Post: Chess as a Symbol in Dissident Gardens, Laura
An interesting metaphor that the author, Jonathan Lethem, sets up in Part 1 is that each of the characters are pieces in a game of chess. While he explicitly calls the matriarch, Rose, a "red queen," and Cicero, her love child, a knight, I've been wondering how the other characters fit in. Miriam, her daughter, could be considered another queen because she is the only character to verbally spar Rose equally. She also slides around New York City, her personal chessboard, the way a queen moves in every direction on the board. The men that Miriam and Rose manipulate throughout Part 1 seem to be their pawns, but I am not sure how Cousin Lenny fits in. He seems to be another pawn because he has no power over Miriam or Rose. However, he decides Cicero's destiny as a competitor of chess in one match. Could he be a King? I also thought it was interesting that Cicero gave up chess around the same time that he started to plot his escape from Rose and the rest of the Zimmer family's influence. It's like he was shaking his "knightly" devotion to the queen in more ways than one.
I would dare to think of Douglas Lookins, the black Police Lieutenant with whom Rose has an affair, more of a King in this sense than Albert Zimmer, Miriam's Father and Rose's Ex-Husband because their affair provides the foundation for so much animosity between Rose, Miriam, and Cicero (Douglas' son).
I love the connection, and have to agree that the two queens are blatantly Rose and Miriam. The obvious versatility of their power and influence is reflected in the queen's versatility on the chess board. I honestly believe that the King might be their ideals as they spend the whole time protecting the king and defending the king in more ways than one. Due to the incredible imbalance of character strength within the novel, with Miriam and Rose being by far the most powerful and prominent characters, I don't see any male playing a more prominent role than a pawn.
Comment: That's an awesome connection Laura! The line is "Alice's wrathful Red Queen. . ." referring to Rose, and in 'Alice in Wonderland' the Queen of Hearts is based off a card, which is another reference to the characters being pieces of a game. Perhaps the coolest thing about this connection is that Lethem sets the story in Queens (I wish I could italicize 'Queens'), which goes along with the theme that Rose is practically the ruler of Queens, their community, and Miriam.
Post: The theme of Ruined High Expectations in Dissident Gardens. Ben
During Miriam’s ‘lost night’ in Queens, she expects that Porter would sweep her off her feet and she would lose her virginity to the “masculine devourer.” The long night is told in only four pages and it crescendos to a terribly awkward and unsexy scene in Miriam’s bed. Miriam’s high expectations of Porter are shattered very shortly after they are formed. After Rose walks in on them and Miriam shows Porter out, Miriam notices a boy, Carl Heuman, standing on the sidewalk and wearing a Brooklyn Dodgers jacket. She does not know him very well, but she knows him well enough to say, “forlorn Carl Heuman, whose only living purpose was to become the third-ever Jewish pitcher on a team that no longer existed,” (referring to the Brooklyn Dodgers, who moved to Los Angeles in 1957.) Lethem reinforces the disappointment after high expectations by including this boy who used to be in Miriam’s class.
I'm so glad that you included that quote about Carl because when I read it the first time, I didn't understand his purpose. I noticed two other examples of major disappointment in Part 1. The first was Rose's failed marriage. She thought that she and her husband would make the perfect communist couple. Instead of having the perfect family, however, her husband is sent back to Europe, she's left as a single mother, and she is asked to leave the communist party. The second disappointment was Cicero's failure to become a professional chess player. I wonder how this disappointment will be resolved in the coming chapters.
I also noticed another significant disappointment as to when they are unsure of what to make of Khrushchev's "Secret Speach" considering it has such major implications for the Soviet Union. The anti-climactic lack of a significant impact on the Party's lives and efforts in the US, however, is dissapointing to say the least.
Post: Dissident Gardens in relation to “Shrinking Women” by Lily Meyers (the Slam Poem from class)
I couldn’t help but see the similarities between the Zimmer family and the relationship between Lily Meyer’s and her mother in the poem, “Shrinking Women.” In both families, the daughters in each generation look at their mother’s “struggle” and can’t help but mimic or hate her. “I never meant to replicate her, but spend enough time sitting across from someone and you pick up their habits. That’s why women in my family have been shrinking for decades” (Shrinking Woman). For Rose’s mother, the struggle is that she silently obeys her husbands decisions. Rose tries to keep herself from turning into her mother by growing a voice. "She couldn't be stopped. From the day Rose learned to read and converse she'd been assembling the vocabulary with which to animate her own mother's attitudes not by shrugs and moans, not by hands wringing or hovering at her temples, but with lashings of English tongue" (Gardens 134). Instead of standing by a drunkard husband, she takes on being the single parent of her daughter Miriam. Miriam looks at her mother’s failed marriage and almost hates her for it. She hates her mother’s imposition and her overpowering nature. After graduating from high school a year early, and dropping out of college, she basically turns into a runaway. As she tries to rebel against her mother’s wishes, however, she ends up mimicking a lot of her behavior. She still fights for the working people and for integration. She uses skills learned from her mother to wreck opponents in debates and attract men. Ultimately though, she ends up with a bad husband. While Rose fought hard to escape the shadow of men, Miriam dutifully supports her husband’s failing music career even though they are struggling to support their son. “Tommy, the loving dad, having coop-flown again… …to play a set to bolster the spirits of the ragged band of Quaker protesters keeping a death-penalty vigil at the prison in Ossining, a thing Miriam liked to call his Gig of Sisyphus. Though that might actually describe Tommy’s last decade. The career that Miriam, having made herself staunch behind, the great everywoman behind every great man, tries not to consider” (Gardens 108). I can’t help but be disappointed in the fact that Miriam, the mysterious, adventurous teenager that took control of her life at such a young age has become an “everywoman.” Miriam’s marriage is still young though. Rose also admitted to fearfully staying quiet in her first year of marriage. I’m curious as to how Miriam’s relationship will play out in the rest of the book.
It is ironic how Miriam grew up hating her mother so much and ultimately became her as an adult. Rose seems to be teaching Miriam to grow outward, though, with how she acts violent and powerful in front of Miriam from a young age. Miriam certainly picks up Rose's harsh and individual personality as she grows older. It is noticeable from a young age when she disobeys authority by skipping school and not listening to her mother.
That's a really good point. The good traits of Rose definitely come to Miriam with the bad. I also think it's interesting that the mother in Meyers' poem doesn't seem to know what she or her daughter has become. Rose on the other hand sees Miriam following in her footsteps. When Miriam introduces her to Tommy for the first time, Rose sarcastically finds "gratitude that a world still existed for Miram to dwell in with such innocence that she could make each of Rose's mistakes again. In the miraculous hands of the young these were not yet mistakse. The two were (wish I could put this in italics) in love." (Gardens 156).
I think there is a common reputation that comes with their family name that lies at the root of Miriam becoming her mother. Miriam is pointed out multiple times throughout the novel for being a Zimmer. The formidable reputation that precedes her results in her having to live up to it in a certain manner even when her mother is not physically around to influence her. The ubiquitous presence of Rose's influence definitely also helps mold Miriam's personality to mirror that of her mother's.
Comment: Keep in mind that Albert left Rose and Miriam to go overseas to be an East Germany spy when Miriam was only seven years old. So for the majority of Miriam's life only Rose had been around as a parental guidance. Aside from the letters back and forth between Miriam and Albert there really had not been a physical male presence in Miriam's life.
One of the reasons that I can't get into this book is that the structure is very confusing. The book is split into four parts: Boroughphobia, The Who, the What, the Where Game, The Wit and Wisdom of Archie Bunker, and Peaceable Kingdom. Within each part, each chapter follows a specific character. Each chapter also fits into a different time period. The time periods are not chronological and you have to constantly look up Lethem's pop culture references to determine which year you are in. Within each of these time periods, each character normally has a long monologue about the past. I think this is distracting and takes away from the story telling. It's purpose is to allow for cliffhangers and surprises but putting so much distance between the stories of each character is confusing. For example. Roy Gogan is briefly mentioned as a "shark" when Miriam is looking for a guy to lose her virginity to. Then in part two, we discover that she marries a man named Tommy Gogan, but the relationship between Roy and Tommy isn't explained for another 100 pages. Do you guys think that Lethem could have organized his book better? Or do you have any insight as to why he might have structured it this way?
I actually like the way the book is structured. Granted, I do not understand the meanings of Lethem's seemingly random jumps through time, I am sure they were not for nothing. I think that he jumps around in time constantly to juxtapose the personalities and beliefs of characters throughout time. Also, I have noticed themes that reoccur throughout all the different time periods, such as dissapointment after high expectations.
Personally, I love the way it's structured. It not only juxtaposes times that are very different but share the aforementioned common theme of disappointing expectations, but it also portrays remarkable growth in character development. We were talking about how Miriam becomes her mother, and I actually caught myself later in the book reading scenes with Miriam but thinking I was reading about Rose in a retelling. I caught myself both times that this happened only a page into the section and this speaks volumes as to how well Miriam molds herself to become Rose. This molding, I think, is made far more apparent due to the jumping around. Also, chess is a game where you often do not see the effects of a move until much further into the game. I think the structure of the novel with its massive time gaps help accentuate these moments such as when we first notice Miriam's reputation and then notice its effects in the long run (her setting up of her reputation being the initial move, and the compounded impact of her eloquency due to her reputation being the eventual result): Miriam is sitting in the parlor in the first few pages and is called out for being an excellent communist which sets the floor up for the reader as to how she is perceived, and she later goes on to use this immediate recognition that she is met with to her advantage by setting the floor for her many monologues and debates that follow throughout the novel due to the vast time range it spans. This is also aided by the specificity of each scene despite its apparently random selection.
I don't mind how Lethem structures the novel. He begins with the most important central static character Rose who we know will always be driven by desire and will never change her obsession with radicalism and men. And the novel ends with Sergius, the last of a dying breed, who really doesn't know his origins but like those who came before him he lusts for love even in the form of a stranger in an airport bathroom. As for the stuff in the middle, I initially didn't really understand all the different time period changes but I guess Lethem did it just so that we would have a base knowledge for all of the central characters.
In chapter 1 (The Sunnyside Pros) of Part 2 (The Who, What, or Where Game), Lenny is expecting to play a big part in the Continental Baseball League with his friend, Bill Shea. When Shea breaks the news to him that he is going to own a team called the New York Mets instead, Lenny feels heartbroken and betrayed. This is another occurance of high expectations resulting in a let-down. I think Lethem included this theme to say that high expectations lead to dissapointment. All the characters seem to get ahead of themselves, which never ends well for them.
All this disappointment reminds me of that article that Mr. Walroth shared with our class today. The article stated that the most successful people in the world got there because they either had a superiority complex or confidence from having worked through "grit" to achieve prior successes. Unfortunately, I think the Zimmer family's continuous disappointment stems from a superiority complex. Lenny misread the amount of power he actually had over Shea. While Shea appeased some of his requests, he left Lenny out of the real decision making. Lenny failed to see this because he believed that he was indispensable. If he understood his "place," I don't think he would be disappointed. However, if he never took a shot, he would have no chance of moving up the ranks either. Maybe this is just his "grit."
Post: Sergius’ Frogger Obsession One of my favorite passages in this book comes on pages 304 and 305 where Sergius is at the arcade playing Frogger, a game that he is apparently better than all of his peers and a game that he can completely immerse himself for hours at a time. We as guys (maybe Laura too) know how it feels to be addicted to a game and actually set time to just let loose and relax for long periods of time whether with friends or alone. However, in Sergius’ case, to me it seems like he pretends he IS the Frog leaping from pad to pad and “attempting to stay alive in his peculiar world” (Lethem 305). Sergius, orphaned at a young age, has to decide with whom he should live with, his grandmother Rose or friends of his parents, Harris Murphy and Stella Kim. And there’s no way IN HELL he would give up playing Frogger… -EJ
I thought the same thing when I read this passage! Sergius definitely sees himself as a frog dodging his way through life. Later in the passage Lethem mentions Sergius playing Q*bert too, where it says "Q*bert reminded Sergius the Little Prince, actually, noble orphan on his tiny planet, tending a lonely rose." (Lethem 305.) Tending a lonely ROSE?! Come on. That is symbolism gold right there. Sergius must feel that he needs to protect Rose's reputation. He does like her after all, and almost asks to live with her. Also it is making the connection between Sergius and a little prince, which goes along with how Rose is a Queen in their game of life (whether that game be chess or just a general game.) Lastly, I thought I'd point out that on the page before (304) it mentions that Stella Kim brought Sergius "the Alice book" (Lethem 304) amongst other things. This is another reference to Alice in Wonderland, so the first reference could not have been a coincidence (though I trust that none of these symbols are coincidental, Lethem is very good with symbolism.)
I think those are all really awesome interpretations of this passage. As long as we're talking about symbolism, I think it's cool to look at the different characters' names. Rose is a beautiful but thorny and spiteful character. Miriam is named after a Jewish prophetess, while Cicero is named for a great orator and philosopher. These names are juxtaposed with names like "Tommy" which just seem ordinary. P.S. I do play video games, and I too was an avid Frogger player around the same age as Sergius in this chapter. :)
Post: Mournful Rose Having been informed of the deaths of her daughter Miriam and her son-in-law Tommy Gogan in Nicaragua, Rose felt the need to attend a proper funeral. She was not content with the scattering of the deceased’s ashes in East Eighth Streets’ community garden which just so happened to resemble a vacant lot. She felt it fitting that she should attend a Jewish funeral since her family was also of the Judaic faith. Honestly, while reading this part I wondered how many people actually go to random funerals as a way to diffuse or depersonalize the act of mourning. I wouldn’t know for sure how it is, but I doubt anyone who is truly grieving over the person for whom the funeral is given would actually know if you knew the deceased or would really care if you didn’t. Anyways, Archie Bunker, an anti-Semite, delivers the eulogy and stupefies the congregation in ignorance of the fact that everyone there including his long-gone beloved friend was Jewish. Yet Rose was enamored by his charismatic stupidity and was attracted to the opposition he possessed, that of which was Anti-Semitism. She proceeded in following him to the bar and right after getting to know him in his drunken state proclaimed her love for him, but then her affection for him was completely depleted after hearing he had an adopted Jewish daughter. This part really just left me in awe. How could a woman go to a funeral for mourning and leave to follow an alcoholic and manipulate him into loving her? It really just spoke to Rose’s character to be blinded by desire even in the midst of the death of her own daughter. -EJ
Rose has a habit of getting into relationships with people that she, for lack of a better word, shouldn’t. She dated Sol Eaglin, the man responsible for her husband's deportation, she dated Lieutenant Lookins although he was married to a woman slowly dying of Lupus, and now she's in love with an anti-Semite even though she is of Jewish descent. I don’t know what to make of this except that she cares about her own needs before she thinks about any social consequences. Perhaps her attraction to Archie was a defense mechanism to assuage the grief she felt from losing her child.
Sex plays a very important role in this book. I see sex as a show of dominance and a tool for manipulation in this book. Despite the appearance that the men Rose has sex with have control over her, as in the opening scene with Sol fondling Rose at will, I think Rose is so Machiavellian to a point of perfection in her use of sex to gain control over men. Her infallible ability to assert her mental dominance and superiority over all the men she has sex with (I personally think dating is a very strong over-classification of her many sexual flings) gains her an edge over the men even though they don't notice it. Put simply, they come back for more. I think Rose has taken notice of this power that her body has endowed her with and makes the most of it by making sex less emotional in the long-run than it is for most people which is why she disregards social convention. Rose is far from a conventional mid-20th century woman, and this open-minded approach around men around her who are remarkably narrow-minded gives her an edge. Where they may not change their minds despite their sexual encounters, they giver her their attention and cannot help but regard her in a special light.
Post: I Spy a Dante Reference in Dissident Gardens!
"You discovered yourself and what really mattered only after you passed through the lens of the fairy tale, imposed on every human female and male alike, that someone existed out in the forest of the world for you to love and marry. So let them each cross that threshold and encounter themselves in the light on the other side."
Maybe I'm reading into this passage because I have Dante on the brain but I definitely think Rose is referencing the Inferno as she talks about Miriam and Tommy's pending marriage. The woods refer to the disillusionment that young love provides. The threshold not only refers to marriage but to the gates of hell as well. (How funny is it that Rose believes marriage to be hell?) And finally the light on the other side is the poet's way out. I also like that Lethem chose to write "encounter themselves" because I think that eludes to Dante "finding himself" in the Wood of Error.
Comment: I agree that definitely could be a reference to Dante's Inferno but I feel like Rose is just really relieved that Miriam finally found someone who is actually a good fit for her. Tommy Gogan is still at this point a rising artist and has just separated from his brothers and their band, The Gogan Boys, so that he could pursue a solo career with the Miriam's help. But anyways, I think that Rose realizes that Miriam is a lot like she was when she was younger so with a stable guy like Tommy maybe this relationship could in fact work out.
Post: Communism and Rose There was another part of the novel in which Lethem again alludes to Dante’s Inferno in the Chapter titled Sandburg’s Lincoln. Rose finds herself at a Communist meeting in which her husband, Albert Zimmer, is supposed to give a speech on the Fourth of July. It is revealed to us that Albert is a talented orator, however, during his speech Rose decides to take her copy of Carl Sandburg’s Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Volume II, she brought with her back to the Packard vehicle in which they came. And instead of listening to her husband’s speech she re-reads excerpts from the book that gives her, in her mind, a better sense of Communism. One passage in particular from Lincoln’s message to Congress in December 1861 was written “Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital and deserves the much higher consideration…” This Communist Party event happened during a long period of time in which Rose and Albert were not having sex and so their marriage was beginning to dissipate and their difference in Communist ideas was driving a wedge between them.
I think this is an excellent observation. I cannot help but notice how the lack of sex made them pay less attention to each other, thus reducing the amount of control they had on each other. I believe, had they still been in a sexually active relationship, that Albert's communist views would be far more influenced by Rose's interpretations and ideas. I also find it ironic that Rose referred to an iconic American President's writings to find her truth in communism when a vast majority of the nation finds communism to be the most unamerican idea out there.
This speaks volumes as to Lethem's own thoughts on how communism has its seeds even in the most capitalist nations, but just need to be found and interpreted with an open mind. Lethem's expertise on American communism makes me wonder as to what his political affiliation is. I suspect he is either communist, or very open-minded considering the honorable light he portrays the Queens of Commmunism (as I see Rose and Miriam) in, but also a realist considering the tainted image he paints of the corrupt, inefficient, male-dominated, hypocritical, racist communist party.
Here's a quote for you: "'Here.' [Cousin Lenny] pressed something cool into Cicero's hand. A zinc U.S. penny. Rose's almighty Lincoln, rendered in tinfoil. Cousin Lenny lowered his voice. 'Study that coin. If you persist you'll find in it the whole secret law of history. The death of the United States of America rests there in your hand, kid. You can listen to it whisper if you hold your head close.'" (Lethem 62.) Although Cousin Lenny is certainly pretty crazy, this little interaction between him and young Cicero was not for nothing. Listening to it whisper if you held your head close reminded me of how Communist gossip was exchanged in the Sunnyside Gardens garden behind Rose's house. This leads to the connection that the secret activities of the Communist party would be the death of the United States of America. Whether that death would be literal or metaphoric, I'm not sure.
Wow! Discovering how Miriam dies at the end of the book. I wanted to cry and scream at the same time. I admire her convictions to fight to the death to try and prevent being raped before her inevitable murder. She calls this her last act of defiance against her mother who had so many sexual partners. I kind of hate Lethem's romanticization of such a violent act though. Especially with all of the references to smoking her last cigarette. I hated Tommy too for singing folksongs with the murderer's conspirators. Granted, he was stupidly oblivious to what was happening to his wife in the tent a few yards away, and would also end up murdered. I guess Lethem wanted to make a point that we are all alone. Miriam dies utterly alone in the Nicaraguan jungles. Rose dies alone in a nursing home after suffering from dementia. Cicero constantly feels alone as an intellectual gay black men. He even tries to isolate himself further by growing dreadlocks to block out the world. Finally, Sergius, Miriam's son, realizes that he is a "cell of one" while being detained by airport security. I am so unsatisfied by this final message though. It leaves me wanting more for each of the characters.
Yeah I really don't get why Lethem chose to kill off Miriam and Tommy Gogan in Nicaragua of all places and to do it so rapaciously and almost like they had no escape and no hope but to succumb to torture. There's your Inferno allegory element! And also I don't get why he chose to have Cicero be gay. I feel like it would make more sense if Sergius was because he really doesn't know where he belongs. At school everyone pities him because they know about his parents and its almost like he has no idea where he really comes from because in Rose's old age and with her illness she's incapable of even having any sort of relationship with her grandson, Sergius.
There are so many references to baseball in this book. Why? The references range from single sentences, "In the manner of the baseball manager lifting in coldhearted reluctance the bullpen telephone. . ." (Lethem 366), to entire chapters, "The Sunnyside Pros." Could it simply be because baseball is America's past-time? Probably not. Lethem seems to like connecting life to games. We see him do it with chess early on in the book (Cicero is called a "knight" and Rose is called a "Red Queen"), and with video games later (Sergius is compared to the frog in Frogger and Q*bert.) He tends to compare his characters to certain game pieces and characters. Perhaps this is his way of comparing life to a game.
Lethem is also a huge baseball fan. Here's an anecdote from his personal life that I think speaks volumes as to why he includes baseball in the story, and especially the often polluted image he paints of it: he participated in the Occupy Wall Street movement a couple of years ago and was seen displaying a t-shirt that criticized the re-naming of the Mets' stadium from Shea field to CitiField. he saw it as a capitalist abomination of a beautiful name that preserved the role a very important hero to the organization. This leads me to believe that Lethem is almost definitely a communist-sympathizer himself and find it awesome as to how well he incorporated his personal fandom into this novel.
"Cicero had spent more time than you can bear to imagine not cleaning [his hair], not obeying rules every mother teaches every child," (Lethem 73.) Rose and Miriam weren't the only ones who grew up to be as harsh and perverse as their mothers; Cicero and Sergius grew up to be the same way! Cicero, son of Rose, is described in this passage as one to go against societal rules. His messy dreadlocks are symbolic of independence and desire to disobey. Sergius, son of Miriam, has a long series of quotes at the end of the book where he is being disrespectful to an airport officer. He too has grown up to believe that he is superior to everyone else, similar to how Rose and Miriam both thought highly of themselves.
"Cicero added a vow: Black pieces or white, he'd never touch chessmen again." (Lethem 63.) This was after young Cicero was destroyed in chess by Lenny and Lenny told him that he had no future in chess. Suddenly, Cicero's refuge was stripped away from him. He loved chess because he felt confident playing it, but there went his last bit of confidence. It's interesting that Lethem uses the word "chessmen" too. He specifically chose to call the pieces "men." I believe this is also symbolic of Cicero because uncomfortable with his homosexuality, especially after all of Lenny's perverted sexual acts directed towards Miriam but in front of young Cicero.
Comment: I can't help but notice how obvious Lenny's love for Miriam is even though they are cousins. Several times in the novel Lenny has to force himself to not even look at Miriam because if he does he won't be able to hold back an erection. This is a serious issue especially since they're cousins. If Lenny can't get over his obsession with Miriam then they should never hang out and/or be seen with each other.
Post: Great Ending (SPOILER ALERT, Dr. Moore) I honestly really liked how Lethem chose to end the book with Sergius all grown up and randomly meeting a stranger who fondled him in the rental car going to the airport and then again in a bathroom of the airport. I know the obscenities in this novel were wild but Lethem feels the need to incorporate those particular features into his novels to give the reader a better understanding of how we as humans, some of us more than others, have certain urges just like other living, breathing, creatures here on Earth. And in Sergius' case he really does take after his mother and his Grandmother and his actions continue to leave a strong Zimmer family impact on those they come in contact with throughout their lives.
Post: Chess as a Symbol in Dissident Gardens, Laura
ReplyDeleteAn interesting metaphor that the author, Jonathan Lethem, sets up in Part 1 is that each of the characters are pieces in a game of chess. While he explicitly calls the matriarch, Rose, a "red queen," and Cicero, her love child, a knight, I've been wondering how the other characters fit in. Miriam, her daughter, could be considered another queen because she is the only character to verbally spar Rose equally. She also slides around New York City, her personal chessboard, the way a queen moves in every direction on the board. The men that Miriam and Rose manipulate throughout Part 1 seem to be their pawns, but I am not sure how Cousin Lenny fits in. He seems to be another pawn because he has no power over Miriam or Rose. However, he decides Cicero's destiny as a competitor of chess in one match. Could he be a King?
I also thought it was interesting that Cicero gave up chess around the same time that he started to plot his escape from Rose and the rest of the Zimmer family's influence. It's like he was shaking his "knightly" devotion to the queen in more ways than one.
I would dare to think of Douglas Lookins, the black Police Lieutenant with whom Rose has an affair, more of a King in this sense than Albert Zimmer, Miriam's Father and Rose's Ex-Husband because their affair provides the foundation for so much animosity between Rose, Miriam, and Cicero (Douglas' son).
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DeleteI love the connection, and have to agree that the two queens are blatantly Rose and Miriam. The obvious versatility of their power and influence is reflected in the queen's versatility on the chess board. I honestly believe that the King might be their ideals as they spend the whole time protecting the king and defending the king in more ways than one. Due to the incredible imbalance of character strength within the novel, with Miriam and Rose being by far the most powerful and prominent characters, I don't see any male playing a more prominent role than a pawn.
Comment: That's an awesome connection Laura! The line is "Alice's wrathful Red Queen. . ." referring to Rose, and in 'Alice in Wonderland' the Queen of Hearts is based off a card, which is another reference to the characters being pieces of a game. Perhaps the coolest thing about this connection is that Lethem sets the story in Queens (I wish I could italicize 'Queens'), which goes along with the theme that Rose is practically the ruler of Queens, their community, and Miriam.
ReplyDelete-Ben
Post: The theme of Ruined High Expectations in Dissident Gardens. Ben
ReplyDeleteDuring Miriam’s ‘lost night’ in Queens, she expects that Porter would sweep her off her feet and she would lose her virginity to the “masculine devourer.” The long night is told in only four pages and it crescendos to a terribly awkward and unsexy scene in Miriam’s bed. Miriam’s high expectations of Porter are shattered very shortly after they are formed. After Rose walks in on them and Miriam shows Porter out, Miriam notices a boy, Carl Heuman, standing on the sidewalk and wearing a Brooklyn Dodgers jacket. She does not know him very well, but she knows him well enough to say, “forlorn Carl Heuman, whose only living purpose was to become the third-ever Jewish pitcher on a team that no longer existed,” (referring to the Brooklyn Dodgers, who moved to Los Angeles in 1957.) Lethem reinforces the disappointment after high expectations by including this boy who used to be in Miriam’s class.
I'm so glad that you included that quote about Carl because when I read it the first time, I didn't understand his purpose. I noticed two other examples of major disappointment in Part 1. The first was Rose's failed marriage. She thought that she and her husband would make the perfect communist couple. Instead of having the perfect family, however, her husband is sent back to Europe, she's left as a single mother, and she is asked to leave the communist party. The second disappointment was Cicero's failure to become a professional chess player. I wonder how this disappointment will be resolved in the coming chapters.
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DeleteI also noticed another significant disappointment as to when they are unsure of what to make of Khrushchev's "Secret Speach" considering it has such major implications for the Soviet Union. The anti-climactic lack of a significant impact on the Party's lives and efforts in the US, however, is dissapointing to say the least.
Post: Dissident Gardens in relation to “Shrinking Women” by Lily Meyers (the Slam Poem from class)
ReplyDeleteI couldn’t help but see the similarities between the Zimmer family and the relationship between Lily Meyer’s and her mother in the poem, “Shrinking Women.” In both families, the daughters in each generation look at their mother’s “struggle” and can’t help but mimic or hate her. “I never meant to replicate her, but spend enough time sitting across from someone and you pick up their habits. That’s why women in my family have been shrinking for decades” (Shrinking Woman).
For Rose’s mother, the struggle is that she silently obeys her husbands decisions. Rose tries to keep herself from turning into her mother by growing a voice. "She couldn't be stopped. From the day Rose learned to read and converse she'd been assembling the vocabulary with which to animate her own mother's attitudes not by shrugs and moans, not by hands wringing or hovering at her temples, but with lashings of English tongue" (Gardens 134). Instead of standing by a drunkard husband, she takes on being the single parent of her daughter Miriam.
Miriam looks at her mother’s failed marriage and almost hates her for it. She hates her mother’s imposition and her overpowering nature. After graduating from high school a year early, and dropping out of college, she basically turns into a runaway. As she tries to rebel against her mother’s wishes, however, she ends up mimicking a lot of her behavior. She still fights for the working people and for integration. She uses skills learned from her mother to wreck opponents in debates and attract men. Ultimately though, she ends up with a bad husband.
While Rose fought hard to escape the shadow of men, Miriam dutifully supports her husband’s failing music career even though they are struggling to support their son. “Tommy, the loving dad, having coop-flown again… …to play a set to bolster the spirits of the ragged band of Quaker protesters keeping a death-penalty vigil at the prison in Ossining, a thing Miriam liked to call his Gig of Sisyphus. Though that might actually describe Tommy’s last decade. The career that Miriam, having made herself staunch behind, the great everywoman behind every great man, tries not to consider” (Gardens 108). I can’t help but be disappointed in the fact that Miriam, the mysterious, adventurous teenager that took control of her life at such a young age has become an “everywoman.” Miriam’s marriage is still young though. Rose also admitted to fearfully staying quiet in her first year of marriage. I’m curious as to how Miriam’s relationship will play out in the rest of the book.
It is ironic how Miriam grew up hating her mother so much and ultimately became her as an adult. Rose seems to be teaching Miriam to grow outward, though, with how she acts violent and powerful in front of Miriam from a young age. Miriam certainly picks up Rose's harsh and individual personality as she grows older. It is noticeable from a young age when she disobeys authority by skipping school and not listening to her mother.
DeleteThat's a really good point. The good traits of Rose definitely come to Miriam with the bad. I also think it's interesting that the mother in Meyers' poem doesn't seem to know what she or her daughter has become. Rose on the other hand sees Miriam following in her footsteps. When Miriam introduces her to Tommy for the first time, Rose sarcastically finds "gratitude that a world still existed for Miram to dwell in with such innocence that she could make each of Rose's mistakes again. In the miraculous hands of the young these were not yet mistakse. The two were (wish I could put this in italics) in love." (Gardens 156).
DeleteComment:
DeleteI think there is a common reputation that comes with their family name that lies at the root of Miriam becoming her mother. Miriam is pointed out multiple times throughout the novel for being a Zimmer. The formidable reputation that precedes her results in her having to live up to it in a certain manner even when her mother is not physically around to influence her. The ubiquitous presence of Rose's influence definitely also helps mold Miriam's personality to mirror that of her mother's.
Comment:
DeleteKeep in mind that Albert left Rose and Miriam to go overseas to be an East Germany spy when Miriam was only seven years old. So for the majority of Miriam's life only Rose had been around as a parental guidance. Aside from the letters back and forth between Miriam and Albert there really had not been a physical male presence in Miriam's life.
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ReplyDeletePost: The Structure of the Book
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons that I can't get into this book is that the structure is very confusing. The book is split into four parts: Boroughphobia, The Who, the What, the Where Game, The Wit and Wisdom of Archie Bunker, and Peaceable Kingdom. Within each part, each chapter follows a specific character. Each chapter also fits into a different time period. The time periods are not chronological and you have to constantly look up Lethem's pop culture references to determine which year you are in. Within each of these time periods, each character normally has a long monologue about the past. I think this is distracting and takes away from the story telling. It's purpose is to allow for cliffhangers and surprises but putting so much distance between the stories of each character is confusing. For example. Roy Gogan is briefly mentioned as a "shark" when Miriam is looking for a guy to lose her virginity to. Then in part two, we discover that she marries a man named Tommy Gogan, but the relationship between Roy and Tommy isn't explained for another 100 pages. Do you guys think that Lethem could have organized his book better? Or do you have any insight as to why he might have structured it this way?
I actually like the way the book is structured. Granted, I do not understand the meanings of Lethem's seemingly random jumps through time, I am sure they were not for nothing. I think that he jumps around in time constantly to juxtapose the personalities and beliefs of characters throughout time. Also, I have noticed themes that reoccur throughout all the different time periods, such as dissapointment after high expectations.
DeletePersonally, I love the way it's structured. It not only juxtaposes times that are very different but share the aforementioned common theme of disappointing expectations, but it also portrays remarkable growth in character development. We were talking about how Miriam becomes her mother, and I actually caught myself later in the book reading scenes with Miriam but thinking I was reading about Rose in a retelling. I caught myself both times that this happened only a page into the section and this speaks volumes as to how well Miriam molds herself to become Rose. This molding, I think, is made far more apparent due to the jumping around. Also, chess is a game where you often do not see the effects of a move until much further into the game. I think the structure of the novel with its massive time gaps help accentuate these moments such as when we first notice Miriam's reputation and then notice its effects in the long run (her setting up of her reputation being the initial move, and the compounded impact of her eloquency due to her reputation being the eventual result): Miriam is sitting in the parlor in the first few pages and is called out for being an excellent communist which sets the floor up for the reader as to how she is perceived, and she later goes on to use this immediate recognition that she is met with to her advantage by setting the floor for her many monologues and debates that follow throughout the novel due to the vast time range it spans. This is also aided by the specificity of each scene despite its apparently random selection.
DeleteI don't mind how Lethem structures the novel. He begins with the most important central static character Rose who we know will always be driven by desire and will never change her obsession with radicalism and men. And the novel ends with Sergius, the last of a dying breed, who really doesn't know his origins but like those who came before him he lusts for love even in the form of a stranger in an airport bathroom. As for the stuff in the middle, I initially didn't really understand all the different time period changes but I guess Lethem did it just so that we would have a base knowledge for all of the central characters.
DeletePost: More Dissapointment after High Expectations
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 1 (The Sunnyside Pros) of Part 2 (The Who, What, or Where Game), Lenny is expecting to play a big part in the Continental Baseball League with his friend, Bill Shea. When Shea breaks the news to him that he is going to own a team called the New York Mets instead, Lenny feels heartbroken and betrayed. This is another occurance of high expectations resulting in a let-down. I think Lethem included this theme to say that high expectations lead to dissapointment. All the characters seem to get ahead of themselves, which never ends well for them.
All this disappointment reminds me of that article that Mr. Walroth shared with our class today. The article stated that the most successful people in the world got there because they either had a superiority complex or confidence from having worked through "grit" to achieve prior successes. Unfortunately, I think the Zimmer family's continuous disappointment stems from a superiority complex. Lenny misread the amount of power he actually had over Shea. While Shea appeased some of his requests, he left Lenny out of the real decision making. Lenny failed to see this because he believed that he was indispensable. If he understood his "place," I don't think he would be disappointed. However, if he never took a shot, he would have no chance of moving up the ranks either. Maybe this is just his "grit."
DeletePost: Sergius’ Frogger Obsession
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite passages in this book comes on pages 304 and 305 where Sergius is at the arcade playing Frogger, a game that he is apparently better than all of his peers and a game that he can completely immerse himself for hours at a time. We as guys (maybe Laura too) know how it feels to be addicted to a game and actually set time to just let loose and relax for long periods of time whether with friends or alone. However, in Sergius’ case, to me it seems like he pretends he IS the Frog leaping from pad to pad and “attempting to stay alive in his peculiar world” (Lethem 305). Sergius, orphaned at a young age, has to decide with whom he should live with, his grandmother Rose or friends of his parents, Harris Murphy and Stella Kim. And there’s no way IN HELL he would give up playing Frogger…
-EJ
I thought the same thing when I read this passage! Sergius definitely sees himself as a frog dodging his way through life. Later in the passage Lethem mentions Sergius playing Q*bert too, where it says "Q*bert reminded Sergius the Little Prince, actually, noble orphan on his tiny planet, tending a lonely rose." (Lethem 305.) Tending a lonely ROSE?! Come on. That is symbolism gold right there. Sergius must feel that he needs to protect Rose's reputation. He does like her after all, and almost asks to live with her. Also it is making the connection between Sergius and a little prince, which goes along with how Rose is a Queen in their game of life (whether that game be chess or just a general game.)
DeleteLastly, I thought I'd point out that on the page before (304) it mentions that Stella Kim brought Sergius "the Alice book" (Lethem 304) amongst other things. This is another reference to Alice in Wonderland, so the first reference could not have been a coincidence (though I trust that none of these symbols are coincidental, Lethem is very good with symbolism.)
I think those are all really awesome interpretations of this passage. As long as we're talking about symbolism, I think it's cool to look at the different characters' names. Rose is a beautiful but thorny and spiteful character. Miriam is named after a Jewish prophetess, while Cicero is named for a great orator and philosopher. These names are juxtaposed with names like "Tommy" which just seem ordinary.
DeleteP.S. I do play video games, and I too was an avid Frogger player around the same age as Sergius in this chapter. :)
Post: Mournful Rose
ReplyDeleteHaving been informed of the deaths of her daughter Miriam and her son-in-law Tommy Gogan in Nicaragua, Rose felt the need to attend a proper funeral. She was not content with the scattering of the deceased’s ashes in East Eighth Streets’ community garden which just so happened to resemble a vacant lot. She felt it fitting that she should attend a Jewish funeral since her family was also of the Judaic faith. Honestly, while reading this part I wondered how many people actually go to random funerals as a way to diffuse or depersonalize the act of mourning. I wouldn’t know for sure how it is, but I doubt anyone who is truly grieving over the person for whom the funeral is given would actually know if you knew the deceased or would really care if you didn’t.
Anyways, Archie Bunker, an anti-Semite, delivers the eulogy and stupefies the congregation in ignorance of the fact that everyone there including his long-gone beloved friend was Jewish. Yet Rose was enamored by his charismatic stupidity and was attracted to the opposition he possessed, that of which was Anti-Semitism. She proceeded in following him to the bar and right after getting to know him in his drunken state proclaimed her love for him, but then her affection for him was completely depleted after hearing he had an adopted Jewish daughter. This part really just left me in awe. How could a woman go to a funeral for mourning and leave to follow an alcoholic and manipulate him into loving her? It really just spoke to Rose’s character to be blinded by desire even in the midst of the death of her own daughter.
-EJ
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DeleteComment:
DeleteRose has a habit of getting into relationships with people that she, for lack of a better word, shouldn’t. She dated Sol Eaglin, the man responsible for her husband's deportation, she dated Lieutenant Lookins although he was married to a woman slowly dying of Lupus, and now she's in love with an anti-Semite even though she is of Jewish descent. I don’t know what to make of this except that she cares about her own needs before she thinks about any social consequences. Perhaps her attraction to Archie was a defense mechanism to assuage the grief she felt from losing her child.
Comment/Post
DeleteSex plays a very important role in this book. I see sex as a show of dominance and a tool for manipulation in this book. Despite the appearance that the men Rose has sex with have control over her, as in the opening scene with Sol fondling Rose at will, I think Rose is so Machiavellian to a point of perfection in her use of sex to gain control over men. Her infallible ability to assert her mental dominance and superiority over all the men she has sex with (I personally think dating is a very strong over-classification of her many sexual flings) gains her an edge over the men even though they don't notice it. Put simply, they come back for more. I think Rose has taken notice of this power that her body has endowed her with and makes the most of it by making sex less emotional in the long-run than it is for most people which is why she disregards social convention. Rose is far from a conventional mid-20th century woman, and this open-minded approach around men around her who are remarkably narrow-minded gives her an edge. Where they may not change their minds despite their sexual encounters, they giver her their attention and cannot help but regard her in a special light.
Post: I Spy a Dante Reference in Dissident Gardens!
ReplyDelete"You discovered yourself and what really mattered only after you passed through the lens of the fairy tale, imposed on every human female and male alike, that someone existed out in the forest of the world for you to love and marry. So let them each cross that threshold and encounter themselves in the light on the other side."
Maybe I'm reading into this passage because I have Dante on the brain but I definitely think Rose is referencing the Inferno as she talks about Miriam and Tommy's pending marriage. The woods refer to the disillusionment that young love provides. The threshold not only refers to marriage but to the gates of hell as well. (How funny is it that Rose believes marriage to be hell?) And finally the light on the other side is the poet's way out. I also like that Lethem chose to write "encounter themselves" because I think that eludes to Dante "finding himself" in the Wood of Error.
Comment:
DeleteI agree that definitely could be a reference to Dante's Inferno but I feel like Rose is just really relieved that Miriam finally found someone who is actually a good fit for her. Tommy Gogan is still at this point a rising artist and has just separated from his brothers and their band, The Gogan Boys, so that he could pursue a solo career with the Miriam's help. But anyways, I think that Rose realizes that Miriam is a lot like she was when she was younger so with a stable guy like Tommy maybe this relationship could in fact work out.
Post: Communism and Rose
ReplyDeleteThere was another part of the novel in which Lethem again alludes to Dante’s Inferno in the Chapter titled Sandburg’s Lincoln. Rose finds herself at a Communist meeting in which her husband, Albert Zimmer, is supposed to give a speech on the Fourth of July. It is revealed to us that Albert is a talented orator, however, during his speech Rose decides to take her copy of Carl Sandburg’s Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Volume II, she brought with her back to the Packard vehicle in which they came. And instead of listening to her husband’s speech she re-reads excerpts from the book that gives her, in her mind, a better sense of Communism. One passage in particular from Lincoln’s message to Congress in December 1861 was written “Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital and deserves the much higher consideration…”
This Communist Party event happened during a long period of time in which Rose and Albert were not having sex and so their marriage was beginning to dissipate and their difference in Communist ideas was driving a wedge between them.
I think this is an excellent observation. I cannot help but notice how the lack of sex made them pay less attention to each other, thus reducing the amount of control they had on each other. I believe, had they still been in a sexually active relationship, that Albert's communist views would be far more influenced by Rose's interpretations and ideas. I also find it ironic that Rose referred to an iconic American President's writings to find her truth in communism when a vast majority of the nation finds communism to be the most unamerican idea out there.
DeleteThis speaks volumes as to Lethem's own thoughts on how communism has its seeds even in the most capitalist nations, but just need to be found and interpreted with an open mind. Lethem's expertise on American communism makes me wonder as to what his political affiliation is. I suspect he is either communist, or very open-minded considering the honorable light he portrays the Queens of Commmunism (as I see Rose and Miriam) in, but also a realist considering the tainted image he paints of the corrupt, inefficient, male-dominated, hypocritical, racist communist party.
Here's a quote for you: "'Here.' [Cousin Lenny] pressed something cool into Cicero's hand. A zinc U.S. penny. Rose's almighty Lincoln, rendered in tinfoil. Cousin Lenny lowered his voice. 'Study that coin. If you persist you'll find in it the whole secret law of history. The death of the United States of America rests there in your hand, kid. You can listen to it whisper if you hold your head close.'" (Lethem 62.) Although Cousin Lenny is certainly pretty crazy, this little interaction between him and young Cicero was not for nothing. Listening to it whisper if you held your head close reminded me of how Communist gossip was exchanged in the Sunnyside Gardens garden behind Rose's house. This leads to the connection that the secret activities of the Communist party would be the death of the United States of America. Whether that death would be literal or metaphoric, I'm not sure.
DeletePost: Alone in the End
ReplyDeleteWow! Discovering how Miriam dies at the end of the book. I wanted to cry and scream at the same time. I admire her convictions to fight to the death to try and prevent being raped before her inevitable murder. She calls this her last act of defiance against her mother who had so many sexual partners. I kind of hate Lethem's romanticization of such a violent act though. Especially with all of the references to smoking her last cigarette. I hated Tommy too for singing folksongs with the murderer's conspirators. Granted, he was stupidly oblivious to what was happening to his wife in the tent a few yards away, and would also end up murdered. I guess Lethem wanted to make a point that we are all alone. Miriam dies utterly alone in the Nicaraguan jungles. Rose dies alone in a nursing home after suffering from dementia. Cicero constantly feels alone as an intellectual gay black men. He even tries to isolate himself further by growing dreadlocks to block out the world. Finally, Sergius, Miriam's son, realizes that he is a "cell of one" while being detained by airport security. I am so unsatisfied by this final message though. It leaves me wanting more for each of the characters.
Yeah I really don't get why Lethem chose to kill off Miriam and Tommy Gogan in Nicaragua of all places and to do it so rapaciously and almost like they had no escape and no hope but to succumb to torture. There's your Inferno allegory element! And also I don't get why he chose to have Cicero be gay. I feel like it would make more sense if Sergius was because he really doesn't know where he belongs. At school everyone pities him because they know about his parents and its almost like he has no idea where he really comes from because in Rose's old age and with her illness she's incapable of even having any sort of relationship with her grandson, Sergius.
ReplyDeletePost: Dissident Gardens and Baseball
ReplyDeleteThere are so many references to baseball in this book. Why? The references range from single sentences, "In the manner of the baseball manager lifting in coldhearted reluctance the bullpen telephone. . ." (Lethem 366), to entire chapters, "The Sunnyside Pros." Could it simply be because baseball is America's past-time? Probably not. Lethem seems to like connecting life to games. We see him do it with chess early on in the book (Cicero is called a "knight" and Rose is called a "Red Queen"), and with video games later (Sergius is compared to the frog in Frogger and Q*bert.) He tends to compare his characters to certain game pieces and characters. Perhaps this is his way of comparing life to a game.
Lethem is also a huge baseball fan. Here's an anecdote from his personal life that I think speaks volumes as to why he includes baseball in the story, and especially the often polluted image he paints of it: he participated in the Occupy Wall Street movement a couple of years ago and was seen displaying a t-shirt that criticized the re-naming of the Mets' stadium from Shea field to CitiField. he saw it as a capitalist abomination of a beautiful name that preserved the role a very important hero to the organization. This leads me to believe that Lethem is almost definitely a communist-sympathizer himself and find it awesome as to how well he incorporated his personal fandom into this novel.
DeletePost: "Shrinking men"
ReplyDelete"Cicero had spent more time than you can bear to imagine not cleaning [his hair], not obeying rules every mother teaches every child," (Lethem 73.) Rose and Miriam weren't the only ones who grew up to be as harsh and perverse as their mothers; Cicero and Sergius grew up to be the same way! Cicero, son of Rose, is described in this passage as one to go against societal rules. His messy dreadlocks are symbolic of independence and desire to disobey. Sergius, son of Miriam, has a long series of quotes at the end of the book where he is being disrespectful to an airport officer. He too has grown up to believe that he is superior to everyone else, similar to how Rose and Miriam both thought highly of themselves.
Post: Cicero's Vow
ReplyDelete"Cicero added a vow: Black pieces or white, he'd never touch chessmen again." (Lethem 63.) This was after young Cicero was destroyed in chess by Lenny and Lenny told him that he had no future in chess. Suddenly, Cicero's refuge was stripped away from him. He loved chess because he felt confident playing it, but there went his last bit of confidence. It's interesting that Lethem uses the word "chessmen" too. He specifically chose to call the pieces "men." I believe this is also symbolic of Cicero because uncomfortable with his homosexuality, especially after all of Lenny's perverted sexual acts directed towards Miriam but in front of young Cicero.
Comment:
DeleteI can't help but notice how obvious Lenny's love for Miriam is even though they are cousins. Several times in the novel Lenny has to force himself to not even look at Miriam because if he does he won't be able to hold back an erection. This is a serious issue especially since they're cousins. If Lenny can't get over his obsession with Miriam then they should never hang out and/or be seen with each other.
Post: Great Ending (SPOILER ALERT, Dr. Moore)
ReplyDeleteI honestly really liked how Lethem chose to end the book with Sergius all grown up and randomly meeting a stranger who fondled him in the rental car going to the airport and then again in a bathroom of the airport. I know the obscenities in this novel were wild but Lethem feels the need to incorporate those particular features into his novels to give the reader a better understanding of how we as humans, some of us more than others, have certain urges just like other living, breathing, creatures here on Earth. And in Sergius' case he really does take after his mother and his Grandmother and his actions continue to leave a strong Zimmer family impact on those they come in contact with throughout their lives.