Article Ten- Darkness in Colour

Literature │Darkness in Colour
Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

(published in "Avrupa" newspaper)

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert…Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the Pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, King of kings:
Look on my words, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

What was Percy Bysshe Shelley thinking about when he wrote this poem “Ozymandias” around 1817? And more importantly, why have I chosen to include it in this weeks review? In the first instance, this poem looks at what remains of the statue of Ramses II, the rise and the fall of a great leader, which is not much, as all that is left are a pair of stumps, decay, an empty threat, and Shelley having some fun by being ironic, as he shifts the meaning of the word “despair” into another form of despair. And despair is a common theme in the dark story of Watchmen as it is set in an alternative 1985 in which the cold war is a threat and Nixon is in power. Now, I am fully aware of how these graphic novels, and comics in general get so easily dismissed, particularly by women and those who do not fit into the “geek” range, so then how is it that I have not only read the book, but have also seen the movie. Not only is this the case, but I had seen the movie before I read the book; therefore, I had broken one of my own ten commandments.

Watchmen was first published in 1986, which was a great success just as much as it is now, maybe even greater. The story is dark, dealing with themes surrounding communism, the downfall of society, retirement, the loss of faith in humanity, as well as the need to clarify the boundaries between good and evil. We are thrown into a world in which super heroes exists, but they are not the super heroes that you and I imagine them to be, as they all have dark sides to them, one’s a womaniser, one has been abused, one ends up in a sanatorium, and the list goes on, but they all have one thing in common, and that is to punish those that should be punished. Will Lawrence from the “Times” wrote, “Watchmen is the Crime and Punishment of graphic novels, a dark, difficult story set in a dystopian universe.” As I hadn’t read the story before seeing the film the way that I was meant to, I found myself at ease, as I did not find myself in that awful position, as the person sitting next to me, comparing each and every frame to what I had read, and cursing the directors for messing everything up. Instead, I sat there and enjoyed the movie for what it was, even leaving the cinema, wishing that I could be a super hero, although at the end of the day, everything is left fragmented and catastrophic, but that’s just me, I also wanted to be the Godfather after watching the first movie, but not so much after watching the second one. As I read the book, I found that the film had kept quite close to the script, and this I believe is because films begin as strips, and what better then to follow a comic strip, however, as usual, the small stories that are hidden within the novel do not come to light on the screen, and that’s when I know that people are missing out on the beauty of the story and it multifaceted stories that it carries with it. The up-side is that I have no doubt that for those who had not read the book before seeing the movie, would have the impulse to read it, and therefore, as usual, I have found the graphic novel to be a far more fulfilling experience then the movie. The strongest question that one is left behind with, after the movie and the novel, is about having the power to do good, and how far would one go to accomplish the greater good, this is what the character Adrian Veidt sets out to do, but at a cost, and it is up to you as the reader to decide if his actions can be justified, and if the actions of great leaders can be justified when they say that they are doing it for the greater good.

©Zehra Mustafa

Article Nine - The Short Story and "I"

Literature │The Short-Story and ‘I’
Runaway by Alice Munro

(published in "Avrupa" newspaper)

“I don’t really understand a novel…I don’t understand where the excitement is supposed to come in a novel, and I do in a story…I kind of want a moment that’s explosive, and I want everything gathered into that.” These were Munro’s thoughts on the short-story form in 1986; the problem is that not many people share her highly regarded opinion on this form. It seems that, the short- story form is something that does not receive as much respect as the novel, and is regarded as lacking in importance, or even worst, to be considered as being a part of low art culture. Runaway was written in 2004, and the Vintage edition, published in 2006 was accompanied by an introduction, by one Jonathan Franzen. Franzen takes it upon himself to save the reputation of the short-story, along with Munro’s, and pours out all of his emotions on the tragic reception of this poor form that needs to be given a voice, he even titles the introduction; “What Makes You Sure You’re Not the Evil One Yourself?” I may sound harsh, but Franzen’s polemic, which sounds more like an outpour of desperate pleas, come across in such a way, due to his martyrdom to this form.

Franzen begins by discussing how Munro has been an underappreciated writer and sets out in getting his thoughts across by making eight points. One of the eight points look at the way in which her work has been cast off as ‘merely entertainment’, and how it has been accused of not being serious. He even pushes his point by insinuating that ‘we’ the reader are so shallow that we can not take her serious as a writer due to her cheerful disposition, and that she is not the clichéd, dark broody type. Franzen expresses his bitterness and anger for reviewers who he believes to be incapable of reviewing shorter fiction, as they regard it to be “too-hard”. Through much anger and steam which seams to be flying out of his ears, he offers up a quote from Charles McGrath, the former editor of “The New York Times Book Review” who refers to short-story writers as “…people who learn golf by never venturing onto a golf course but instead practicing at a driving range.” Yes this does show the ineptness of minds that can not grasp the short-story form, making them to simply dismiss it, and “yes”, I agree that Franzen has every right stand up for this form, but there is no need to pontificate so avidly to us as though we were dumb and dismissive. In a way, I believe that Munro’s Runaway could have held it’s own without Franzen’s declaration of love, and it would have been a favour to the book had the introduction not felt like an attack on the reader.
Runaway is a compilation of eight stories, which have been carefully titled with one word such as “Chance”, “Silence”, “Trespasses” and “Passion”, and each one provides us a glimpse into the narrator’s lives. Each story makes one feel as though they were walking along the street and have secretly walked up the narrator’s path and peered in through their window, allowing the viewer to sit back and watch in peace, before moving onto the next. The first story “Runaway”, deals with issues surrounding a marriage and what happens when people stop communicating and the way in which one’s fears are capable of causing a temporary blindness. The clever aspect about the short-story is that it is able to deal with a vast amount of genres and situations, almost without missing anything out. The stories, “Chance”, “Soon”, and “Silence” follow segments of Juliet’s life. Although she is extremely bright, she is unable to reach out and make any meaningful human contact, leading to a failed marriage and an estranged daughter. Her story, like many out there, is not one made up of happy endings, as Munro refuses to provide any form of ending, and why should she, as I mentioned before, she is merely allowing us to enter the lives of a few for a few short moments.

Munro covers themes that deal with marriage, loss, illness, childhood, parenthood, suicide, infidelity, and the list goes on. There are moments when one can not help but feel that there is a greater need for a more in-depth development of her characters. Munro has managed to provide fantastic details of thought and feeling, but what is left behind is a strange sinking feeling that there is something missing, as sometimes it feels as though we are being hurried along. Munro’s true accomplishment lays within her ability to tell a story that is, now hold on I’m about to use the dirty word, according to some, “entertaining”, which is what it’s meant to do, it’s meant to take a hold of our attention, for a short period and keep a firm clasp of it. The wonderful thing about the short- story form is that a whole story can be read before falling asleep, or on a long journey to work, what’s really so bad about that? We are not devaluing or discrediting a book by saying that it is perfect for taking your mind off something for a short time. It’s the content of the story that is of importance, therefore the main problem with the short-story is not so much the inept down-grading that goes on by critics, but those that feel that they need to protect it, what I say to them is, if the work is genuinely good, like that of Munro’s, then they really don’t need your help.

© Zehra Mustafa

Article Eight - The Other Side

Literature │The Other Side
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

(published in "Avrupa" newspaper)

The Reader” was a great success, finally allowing Kate Winslet to gush over an award at the Oscars for “Best Actress”, but I am not going to talk about how great the film was, I am going to leave that up to the film section, and I am sure that there is a lot to say about it. The Reader, written by Bernhard Schlink, was published in Germany in 1995, Schlink, it appears, is a man of many talents; from 1988 he was a judge, as well as a professor in public law and philosophy of law. His step into the literary world was through detective fiction, such as his Self's Deception: A Gerhard Self Mystery, his leap from a judge to a writer of fiction is a very interesting move, but then again, maybe it is not such a leap after all. The Reader deals with war crimes, which are cases that he may have come across as a judge himself. The Reader deals with the painful issue of ‘guilt’, specifically the guilt that was felt by the German generation after The Holocaust. In an interview, Schlink says, “It’s the topic of my generation…we grew up in the shadow of the third Reich, the holocaust, the war, and we had to come to terms with ‘my father was this general or was this pastor who was a Nazi.”

Throughout the book, the concept of ‘guilt’ is prevalent. Guilt is felt by the protagonist, Michael, for failing the older woman that he has fallen in love with, and again, when he finds out that she was an S S Guard. However, there is far more to the guilt that he experiences, there is an unrelenting feeling of guilt as his generation learns about the atrocities of the war, but what is far worst for his generation, is what Schlink talks about in the interview, the knowledge that ones’ own parent was a part of it. As the novel is set in the traditional sense of storytelling, looking back and relaying an account of the past, the concept of memory is entwined with an overwhelming sense of pain, and the pain which Michael experiences is something that he can not let go of, no matter how hard he tries.

“Part One” deals with the young fifteen year old Michael who falls in love with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz, and one is immediately bombarded with a vast amount of sexual imagery. Michael’s voices sounds as though it is coming out from a dark fog, as each word is weighed down with the burden of memory. Schlink is able to capture the emotions and thoughts of a young boy who has reached sexual maturity well, but what he is able to do exceedingly well, is the way in which he describes the possession of a young boy’s soul by an older woman. This possession becomes more obvious as you continue to read on, as Hanna takes on the role as an enchantress and the very embodiment of entrapment. The voice and pace changes in part two as Michael grows up, for a mere moment, it is as though one is reading two separate books, as we step away from Michael’s giddy love, and begin to face the horrors of war. It is in the second part, I feel, where the books’ hook lies, as we are faced with the view of war from a different angle, from the S S Guard.

As a reader with knowledge of the atrocities of WWII, it is unsettling to hear accounts from the other side, especially when we have gotten to know Hanna, not as an S S Guard, but as a lonely woman, yet, when she stands there in court before our eyes, accounting what has happened, and posing the nauseating question to the judge, “What would you have done?” which leaves the judge frozen, we begin to picture a different Hanna. Just like Styron’s Sophie’s Choice, the book is full of choices; good ones, bad ones, and forced ones, and as we read, we take on the role as the judge, deciding upon whose choices were right and whose were a part of something more evil, that is if one believes in ‘evil’ in the first place. This novel provides a unique role when it comes to stories accounting WWII, as we are faced with many ugly truths. This novel is worth picking up, as we are plunged and enveloped in a world that is placed at the centre of pain, and a world that is trying to be forgotten.

© Zehra Mustafa