via choice or personal belief but instead is manifested by its implicit presence within the textual environment of language. To be exact these sexist qualities are not just the result of the fairy-tale repertoire but of a entire canon. One could view Magda's failures and delusions as a consequence of her adherence to such texts or the social customs/constructions they create. This book looks at the bitter result from waiting on something Magda has been taught to wait for so that she can then be defined, made whole and absolute. That arrival will never come because much like the arid homeland there is no fertility therefore no possibility only a measurable withdrawal into darker interpretations of her textual surroundings. These recesses which Coetzee maps out through Magda's fascination with bugs and insects show the interior depths that are perpetuated by the words and ideas we accept as valid through the medium of language. Throughout the novel Magda emphasizes her failure to communicate or bond with anyone. On pg. 101there comes a vivid moment when she expresses this fact to Anna, "I only wanted to talk, I have never learned to talk to another person. It has always been that the word has come down to me and I have passed t on. I have never known words of true exchange…The words i give you you cannot give back. They are words without value." This brings up another interesting concept that Coetzee works throughout the narrative, language/words as a sort of currency. Exchange, value, coin are all terms that arrive in Magda's reflections upon speaking. Magda's disconnect represents the dichotomy of primal and mechanics. Magda exists purely on desire, her expressions are rendered through physical acts and anything beyond that limitation, when within the context of a textual conflict, is no longer within her ability to control or maintain. Looking at a passage on pg. 43, "…perhaps my rage at my father is simply rage at the violations of the old language, the correct language, that take place when he exchanges kisses and the pronouns of intimacy with a girl who yesterday scrubbed he floors and today ought to be cleaning the windows." Her ideas of love, that were been born of desire but then absorbed through language make her enemy/weakness less clearly defined to the point that she turns on herself "…when I could find no enemy outside…I made an enemy out of myself…" So this amalgam of language and desire amasses and as it does takes us away from a fundamental process of humanity and begets a segregated system that impoverishes those (Magda) that risk occupying the outer lands, that in this novel is represented as the desert and the veld with its harsh exteriors populated by a small but vehement wildlife. Lastly, the redrawing of the same scene using multiple frames and perspectives illustrates the mutable nature of fairy-tales, how they can become embedded not just within the innocuous area of fables but can invade our more highly praised jurisdictions of literature (i.e. the canonic realm) and how they can withstand and evolve with time. Regardless of their origin they can come to fit themselves within any contemporary timeframe or circumstance because our ability to discern language's extraction of meaning has not (collectively) sharpened and the consequence is they (meaning, social convention/construction) can be seen or suggested as natural. The fairly-tales', or to be more exact the Cinderella fable, most famous elements surface throughout In the Heart of the Country. The dead mother, the step-mom, pumpkins, the extended family (Hendrik ad Klein-Anna), and the power struggles all arrive centered around the contest between desire and language, "…and words again begin to falter. Words are coin. Words alienate. Language is no medium for desire. Desire is rapture, not exchange. It is only by alienating the desired that language masters it…The frenzy of desire in the medium of words yields the mania of the catalogue. I struggle with the proverbs of hell." (pg. 26) Again the line of post-colonial and postmodern is obscured by the enigmatic sculpturing of narrative purpose but either way the novel engineers an assertive method in re-considering what surrounds us.
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you chose to discuss the concept of language in In the Heart of the Country. I found it to be one of the most striking and puzzling aspects of the novel. There are countless places where I have just scribbled "language" in the margins of my book, not knowing what the significance was, but feeling the need to make note of it. Reading your response has given me a clearer sense of how language works in Magda's world.
I think your analysis of the dichotomy of language vs. desire is pretty close to what I was putting together in the back of my brain. To be more specific, I think what Magda desires most is a connection to other people, and I think that this novel portrays language as a system that defines and separates instead of bringing things/people together. That, I think, is why language stands between Magda and her desires. Magda strives to make connections with people outside of language: "I am spoken to not in words, which come to me quaint and veiled, but in signs . . . Reading the brown folk I grope, as they grope reading me . . . Across valleys of space and time we strain ourselves to catch the pale smoke of each other's signals" (7-8). Though Magda attempts to connect with people by looking beyond their spoken words, it is evident that language still hold her back. For instance, while trying to move beyond the barriers of language, she still mentions "the brown people," thereby making a distinction, using language, between herself and the people to whom she is trying to connect. Language is so pernicious that way; it is stuck in our brains.
In another class of mine, a guest lecturer spoke of the human desire to be obliterated. Describing a theory that I think he said was Freud's, the lecturer stated that at one point, we were all one, but in being born and learning to distinguish ourselves as "I," we lose the connection that we once had to each other. According to this theory, we all possess an underlying desire to be obliterated, wiped out, to lose our individuality and return to that place where we were all one. I haven't researched this theory beyond what was said in that class, but it's an interesting way to look at Magda and how she struggles with language. One could say that language defines, but Magda desires to be obliterated in order to erase the distinctions/barriers between herself and others.
I would also like to say that your discussion of In the Heart of the Country as a fairy tale really intrigues me. Although I had noticed that Magda calls herself Cinderella when she is writing messages to the "sky-gods," it hadn't occurred to me at all to consider that this might be a consistent theme throughout the novel. Now that you've pointed it out, though, I think you're right. I can recall several instances where Magda makes references to fairy tales. How interesting! I'm not sure I understand the implications of this, though. Why invoke the fairy tale? Are you saying that the failure of the fairy tale to come true illustrates the failure of language to realize desire? That's about my best understanding of it at present.
Thank you for such a fascinating post, Dan.
-Melissa Filbeck