WEBVTT 00:01.580 --> 00:02.250 Professor Amy Hungerford: Now, 00:02.251 --> 00:02.571 what's coming up? 00:02.570 --> 00:07.030 As I mentioned last week, on Wednesday I'm going to give 00:07.032 --> 00:11.652 my censorship lecture, and in preparation for that I 00:11.650 --> 00:16.440 would like you to go to a local bookstore, any one, 00:16.440 --> 00:20.640 and just observe how it's laid out, what you see, 00:20.638 --> 00:23.698 what your attention is called to, 00:23.700 --> 00:28.060 what your attention is not called to, and here's a 00:28.059 --> 00:31.529 difficult question: What isn't there? 00:31.530 --> 00:35.180 Think about that, and I'll talk a little bit 00:35.177 --> 00:38.397 about what isn't there on Wednesday. 00:38.400 --> 00:42.810 Also, in order to keep up, please try to read at least to 00:42.814 --> 00:47.314 page 202--that's the next chapter division in The Human 00:47.308 --> 00:51.718 Stain--so that you're on track to finish it--it's 361 00:51.723 --> 00:54.013 pages--for next Monday. 00:54.010 --> 00:56.150 And so, next Monday, a week from today, 00:56.145 --> 00:59.175 I will give my second lecture on The Human Stain. 00:59.180 --> 01:01.860 And I will talk about The Human Stain a little 01:01.856 --> 01:04.096 bit on Wednesday, because some of what I have to 01:04.103 --> 01:05.923 say about censorship does pertain, 01:05.920 --> 01:06.880 so that's what's coming up. 01:06.880 --> 01:11.630 01:11.629 --> 01:15.779 I hope you all thought about the Identity Plot as you 01:15.777 --> 01:19.707 read this novel. It's hard not to. 01:19.709 --> 01:25.329 When I gave that lecture, I suggested that when a genre 01:25.330 --> 01:30.820 gains a certain credence, a certain widespread use in the 01:30.821 --> 01:36.101 culture, it requires more and more innovations on it to make a 01:36.097 --> 01:38.257 fresh story out of it. 01:38.260 --> 01:44.390 It also gets us to the point where that set of conventions is 01:44.391 --> 01:50.521 available to writers in a new way, to be transcended in a new 01:50.522 --> 01:53.582 way. So, one thing that I want to 01:53.583 --> 01:57.913 ask about this novel is, does it transcend the genre? 01:57.910 --> 02:01.830 Does it do more than provide the certain dramas and 02:01.833 --> 02:06.073 satisfactions that we come to expect from a novel about 02:06.069 --> 02:08.409 identity? In this sense, 02:08.411 --> 02:13.041 because it is so deeply embedded in those kinds of 02:13.038 --> 02:17.758 narratives, Roth is taking a kind of risk here. 02:17.759 --> 02:22.599 He's playing it safe because he knows that this is a topic of 02:22.601 --> 02:27.201 interest, but he's taking a risk as an artist because he's 02:27.200 --> 02:30.670 working in very well-trodden territory. 02:30.669 --> 02:34.429 I suggested that, also, when a genre reaches a 02:34.432 --> 02:38.582 certain point of saturation, writers tend to change the 02:38.578 --> 02:40.858 subject. I didn't say this when we 02:40.858 --> 02:43.738 talked about Blood Meridian, but I think 02:43.738 --> 02:47.378 in part Blood Meridian is that kind of change of subject. 02:47.379 --> 02:51.809 So, this returns to the genre, and we want to ask what it's 02:51.812 --> 02:53.572 doing with the genre. 02:53.569 --> 02:57.289 Before I go in to my meditation on that question today, 02:57.288 --> 03:00.868 I just want to call your attention to another element 03:00.868 --> 03:04.378 that does relate back to Blood Meridian, 03:04.379 --> 03:10.569 and that's its status as a historical novel. 03:10.569 --> 03:14.789 This novel places itself with certain kinds of historical 03:14.789 --> 03:17.049 markers at the very opening. 03:17.050 --> 03:22.180 It was the summer of 1998, the summer of the Monica 03:22.182 --> 03:26.702 Lewinsky affair, the summer when Viagra takes 03:26.698 --> 03:29.468 off in the marketplace. 03:29.470 --> 03:34.780 Those are very contemporary historical markers. 03:34.780 --> 03:39.240 Now, think back to the way Blood Meridian opens with 03:39.241 --> 03:41.041 its historical markers. 03:41.040 --> 03:42.180 Do you remember this line? 03:42.180 --> 03:46.620 It's the father talking about the kid's birth. 03:46.620 --> 03:51.450 He says, "Night of your birth, '33. 03:51.450 --> 03:53.890 God, how the stars did fall." 03:53.890 --> 03:56.520 I think I've got that correct. 03:56.520 --> 04:01.530 What he's talking about is the Leonid meteor showers in 1833 04:01.529 --> 04:05.009 that mark the night of the kid's birth. 04:05.009 --> 04:10.289 For all that McCarthy is interested in--and mining--the 04:10.285 --> 04:17.565 historical detail of the 1830s, '40s, '50s, that novel favors 04:17.566 --> 04:25.676 historical markers that seem like cosmic markers of time. 04:25.680 --> 04:32.160 So, contrast the stars falling in, yes, a historically specific 04:32.158 --> 04:36.758 meteor shower, but nevertheless in something 04:36.759 --> 04:41.909 that looks like a cosmic communication of meaning. 04:41.910 --> 04:45.970 Contrast that with the relatively mundane, 04:45.967 --> 04:50.317 debased historical markers that Roth chooses, 04:50.321 --> 04:54.281 Viagra, the Monica Lewinsky scandal. 04:54.279 --> 04:58.999 You want to ask yourself, what kind of history is each 04:58.997 --> 05:03.127 writer invoking? I want to suggest to you 05:03.130 --> 05:07.830 that if you press on the markers that Roth chooses, 05:07.829 --> 05:12.239 you will find something more than trivia, more than 05:12.235 --> 05:16.635 contemporary trivia, that Roth has in his sights an 05:16.641 --> 05:21.571 equally universal, trans-historical kind of truth 05:21.573 --> 05:25.573 in this novel, that's brought up by those 05:25.565 --> 05:28.455 little details of history. 05:28.459 --> 05:33.519 And that trans-historical history is the history of 05:33.523 --> 05:38.793 desire, of which both those things are indicative. 05:38.790 --> 05:42.860 I will say a lot more about desire and its relationship to 05:42.864 --> 05:47.084 the history of literature and to writing in this novel in my 05:47.081 --> 05:51.171 Monday lecture, but as you go on I would like 05:51.167 --> 05:56.807 you to think about how history functions as a set of contexts 05:56.810 --> 06:00.290 for the story that Roth tells you. 06:00.290 --> 06:03.030 Now I want to talk about identity. 06:03.029 --> 06:10.429 So, does this novel conform to the form of the Identity Plot? 06:10.430 --> 06:15.740 There are certain ways I think it does, and it does so in a 06:15.739 --> 06:17.569 very explicit way. 06:17.569 --> 06:23.749 Remember how I mentioned that tension in the Identity Plot is 06:23.747 --> 06:29.617 produced by the individual's relationship to the group and 06:29.616 --> 06:32.186 the way that's vexed. 06:32.189 --> 06:37.819 It isn't a very exciting Identity Plot if the protagonist 06:37.821 --> 06:44.161 just discovers that he or she is whatever categorizable identity 06:44.156 --> 06:46.566 and says, "Oh, good. 06:46.570 --> 06:49.940 I'll be that," and then goes on. 06:49.940 --> 06:53.520 The tension comes from feeling that either such an 06:53.524 --> 06:57.474 identification would be coercion, or that it comes with 06:57.473 --> 07:00.183 all kinds of attendant suffering. 07:00.180 --> 07:04.980 There are all kinds of tensions that are produced in making that 07:04.980 --> 07:10.710 not an easy identification, and you can see that very 07:10.713 --> 07:19.743 explicitly in this novel on page 108--106,108--when Coleman talks 07:19.735 --> 07:24.805 about being at Howard University, 07:24.810 --> 07:29.520 and along with that, the experience of being called 07:29.517 --> 07:32.527 a "nigger" for the first time. 07:32.530 --> 07:33.840 This is on the top of 106: 07:33.840 --> 07:38.880 07:38.879 --> 07:41.689 Especially when he began to think that there was 07:41.690 --> 07:43.600 something of the nigger about him, 07:43.600 --> 07:47.100 even to the kids in the dorm who had all sorts of new 07:47.095 --> 07:49.645 clothes, and money in their pockets, 07:49.649 --> 07:53.189 and in the summertime didn't hang around the hot streets at 07:53.185 --> 07:56.585 home, but went to camp, and not Boy Scout camp out in 07:56.590 --> 07:59.510 the Jersey sticks, but fancy places where they 07:59.508 --> 08:02.878 rode horses and played tennis and acted in plays. 08:02.880 --> 08:05.030 What the hell was a cotillion? 08:05.030 --> 08:06.740 Where was Highland Beach? 08:06.740 --> 08:09.280 What were these kids talking about? 08:09.279 --> 08:12.469 He was among the very lightest of the light-skinned in his 08:12.468 --> 08:14.478 freshman class, lighter even than his 08:14.481 --> 08:17.531 tea-colored roommate, but he could have been the 08:17.531 --> 08:21.401 blackest, most benighted field hand, for all they knew that he 08:21.404 --> 08:24.054 didn't. He hated Howard from the day he 08:24.047 --> 08:25.867 arrived. Within a week he hated 08:25.867 --> 08:29.187 Washington, and so in early October, when his father dropped 08:29.187 --> 08:32.447 dead serving dinner on the Pennsylvania Railroad dining car 08:32.450 --> 08:35.880 that was pulling out of 30^(th) Street station in Philadelphia 08:35.882 --> 08:38.972 for Wilmington, and Coleman went home for the 08:38.969 --> 08:42.289 funeral, he told his mother he was finished with that 08:42.285 --> 08:45.245 college. Right there in that sentence, 08:45.247 --> 08:49.067 in this little set of scenes about Howard and his experience 08:49.067 --> 08:52.317 in D.C., you see him at first being 08:52.317 --> 08:58.167 asked by his family to identify with a certain version of the 08:58.172 --> 09:03.792 black middle class, and then finding he is revolted 09:03.794 --> 09:08.954 by his own difference from that middle class. 09:08.950 --> 09:13.620 He feels like a black field hand, the darkest of the dark 09:13.624 --> 09:18.634 field hand, "for all they knew that he didn't," and on 108 we 09:18.632 --> 09:21.472 get it in very abstract terms. 09:21.470 --> 09:23.880 "You finally leave home, the Ur of we, 09:23.878 --> 09:27.388 and you find another we, another place that's just like 09:27.394 --> 09:29.514 that, the substitute for 09:29.512 --> 09:34.542 that."The problem of the Identity Plot is the problem of 09:34.536 --> 09:36.576 the "I" and the "we." 09:36.580 --> 09:41.070 Here is Coleman laying out exactly how he feels about that, 09:41.072 --> 09:44.172 and so what he's going to favor there, 09:44.169 --> 09:50.059 again on 108, is the raw "I," all the 09:50.058 --> 09:55.128 subtlety of being Silky Silk. 09:55.129 --> 10:01.169 So there you have encapsulated, in a very short amount of 10:01.167 --> 10:07.737 prose, a major form--narrative form, narrative dynamic--of the 10:07.743 --> 10:10.873 Identity Plot as a genre. 10:10.870 --> 10:18.430 On 144, you get another version of that, slightly more 10:18.425 --> 10:22.555 personalized to his family. 10:22.559 --> 10:26.239 This is another version of identity and what Coleman thinks 10:26.241 --> 10:29.681 about it. This is after we get the 10:29.684 --> 10:34.494 history of Coleman's family, his ancestors, 10:34.486 --> 10:41.456 and we're told that he is not the first to pass as white or to 10:41.461 --> 10:48.551 disappear from the black family in to which he was born: 10:48.549 --> 10:53.009 "Lost himself to all his people" was another way they, 10:53.011 --> 10:54.601 the family, put it. 10:54.600 --> 10:58.470 Ancestor worship, that's how Coleman put it. 10:58.470 --> 11:00.710 Honoring the past was one thing. 11:00.710 --> 11:05.580 The idolatry that is ancestor worship was something else. 11:05.580 --> 11:08.870 The hell with that imprisonment. 11:08.870 --> 11:14.500 So, this version of identity on 144, this vision of it, 11:14.495 --> 11:21.365 is identity as ancestor worship and imprisonment in that family, 11:21.370 --> 11:29.010 imprisonment in that way of thinking, a radical un-freedom. 11:29.009 --> 11:35.119 So, this is one version of identity, radically individual, 11:35.123 --> 11:41.343 rising out of the difference that you feel from the various 11:41.344 --> 11:45.424 "we" groups you are asked to join. 11:45.419 --> 11:50.489 But there are other versions of identity that are imagined here, 11:50.487 --> 11:55.307 and they track pretty clearly with scholarly ways of thinking 11:55.313 --> 11:58.293 about identity at this same time. 11:58.289 --> 12:02.139 So, in one sense identity is this radical individual 12:02.144 --> 12:06.774 humanist version that I've been tracing in the last few minutes. 12:06.769 --> 12:14.619 Another is that identity is a constantly changing performance, 12:14.615 --> 12:18.855 and we get that too in Coleman. 12:18.860 --> 12:24.640 You see it, again, right in the section about 12:24.636 --> 12:29.886 Howard on 109, and I want you to note the 12:29.887 --> 12:36.077 words that Roth chooses here, 109 in the middle: 12:36.075 --> 12:42.565 "He could play his skin however he wanted, color himself just as 12:42.569 --> 12:45.629 he chose." "Play his skin any way he 12:45.634 --> 12:48.194 wanted." Now, remember that his father 12:48.186 --> 12:51.306 is a great devotee of Shakespeare and tries to 12:51.314 --> 12:55.204 communicate to his children, not only through their 12:55.204 --> 12:59.234 Shakespearian middle names, but through every verbal 12:59.226 --> 13:03.926 interaction he has with them, that the grandeur of the 13:03.930 --> 13:09.470 English language will somehow fill them and make them who they 13:09.473 --> 13:12.443 are, that this is the source of 13:12.440 --> 13:15.220 their dignity and their power. 13:15.220 --> 13:22.120 He takes that lesson and transforms it. 13:22.120 --> 13:28.380 It's about playing on the model of drama, but it's about playing 13:28.379 --> 13:34.539 color, and this is an artist's vocation, "color himself just as 13:34.539 --> 13:37.599 he chose." He's like a painter, 13:37.600 --> 13:40.610 in this sense, so this is identity as 13:40.607 --> 13:44.307 performance. There are many instances of 13:44.306 --> 13:47.526 this. On page 115,116, 13:47.532 --> 13:56.082 there is just a little description of Steena's dance 13:56.084 --> 13:58.604 for Coleman. 13:58.600 --> 14:03.070 14:03.070 --> 14:04.270 I'm going to just read a little bit of it. 14:04.270 --> 14:08.550 14:08.549 --> 14:11.009 All at once, with no prompting from him, 14:11.008 --> 14:13.628 seemingly prompted only by Eldridge's trumpet, 14:13.629 --> 14:16.449 she began what Coleman liked to describe as the single most 14:16.447 --> 14:19.307 slithery dance ever performed by a Fergus Falls girl after a 14:19.313 --> 14:21.503 little more than a year in New York City. 14:21.500 --> 14:25.000 She could have raised Gershwin himself from the grave with that 14:25.003 --> 14:27.493 dance, and with the way she sang the song, 14:27.490 --> 14:30.820 prompted by a colored trumpet player playing it like a black 14:30.816 --> 14:32.596 torch song. There to see, 14:32.596 --> 14:35.566 plain as day, was all the power of her 14:35.573 --> 14:38.473 whiteness, that big, white thing. 14:38.470 --> 14:41.100 "Someday he'll come along, the man I love, 14:41.097 --> 14:44.107 and he'll be big and strong, the man I love." 14:44.110 --> 14:46.970 The language was ordinary enough to have been lifted from 14:46.974 --> 14:48.974 the most innocent first-grade primer, 14:48.970 --> 14:52.130 but when the record was over, Steena put her hands up to hide 14:52.132 --> 14:55.362 her face, half meaning, half pretending, 14:55.362 --> 15:01.132 to cover her shame. The history of jazz that's 15:01.131 --> 15:06.451 concentrated in to that tiny, little passage has been 15:06.454 --> 15:12.294 unpacked by a critic by the name of Jonathan Freedman. 15:12.289 --> 15:17.599 He does a whole history, which I can't produce here, 15:17.599 --> 15:23.429 of how Artie Shaw and various players played Gershwin, 15:23.429 --> 15:27.269 and used black musicians in their ensembles, 15:27.273 --> 15:30.763 and how this very dance, when Steena, 15:30.759 --> 15:35.519 here, we're told, in a way, inhabits most fully 15:35.519 --> 15:40.069 her whiteness, she does that by performing to 15:40.071 --> 15:43.901 a music that is radically hybrid, 15:43.900 --> 15:47.610 black and Jewish. 15:47.610 --> 15:53.890 So, Freedman argues that in this passage we get identity as 15:53.886 --> 15:59.536 a vision of absolute fluidity, absolute performance and 15:59.543 --> 16:04.943 fluidity, and that the whole history of American jazz stands 16:04.937 --> 16:07.677 behind that imagined state. 16:07.680 --> 16:11.050 16:11.049 --> 16:17.519 It's the very difference between the hybrid music and the 16:17.518 --> 16:23.638 pure whiteness of Steena's body that creates what's so 16:23.641 --> 16:29.111 provocative to Coleman, the spectacle of whiteness in 16:29.111 --> 16:31.221 the context of hybridity. 16:31.220 --> 16:37.550 16:37.549 --> 16:42.729 The father's obsession with the English language, 16:42.725 --> 16:48.295 though, has taught Coleman to categorize relentlessly. 16:48.299 --> 16:51.099 Do you remember this little detail? 16:51.100 --> 16:59.110 This is on page 93 when Coleman is describing or we're having 16:59.106 --> 17:06.846 described to us exactly how Coleman's father taught them to 17:06.845 --> 17:09.165 speak. This is on 93. 17:09.170 --> 17:11.790 Growing up they never said, "See the bow-wow." 17:11.789 --> 17:14.259 They didn't even say, "See the doggie." 17:14.260 --> 17:16.780 They said, "See the Doberman. 17:16.780 --> 17:20.300 See the beagle. See the terrier." 17:20.299 --> 17:23.049 They learned things had classifications. 17:23.049 --> 17:28.889 They learned the power of naming precisely." 17:28.890 --> 17:35.210 The father, for all that he is imbuing them with the most elite 17:35.211 --> 17:39.291 version of a white literary tradition, 17:39.289 --> 17:43.119 Shakespeare, he is also teaching them 17:43.122 --> 17:48.872 relentlessly to see classification and categorizing. 17:48.869 --> 17:57.659 In Coleman this comes to mean something quite different, 17:57.658 --> 18:06.928 and you see it in this funny, little passing moment on 107, 18:06.926 --> 18:11.556 the very top of the page. 18:11.559 --> 18:14.779 This is talking about his father's cherished volume of 18:14.780 --> 18:17.640 Shakespeare's plays, the oversized book with the 18:17.635 --> 18:22.675 floppy leather binding that, when Coleman was a small boy, 18:22.678 --> 18:27.058 always reminded him of a cocker spaniel. 18:27.059 --> 18:29.619 The son felt his father's majesty as never before, 18:29.623 --> 18:31.723 the grandeur of both his rise and his fall, 18:31.720 --> 18:35.180 the grandeur that as a college freshman away for barely a 18:35.175 --> 18:37.945 month.--[And then it quotes from Shakespeare.] 18:40.490 --> 18:45.300 Why choose that as what the little boy thinks of when he 18:45.304 --> 18:47.934 looks at that floppy volume? 18:47.930 --> 18:52.010 It's a moment when being trained to classify and to 18:52.008 --> 18:56.658 categorize causes him to see the source of that linguistic 18:56.658 --> 19:00.598 precision, the book of Shakespeare, 19:00.600 --> 19:06.900 in very demeaning terms, or reductive terms or--I'm not 19:06.901 --> 19:14.021 getting quite the precise word I want--in deflating terms. 19:14.019 --> 19:19.569 So that, instead of grandeur, the book of Shakespeare becomes 19:19.565 --> 19:22.795 the source for the names of dogs. 19:22.799 --> 19:29.659 And the way the child's imagination blends grandeur and 19:29.660 --> 19:32.710 the ordinary, I think, 19:32.710 --> 19:38.060 gives us Coleman, who can imagine the details of 19:38.063 --> 19:42.053 everyday life, the life he lives, 19:42.050 --> 19:44.140 as a grand play. 19:44.140 --> 19:47.440 19:47.440 --> 19:54.670 Doc Chizner furthers this transformation of the father's 19:54.666 --> 19:59.656 lesson in this very crucial passage, 19:59.660 --> 20:04.330 that I'm going to talk more about later, when Coleman passes 20:04.326 --> 20:07.486 as white or Jewish for the first time. 20:07.490 --> 20:12.420 And that's when he's boxing for the pit coach: 20:12.420 --> 20:15.850 "If nothing comes up," Doc said [this is the bottom of 20:15.846 --> 20:17.526 98] "you don't bring it up. 20:17.529 --> 20:19.839 You're neither one thing or the other. 20:19.840 --> 20:21.270 You're Silky Silk. 20:21.270 --> 20:25.690 That's enough. That's the deal." 20:25.690 --> 20:29.490 "You're neither one thing or the other. 20:29.490 --> 20:31.420 You're Silky Silk." 20:31.420 --> 20:36.180 This takes the question of categorization--are you colored? 20:36.180 --> 20:40.690 Are you not?--it negates it: you're neither one thing nor 20:40.686 --> 20:44.786 another, but then reinstates it in a different mode: 20:44.789 --> 20:46.559 you're Silky Silk. 20:46.559 --> 20:50.459 Make up a new category for yourself. 20:50.460 --> 20:55.430 So, Doc Chizner takes that transgressing use of precision 20:55.434 --> 21:00.414 that we see in the cocker spaniel metaphor in the child's 21:00.408 --> 21:04.698 imagination, and he shows Coleman how to 21:04.701 --> 21:10.551 apply that to living race in America, living his race in 21:10.550 --> 21:13.050 America. You are Silky Silk. 21:13.050 --> 21:14.070 You're not a race. 21:14.069 --> 21:18.959 You're a proper name, the irreducible singularity of 21:18.956 --> 21:20.006 a person. 21:20.010 --> 21:27.530 21:27.529 --> 21:31.059 There is a third way of thinking about race, 21:31.060 --> 21:33.840 and that, of course, is as biology. 21:33.839 --> 21:36.729 That, too, is present in this novel. 21:36.730 --> 21:39.270 The body is relentlessly present, and I hope that you 21:39.272 --> 21:40.252 picked up on that. 21:40.250 --> 21:42.100 It's not hard to pick up on it. 21:42.099 --> 21:47.889 The very matter and specificity of the body is everywhere in 21:47.890 --> 21:53.190 this novel, and so I want to look back at 21 and 22. 21:53.190 --> 21:59.510 This is in that wonderful scene when Coleman dances with Nathan. 21:59.510 --> 22:10.310 22:10.309 --> 22:15.349 So, we get a whole description of Coleman's body and what it is 22:15.348 --> 22:19.248 that Nathan sees in it, suddenly, now that he's 22:19.248 --> 22:23.958 shirtless on this hot summer night, and also now that he is 22:23.959 --> 22:27.939 no longer talking about the "spooks" business. 22:27.940 --> 22:31.300 22:31.300 --> 22:34.140 This is 21. On display were the 22:34.140 --> 22:38.430 shoulders, arms and chest of a smallish man still trim and 22:38.427 --> 22:40.977 attractive, a belly no longer flat, 22:40.977 --> 22:44.557 to be sure, but nothing that had gotten seriously out of 22:44.559 --> 22:46.739 hand, altogether the physique of 22:46.736 --> 22:50.106 someone who had seemed to have been a cunning and wily 22:50.112 --> 22:53.682 competitor at sports rather than an overpowering one. 22:53.680 --> 22:57.060 And all of this had previously been concealed from me, 22:57.059 --> 23:02.369 because he was always shirted, and also because of his having 23:02.365 --> 23:07.585 been so drastically consumed by his rage. 23:07.589 --> 23:11.839 What you see there is the revelation of certain things we 23:11.844 --> 23:14.964 will find out to be true about Coleman, 23:14.960 --> 23:22.230 that he was a cunning and wily competitor rather than an 23:22.228 --> 23:27.648 overpowering one, that he is still fit and 23:27.646 --> 23:31.876 virile, that he has himself in hand, 23:31.877 --> 23:37.827 nothing that had gotten out of hand, seriously out of hand. 23:37.829 --> 23:41.219 Coleman very much still has himself in hand. 23:41.220 --> 23:47.040 He is still the maker of himself, the presenter of 23:47.041 --> 23:52.151 himself to the world in a deliberate way. 23:52.150 --> 23:55.850 But then we go on, and there are some things that 23:55.852 --> 23:59.712 we see that perhaps tell us something different. 23:59.710 --> 24:04.740 Rather than the body revealing the truth about Coleman-- 24:04.735 --> 24:08.745 certain kinds of truth, not a racial truth, 24:08.750 --> 24:13.850 other kinds of truth--we see marks on his body that don't 24:13.851 --> 24:16.221 produce that knowledge. 24:16.220 --> 24:19.440 Also previously concealed was the small, 24:19.439 --> 24:23.949 Popeye-ish blue tattoo situated at the top of his right arm just 24:23.946 --> 24:27.066 at the shoulder joining, the words "U.S. 24:27.069 --> 24:30.509 Navy" inscribed between the hooklike arms of a shadowy 24:30.506 --> 24:34.396 little anchor and running along the hypotenuse of the deltoid 24:34.396 --> 24:37.166 muscle, a tiny symbol if one were 24:37.174 --> 24:41.394 needed of all the million circumstances of the other 24:41.386 --> 24:44.566 fellow's life, of that blizzard of details 24:44.574 --> 24:48.014 that constitute the confusion of a human biography, 24:48.009 --> 24:52.709 a tiny symbol to remind me why our understanding of people must 24:52.708 --> 24:57.848 always be, at best, slightly wrong. 24:57.849 --> 25:03.459 What's revealed when Coleman is shirtless is the very sign that 25:03.463 --> 25:07.903 he cannot be known in any kind of complete way. 25:07.900 --> 25:12.110 It's the mark of a history on his body, that he was in the 25:12.110 --> 25:15.730 navy, a history we'll learn a little bit about, 25:15.730 --> 25:20.860 but not a lot, but for Nathan it is the mark 25:20.861 --> 25:26.471 of an irreducible difference between persons, 25:26.470 --> 25:32.060 that always there are details that are not accessible, 25:32.057 --> 25:36.587 circumstances of the other fellow's life. 25:36.590 --> 25:40.780 25:40.779 --> 25:47.399 In this moment Nathan recognizes Coleman as a cipher, 25:47.397 --> 25:55.157 a sign that can be projected upon with meanings of his own. 25:55.160 --> 25:58.620 I would suggest to you that we don't see the full flowering of 25:58.616 --> 26:01.106 this until quite a bit later in the novel, 26:01.109 --> 26:04.899 but I think this is the first moment where, 26:04.899 --> 26:09.859 in Coleman revealing his body, he suggests to Nathan the 26:09.861 --> 26:13.561 possibilities of that body as a sign. 26:13.559 --> 26:17.299 So, he is no longer, in this moment, 26:17.295 --> 26:20.385 entirely "in hand" anymore. 26:20.390 --> 26:24.500 So, if his physique hasn't gotten out of hand, 26:24.502 --> 26:28.342 his circulation as a sign certainly has. 26:28.339 --> 26:33.899 In this case, he has now become a blank 26:33.902 --> 26:36.832 canvas for Nathan. 26:36.829 --> 26:41.239 Certainly, up until this moment at the beginning of the novel, 26:41.236 --> 26:45.426 what's most on the surface of the plot is how he has become 26:45.426 --> 26:49.906 the victim of rumor, how his self-presentation got 26:49.911 --> 26:54.751 completely out of hand, taken over by other people's 26:54.749 --> 26:58.069 erroneous readings of his words. 26:58.069 --> 27:03.609 So, if the body seems to be in his control, himself as a 27:03.607 --> 27:05.517 signifier is not. 27:05.519 --> 27:09.659 Here Nathan is invited into it, but in a very different way 27:09.658 --> 27:13.578 than the rumormongers who surround him at Athena College 27:13.582 --> 27:15.012 and in the town. 27:15.010 --> 27:19.110 27:19.109 --> 27:23.039 So, the body is not going to be a place of revelation. 27:23.039 --> 27:27.159 Speech, as I've noted, is a problematic moment of 27:27.163 --> 27:29.783 revelation, but it can be that. 27:29.779 --> 27:34.439 And on 81,82, we see an example of that when 27:34.438 --> 27:41.368 his speech formally in the novel touches off what will be some of 27:41.372 --> 27:47.442 the most important revelatory passages in the novel. 27:47.440 --> 27:54.500 And this is when Nelson Primus, having berated Coleman and 27:54.501 --> 27:59.681 advised him in his clever, authoritative, 27:59.684 --> 28:06.544 arrogant way not to pursue anything against Lester Farley 28:06.541 --> 28:11.861 or Delphine Roux, has offended him and enraged 28:11.864 --> 28:17.514 him so much as to become the target of Coleman's rage. 28:17.509 --> 28:20.569 Coleman said, "I never again want to hear 28:20.568 --> 28:24.618 that self-admiring voice of yours or see your smug, 28:24.619 --> 28:29.979 fucking, lily-white face," and the question becomes why--and we 28:29.983 --> 28:34.053 see Nelson ask it the next page--why "white," 28:34.049 --> 28:41.919 why does "lily-white" become the insult that he hurls at 28:41.921 --> 28:44.401 Nelson? And formally, 28:44.395 --> 28:49.685 even though there's a little bit of an interlude here about 28:49.685 --> 28:53.055 Athena College and Coleman's rage, 28:53.059 --> 28:56.639 this is the moment when we launch into the tale of 28:56.639 --> 29:00.359 Coleman's childhood, and we learn for the first time 29:00.364 --> 29:03.144 what kind of family he comes from, 29:03.140 --> 29:07.720 and what the history of his passing has been, 29:07.715 --> 29:13.845 how he made that decision to abandon his family of birth. 29:13.849 --> 29:18.829 So, speech can be revealing, but only in those 29:18.832 --> 29:23.512 moments when it is out of Coleman's control. 29:23.509 --> 29:28.219 Here, in this moment, "lily-white" is inspired by his 29:28.216 --> 29:30.366 rage. He is out of control, 29:30.369 --> 29:32.399 in that sense, and of course, 29:32.395 --> 29:35.285 "lily white" is the term his brother, 29:35.289 --> 29:39.579 Walt, applies to him in a similar moment of anger, 29:39.575 --> 29:44.645 after Walt discovers that he has told his mother that he is 29:44.648 --> 29:49.898 essentially estranging himself permanently from the family in 29:49.896 --> 29:52.166 order to marry Iris. 29:52.170 --> 29:58.350 Walt says, "Don't ever show your lily-white face here 29:58.350 --> 30:01.500 again." So, he's reproducing Walt's 30:01.497 --> 30:04.577 language, and, from that, it indicates to 30:04.575 --> 30:08.335 Nelson Primus and for us, in the unfolding of the novel, 30:08.344 --> 30:10.554 that there is a mystery here to be told. 30:10.549 --> 30:13.289 And then we get the telling of that mystery. 30:13.289 --> 30:18.559 So, from that little word, all of this unfurls, 30:18.559 --> 30:22.559 and I would just note, just in passing, 30:22.564 --> 30:27.944 that this is quite a contrast to Delphine Roux. 30:27.940 --> 30:30.440 On 38 and 39, you can look at: 30:30.438 --> 30:35.608 Coleman is very surprised that she has made no effort to hide 30:35.608 --> 30:39.828 the identifying marks of her own handwriting. 30:39.829 --> 30:45.749 Delphine Roux--though her name suggests the Delphic, 30:45.748 --> 30:48.998 the oracular, the mysterious, 30:48.998 --> 30:56.308 the secret--Delphine is someone who cannot conceal herself. 30:56.309 --> 31:01.239 The very material of her language, of her writing, 31:01.241 --> 31:05.671 of her letters, puts her identity on the page 31:05.670 --> 31:09.820 to be read, and it seems as if she hasn't 31:09.821 --> 31:12.191 even tried to conceal it. 31:12.190 --> 31:18.410 So, Delphine's lack of depth, her lack of complexity as a 31:18.412 --> 31:23.972 character, her basic despicableness is summed up in 31:23.967 --> 31:28.187 that inability to conceal herself, 31:28.190 --> 31:33.980 whereas Coleman only reveals himself in moments when he is 31:33.982 --> 31:37.542 unguarded, or when he has become, 31:37.539 --> 31:42.759 not a person in control of his own representation of himself, 31:42.762 --> 31:47.122 but rather a sign at large among other representers 31:47.115 --> 31:49.595 (Nathan, Delphine, other people). 31:49.600 --> 31:53.450 31:53.450 --> 31:57.150 Secrecy, then, is at the very heart of 31:57.149 --> 32:02.379 what identity means in this novel, and now I want to get to 32:02.381 --> 32:05.721 this crucial passage on page 100. 32:05.720 --> 32:13.190 For me, this is where we learn really what identity means in 32:13.185 --> 32:14.825 this novel. 32:14.830 --> 32:23.840 32:23.839 --> 32:30.599 So, he says he wants to be in this fight with--in front of the 32:30.602 --> 32:34.152 Pitt coach--with Ray Robinson. 32:34.150 --> 32:37.510 32:37.509 --> 32:39.969 It wasn't just that [This is on 99.] 32:39.965 --> 32:43.375 It wasn't just that Coleman weighed some seven pounds more 32:43.378 --> 32:46.788 than when he'd boxed on the amateur card at the Knights of 32:46.791 --> 32:49.621 Pythias. It was that something he could 32:49.620 --> 32:53.670 not even name made him want to be more damaging than he'd ever 32:53.668 --> 32:56.788 dared before, to do something more that day 32:56.785 --> 33:00.725 than merely win. Was it because the pit coach 33:00.734 --> 33:03.484 didn't know he was colored? 33:03.480 --> 33:09.940 Could it be because who he really was was entirely his 33:09.942 --> 33:12.472 secret? He did love secrets, 33:12.473 --> 33:16.993 the secret of nobody's knowing what was going on in your head, 33:16.990 --> 33:21.470 thinking whatever you wanted to think, with no way of anybody's 33:21.467 --> 33:23.967 knowing. All the other kids were always 33:23.974 --> 33:27.374 blabbing about themselves, but that wasn't where the power 33:27.365 --> 33:29.205 was, or the pleasure either. 33:29.210 --> 33:32.990 The power and the pleasure were to be found in the opposite, 33:32.992 --> 33:36.522 in being counter-confessional in the same way you were a 33:36.517 --> 33:39.747 counter-puncher, and he knew that with nobody 33:39.750 --> 33:44.000 having to tell him and without his having to think about it. 33:44.000 --> 33:47.680 That's why he liked shadow boxing and hitting the heavy 33:47.676 --> 33:50.056 bag, for the secrecy of it. 33:50.059 --> 33:53.249 And I'm going to skip down a little bit. 33:53.250 --> 33:58.790 He talks about concentrating, and how the secrecy is produced 33:58.787 --> 34:01.947 by the concentration, or is related to the 34:01.947 --> 34:04.537 concentration on the one thing that you're doing. 34:04.540 --> 34:08.240 34:08.239 --> 34:10.719 Whatever is to be mastered, he becomes that thing. 34:10.719 --> 34:14.339 He could do that in biology, and he could do it in the dash, 34:14.337 --> 34:17.587 and he could do it in boxing, and not only did nothing 34:17.586 --> 34:20.686 external make any difference; neither did anything 34:20.687 --> 34:21.547 internal. 34:21.550 --> 34:24.940 34:24.940 --> 34:29.070 That little example right there: He could do it in 34:29.070 --> 34:34.130 biology, on a biology exam he could focus exclusively on that 34:34.127 --> 34:37.237 thing, become that thing, 34:37.238 --> 34:41.518 in the dash, in boxing in the ring, 34:41.523 --> 34:45.433 but why choose that example? 34:45.430 --> 34:47.020 Why not mathematics? 34:47.020 --> 34:49.500 Why not chemistry? 34:49.500 --> 34:53.890 Well, here again, it's Roth's craft coming 34:53.889 --> 34:58.579 through. Roth chose that because what 34:58.581 --> 35:04.661 Coleman does is precisely to overcome biology. 35:04.659 --> 35:09.929 It's the biology of who his parents are, of who their 35:09.930 --> 35:12.890 parents are. That biology, 35:12.888 --> 35:19.628 the biology of American race, is what he takes hold of and 35:19.633 --> 35:24.263 transforms. It becomes his secret. 35:24.260 --> 35:29.440 Biology becomes his secret, not as an academic subject, 35:29.442 --> 35:32.132 but as a lived experience. 35:32.130 --> 35:35.350 Boxing is the sport of concealment for him, 35:35.352 --> 35:38.272 thinking ahead, observing his opponent, 35:38.267 --> 35:41.027 watching how slow the punch is: 35:41.030 --> 35:45.950 35:45.949 --> 35:48.239 All the answers that you came up with in the ring, 35:48.241 --> 35:51.071 you kept to yourself, and when you let the secret 35:51.068 --> 35:55.288 out, you let it out through everything but your mouth. 35:55.289 --> 36:00.779 For all Coleman's training in the English language from his 36:00.780 --> 36:06.180 father, his mode of revelation, his mode of communication, 36:06.176 --> 36:09.996 is not verbal. It is somehow physical, 36:10.003 --> 36:14.443 as a physical performance, as a damaging physical 36:14.435 --> 36:15.815 performance. 36:15.820 --> 36:21.340 36:21.340 --> 36:23.600 That term "counter-confessional," 36:23.601 --> 36:26.921 being--the pleasure and the power were in--being 36:26.923 --> 36:31.733 counter-confessional in the same way you were a counter-puncher, 36:31.730 --> 36:38.910 in not telling--this is quite a remarkable term for Roth to use. 36:38.909 --> 36:44.469 The history of Roth's writing from the very first story 36:44.467 --> 36:50.357 collection, Goodbye, Columbus published in 1960, 36:50.357 --> 36:55.167 through the many, many novels in the next five 36:55.172 --> 36:57.492 decades, that trajectory, 36:57.486 --> 37:01.386 which I'm going to talk a little bit about on Wednesday, 37:01.394 --> 37:05.234 is defined by the confessional quality of many of these 37:05.231 --> 37:08.701 works.So, Roth is widely known for 37:08.703 --> 37:14.193 drawing on his own life in his fiction, and for making Nathan 37:14.186 --> 37:19.026 Zuckerman track his biography in significant ways. 37:19.030 --> 37:22.840 And, in this novel, it happens to be true that 37:22.836 --> 37:27.486 Philip Roth went through prostate cancer surgery and now 37:27.489 --> 37:32.649 lives up in the Berkshires and has been very secluded up there 37:32.650 --> 37:37.980 and very productive writing novels in the last ten years. 37:37.980 --> 37:42.450 So, in this novel already, anybody who knows even those 37:42.450 --> 37:46.510 basic facts knows that Roth himself as a writer is 37:46.507 --> 37:50.147 confessional, in some sense of the word. 37:50.150 --> 37:53.390 One question we might want to ask is: is he 37:53.387 --> 37:57.007 counter-confessional the way that Coleman is, 37:57.010 --> 38:00.350 the way that you can be a counter-puncher, 38:00.348 --> 38:03.278 and what would it mean to be that? 38:03.280 --> 38:07.030 Why does it matter? 38:07.030 --> 38:08.240 In fact, does it matter? 38:08.239 --> 38:12.089 And then, why does it matter, if it does, that his novels 38:12.090 --> 38:15.140 track his life? This is a long-term question 38:15.136 --> 38:17.946 for anyone who thinks about Roth's writing, 38:17.951 --> 38:22.041 and I will get more to it in my second lecture on The Human 38:22.040 --> 38:26.440 Stain next Monday, but it's something to think 38:26.438 --> 38:29.168 about. But let me pause, 38:29.173 --> 38:32.713 again, on that rhetorical question. 38:32.710 --> 38:35.830 "Was it because the pit coach didn't know he was colored? 38:35.829 --> 38:40.719 Could it be because who he really was was entirely his 38:40.717 --> 38:43.497 secret?" There are two ways of reading 38:43.498 --> 38:44.778 that last question. 38:44.780 --> 38:48.050 "Who he really was was entirely his secret." 38:48.050 --> 38:53.560 If we read that, "who he really was" as a 38:53.563 --> 39:01.833 colored guy from East Orange, then we'll see it as that being 39:01.832 --> 39:05.252 his secret. But you can read it, 39:05.250 --> 39:08.290 you can parse that grammar, a different way. 39:08.289 --> 39:12.949 "Who he really was was his secret." 39:12.949 --> 39:18.409 Could it be because who he really was was "his secret," 39:18.409 --> 39:22.149 secrecy as the essence of identity? 39:22.150 --> 39:25.520 It doesn't matter what's in that hidden box. 39:25.519 --> 39:28.839 It doesn't mean that we have to fill it in. 39:28.840 --> 39:31.180 It doesn't mean, even, that it can be known. 39:31.179 --> 39:35.349 And you think back to the way the anchor on his arm, 39:35.347 --> 39:39.427 the tattoo on his arm, reminds Nathan of how little 39:39.432 --> 39:43.112 you can ever know about the other fellow. 39:43.110 --> 39:46.850 The very fact of the person's other-ness to you means that 39:46.846 --> 39:50.776 there is always something fundamentally hidden about them, 39:50.780 --> 39:55.270 and that arises from the simple difference between one 39:55.268 --> 39:57.638 consciousness and another. 39:57.639 --> 40:04.349 This returns the meditation on identity to a universalist, 40:04.349 --> 40:09.299 humanist version of what identity would be. 40:09.300 --> 40:12.940 It's simply private consciousness. 40:12.940 --> 40:17.240 Private consciousness is what defines us as persons, 40:17.236 --> 40:20.266 and then, radiating out from that, 40:20.269 --> 40:24.459 all the things that one can do with a private consciousness, 40:24.458 --> 40:28.648 which then encompasses these other modes of identifying that 40:28.646 --> 40:33.986 the novel rehearses, and then critiques or sometimes 40:33.987 --> 40:38.677 endorses, plays with, jumbles, juggles. 40:38.680 --> 40:40.480 We have a private consciousness. 40:40.480 --> 40:42.650 You can decide to decide. 40:42.650 --> 40:46.410 This is something that Coleman does on a number of occasions, 40:46.411 --> 40:49.921 and it's a phrase that Roth repeats when he's deciding to 40:49.923 --> 40:52.873 decide to be done with the spooks business, 40:52.869 --> 40:56.159 deciding to decide not to be worried about Lester Farley. 40:56.160 --> 40:59.560 40:59.559 --> 41:04.929 You have the power to form your self-presentation. 41:04.929 --> 41:08.849 You have the power to make your identity an artistic 41:08.845 --> 41:11.895 performance. That's what private 41:11.896 --> 41:17.406 consciousness does for you, but it does a couple other 41:17.409 --> 41:20.609 things, too, and I want to track those, 41:20.608 --> 41:24.018 or suggest them just briefly before I end today, 41:24.019 --> 41:27.169 in one sense by following the theme of difference, 41:27.165 --> 41:30.755 and in the other sense by following the word "secrecy" in 41:30.761 --> 41:34.961 the novel. First, on the question of 41:34.963 --> 41:40.203 pure difference, on 47, in that wonderful scene 41:40.204 --> 41:43.284 of Faunia with the cows, 41:43.280 --> 41:48.980 41:48.980 --> 41:53.220 this is Nathan reflecting on the desire that he sees enacted 41:53.215 --> 41:56.205 there. And again, remember, 41:56.214 --> 42:03.614 Coleman is not primarily a man of words, but a man of being, 42:03.610 --> 42:08.100 and he has just stood in silence with Nathan watching 42:08.095 --> 42:10.075 Faunia milk the cows. 42:10.080 --> 42:18.760 42:18.760 --> 42:22.580 It was enough to be able to conduct themselves like two 42:22.575 --> 42:25.495 people who had nothing whatsoever in common, 42:25.500 --> 42:29.210 all the while remembering how they could distill to an 42:29.205 --> 42:32.415 orgasmic essence everything about them that was 42:32.421 --> 42:36.141 irreconcilable, the human discrepancies that 42:36.135 --> 42:38.175 produced all the power. 42:38.179 --> 42:42.119 It was enough to feel the thrill of leading a double 42:42.116 --> 42:45.146 life. And what this passage, 42:45.148 --> 42:49.758 the sentences above, emphasize, is that Faunia is a 42:49.757 --> 42:54.517 woman of thirty-four, a "wordless illiterate," and 42:54.516 --> 42:59.696 that Coleman is a man replete with the vocabularies of two 42:59.701 --> 43:04.341 ancient tongues, as well as his own native 43:04.339 --> 43:07.519 tongue. So, the very difference between 43:07.522 --> 43:11.812 them, this time limned in terms of education and language, 43:11.809 --> 43:17.139 vocabulary, literacy, here it's that difference that 43:17.136 --> 43:20.996 is invoked as the engine of desire. 43:21.000 --> 43:26.580 So, if desire is always that looking towards the other thing, 43:26.575 --> 43:31.655 the thing that you are not, the thing that you do not have, 43:31.662 --> 43:36.142 the thing that is absent from you: that's the definition of 43:36.138 --> 43:39.308 desire. You can't have desire if you 43:39.306 --> 43:41.356 already have the thing. 43:41.360 --> 43:46.040 Desire is that force that's always reaching toward something 43:46.039 --> 43:48.259 that is separate from you. 43:48.260 --> 43:53.740 Difference between human beings is just that, 43:53.742 --> 43:59.102 in this scene, just the engine of desire. 43:59.099 --> 44:01.809 So, here, for all the meditations on 44:01.806 --> 44:06.036 race, the social construction of race, race as performance, 44:06.039 --> 44:08.799 race as essence, race as biology, 44:08.800 --> 44:12.600 race as secret, it's secret that gets to that 44:12.596 --> 44:16.906 over-arching concern with desire in the novel. 44:16.909 --> 44:21.809 And this is a moment where I think Roth is transcending the 44:21.813 --> 44:26.023 genre. He's taking the dramas of the 44:26.018 --> 44:31.008 Identity Plot, and he's driving them to an 44:31.006 --> 44:38.546 extreme and pushing them over in to another subject matter. 44:38.550 --> 44:43.830 So, in this sense, identity as secrecy pushes us 44:43.834 --> 44:50.134 over in to the subject matter of desire and mortality, 44:50.130 --> 44:56.590 which is at the heart of Roth's writing from beginning to end. 44:56.590 --> 45:00.580 Now, I will not say that identity is not also a subject 45:00.582 --> 45:05.242 matter he's working with from beginning to end of his career. 45:05.239 --> 45:08.799 That's definitely true, and I'll say more about that on 45:08.800 --> 45:12.360 Wednesday when I talk about the shape of his career. 45:12.360 --> 45:17.300 But especially as Roth moves later in his career these 45:17.295 --> 45:22.505 questions of desire and mortality take the upper hand. 45:22.510 --> 45:29.050 Now, the last thing I want to do, just very quickly, 45:29.054 --> 45:34.294 is point to page 44, another use of that word 45:34.289 --> 45:38.929 "secret," the very top of the page. 45:38.929 --> 45:42.309 The secret to living in the rush of the world with a 45:42.307 --> 45:45.507 minimum of pain is to get as many people as possible to 45:45.507 --> 45:47.697 string along with your delusions. 45:47.699 --> 45:50.829 The trick of living alone up here, away from all agitating 45:50.828 --> 45:52.418 entanglements, allurements, 45:52.420 --> 45:56.120 and expectations, apart especially from one's own 45:56.118 --> 45:59.198 intensity, is to organize the silence, 45:59.199 --> 46:02.619 to think of its mountaintop plenitude as capital, 46:02.616 --> 46:05.816 silence as wealth exponentially increasing, 46:05.820 --> 46:10.410 the encircling silence as your chosen source of advantage and 46:10.412 --> 46:12.022 your only intimate. 46:12.019 --> 46:15.249 The trick is to find sustenance, this is quoting 46:15.253 --> 46:17.943 Hawthorne again, the communications of a 46:17.936 --> 46:19.996 solitary mind with itself. 46:20.000 --> 46:23.570 The secret is to find sustenance in people like 46:23.574 --> 46:28.164 Hawthorne, in the wisdom of the brilliant deceased. 46:28.159 --> 46:31.969 Now, one question I, myself, as a reader have 46:31.966 --> 46:37.156 struggled with about this novel is whether Roth imagines that 46:37.156 --> 46:41.746 Nathan's state, when he describes it that way, 46:41.751 --> 46:46.671 is a false one or a weak one, one to be rejected. 46:46.670 --> 46:50.250 Is it a withdrawal from life? 46:50.250 --> 46:55.400 I think that last sentence, "The secret is to find 46:55.398 --> 47:02.018 sustenance in people like Hawthorne," gives us the answer 47:02.018 --> 47:04.748 that I'm content with. 47:04.750 --> 47:08.310 And that is: yes, it's a withdrawal from 47:08.307 --> 47:12.867 life if you don't understand Hawthorne as a person, 47:12.868 --> 47:17.428 as someone with whom you can become entangled. 47:17.429 --> 47:22.409 It's the very act of thinking of a literary forebear as a 47:22.407 --> 47:27.737 person rather than a text that allows this to be a productive 47:27.741 --> 47:31.541 state, one that Nathan will be drawn 47:31.539 --> 47:36.459 out of by Coleman, but yet one that the novel does 47:36.455 --> 47:41.745 not reject. It's when Coleman becomes for 47:41.746 --> 47:48.306 Nathan a character, the person becomes this living 47:48.314 --> 47:53.944 representation, that he is drawn out of his 47:53.943 --> 47:56.783 solitude. So, in a way, 47:56.775 --> 48:00.525 it's not even Coleman the person that draws him out, 48:00.525 --> 48:03.975 but his world when he encounters Coleman and his 48:03.981 --> 48:06.691 story, when he sees Coleman's body 48:06.688 --> 48:10.698 during that dance as a cipher, as the sign of all that you 48:10.697 --> 48:13.297 can't know about the other fellow. 48:13.300 --> 48:18.050 When he sees that about Coleman, that's when he comes 48:18.047 --> 48:23.337 out of one productive state of communing with the brilliant 48:23.342 --> 48:28.732 dead and comes in to the world of Coleman who will be 48:28.729 --> 48:31.309 dead very, very shortly. 48:31.310 --> 48:35.990 48:35.989 --> 48:41.959 So, on Monday next I will talk about that relationship between 48:41.962 --> 48:47.352 desire and the literary, between persons and characters, 48:47.346 --> 48:49.986 between life and novel. 48:49.989 --> 48:51.999 Think about those things as you read.