Years ago, in the 90's, Metallica released a video for One, a song they wrote inspired by a movie/book called Johnny Got His Gun. The video features clips from this movie about a man who had gone to the war, survived a bombing, but was left without arms or legs, sight, hearing and speech. I thought that was one of the most horrific things you could possibly experience - being trapped within the mind completely.
The aesthetics of Metal music typically involve death and revolve around the dark, so for Metallica, this sharply defined them as leaders of the genre by examining a fate that could be considered worse than death, while making a politcal and moral point about war, which is also very Metal. The unfortunate soldier loses his sanity as he drifts in and out of sleep hoping that he could wake up and hear him. His signals S.O.S. with his head, but doctors do not know what to do with him and keep him alive via a feeding tube. By the end he wishes for death to release him.
Bauby on the other hand, manages to deal with his fate with an odd positivity, coming up with a language facilitated blinking system and using his memory to construct comforting re-experiences. His struggle to reach the world through the most limited movement is truly an inspiration. As a writer, I cannot imagine how frustrating it must have been to desire to communicate, to construct a tale, and to have only one tool, trust in a note taker. Its interesting to see how he describes the process, as a mental memorization of the words and then their execution. One also cannot deny that his restrictions also forced the novel to be so characteristically sharp and clean. Not one word is a waste, and though the novel is short, it is not without rich experience, a remarkable memoir.
That said, I feel unsure about how much we are given. I feel that despite his disclosure, his honest prose, and effort to focus on the positive leaves me wondering about the tremendous pain with which he lived. Yes, we are told about it, given the lines of the situational, but I never really feel the horror like Metallica's video did. I wonder about how the work ran through his head, I wonder about those days when he could not write another word, the sheer unbearability if his condition. Ultimately, I am not so sure why these emotional moments are undercut. Yes his sense perceptions were at odds, and yes he could not feel. But what is there in that emptiness. How does his mind feel it? These unacknowledged moments, unanswered questions, are what creates the horror.
Comments (4)
I remember being sick in sixth grade, stuck in bed and read cover to cover Johnny Got his Gun, truly a remarkable book I remember at the time specifically because of the internal world that is crated. What I remember most is the character's face is somehow shot off and he lives with this.
I agree with your sense, "feeling unsure about how much we are given." I also had difficulty with that, but then again getting anything from such an extreme situation is an achievement in itself. But what was avoided remains an essential question for this book.
JRCurrie
Posted by john | November 6, 2007 11:14 PM
Posted on November 6, 2007 23:14
Hi, Dominik--
I too read Johnny, and remember being truly horrified. This one is also horrific, and I think that comes through, but you have to read between the lines, no?
Maryellen
Posted by Maryellen | November 8, 2007 4:45 PM
Posted on November 8, 2007 16:45
I also thought of Metallica's video while reading this, as I have never read the book Johnny Got His Gun, honestly for fear of the horror in the book.
You raise an interesting point about Bauby being exhausted from writing the book, and there may lie the answer to why it lacks certain emotions.
Imagine feeling such turmoil, and being unable to express it through anything but a blink. It was probably too much for him to bear.
Posted by Jess | November 13, 2007 8:40 PM
Posted on November 13, 2007 20:40
Wow. . . I had completely forgotten about Metallica's video. I remember being horrified by it but wanting at the same time to see it again and again. I never read Johnny Got His Gun but I think I will definately look it up as it has clearly had an impact on several of our classmates. If I consider my reaction to the video compared to my reaction to Bauby I can agree that I didn't really feel the same horror . . . but I wonder if it is just because the video not only offers a visual representation but also gives a voice to the mans inner thoughts. I realize that Bauby offers his inner thoughts as well (to a degree as he doesn't really vocalize the horror) but the video gives those thoughts an actual voice which conveys more of the horror than words on a page could ever do . . . I don't know. . . I think it is the multi-sensory experience of the video which heightened the horror. . . I felt kind of flat after reading Bauby. . . but I'm wondering if I was looking at it the wrong way and maybe I should reconsider it with your idea in mind: "what is there in that emptiness. How does his mind feel it?"
Posted by Jennifer | November 20, 2007 9:56 AM
Posted on November 20, 2007 09:56