Pym, Volume #2
Posted by Justine Tal Goldberg in 
Here we are, friends: Volume II of Mat Johnson’s Pym. I got some valuable feedback from a few of you fine folks that last week’s post was a little aggressive discussion-wise, so I’m going to do my best this time around to do less analysis and more inquiry.
Hang onto your hats, readers. Shit’s about to get real.
Apocalypse Now
While immersed in Volume I, I had been wondering about Johnson’s preoccupation with disaster. On his way to meet Captain Jaynes in Manhattan, Chris confesses, “I didn’t like going near Wall Street. More specifically, I didn’t like going near high-risk bombing targets, it just wasn’t my thing” (71), and a few pages later, “I’d reserved a hotel room in Queens for the night; it was cheaper and safer than Manhattan” (75). In Volume II, we begin to understand these earlier moments as set-up for the Armageddon that finally arrives:
“It was familiar trauma … But this time there wasn’t just one place identified in the chyron, one nation, one landmark in flames. This time there was Tokyo, and Paris, and Berlin. And then there was London, and New York, and L.A., and Sydney, and Seoul…” (97)
We don’t yet know much about the destruction up north, but one thing is clear: we’re at war.
Who/what are we at war with, both literally (plot) and figuratively (theme)? Who is the “we”? Is Johnson intentionally commenting on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (the horror, the horror!)? If so, how? If not, where the heck did I get this crazy idea?
Love as Adventure … or something
I’ll admit it. Angela is a confusing character for me. Clearly, she’s important—otherwise, what’s she doing there?—but I’m not yet sure how. (I’m hoping we’ll see more of her in Volume III.) She represents a failure in Chris’s past, for sure, one which he feels he must correct in order to prove his own self-worth, and also something more.
“But the way Angela looked at me,” Chris says upon discovery of the Tekelians, “was the greatest treasure and maybe the whole point” (130).
What is the something more? “The whole point” of what? How is Angela’s character serving the story?
Fun with Footnotes
Johnson makes unusual use of footnotes throughout. When they’re not straddling the line between academia and entertainment—of Mahalia Mathis’s letter, Chris notes, “Although represented as three, there were in truth at least a dozen exclamation points at the end of the note’s final sentence. And each of those had a frowning face drawn carefully into its base dot, which I am both unable and unwilling to re-create here” (83)—they’re calling into question the very narrative they’re supplementing.
“The events that follow are fantastical and challenged the imaginations even of those of us who experienced them firsthand. I will therefore attempt to relay them to you in the most straightforward manner I can manage, taking on the same level of distance I did on that day, simply to avoid being completely overwhelmed.” (129)
What an interesting inclusion. Why does Johnson feel the need to provide this disclaimer? What is it accomplishing? How does it affect our reading of the events to follow?
In your comments, feel free to respond to the questions I’ve posed above, or raise new talking points and questions for us to toss around.
And don’t forget to tick the “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail” box below to stay engaged with the conversation.
Last but certainly not least, if you’re not yet a book club member and would like to be, it’s not too late to jump on the bandwagon. Simply use the comments section below to express interest, and either dive into Pym now or join us for next month’s pick (TBD).
Have at it, folks.
WriteByNight owner Justine Tal Goldberg is an award-winning writer and editor of both fiction and nonfiction. Her short stories have appeared in Anomalous Press, Whiskey Island, Fringe Magazine, and other publications. Her journalistic work has appeared in Publishing Perspectives, Austin Monthly and the Texas Observer, among others. She holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College.
13 Comments to “Pym, Volume #2”
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Leah Kaminsky says:
“Who/what are we at war with, both literally (plot) and figuratively (theme)? Who is the “we”?”
This is an interesting question, and I love your earlier thoughts on disaster. At the time of reading, I took this fear of diaster to be a sad comment on our current national identity. The more connected the world becomes, the easier tragedy is to inflict, and there’s a feeling that The Big One is an inevitability. We carry this weight with us; it’s who we are. In that way, I focused on Chris’ obsession with disaster as an apt characterization, both of modern man and of the national psyche.
I never read Heart of Darkness (which is not okay, I know!) but I managed to copy this line before Wikipedia blacked out: “Heart of Darkness exposes the dark side of Belgian colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters: the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the Belgians’ cruel treatment of the African natives, and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil.”
If this is so, there couldn’t be a more direct connection. Part of what’s so fascinating to see enacted is the attitudes of the two species, both fully believing they’re better, in the right, and more valid than the other. That can only lead to… well… more disaster, since neither one “counts” to the other.
Angela. Meh. She just seems like a stock female character to me, not fully fleshed out or explored – the idealized girlfriend prototype. But to be fair, many of the side characters feel this way, and that may be part of Johnson’s point. Chris is so wrapped up in his own ego and neuroses, he has trouble seeing the people or disasters unfolding around him. He is the beleaguered hero of his own narrative. This is apparent when Chris meets Angela in New York and assumes she’s falling back in love with him, when really she’s remarried. Chris tries to interpret the world in the same way he interprets his books…and often missteps. What does that say about his scholarship?
Regardless, this is a heavy hitting book, but it’s also a satire, which tends to work better with prototypes anyway. Johnson puts enough of a unique spin on each character so they add value to each scene, and then get outta there!
I normally hate footnotes, but they work quite well here throughout. The information provided was often hilarious, and I loved how they often eviscerated character’s claimed truth. I do want to return to the disclaimer at the end of the book, as I have much to say!
Thanks for your stimulating thoughts as always, Justine.
Justine Tal Goldberg says:
“But to be fair, many of the side characters feel this way [like prototypes], and that may be part of Johnson’s point.” Interesting. Like who? Prototypes of what?
“Chris tries to interpret the world in the same way he interprets his books…and often missteps. What does that say about his scholarship?” Love this point. I do question though whether we’re invited to doubt his intellectual prowess. His limited scope, sure, but his competence? I dunno. I’m not yet convinced.
The footnotes eviscerate, alright. All that undercutting, it must be a commentary on scholarship … as is this entire book. This is a lame point. I’m abandoning it.
Is anyone else wondering if Poe’s true piece of fiction, “Pym,” makes his other works true–true meaning based on actual events–at least in the world of this book? How scary!
Leah Kaminsky says:
I guess by prototypes I mean more stock characters. You’ve got the unattainable, perfect (to the character) girl. You’ve got her jerk, rich, cocky husband. I suppose the rest aren’t all that prototypical, just not completely fleshed out for me. This isn’t a criticism of the book. I think each character represents someone we can recognize from our own society, and provides perfect fodder for the Chris’ intentional and unintentional satire. What do you think?
As for Chris’ intellectual prowess, I wonder if it’s more of a critique of the intellectual mind, which likes to over-apply frameworks successful in scholarly work to the greater world, sometimes to disastrous effect. Isn’t it the arrogant, intellectual mind that so elegantly justified colonial slavery by applying the theoretical and moral frameworks of its day? Don’t some of the most brilliant intellectuals struggle to parse their non-work lives because they can’t view anything intuitively, and outside of the scholarly lens? In that way, this would be less a critique of his competence as a scholar than proof of it, and all the damage it’s done. (Not convinced on this point, by the way. Just thinking… erhm… on the web).
Re: Poe. Yes! Quivering.
I hope this is semi-articulate. It’s been a long day.
Justine Tal Goldberg says:
I think I don’t really know what I think. On the one hand, I appreciate your point about satire working well with stereotypes. On the other, all characters in all literature are stock because they’re created to live and breathe just like real people and real people are types, too. With unique traits, of course, but commonalities at core. Stereotypes come from somewhere. I guess I’m resisting the prototype analysis because Garth, in particular, feels very flesh-and-blood to me. For that reason, I may be feeling protective.
Funnily enough (and this perhaps speaks to the question of whether Chris is being criticized for his academic approach to the world), I don’t feel protective over Chris. Not even a little bit. I don’t even really like him. I don’t hate him either. Let’s put it this way: I wouldn’t necessarily mind if Chris went unconscious and Captain Jaynes took over the narrative. Is that a problem? Does it even matter to my/our experience of the book?
Leah Kaminsky says:
Yes, you’re right about all literature drawing from stereotypes. I was thinking of this as I was formulating my last response. But what makes those stereotypes new, interesting, and meaningful is an author’s unique spin on them, which can come in a variety of ways. Sometimes, it’s enough to give a stereotyped character an unexpected hobby; sometimes, it needs to go deeper. I agree that Garth is very flesh and blood, and when I think about it, the only characters that really bother me are Angela and her husband, and mostly the former. This comes from a larger frustration with women in male-driven books being given one of three stock roles. Not that the book needs to delve deeper into the sole female character, it just grates me the wrong way. But does that say something about Johnson or about Chris, who, as discussed, tends to miss what’s right in front of him? Or about me projecting my own crap?
I don’t think disliking Chris matters. Captain Jaynes is a book unto himself!
Justine Tal Goldberg says:
I keep hoping Angela will become real but, since you’ve read to the end of the book, I trust that she doesn’t. This = sad.
Re: “But does that say something about Johnson or about Chris, who, as discussed, tends to miss what’s right in front of him? Or about me projecting my own crap?” Let’s say it’s a little bit of both, hmmm?
Leah Kaminsky says:
“I keep hoping Angela will become real but, since you’ve read to the end of the book, I trust that she doesn’t.”
Not necessarily. I tend not to give characters I dislike a second chance. :)
Jenna says:
I love Garth and Captain Jaynes–they’re the two characters I “saw” most clearly during my read. Chris is very self-absorbed and approaches much of life through a scholarly light (nothing wrong in and of itself, but it makes Chris a difficult character to get emotionally attached to). I think Garth is a foil for Chris; Garth appreciates art on an aesthetic level (i.e. Karvel paintings), and his likes and dislikes aren’t determined by critical analysis.
Angela…I didn’t understand why Chris–wait a sec, I do understand why Chris was enamored with her. Chris constantly turns things in his life into narratives and he’s hyper aware of where people and events fit into his life narrative. Chris romanticizes Angela–he’s Gatsby and Angela is his Daisy. I can see how Angela’s husbands fit into the Tom Buchanan role. Maybe I’m imagining things to an extent, but I keep finding striking parallels between Pym and canonical literature works. Talk about metafiction! And it’s not too obvious as to detract from the reading experience.
Justine Tal Goldberg says:
Oh, totally on the Gatsby front. I’m also picking up on a ton of literary references–not surprising, considering Chris’s scholarly background. I had, for example, been picking up on a Lovecraft-ian vibe and was happily validated when I came across the direct reference to Lovecraft in Volume III. I already mentioned the “Heart of Darkness” parallel. What other literary allusions are you seeing?
Leah Kaminsky says:
I’m not sure what other literary allusions are there, but I do wonder what they say as a whole about literature and scholarship. As Chris’ books meet their fated end, he becomes what’s inside them.
Whoa. Too deep?
Laura Roberts says:
Okay, having now read on into Volume 3, this book is definitely full of surprises. I like that the cynical Captain Jaynes says basically “Just give these white people a chance and they’ll take whatever they can get,” because despite being labelled the paranoid in the group, he is remarkably tuned in to the reality of the situation. And he is also unusually resigned to his fate, once they’ve all been enslaved.
I really hope that Garth will save the day, with or without a boatload of Little Debbie snack cakes, to redeem his bailing on the rest of them.
As far as Angela goes, I suppose there’s always “the love interest,” and she’s it. I would agree with Leah, though, that she’s not fully fleshed out and seems a bit of a stock character as per the male writer’s POV. She is also annoying because she’s a lawyer pushing legal points, whereas they need people who are able to take action, physically. So this group is decidedly outmatched in the realm of brute force, and I’m hoping they will get their shit together to plan a mutiny.
I guess my question now is, how much is this book following the Poe Pym plot, and will things progress along these lines, with the black characters in the previously white characters’ places?
Justine Tal Goldberg says:
Agreed, Captain Jaynes’s behavior is really striking. More on this in our Volume III discussion to be posted first thing tomorrow. Thanks for being so prescient!
Without having read Poe’s “Pym,” it’s hard to say how closely Johnson’s “Pym” follows, but I do wonder if that’s even the point anymore. When Chris first started out on this adventure, the issue of loyalty to the original text was prominent but now, it feels like there’s so much more at stake. I am curious about whether they’ll get to Tsalal, though, the promised land.
Pym, Volume #4 - Writing center and writers service in Austin, Texas │ Write better, right now says:
[...] you’re just now joining us, don’t forget to check out our discussions of Volume I, Volume II, and Volume III. Note: Our Volume III post is feeling seriously neglected, so if the spirit moves [...]