In A Constant State of Painful Ambivalence - Essay Example

In A Constant of Painful Ambivalence Neither here nor there, as if in suspended animation. Desperately struggling to break free from their current situations, the protagonists in the novels of Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow and Sarah Waters’ Tipping The Velvet are not made to stay put. They are in constant motion, relishing, tolerating or agonizing, depending on their perspective at the moment, each new adventure that life throws at them. Amis and Waters are two brilliant, young writers who have written these novels set in the past – Time’s Arrow during World War II and Tipping the Velvet, in the nineteenth century. It is amazing how both have captured the essence of the times and are successful in transporting the readers back in time to journey with the protagonists, Odilo Unverdorben, who undergoes a multiple change in persona in the time of war, and Nancy Astley, a young woman who has discovered and struggled with her queer sexuality in the prude Victorian era. Amis’ Time’s Arrow interestingly progresses backwards, chronologically. It begins at the deathbed of the protagonist, whose life literally flashes before him, however, in reverse direction. He is led to reminisce on every moment, to make him make sense of his role in the holocaust, as a Nazi doctor who assists in the torture and murder of Jews. Strangely enough, he finds comfort in the order of events, as he is made to think that he brings the dead to life, he heals the deathly sick, creates rather than destroys. Waters’ “Velvet” is a story of a young woman who has accepted her lesbian sexual orientation that yearned for expression in an otherwise restrictive society. She becomes a theater performer, a kept woman of another woman and a cross-dressing prostitute or “rentboy”, being paid for her services and entertainment value. Both characters are stricken with their moral consciences as they explore the possibilities beyond the societal boundaries set forth. They attempt to push its limits and manage to survive by justifying their actions. In the same way, authors Amis and Waters release their pent up frustrations with a society that imposes its standards and values on its people mostly leaving them without any choice but conform. Waters effectively uses the theme of lesbianism in shrewdly exposing the hypocrisy of Victorian society. Victorian women are reared to attract husbands by showing off domestic and artistic skills and shunning talents or tendencies that could turn away potential husbands. Men are seen as sources of security who have the power to whisk off a lady to a life of “happy ever after”. It fails to see the woman for what she is – her own preferences, her own power to be who she wants to be. Nan and Kitty (Nan’s female love interest) become male impersonators in the theater and later, lovers who need to keep their relationship a secret lest society frowns on it. Wilson (2006) expresses that Victorian male impersonators were seen as figures of anarchy who emasculate men and threatened to topple down gender boundaries. The New Woman was a rare species that ignored societal gender rules and lived as she wanted. Both the male impersonator and the new woman were subject to scrutiny and satire. The theme of lesbianism in the Victorian era is fraught with ambivalence and internal struggle. Nan’s cross-dressing clearly depicts this dilemma of shifting from one gender to another depending on the situation. “For Victorian women, clothing was one way of expressing their femininity and for Nan, constantly changing costume and altering the visual signifiers of gender creates a conflict between those norms she can subvert and those she cannot.” (Wilson, 2006) She further learns that gender and sexuality can and must be performed and finds herself doing so in most of her situations. She also knew how to manipulate the use of her clothing and costumes both onstage and off, as if she herself changes her sexuality during each costume change. A parallelism is discovered between her stage performances and her actual life. In both, she puts up a front, carefully hiding inside her true self. In her performances, expressions of sexuality and intimacy encourage the development of her sexual and personal identity expected by her audience. With both Nan’s music hall education and a traditional Victorian woman’s education in music, economic and social support is gained in the form of employment for Nan, and a husband, for the traditional Victorian woman. Wilson (2006) points out that Walters highlights the similarities between domestic training of Victorian women and theatrical performances and links the performance of gender to the performance of music. Martin Amis’ novel, Time’s Arrow also has references to gender as a more subliminal theme. Set in the time of the holocaust with the protagonist as a member of the Aryan military, he, along with his cohorts in the movement to wipe out inferior races, place upon themselves the role of giving birth to a new world order. Quite an irony for a man to give birth, but in the novel, this becomes a natural phenomenon at war as German male soldiers perceive themselves playing an even more essential role in reproduction than women. Theweleit (1993) notes that “Men give birth to themselves living in New World Orders. Men are reborn by killing… You have to deal with that logic of metamorphosis when dealing with war. War ranks high among the male ways of giving birth.” (p. 284) Harris (1999) explains that in the Aryan perspective, the “right” kinds of life can only flourish if the “wrong” forms of life are abolished. Their philosophy maintains that “to become “reborn by killing”, the re(creation) of the German nation required that only “pure” Aryan seeds be sown; this, of course, requires that only persons of so-called Aryan heritage be allowed a right to live and reproduce” (p. 492) The protagonist’s misogyny surfaces when he engages in sex with women. To him, sex is equated with power and “lordship”. He sees sex as an “invasion” of a woman, much like a soldier’s invasion of an enemy’s territory. He takes advantage of the fact that women live in a culture where physical abuse against them is “illegal, but at the same time women’s (often sexual) debasement is socially, culturally and discursively sanctioned”. What makes it more complicated is the novel’s hints at his homosexual tendencies. He projects himself as a homophobic man, enjoying the re-creation of a new order by killing the substandard people, thereby denying his doubts that he may be one of them. However, his dissociated self (the doppelganger spirit, imprisoned within his body and mind) reveals his attraction for men and a struggle to be expressed by Tom (the protagonist, in one of his many characters in the novel). The protagonists of both Amis and Waters have both attempted to seize control of their lives in whatever twisted manner they believe was right. They go against what society may consider moral and uphold their own standards of morality. Waters’ Nan, whose ambivalence was whether to freely express her true sexuality or survive society’s call for conformity, found solace in her participation in the socialist movement headed by her most recent lover, Florence and her brother. With them, she has stumbled upon a greater depth of meaning in her life, and realized that her experiences in performing onstage had its advantages, as it provided an edge over others. When she passionately refused her former lover, Kitty’s plea for reconciliation, she finally realized it was with Florence that she felt belongingness and peace. Her travails from one pathetic experience to another have finally rewarded her for her persistence to survive and live through her painful ambivalence. With Florence and the socialist movement, which gave her recognition and importance, she did not have to pretend to be who she was not. Her “performance” was limited to stage speeches, and did not encroach on her personal expression of her sexuality anymore. She was finally free. Amis’ Odilo, on the other hand, had his path cut out for him, as it was a life already lived, only this time, it was set in reverse. Since his memory of his lived life was not serving him right due to an imposed “amnesia”, he was not aware that he has passed this way before. He himself was amazed at how things were turning out, but made sense of it by believing how he wanted to believe was the righteous thing to do in the moral dilemmas he faced. After all, he was a doctor who had a Hippocratic oath to live by, however, circumstances made him to understand it in reverse. Still, the fact that a supposedly righteous doctor, trained to help give life participating in violence against his fellowmen put him in an ambivalent state. His altered mentality, as embodied by the ghost who constantly battles with him deep inside his mind, ironically manifested normalcy as it served as his conscience at a time when consciences seem have gone out of fashion. In spite of the pain and suffering that punctuated the reality of the times, Odilo chose to see it in a different light to justify his actions and appease the restlessness of the spirit within him. The only way he could do that was to convince himself that his participation in the cruelties of the holocaust, ironic, as it was, was necessary to rebuild a less than perfect world. One needs to see its effects backwards, creating beautiful lives out of nothingness, and contentment and peace resulting from the atrocities of war. Although both writers write about the historical past, both are contemporary and very modern. They have written the stories with the present at the back of their minds. For Waters, she used the backdrop of the Victorian suppression of the optimization of women’s potentials by keeping them as accessories to men. She makes her readers aware of how times have changed, women have no reason to fear trying out their wings even in male-dominated careers. Society is much more open and tolerant of a variety of sexual preferences not common or even considered taboo in the past. It seems her advocacy is for people to be more authentic to themselves and not be drawn into societal norms if they are not amenable to it and if their preferences will not be hurtful to anyone. Waters’ obsession of the past is gleaned from her historical method of writing. However, there is more to expressing nostalgia or satisfying the demands of the cultural marketplace. She investigates the germinal phase of social, political and sexual discourses that are still relevant in the new millennium (Constantini, 2006). Focusing in the past creates a new understanding of the present. It gives the readers a better sense of reality of the past and rethink their identities in the present influenced by history. An example is the exploration of a genealogy central to understanding the development of feminine and gay subcultures of the present. Waters, like Amis, shows militancy. In focusing on the woman, she gets to expose legal, economic and class discrimination of a society that prefers the well-to-do and keeping them happy by defending their privileges and stifling their opposition. Amis’ style is an interesting innovation. It keeps the audience in awe due to the fact that they try to reconstruct in their imaginations to see the scenes in their usual order rather than the reverse order Amis presents in Time’s Arrow. His technique is quite modern. Although he weaves a creative story in the past, he keeps one eye on the present issues that besiege humanity – abuse of power and hierarchy; violence, pornographic and degraded human conditions and the link between masculine desire and violence. Amis leads readers to take upon themselves the role of the perpetrator in the story, to experience his thrills and motivations by placing the beginning the narrative at a point familiar to them. Tension is built when the narrator of the story walks the readers through the events in the book, with the readers having a full understanding and anticipation of the events. The protagonist’s misogyny, racism and hierarchy of prejudice, his cynical exploitation of his profession, and the repression and depersonalisation that characterise his relationships are discovered by the reader and are analyzed with the backdrop of modernity, if it is to be a critical topic for discussion. “We realise that they are based in a craven attitude towards power and an acceptance and approval of violence. His character is revealed before we realize that it is fascism that makes sense of his values.” In providing a vivid picture of the holocaust, Amis gives a warning that it is possible to happen all over again if we are not careful. One possibility is a nuclear holocaust which is far more dreadful and utterly toxic. Waters and Amis are two great storytellers gifted with an ability to vividly deliver the lives of the characters of their stories to be vicariously experienced by the readers, while casting a spell on them to be kept in awe of the events that unfold. The creative use of their storylines effectively leaves traces of the readers’ sociological awareness and understanding that surrounded the realities of the characters. This may be one of the goals of the writers. Halfway through the novels, the readers are transformed to be staunch supporters of the protagonists as they have become heavily influenced or “brainwashed” into taking their side as the protagonists fight on with the battles pitifully thrown at them by life. Amis and Waters respect their readers enough to know that they are critical thinkers who are aware of the characters’ frailties and imperfections, however, these protagonists’ zest to survive the sociological challenges is the driving force that make readers cheer them on to success. References Amis, M. (1992), Time’s Arrow. New York: Vintage. Constantini, M (2006) “’Faux-Victorian Melodrama’ in the New Millenium: The Case of Sarah Waters, Critical Survey, Vol 18, No. 1 Harris, G (1999) “Men Giving Birth to new world orders: Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow”, Studies in the Novel, Vol. 13, no. 4 Malinowitz, H. (2000) “Taking the Road to Ruin”, The Women’s Review of Books, Vol 17, No. 5 Mccarthy, Dermot (1999). “The Limits of Irony: The Chronillogical World of Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow”, War, Literature & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities, Spring/Summer1999, Vol. 11 Issue 1 Theweleit, K. (1995) “The Bomb’s Tomb and the Genders of War”, Gendering War Talk, ed. Miriam Cook and Angela Woolacott Waters, S. (1999), Tipping the Velvet. New York: Riverhead. Wilson, C.A. (2006), From The Drawing Room To The Stage: Performing Sexuality In Sarah Waters’s Tipping The Velvet, Women’s Studies,Vol 45, 2006 Read More