Kristina Blazevska

How do discoveries provide individuals with a new

understanding of people, places and events?
Relationships between places and people can prompt individuals to create
an emotive response, facilitating an intellectual discovery. The unique
contexts which inner discoveries occur can be triggered by memories,
which ultimately shape the personas perspectives evoked by emotional
and intellectual existential outlooks through time, people, places and
events. These notions are exemplified in both Robert Grays poems,
Diptych and Flames and Dangling Wires and Jennifer Eagans post-
postmodern novel A Visit from the Goon Squad. We envision in these
texts the extent that memories play in individual discovery, and only
through itself, new perceptions of people, places and events can be
discovered.

The implication that discoveries occur through reminiscing, allows for new
perceptions of self through intellectual discovery evoked through
emotional journeys. In Grays Diptych, explicit elements of the personas
family are embedded in the anecdotal ongoing tension between the
persona and his father. His parents, like panels of a diptych, were forever
separated whilst in proximity, as this affected the persona and his father,
as Gray was able to see the inadequacies of their extreme temperaments.
The dialogue between the two, Nothing whinging. Nothing by New York
JewsNothing by women, provides insight into the fathers cynical
personality and educated character, whilst it is only through the
accompaniment of anaphoric repetition of the harsh, despairing nothing
that it denotes the limited relationship and disconnection between the
two, resulting in the negative representation. In addition, Grays depiction
of idiosyncrasies to illustrate his father as a clearly intelligent but
hopelessly melancholic individual obsessed with maintaining
appearances establishes his alienation in relation to society. It is only
through the fathers personal failure and perpetual pessimism that the
persona has discovered himself intellectually and emotionally through
reflection of his memories. However, this is only enhanced after the
persona experiences the death of his father. It is only then, that the
persona discovers new emotional connections through nostalgic fondness,
ultimately reconsidering their past relationship. The accident, my pocket
knife slid, sideways and pierced my handand so I dug with that one, into
his ashes, is paramount in the personas emotional discovery. The mixing
of his blood and his fathers ashes to a mauvish-grey marble dust
symbolically unifies the two, highlighting the intellectual knowledge of his
fathers death has lead to the emotional acceptance between the two.
Therefore, an individual can only discover ones self through reminiscing
about past experiences and events.
Similarly, Jennifer Eagans novel A visit from the Goon Squad explores
the emotional connections between time and growth throughout
characters pasts directly linking to post-modern America. Egan chooses
to personify time as a goon, and instantly the imagery that accompanies
time establishes the negative connotations in relation to the characters.
Kristina Blazevska

Bosco has gone from a rock star to a sickly, dying man, Jocelyn has
changed from a hopeful young girl into what she sees as a pathetic
middle-aged woman and Scotty has gone from being the popular teenager
to a mentally unstable adult. Through Boscos foreshadowing and
rhetorical question of himself, Times a goon right? You gonna let that
goon push you around? he unknowingly accepts the consequences of
time on ones self as he later acknowledges the fact that The goon
won It is evident that through the emotional connection to time that it
has become a prominent component in the novel. Although the characters
start off in different places, like Gray and his father in Diptych, they all
end up facing similar regrets and lost opportunities through their nostalgic
memories for the old days. The only characters that dont waste time and
therefore have not established an intellectual connection with time are the
ones that die young. Rob and Ralph both die very young, living on forever
in their youth in the emotional memories of family and friends. Boscos
skepticism about himself is evident throughout his evocative line, I dont
want to fade away, I want to flame away - I want my death to be an
attraction, a spectacle, a mystery. A work of art. Boscos realization that
time has caught up with him provokes him to reconnect himself once
more through his emotional connection with music. And it is only through
the world that Egan has created, the avoidance of being crushed by time
is to die young therefore establishing the connection between intellectual
growth and emotion.

In Grays Flames and Dangling Wire, the aim of the persona is to indulge
into a reflection of the changes that seem insignificant to our world but in
reality it is what society is leading too, leading to an incentive of
intellectual discovery allowing for an appreciation of the environment.
Through simile, and we came to a landscape of tin cans, of cars like
skulls evokes a sense of pathos, as the responder understands the
conveyance of real perspective regarding the world as one big
metaphorical dump. The personas physical journey into the wasteland
cultivates the reader to interpret the physicality of the ruins of cars, into
skulls, associated as dead matter, as our consumeristic lifestyles are
degrading the environment. Gray successful establishes that the modern
way of living will one day, consume society itself, and understanding the
constant changes will have consequences. In addition, the
persona's perspective is detached, yet it is also involved simultaneously.
He is detached as a human, foreseeing his 'vision' of the dump, I realise I
am in the future outlining that this dump is a direct parallel to the future
of humankind. The persona realises that our future is a wasteland 'made
of things that worked'. The paradox is that the persona is also involved in
the dump, and linked to it, if only by his presence. Subsequently, Gray
warns us of the consequences of changes of the environment, through
specific allusions. In the line, the raft of the Medusa it references to a
famous painting by Gericault. It illustrates a visual representation of dying
survivors of a shipwreck. The corruption and disrespect towards the
human body represented in this painting, is a representative form of the
human race as a whole, consuming themselves, due to the leniency of
Kristina Blazevska

materialism. Not only does this accentuate the inevitable demise of the
human race and the environment itself, it demonstrates the slight yet
constant changes to the lifestyle of many underlining the journey towards
the expiration of humans. Grays ability to connect sequences of ideas
which takes in theories of evolution, aspects of theology, nineteen century
paintings, future skepticism and deft economy allows for the responders
to see the emotional impact of our consumeristic lifestyle, whilst
intellectually discovering what our future holds. Overall, Gray explores the
destructive nature of the consumeristic human lifestyle, connecting
emotionally to us as responders. It is through the consequences and
destruction of our materialistic lifestyle that Gray hopes for a new
understanding, leading the responder to an intellectual discovery in the
hope for change.
A parallel can be drawn to Egans novel, as although the characters are
beaten up by time and regrets, they ultimately find a way to salvage
themselves and deal with times unceasing self. An aspect of this idea is
developed through Sasha. At the beginning of A visit from the Goon
Squad, the audience sees her as a kleptomaniac, taking objects simply
for the sake of taking themtrying to create meaning and excitement in
her life. It is through her intensive therapist session that she finally admits
her habit with the dejected tone Okay, steal it! However, at the end of
the novel, we as responders see how she has turned this negative bad
habit into something constructive, and this is only exhibited through her
intellectual discovery of herself. Through the eyes of her daughter, we see
Sasha turning stolen objects into art. Sasha has learned how to deal with
the passing of time, like in Diptych when the persona accept his father
for who he was, Sasha has discovered that she can become a better
person. Mirroring this character is Scotty, who similarly finds a way to deal
with the goon through the emotional connection to music. When the
audience is presented with him bringing a fish to Bennies office, they
know he cannot be completely unstable, whish is symbolised though the
satirical quote, Youre giving me a fish?. In turn, in the final chapter of
the novel, Scotty gives a concert that is unforgettable and more real than
anything he has ever experienced. He himself has taken knowledge of his
bad experiences to create something emotionally meaningful through
time. It is through the evocative language that we, as responders, learn
how to cope with life and time through these characters and allow the
room for growth emotionally and intellectually.

In conclusion, it is highly evident that interpersonal discoveries are

directly linked to either physical environment, or their personal
experiences triggered by memories and past experiences. Robert Grays
Diptych and Flames and Dangling Wire, accompanied by Jennifer Egans
A Visit from the Goon Squad convey these notions to a great extent. It is
only through the extent of our individual memories, that we, allow for the
new understandings of self through discovery.