West's text gives us a chance to slow down a bit and carefully read a short piece after Agee's epic Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.
March 5: For Friday's class, please come in prepared to discuss your papers and read up to page 18 of The Day of the Locust (59-88, up to Chapter 10 if you are reading a different edition; note that the edition you have also has Miss Lonelyhearts in it--a separate text).
March 8: 89-135 (up to Chapter 19)
March 10: 135-end
March 12: Continue discussing the end and the text as a whole.
A new biography of Nathanael West will be published March ll: "Lonelyhearts:The Screwball World of Nathanael West and Eileen McKenney," by Marion Meade.
ReplyDeleteTo visit West's web site, go to www.nathanaelwest.com
ReplyDeleteThis book, like Sullivan’s Travels, addresses the idea of entertainment as a form of escapism. When Claude and Tod are talking about films, Claude says, “You have to remember your audience. What about the barber in Purdue? He’s been cutting hair all day and he’s tired. He doesn’t want to see some dope carrying a valise or fooling with a nickel machine. What the barber wants in amour and glamour” (72).
ReplyDeleteThe Hollywood characters seem to be practicing a form of escapism not only through entertainment but through nearly every aspect of their lives. They are so bored and desperate for entertainment that they engage in ridiculous activities (see page 71: the dead, rubber horse at the bottom of the pool). Everything is over the top (the architecture, Abe Kusich, Mrs. Schwartzen) or over sexualized (the prostitution, the film, Faye Greener). The characters seem to be trying to create a new, more exciting world, which is causing them to be a bit out of touch with reality.
The first thing I noticed about this book (because the book opens with it) is the descriptions of all of the fake people and objects. We start with a misleading narrow angle view of soldiers marching down the street "as though fleeing from some terrible defeat" (21). Then the director is revealed and we understand fully that this is a movie set. Later on, at the end of the same chapter, we are given a detailed description of the houses that line the streets. They, like the actors, are a mishmash of cultural styles. They are described as being ugly and obviously fake, made from materials that are cheap. Homer's home is described as having an imitation Spanish appearance, with cacti made from "rubber cork" and decor made from plaster and other cheap materials, even down to the hinges. I feel like this is a statement of the culture of Hollywood: people and places cover themselves in fantastical glamor, but their glamor are little more than chintzy facades slapped over hollow shells.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, sorry if this seems a little disjointed, midterms were today and I'm still incapable of coherent thought processes.
ReplyDeleteI think this book is going to be a great commentary on Hollywood. I love anything that exposes something glamorous like the movie industry as fake and grotesque. Of course, I might just be bitter because I'm not Anne Hathaway...
But I digress. I believe this is an examination of the mask people of importance hide behind. They're bathed in lavishness, but the actual person behind the ornamentation is impossible to see. I'm curious to know if this is a commentary on acting as a whole or simply the inner workings of Hollywood.
My favorite part thus far about the book was the description of the people on the street, and how Todd lumps them all into categories. The fact that he notes the "successful" people as the people wearing all the costume-y clothing, and looks down upon the normal people is very telling of his character. I don't think I'm going to like this guy at all, but the book seems great so far.
I am really enjoying the text so far and am looking forward to diving in even further this week!
ReplyDeleteThe thing that has really struck me about the text so far is West's use of contradictory language: "He managed to laugh at his language, but it wasn't a real laugh and nothing was destroyed by it" on 68 or "She had a pretty, eighteen-year-old face and a thirty-five-year-old neck that was veined and sinewy" on 69, for example. The disagreement of descriptive language seems to work as a tool to keep his audience engaged, while simultaneously pointing to his theme of Hollywood's two-faced nature. As I'm reading, I catch myself flying by these passages, then stopping and going back to look more closely. It is a really unusual reading experience, and I'm enjoying it very much!
I'm really interested in Tod's character, and why West chose to show us Hollywood through these eyes. There are a lot of really disturbing things about Tod (his desire to rape Faye, for starters), but this character has such an interesting attitude toward Hollywood. He is disgusted by it, drawn to it, and, I think, he feels kind of sorry for it (if you can feel sorry for a city). What I like about Tod is that he sees the fakeness of the neighborhood, but he's "charitable" because "It is hard to laugh at the need for beauty and romance, no matter how tasteless, even horrible, the results of that need are" (Ch. 1). My other favorite part of the novel is when Faye and her friend are talking about Mrs. Jennings and their language gets all slangy. Tod thinks that the slang "made them feel worldly and realistic, and so more able to cope with serious things" (ch. 16). I love that the novel doesn't necessarily condemn Hollywood from a moral standpoint, but instead tries to find a more complex way of looking at the spectacle.
ReplyDeleteSo far I have really enjoyed West's description of Hollywood. West is very skillful in the way that he makes Hollywood seem to be a vibrant mixing pot of cultures and people. Consequently, there is an eery undertone that something isn't right. On page 61, West writes, "It is hard to laugh at the need for beauty and romance, no matter how tasteless, even horrible, the results of that are. But it is easy to sigh. Few things are sadder than the truly monstrous." I absolutely loved this. Without a doubt this book is not going to be happy in any shape, fashion, or form. By this opening passage I'm expecting West to portray a gruesomely honest story that dives into the depths of human desire and motive.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Laura, that this book has a very strong connection to Sullivan's Travels. There are so many overlapping similarities between the two I was somewhat shocked when I first started reading. I'm curious to see if West attempts to weave comedy into his story and if it ends tragically or on an optimistic note.
Great comments, everyone! Keep it up and come to class ready to talk on Wednesday!
ReplyDeleteI just remembered that I was so busy last night that I forgot to post here. So, here is my post! Sorry for being late!
ReplyDeleteI think the last part of what we read for today - the description of the "soldiers" advancing on to the hill that was unstable - is very interesting and seems to foreshadow some kind of terrible end to the characters in this novel.
"The noise was terrific. Nails screamed with agony as they pulled out of joists. The sound of ripping canvas was like that of the little children whimpering. Lath and scantling snapped as though they were brittle bones. The whole hill folded like an enormous umbrella and covered Napoleon's army with painted cloth." (p 134)
As we talked about in class today, in many ways this novel seems to have an apocalyptic tone. I think this passage particularly illustrates that. Also, West seems to be foreshadowing something that will happen to the characters in this novel - it's almost as if West sees the characters as the soldiers, and this elaborate act they are weaving for themselves is nothing more than a poorly constructed set that will eventually collapse underneath them.
What I love (like the other blogs) is West's use of description and his great use of language. The scene where Tod is going through the maze of scenes and props in the studio; the winding, up and down motion of his actions is mirrored in his text (pgs. 130-132; ch. 18).
ReplyDelete"He pushed his way through a tangle of briars, old flats and iron junk, skirting the skeleton of a Zeppelin, a bamboo stockard, an adobe fort, the wooden horse of Troy, a flight of baroque stairs that started in a bed of weeds and ended against the branches of an oak, part of the Fourteenth Street elevated station, a Dutch windmill, the bones of a dinosaur, the upper half of the Merrimac, a corner of a Mayan temple, until he finally reached the road. He was out of breath."
So is the reader! (And my hands after typing it!) All these images upon images become this crazy maze that Tod has to navigate and so do we. Hollywood is this fake conglomeration of junk which Tod continues to describe on 132 as "the studio lot was one [a Sargasso Sea] of a dream dump. A Sargasso of the imagination! [...] and there wasn't a dream afloat somewhere which wouldn't sooner or later turn up on it." But Tod describes how dreams never really disappear but "troubles some unfortunate person and some day, when the person is sufficiently troubled, it will be reproduced on the lot."
It seems to say that 1) no ideas are truly original just a part of a cycle of reincarnation of ideas 2) dreams are not good! they are troublesome; you are unfortunate if you are bothered with it. Wow, Hollywood and its mass of desperate people have produced this cynicism; the constant wishes of people like Faye who keep dreaming of being/producing the next big thing are futile and not worth even going for. We might as well not even try or even dream because we will just fight our whole life for something that will not be actualized.
On a different note, the little boy creepily named "Adore" singing that song is very troublesome. His innocence is being killed and wasted by Hollywood and his crazed with dreaming mother. He is singing this sexual song as a small child. Hollywood definitely is messed up.
It's not my night to post, but I came across this article today, and it reminded me of today's discussion about how we get sucked into virtual reality. This tragic story of a baby starving to death while its parents play computer games sounds like something that might happen in a cyber-age West novel:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.slate.com/id/2247465/
The end of this book is shocking. I just watched the movie clip showing the final apocalyptic scene, and the violence is hard to watch. Part of what makes it so horrendous is the fact that these are “normal,” everyday people committing murder, sexual assault, vandalism, and physical abuse. When Tod first arrives on the scene he notes that there are few people present who look “tough.” In fact, the people looked “diffident, almost furtive” as they approach the crowd. But as soon as they become a part of the crowd, “they turned arrogant and pugnacious… They were savage and bitter” (177). This mob mentality takes over. Perhaps they feel the freedom to act without consequences in the large group. Perhaps they get caught up in the hysteria around them. Perhaps they feel a sense of power in group violence.
ReplyDeleteTod explains it as “boredom and disappointment” (177). Their whole lives they have slaved and saved to come to California and live the dream. They are disappointed when it doesn’t meet their expectations. Violence is the solution. They feed on it in newspapers and movies. “Both fed them on lynching’s, murder, sex crimes, explosions, wrecks, love nests, fires, miracles, revolutions, wars,” but “nothing can ever be violent enough” (178). This lust for violence is frightening, and it’s not far from today’s reality where unreasoned crime is prevalent.
Molly, that story is seriously disturbing.
Faye's character really interested me. She is a little crazy, we can tell that from the beginning when she is singing "Jeepers Creepers" to her dad. Of course, Harry was a little crazy too. I think that West is purposefully trying to point out that the Hollywood natives are strange creatures, that always seem to portray themselves in a weird manner to everyone else. However, the people that have just moved here to work or rest such as Tod or Homer seem to be normal, until Hollywood sucks them in too.
ReplyDeleteBy the end of the book we see the destruction of nearly every character, and Tod's painting that he talks about from the beginning of the book becomes a symbol. The "Burning of Los Angeles" symbolizes that people really do come to Hollywood to die. As the book progresses it is clear that most people are unable to make it in Hollywood, so they wander around aimlessly until they end up like the characters in this book. This seems very true to life.
Molly - WHAAAAT? That's insanely sad.
ReplyDeleteI think the thing that impacted me the most about the novel was the manner in which West portrays gender. I was annoyed by Faye, the only woman seriously portrayed in the novel, for being willing to fall into the "pretty girl" world of sleeping her way to the top (shown when she's flirting heavily with Claude at the dinner "party"). I just...boy, I hate girls like that, and the fact that West chose to portray the only major female character in that manner gave me the impression that West was trying to say that Hollywood was what created these women. Even the respectable(?) Mrs. Jennings runs a brothel. Femininity in this novel seems to only revolve around their girly bits.
Which brings me to the men of Day of the Locust. All of the male characters, Tod, Abe, Earle, Homer, all very deeply disturbed me with the way they looked at/talked about Faye. Tod thought it was a great idea to rape her. Earl and Miguel liked to get her drunk and then rape (or take advantage of, however you want to look at it) her. In the beginning, I thought that this had more to do with Faye's overt beauty than the men just being awful people. But in the end scene, I found out that it wasn't just Faye. There's one man in the mob that says scissors aren't the proper tool to "rip up a girl" with. Not to sound unprofessional here, but...what the hell is THAT? Along the same lines, I've had the image of the young girl being sexually assaulted by the old man in the mob in my head since I finished the book and it's been deeply disturbing me, and probably will continue to do so. I'm curious as to why West portrayed all the men this way.
Anyway. Sorry. I'm done ranting.
I feel Homer's violent outburst at the end of the book was Hollywood finally getting to him. Throughout the text, Homer has been a man of great inaction. The impulses that his body seem driven by are constantly hampered by him. But we see at the end of the book, he finally snaps. His mind loses all control of his body. I don't hate Homer for what he does, rather, I feel sorry for him. Oddly enough, I don't really feel sorry for Adore, even though he's a victim of his environment just as much as Homer is.
ReplyDeleteI watched the clip of the end, and while certainly different from the book, I liked how it fused in imagery of "The Burning of Los Angeles." That crowd was all kinds of creepy (and awesome).
I came across this photo on StumbleUpon, and it reminded me of Faye and her father: http://images.wisconsinhistory.org/700099990554/9999009084-l.jpg
ReplyDeleteAs much as Faye seems disturbed by her father's laughter and the way he acts, she puts on just as much of a show as he does. She might not make up his appearance, but she may be part of the reason he feels he has to maintain his clown persona.
I really enjoyed West's novel, although it was much more like a horror film than a pleasure read. One of the things that stood out the most to me, and has stuck with me after finishing the text, is the repetition of people laughing at things that aren't funny, and are actually grotesque. Towards the end of the book, people in the mob discuss how to murder a body and cut it into pieces. They laugh at the idea and brush it off like nothing. To me that was sick and so inhumane I felt like maybe I read it wrong. West created a novel that makes one question human motives and why we do the things we do.
ReplyDeleteLike we talked about in class, the last mob scene really shows the impact that hollywood has made on society of the modern and postmodern world. The fact that West depicts this angry, malicious mob scene verifies this. Todd, imitating the siren, has now gotten to a place where he can really capture hollywood and its affect on society. With the sound of the siren, which ambulances and fire trucks use in emergency situation, Todd can now picture in his mind "The Burning of Los Angeles." The use of the word siren shows that much like a fire burning up a city so that a siren of ambulances must come to the scene, the mob and film premiere are burning up and killing society. Caught up in a fire, the mass of people are violent, desperate, and longing for their life to be like what they see on film and go to extremes to fulfill their desire to see these productions.
ReplyDelete