Hopefully more on the ending once we talk about it in class, because as of now, I don't know what to make of it!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Lyndon
I liked Lyndon. Although I knew the character Lyndon didn't necessarily reflect the "real" Lyndon, it offered a lot of insight into the rather normal life of someone we might not otherwise get to hear or read about. It's really odd to hear about all of the personal, yet innately human things we know about but don't actually talk about. I know some people feel that all of the references to bodily functions were just repulsive--and I agree--I highly doubt Wallace added those in just to cause his readers discomfort. As was brought up in class, the fact that he chooses to add such natural and humble details creates a totally different representation of President Johnson. I don't think there's anything perverse or weird of about creating such a perspective for readers because it's just putting into writing what we all know but choose not to recognize.
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Woops--I guess we didn't get to the ending. Could I have been avoiding it? Is it that I don't really know what to make of it myself?
The story definitely changes dramatically in the last few pages, and in ways that don't obviously connect to our concerns in this course. We are led into a pretty deep and sustained exploration of the nature of love, and the role of "distance" in that love, and there's something both bizarre (or obviously "fictional") and moving about the final image of the two ill "husbands"--as Lady Bird calls them--intertwined together on a bed. In some ways, it's Lyndon's most "human" moment in a story geared around "humanizing" him. But it's also the moment where he seems least "presidential"--and we've seen him as increasingly uncomfortable in this public role.
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