Septimus Thoughts

After reflecting on today's discussion of Septimus' character I wanted to get some of my thoughts down on paper (er...blog?).

I said today that I found Septimus' inner dialogue mildly off-putting. His unique way of observing his surroundings made me see him as mildly deranged and unstable, especially when he described violent images of fire and destruction or violently snaps at Rezia. Although I still worry about the character sometimes, I feel like I've settled on a more nuanced opinion of Septimus' character.

What first got me thinking was Rosa's comment today about how his perspective seemed more poetic than violent. This got me thinking more about the character, and the newly understood back-story from yesterday's reading. The more that I reread his excerpts,  the more I started to see them as the thoughts of a depressed artist rather than the ramblings of a madman.

Knowing about Septimus' background allowed me to see past my original assumptions, and I began to understand why I was so put out by his first few narrations. They are so different than any other character's that have come before him, causing me to react with much more apprehension than I likely would have if the book started with him. He has a strange ability to hijack the narration itself, as if there's a separate narrator that also observes his strange delusions. I suppose I was so surprised by this difference in style compared to other "normal" characters that it immediately caused me to feel weirded-out.

Well, now I feel like I have a different perspective on the character as a whole. Which makes me wonder whether "curing" Septimus will inadvertently doom the artistic mind I've just begun to notice. I'm impressed by Woolf's ability to make a character as complex and intricate as Septimus. I greatly look forward to reading more about him and how society reflects on his differences.

Howie's Disgust

While reflecting on the Mezzanine recently I decided that Howie is one of my favorite narrators in fiction. His ability to spark your interest in the most trivial things is nothing short of remarkable, and his overall attitude is a welcome vacation from the more negative and pessimistic standard I’ve seen in this kind of novel. He’s a sweet character that is able to go through life seeing the simple wonder of things most people would overlook like straws, paper towels, and perforation. 

Howie’s reaction to the line from Aurelius especially demonstrates why I like him.  Aurelius claims that all of life is meaningless when you look at it with a certain perspective. Lives come and go without reason and when it’s all over you have nothing to show for it. When I first read this I was worried for a short moment that Howie might take this message to heart and enter an unhealthy and personality-changing depression, but luckily I didn’t have long to worry. Immediately Howie confronts this passage head on. In Howie’s eyes, not only is this outlook on life entirely untrue, it also seeks to ruin the sunny and curious outlook of people like him. 

I’m very happy that Howie responded this way: refusing to let a pessimistic oversimplification ruin his almost unique outlook on the world. While reading this book, I initially expected it to follow the standard of a bright and idealistic young man entering the corporate world and becoming bitter and angry with the injustice that is business. Luckily, Howie was able to break the mold by entering this emotional and intellectual meat grinder and coming out the other side the same sweet and interesting fellow. It’s that fact that earns Howie the right to rank up there with Holden Caulfield and Jason Taylor as one of my most liked main characters in a novel.

Man, wouldn’t those three make an interesting group of friends?