Kalbirsohi.net

Psychobabble

• October 5, 2009: Victory Lap by George Saunders

• New Yorker, Philosophy, Short Stories

• ‘m interested in the inner mental life of individuals — in what is in our minds when we encounter the various situations that we find ourselves in. This perhaps goes some way to describing my research area; in a very austere way I am trying to describe what goes on in people’s minds when they are using a particular type of expression.

  It also explains why I like some of the writers that I like; Proust, Richard Ford and Vladimir Nabokov come to mind in this regard*.

  All three write vividly about the thoughts that their protagonists have as they engage in various activities. Specific aspects of Marcel’s remembering for instance — the things that trigger memories, the metaphors that are used to describe past situations, the opinions he brings to bear on the characters of his life — help us to answer questions about the particular ways in which he (Marcel the character) thinks about the world around him. For one person, fitting the world into thought may be a matter of elaborate simile (Humbert Humbert comes to mind) whilst for another it might be pared down, literal description (Frank Bascombe-esque, one might venture). Both styles colour experience, leaving two individuals with contrasting descriptions of the same event.

  This feature is the focus of George Saunders’ excellent story this week. Saunders places the contrasting inner lives of his two child protagonists at the centre of the story and lets creepy events unfold. The reader is thus treated to two (disjoint, but adjoining) descriptions of a scenario, each of which is wedded to the child whose inner life we are privileged to be sharing. Alison Pope filters her experience through the daydream of being a Princess with many invisible suitors, a daydream that is soon shattered when an unwanted guest arrives at her door. Kyle Boot’s restrictive social situation is a constant factor, informing and placing boundaries on all of his thoughts — edicts from his parents surround his life so pervasively that Kyle even checks himself when swearing in his head.

  As a result, we are left with a rich and vivid insight into the thoughts of Alison and Kyle (and indeed the sinister interloper) and how they interpret the world around them and fit it into their mental stream. Saunders employs typographic flourishes to emphasise the inner-ness of what the reader is given access to and displays the relationship between our social environment and our mental one with wonderful, and occasionally humorous, clarity.

  [Go to the story]

  *As does the film Rachel’s Getting Married which I talked about in a similar vein.

  [Update, the drop capital "I" used here is by from Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische, a really fun project that I'm going to try to use more often]

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