Ralph Messenger's attempt to record his consciousness on tape (or on voice-recognition software) seems to me to be doomed from the outset. He is attempting to funnel an incredibly multifarious phenomenon through one conduit, language, which necessarily limits the extent to which consciousness can be represented. We think in image and word AND sound, who knows, maybe even smell and touch. When we speak, the spoken word carries with it a whole host of images and ideas. Word cannot be divorced from image, nor can image be divorced from word. And words don't always come out of one's mind shaped into a well-shaped narrative like the one we get of Ralph's first sexual experience in chapter six. If Ralph were being honest with himself, he would, more often than not, speak in a series of loosely associated words and grunts.
(As an aside, I seem to remember a game show designed around this process where contestants are presented with two words on a board separated vertically by a handful of blank spaces, like a ladder. The challenge was to fill in those blank spaces with words that are logically related to the preceding word, creating a "chain" of semantic relationships along the way. For example, the chain: "Car __ __ __ Egg" could be completed with the words "Trunk, Elephant, Poach" or something to that effect. What was the name of that show? "Chain Link" or something?)
Nor is Helen's journal a more "accurate" portrayal of consciousness for it is conceived in essentially novelistic conventions - which makes perfect sense; she is, after all, a novelist. Helen is not passively recording her thoughts in her journal but she is actively constructing a story. Each word on her page is result of conscious choice and artful construction.
Not that I'm criticizing David Lodge for the manner in which he's gone about his novel. I don't think anyone could stand to listen to Ralph or Helen drone on indefinitely. I just don't think consciousness can really be captured exclusively via the written word. As I envision it, a "real" literary representation of consciousness would probably take the shape of an expressionist graphic novel whose frames consist of vaguely identifiable images, coupled with loosely interrelated blocks of text and packaged with a CD of German serialism. A real gesamtkunstwerk of consciousness. I'm imagining what the outcome would be if Finnegan's Wake were rewritten as a graphic novel and set to music. It would be exhausting for the reader, would it not? Like reading a novel composed entirely of Ralph Messenger's recordings but with a little more random association thrown in there. Certain pains at artifice must be made in order to shape this thing into something coherent. But then we are getting away from the point of this experimental piece of literature (if it could be called that), that is, the accurate representation of consciousness which, as I see it, tends more towards chaos than coherence. If we were true to our consciousnesses, would this literary monstrosity tend toward narrative at all? I don't know. Do any of my thoughts tend toward narrative? Maybe in short bursts, but certainly not over an extended period of time. Hmm. This may not be a bad idea for a project, if it hasn't already been done, if only I could draw.
(Got it. "Chain Reaction": http://www.gsn.com/specific_page_elements.php?link_id=S92. This internet sure is something.)
Comments (1)
I think that you raise some very good points. In order to be readable, and enjoyable, the novel must have coherence, yet, if it was true to itself, it would have been chaotic, but imagine reading chapters of ughs, urs, :sighs,: hahah, ahhhhh, umph's, and little drawings. It could become tedious.
We can never really explain our consciousness. We can never accuratley recall anything. In order to survive we must make order from the chaos. I couldn't imagine being in that chaotic state of mind all the time.
If you want to read something that is similar to the idea of random thought and chaos read Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. It is tedious, but it really captures randomness...
Posted by Jessic Sede | September 8, 2007 12:58 PM
Posted on September 8, 2007 12:58