2011. december 26., hétfő

7th October: A most subjective narrative

If ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’ was a story hard to interpret, then ‘The Cathedral’ was one I remained quite clueless – is there something I haven’t noticed or it is ‘only’ about the narrator gaining insight? After doing some research, it turned out that I hadn’t actually missed much – it was only the epiphany of the narrator itself that I couldn’t deal with. It was obvious that there’s not much intimacy between wife and husband, because that latter – mildly speaking – lacks some empathy which is made up by Robert, whom the wife tells everything via the tapes. A motif of alcohol is unavoidable as well; I myself pay some professional attention to spirits, so if it seems even to me that too much booze is coming around, then there’s something definitely wrong about it. Perhaps those two have found out that they get along better if both of them have a little every once in a while – keeping a little of everything at home is quite the hallmark of ‘drinking every once in a while’ kind of people. The narrator also turns out to know exactly nothing about the blind; so if he wasn’t interested in his wife’s friend, that makes the prospects of the visit even worse. I haven’t noticed how well Carver’s famous method works: from the narrator’s subjective point of view, despite some obvious clues, his problems don’t seem as bad as they are – except his amazing cluelessness about the blind . Not only he’s someone lacking insight (which further deprives the narration of objectiveness), but he also talks from a present perspective, rather than as a reminiscence. Now, about his epiphany... it comforted me for some extent to know that this ending is regarded a ‘zero-ending’, and the narrator’s success of gaining insight is important rather than what he’d exactly find out – a surprising idea. Usually, it's not easy to realise the importance of problems we are not affected by. Douglas Adams' Somebody Else's Problem field may be working better than it seems to.

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