Discussion - Week Seven - Europe Central - p. 622 - 752

[Jim]

This discussion covers Opus 110 –thru- The White Nights of Leningrad, pg. 622 –thru- 752, and Conclusions/Book as a whole

[mkfs]

From Opus 110:

Nationals of the capitalist powers make each other's acquaintances by asking how they prefer to spend money: Do you collect stamps? I like to watch war movies.

Nice one.

The inner dialogue of Shostakovich's ideas for Opus 110 paint him as a sort of synaesthete. Did Shostakovich actually have synaesthesia, or is Vollman just making this up?

[Martin]

My copy of Europe Central is packed away, one of the read books that I am taking with me as I move out of the place I have called home for 24 years.

But the thing I remember most about it is that it answered the question about why both my father (son of a mule farmer from Memphis, TN, honors Harvard grad, career foreign service officer on Russian desk at stat) and father in law (graduate of Georgetown foreign affairs program, son of Jewish Russian immigrants who fled Russian pogroms) were so fascinated with the fascist German government.

This fascination went beyond intellectual. There was some gravitational pull for these two men who were also pulled in the direction of Mudder Russia.

And therein lies the key point. The Mother Russia and Fatherland dichotomy that Vollmann captures in Europe Central, I think, is the answer. They are the masculine and feminine sides of the same coin.

Unfortunately for me, the book is packed away so I am not able to revisit that passage, but for me that was the key to the book and understanding the profound fascination my father and FIL had in Nazi Germany.

[Zadignose]

I'm still with you guys, by the way, though I'm behind schedule... still in "week 5 material", I think. But I do love this book so far. So the diversity of reactions to it was somewhat surprising.

I just finished reading A Tomb for Boris Davidovich today, and wow, that book is closer to Vollmann's Europe Central than I had anticipated. By way of explaining my reaction to EC, I'll quote a snippet from my review of that other book... hoping it makes sense:

"What brings these books together is that they're not histrionic. They have some real horror in them, but they don't emote for the reader. They present. The emotional reaction is up to you, if you're inclined to have one. They ... can be opaque with regards to authorial intent. They also each employ some form of ironic distancing, yet seem to profit from it in terms of overall impact. The books are insidious. They get into you."

I also commented that, for me, Europe Central is verbose but achieves power from its cummulative effect. So I have not yet found any reason to bemoan its wordiness, repetitiveness, or volume of detail whether historical or fictional.

[mkfs]

Zadignose wrote: "What brings these books together..."

That's a pretty fair assessment of Europe Central. I agree with your description of the writing, but the book just didn't grab me. I was expecting the cumulative effect you mention to arise, yet it didn't.

I'm still unsure of what Vollman was going for. It seems rather facile, if not actually insulting, to say that the purpose of the book is to tell us that war is BAD and tyranny is BAD -- yet there really isn't much else going on. I found it underwhelming.

It has got me re-visiting Shostakovich's work, though, so that's something. Actually listening to Opus 110 s I write this.

[Zadignose]

I wonder, did Hitler actually refer to himself as a sleepwalker? I've found three differently phrased quotes, which could be different translations/interpretations, or bogus... or he could have said it multiple times in different ways... or... :

"I follow my course with the precision and security of a sleepwalker."

"I go the way that Providence dictates with the assurance of a sleepwalker."

And "I move like a sleep-walker where Providence dictates."

The last one is sourced from a completely bogus conspiracy-theory book "The Spear of Destiny," the others... who knows. None of the quotes sites that reference it actually mention when Hitler may have said it, to whom it was said, or what the context was. Spear of Destiny says only "at a press interview."

Some wacky astrology book "The Hades Moon: Pluto in Aspect to the Moon" repeats the quote, using Spear of Destiny as a source. It also shares some interesting "facts" relating to that mystical moment when Hitler was possessed upon witnessing the spear that pierced Jesus's side: "That day there was a lunar eclipse at the beginning of Aries square to Pluto at 0-degrees Cancer (Pluto being just into Hitler's philosophical 9th house where it would stay until the outbreak of war). Pluto had ventured briefly into Cancer before retreating back to Gemini to await World War I. The Gates to Hades were open wide at that moment. Arian self-consciousness was extinguished. Pluto reached out and plucked Hitler into another dimension."

Whether Hitler did or did not say anything about being a sleepwalker, based on some of the surrounding quotes that pop up in discussion, the suggestion is that he's referring to himself as an agent of history, acting according to a predestined script, and thus he cannot be wrong about anything (historical fact is fact, neither "right," nor "wrong," and you can't blame an actor for following the script).

Which leads to this: did Vollmann read Spear of Destiny? (Hmmm... maybe I should have read the backmatter... where the hell is my new Kindle!?)

[Martin]

Europe Central and Gravity's Rainbow are set in the same time period and have some overlapping considerations.

The broadest common denominator is the amorphous oppressive "they" that hang over Europe Central like a leaden sky full of ill omen, and are menace behind the Rabelaisian escapades of Slothrop in GR.

In both, "they" share connections. Going from memory, the network of the telephone is the metaphor in EC, where it's a more amorphous network of paranoia that often is justified in GR.

The influence on art, the artist, and how he responds to being under siege by two political parties, the red home team and the Nazis visiting team serves as EC's focus; where much attention is focused on Slothrop's personal quest that is at once official - destroy the blacks - but also highly personal in his relations with other characters (especially the women) and the exigencies of keeping his balls against the official campaign to have him neutered.

The effect, obviously, is vastly different. While both present the world as imperfection piled upon imperfection, EC offers up an oppressive existence. It is a world under siege, whether it's Petersburg, or the Nazis subsequently driven into a Berlin bunker.

But in GR, the result is more of a Rabelaisian frolic, replete with drugs, sex, and escapades that would be out of this world if they weren't so worldly.

It's interesting though, that in both books, sexuality seems to offer the only sanctuary.

Anywho, some random thoughts before I venture out in the back yard to finish preparing the grounds for winter, speaking of oppressive.