Analysis of techniques in The Fiftieth Gate and related texts
MODULE C: REPRESENTATION AND TEXT: HISTORY AND MEMORY
History → the documented past
Memory → the recollection of personal or collective experience
The act of representation confronts both composer and responder with the ultimately problematic nature of these two divergent yet intrinsically linked ways of understanding the past.
The Fiftieth Gate – Mark Baker (1997, not a novel)
The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood (2001)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Michael Gondry (director, 2004)
Following is an analysis of techniques from all three texts:
ARGUMENT ONE: The incomplete nature of H&M demands the exploration of alternative methods of representing the past.
FUNCTION: a challenge faced by composers, a characteristic which encourages subjectivity, a challenge to readers regarding the acceptability of using alternate means of representation.
Incomplete nature of H&M:
TECHNIQUE:
QUOTE:
IDEA:
Wreckage imagery
“the rages, the relics, the shards washed ashore after a shipwreck”
Fragmented and physically incomplete nature of historical evidence
Simile
“collected enough fragments of the past to make a reconstruction of it, which must have borne as much relation to the real thing as a mosaic portrait would to the original”
This incomplete nature of H&M prevents the individual from attaining only a crude understanding g of the past.
Structure
Baker’s text is not linear or chronologically, but travels in an unstructured manner between multiple individuals, and places, periods.
Here, Baker uses structure to self-reflexively mimic the segmented and fractional form in which human memory exists.
Juxtaposition
Genia’s confidence in memory: “If I went to Bolszowce now I would find my house”
Later uncertainty and flawed recollection: “Where’s my house?”
Inadequacy of memory in delivering historical fact
Rhetorical question
“You read, you read…but do you know how it feels?”
Conveys the absent emotional dimension of history as a fundamental shortcoming in it’s representation of the past.
Hyperbole & tone of frustration
“You think because you’ve read a few pieces of paper that you suddenly understand everything?”
History alone is insufficient in understanding the past, its arrogance and authority discounts the personal understanding which memory provides.
Need to explore other methods of representing the past:
TECHNIQUE:
QUOTE:
IDEA:
Symbolism
Laura’s tinting of photographs.
An attempt to remedy history’s detachment and neglect of emotion.
Dramatisation of history
“ her white skirts rustle. He hears a dry wind blowing through weedy autumn fields. He hears the whisper of snow”
As a child, Iris dramatises the life of her absent grandfather to supplement the meagre details of history she can access.
Dramatic dialogue, surreal imagery, present tense
Gate 42 – Baker departs from his academic examination of the past and seeks to represent it through novelistic re-construction/monologue.
“A man is folded on the floor like a pair or ironed trousers”
“letters dancing, etched on broken tablets soaring up to angel arms tapping on the gate to God’s palace”
Compelled by the realisation that even H&M combined are insufficient, the composer endeavours to better understand the atmospheric essence of the past through poetic licence and an informed, albeit questionable form of representation
Conclusion:
H&M are incomplete in their accessibility, physical presence, and emotional depth. As a result of this, neither can provide a complete understanding of the past. This encourages composers to employ alternate measures through which to better represent and so understand the past.
ARGUMENT TWO: The act of representation challenges both composer and audience to consider the ethical nature of this endeavour, and question its moral implications.
FUNCTION: challenge to composer and responder ton re-evaluate perception of representation (can make this personal)
TECHNIQUE:
QUOTE:
IDEA:
Extended metaphor of theft
“grave robbers…who’d jimmy the locks…break and enter…and feel more than justified”
Investigative composers and their acts of representation are condemned as an immoral violation of ownership
Metaphorical artefacts
“scrap metal…broken pottery...shards of cuneiform…scraps of papyrus”
Through its unflagging pursuit of evidence, the act of representation objectifies the individual to a mere source of information, reducing them to the sum of the evidence they can provide”
Simile
“like an empty sack flapping in the wind…with a…label so that everyone will know what sort of secrets used to be inside”
The process of representation depletes and exposes the individual, leaving them bereft of dignity.
P.O.V/authorial admission
“I look back over what I’ve written and I know it’s wrong, not because of what I’ve set down, but because of what I’ve omitted”
Composers struggle with the ethics of deliberate choices in representation
Appropriation of term used in historical document to equip it with a new symbolic significance
“Signed: the People’s Investigator”
Baker recognises that his role as historian has transformed him into an academic monster, who relentlessly, ruthlessly, and dismissively investigates and interrogates to yield detail from his subjects.
“I mourned the things I had stolen from my father- first, two years of his life, and now his memory”
Baker questions his role as historian and the use of memories that are not his.
Harsh filters, bleak mis-en-scene, metonymic weather conditions
Colourlessness of Joel’s costume and apartment early on, frozen lake, beach scene
Convey the desolate and dismal nature of the re-represented past.
Emotional close-ups
Bookshop scene
Emphasise personal distress engendered by the erasure/re-representation of the past
Irony of film’s title
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”
This extract from Alexander Pope is the founding principle of Laguna Inc., that the erasure of memory enables the eradication of the emotional pain attached to it. By the film’s end however, the audience is positioned to question the moral implications of re-representation. Through the tragic experiences of all characters (especially the adulterous example of Howard and Mary), it is established that the “spotless mind” only causes pain and the repetition of history.
Symbolism
Ubiquitous spotlight
Connotes the unnatural, relentless, antagonistic, and exposing threat of representation to the individual.
Conclusion:
In this way, the act of representation evokes a plethora of ethical dilemmas which compel both composer and responder to question the morality of such attempts to represent the past in light of its impact upon the individual.
ARGUMENT THREE: Representations of H&M distort the meaning of the past through their subjectivity of emotion and the authority of the composer’s purpose.
FUNCTION: forces us to recognise the ultimately unreliable nature of all representation, and to question the intent of the composer (especially manifest in choices of form, omission, structure, tone etc).
Tone of remorse juxtaposed against accumulation of emotive images (“a child left lying helplessly”) and other eye-witness accounts
Hermann Muller’s testimony
Clear contrast between Muller’s testimony and Baker’s use of other evidence positions readers to see guilt as self-preservation rather than genuine regret. This illuminates a duality in purpose, where Muller’s desire to establish his innocence is thwarted by Baker’s desire to generate sympathy for his victims
Contrast
Leo Krochmal’s brief autobiographical account, with prior information regarding his past.
Leo’s omission of his daughter and distortion of residential history are shown as an attempt to “Germanise his life” in order to aid his post-war existence.
Surreal imagery
Beach house scene – sand and water flood the building
Establish the emotional dimension of memory as a distorting quality.
Motif
Facelessness
Expository dialogue
“All memory has an emotional core”
(Insert this quote early on mid-sentence)
Symbolism
Joel is handed a physical item to exact an “emotional response”
History and memory are intrinsically linked with human emotions
Newspaper article of local death
“yet another example of the laxity of out present social services”
Media uses history to facilitate socio-political comment.
P.O.V, collective language
“What do we hope from it? Applause, envy, respect? Or simple attention, of any kind we can get? At the very least we want a witness. We can’t stand the idea of our own voices falling silently, like a radio running down”
Iris highlights the vanity of representation as a means of self-preservation and vicarious immortality.
Dramatic irony
“You might decide it was cowardice that inspired me, or a failure of nerve, or simple prudence”
Iris admits that history (the authorship of The Blind Assassin) is wholly false because of her deliberate choices in representation.
Conclusion: The composer’s purpose and the innate emotional essence of memory make a precise and objective representation of the past impossible, given the transformative and intrinsic nature of these two characteristics.
ARGUMENT FOUR: Challenged by the frequent contradictions between H&M, the composer and responder are confronted by conflicting perspectives, details, and accounts, and so forced to recognise the impossibility of ascertaining any degree of absolute truth.
FUNCTION: challenge to composer, redefinition of perspective – the past is not straightforward and can not be conclusively established
Juxtaposition of history (tapes) and memory (the confusion of J&C, close-ups, multiple audio tracks – dialogue, monologue, voice-over)
Mary: “we’ve met, but you don’t remember me”
Joel’s prior harsh feelings toward Clementine are exposed in a damning recording as the pair listen on.
Here, history (as documented by Lacuna Inc. tape) contradicts the absence of memory. Characters are confronted with two alternate versions of the past and the sheer incongruence between the two.
Symbolism
“You won’t find Mattis in a book”
Baker is confronted by his mother’s “credibility as a survivor” and the failure of history to acknowledge her past.
Metaphor
“Unlike my father, she could never show her children the scars in her arms; hers were invisible”
Genia’s experiences exist only in memory, they are not physically documented, yet they are by no means false.
Contrast
“He says it was cold. Winter. But it was warm. Autumn”
Physical, empirical facts are juxtaposed against personal recollection to highlight Baker’s frustration at the conflict between his “fecks” and the memories of his parents.
P.O.V, sentence structure
“Legally she was his daughter; I had no way of proving otherwise”
Iris directly highlights the discrepancy between evidential history and personal memory, inviting the reader to vicariously share in her helpless struggle to reconcile the two.
ARGUMENT FIVE: Whilst both beset by their own limitations and imperfections, H&M are essentially interdependent discourses best valued equally, and so represented in conjunction with one another. Not only does this enable a more balanced representation, but also a deeper appreciation and more mature grasp of the past and those individuals who experienced it.
FUNCTION: realisation/redefinition of perceptions (for composer and responder), a way of representing the past, an influence upon meaning, a key step toward a more complete understanding of the past
Structure
“It always begins in blackness…” Gate 1 and 50
The cyclical structure of 50th Gate demonstrates that the relationship between H&M is a reciprocal one.
Extended metaphor for interdependence
In order to erase memory, Joel must first destroy its historical evidence in physical objects.
Conveys the idea that H&M are not only inseparable, but co-dependent, existing in intimate relationship with one another rather than as two separate discourses.
Irony
Alexander Pope: “eternal sunshine of the spotless mind”
When memory is marginalised to create the “spotless mind”, the individual is prevented from truly understanding the depth of past actions, and so is fated to repeat history’s mistakes.
Symbolism
Convinced of the ethically degenerate process of representation, Mary seeks to redress the erasure of memory by “sending everyone’s file back to them”.
Through personal experience Mary has come to recognise that it is only when history and memory are equally acknowledged that the individual can move forward, armed with a more complete understanding of their past and the lessons they have learnt from it.
Variation in style and form
Gate 22 – Historical documents (lists and statistics from Buchenwald, documents of birth and death, letters) ,Yossl’s monologue of memory (“All I remember is that it came o us, a little box with ash…”), dramatisation of events surrounding Leib’s death (i.e. officer in camp record’s office), Baker’s own memories of Jewish remembrance at Yom Kippur (Jewish prayers: “May God remember the soul of…”, and spiritual concepts: “esh tamdid, the eternal flame”)
Baker cobbles together history and memory in order to create a multi-layered understanding of his grandfather’s death. He uses historical records to provide important details and a sense of legitimacy, simultaneously supplementing these with personal monologue and memories to explore the personal significance of this event to Yossl, and finally employing his own experiences with remembrance within the context of Jewish culture to equip the theme of death with a greater religious depth
ARGUMENT SIX: When used in conjunction with memory, history can be a valuable source of illumination and validation to supplement its more personal counterpart.
FUNCTION: a reason why both discourses need to be equally valued, a redefinition of perception (for both composer and responder)
Symbol of history as a light in the darkness
“It always begins in blackness, until the first light illuminates a hidden fragment of memory”
First used in connection with a physical, historical place. Demonstrates the power of history to elicit memory and shed light upon it.
Furthered by physical imagery (“throwing”) to create sense of the injection of substance and filling the gaps of memory.
“I share my discoveries with my parents, throwing facts into their stories …”
History not only authenticates, but also clarifies and furnishes memory with detail.
Extended metaphor of Genia’s unofficial memories
“I was searching for her history in order to vindicate her stories”
Baker actively pursues the importance of using history to validate memory. In striving to equip his mother’s past with an authority she herself cannot provide, Baker highlights the power of history to recognise the individual and the experiences which have shaped their identity, and their provision of dignity and authority.
Allusion to Gate 2
“Wheee…” (when receiving report card)
Recalls Genia’s child-like joy and pride in officially owning her memories (of excelling in school) in the same way she earlier revels in her family’s validated ownership of the “Krochmal fields”
Irony
Iris’ memory is the sole custodian of truth, yet the absence of historical evidence to justify it prevents her from proving and convincing others of its veracity.
Highlights the importance of history to defend memory and so ensure that it is recognised.
ARGUMENT SEVEN: Likewise, memory offers a remedy to the emotionless discourse of history and can be used to awaken the individual to its personal dimension.
FUNCTION: a reason why both discourses need to be equally valued, a redefinition of perception (for both composer and responder)
Hyperbole and tone of frustration
“How can you be so sure? Were you there? You think because you’ve read a few pieces of paper that you suddenly understand everything?”
The arrogance of history marginalises the personal, and can only be overcome by something more substantial “a few pieces of paper”. To “understand everything”, or at least a greater portion of the past, memory must be valued.
Rhetorical question
“You read, you read…But do you know how it feels?”
Knowledge of the past (“you read, you read...”) is futile without equal understanding of “how it feels”.
Contrast and use of media
Atwood intersperses sparse and impersonal local and national newspaper articles throughout her novel which reference events in character’s lives (which construct a bold contrast with Iris’ intensely personal memories)
Through this sustained juxtaposition, Atwood highlights the minimal and detached detail which history provides, and the way in which memory furnishes such detail with emotional depth, colour, scandal, tragedy, and a deeply personal aspect completely overlooked by history.
Juxtaposition of imagery
“I only recognise suffering in numbers and lists and not in the laments and pleas of a human being, of a mother, screaming for acknowledgment”
Baker realises the cost of his bias: he discounts the personal, and so cruelly and unfeelingly discounts the humanity of his family and those history is made by and is made up of.
ARGUMENT EIGHT: The representation of H&M is not only inhibited, but often compromised by the composer’s preconceptions of both discourses, especially where one is held as superior to the other.
FUNCTION: flaws in representation, realisation from studying representation, a perception which may be overcome, a reason why both discourses ought to be equally valued
Instances where one discourse is held superior to the other
Symbolism
Joel places historical evidence (photographs, sketches, journal entries, associated objects) in garbage bags
On one level this suggests a disregard for history. [Yet the reason why Joel destroys it is because it is complicit in memory, and so equally powerful and destructive.]
Paradox
Iris holds the sanctity of memory in such high regard that she prevents history from preserving it, engineering the false record of events throughout the novel (fake authorship of T.B.A, birth details, false reports to newspapers etc.)
The composer values one discourse above the other as the vehicle for truth. Iris does not trust history, but relies on memory as a more loyal phenomena.
Unanswered questions and uncertain language
“You sure this is the right place? …Where’s our house?....Where am I?”… It was there, or maybe here”
Baker presents memory in a highly dubious and unreliable light, initially emphasising it’s shortcomings and limitations rather than it’s power to enrich and foster empathy as he does later on.
Realisation that this compromises the depth of representation
Rhetorical question
“Does history remember more than memory?
Baker begins to question his perceptions of history as the superior discourse.
Personification of memory, contrast
“I only recognise suffering in numbers and lists and not in the laments and pleas of a human being, of a mother, screaming for acknowledgment”
The cost of blindly marginalising the personal dimension of history transforms the composer into a cruel and insensitive academic monster.
ARGUMENT NINE: In representation, the meaning of the past is shaped by the composer’s deliberate choices in form, structure, selection, and omission.
FUNCTION: evidence of the composer’s underlying purpose, ways of shaping meaning/methods of representation
Dramatic and fictionalised style
Novelistic style featuring present tense, first person, surreal imagery, strongly descriptive language →i.e. Gate 42, simile: “wrinkles on his forehead fold and unfold like an accordion”
Such choices position responders to perceive the past with a greater degree of sympathy and awareness of its intensely emotional dimension.
Use of historical documents and conventions.
Statistics, letters, records, a glossary, and an explanation of sources.
In equipping his work with a strong historiographical dimension, Baker infuses The 50th Gate with a sense of academic authority and validity so that readers are unable to regard it as a purely emotional treatise, and so dismiss its intellectual merit.
Hand-held camera work
Frequent close-ups and unstable movement create an intimate and familiar tone.
Gondry invites the responder to experience the past as an essentially human experience. Creating a sense of intimacy, this technique is especially effective in heightening paranoia and bewilderment in scenes where Joel struggles against memory erasure.
Mis-en-scene, colour, contrast.
Whilst the whole film is shot in bleak tones, memories are conveyed with distinctly brighter hues. Joel’s memories of his mother (warm yellows and reds, bright blues, a sunny kitchen), in the furnishings of Clementine’s intriguing and gaudy apartment (golden glow under bed-sheets). First scene in Joel’s apartment.
Positioned to perceive memory as an enriching, stimulating, and positive phenomenon. The stark initial scene of a life without memory creates a severe contrast which furthers this idea.
Reasons for representation:
- Blind Assassin → symbol of weary soldier (“he himself favoured ‘lest we forget’, which put the onus where it should be: on our own forgetfulness. He said a damn sight too many people had been a damn sight too forgetful.”), memoirs of Iris (honour and tell the truth about her sister Laura)
- “But I leave you in my hands. What choice do I have? By the time you read this last page, that – if anywhere – is the only place I will be” – memory as a legacy”
-
- 50th Gate →insight into horror and inhumanity
- 50th Gate →Genia’s vanity, validation, affirmation, “He remembers, therefore I am” (appropriation of Descartes quote)
Additional quotes:
- “So when I exhausted memory I turned to history”
- Claws onto cloth and reaches toward clementine as Clementine spins into darkness – inaccessibility of memory
- Motif of journal → “it appears this is my first entry in two years”
- By end of T.B.A, readers realise how vulnerable they are at the hands of the author, understanding that they have believed a whole set of lies. This highlights the authority of authorship over representation.
History → the documented past
Memory → the recollection of personal or collective experience
The act of representation confronts both composer and responder with the ultimately problematic nature of these two divergent yet intrinsically linked ways of understanding the past.
The Fiftieth Gate – Mark Baker (1997, not a novel)
The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood (2001)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Michael Gondry (director, 2004)
Following is an analysis of techniques from all three texts:
ARGUMENT ONE: The incomplete nature of H&M demands the exploration of alternative methods of representing the past.
FUNCTION: a challenge faced by composers, a characteristic which encourages subjectivity, a challenge to readers regarding the acceptability of using alternate means of representation.
Incomplete nature of H&M:
TECHNIQUE:
QUOTE:
IDEA:
Wreckage imagery
“the rages, the relics, the shards washed ashore after a shipwreck”
Fragmented and physically incomplete nature of historical evidence
Simile
“collected enough fragments of the past to make a reconstruction of it, which must have borne as much relation to the real thing as a mosaic portrait would to the original”
This incomplete nature of H&M prevents the individual from attaining only a crude understanding g of the past.
Structure
Baker’s text is not linear or chronologically, but travels in an unstructured manner between multiple individuals, and places, periods.
Here, Baker uses structure to self-reflexively mimic the segmented and fractional form in which human memory exists.
Juxtaposition
Genia’s confidence in memory: “If I went to Bolszowce now I would find my house”
Later uncertainty and flawed recollection: “Where’s my house?”
Inadequacy of memory in delivering historical fact
Rhetorical question
“You read, you read…but do you know how it feels?”
Conveys the absent emotional dimension of history as a fundamental shortcoming in it’s representation of the past.
Hyperbole & tone of frustration
“You think because you’ve read a few pieces of paper that you suddenly understand everything?”
History alone is insufficient in understanding the past, its arrogance and authority discounts the personal understanding which memory provides.
Need to explore other methods of representing the past:
TECHNIQUE:
QUOTE:
IDEA:
Symbolism
Laura’s tinting of photographs.
An attempt to remedy history’s detachment and neglect of emotion.
Dramatisation of history
“ her white skirts rustle. He hears a dry wind blowing through weedy autumn fields. He hears the whisper of snow”
As a child, Iris dramatises the life of her absent grandfather to supplement the meagre details of history she can access.
Dramatic dialogue, surreal imagery, present tense
Gate 42 – Baker departs from his academic examination of the past and seeks to represent it through novelistic re-construction/monologue.
“A man is folded on the floor like a pair or ironed trousers”
“letters dancing, etched on broken tablets soaring up to angel arms tapping on the gate to God’s palace”
Compelled by the realisation that even H&M combined are insufficient, the composer endeavours to better understand the atmospheric essence of the past through poetic licence and an informed, albeit questionable form of representation
Conclusion:
H&M are incomplete in their accessibility, physical presence, and emotional depth. As a result of this, neither can provide a complete understanding of the past. This encourages composers to employ alternate measures through which to better represent and so understand the past.
ARGUMENT TWO: The act of representation challenges both composer and audience to consider the ethical nature of this endeavour, and question its moral implications.
FUNCTION: challenge to composer and responder ton re-evaluate perception of representation (can make this personal)
TECHNIQUE:
QUOTE:
IDEA:
Extended metaphor of theft
“grave robbers…who’d jimmy the locks…break and enter…and feel more than justified”
Investigative composers and their acts of representation are condemned as an immoral violation of ownership
Metaphorical artefacts
“scrap metal…broken pottery...shards of cuneiform…scraps of papyrus”
Through its unflagging pursuit of evidence, the act of representation objectifies the individual to a mere source of information, reducing them to the sum of the evidence they can provide”
Simile
“like an empty sack flapping in the wind…with a…label so that everyone will know what sort of secrets used to be inside”
The process of representation depletes and exposes the individual, leaving them bereft of dignity.
P.O.V/authorial admission
“I look back over what I’ve written and I know it’s wrong, not because of what I’ve set down, but because of what I’ve omitted”
Composers struggle with the ethics of deliberate choices in representation
Appropriation of term used in historical document to equip it with a new symbolic significance
“Signed: the People’s Investigator”
Baker recognises that his role as historian has transformed him into an academic monster, who relentlessly, ruthlessly, and dismissively investigates and interrogates to yield detail from his subjects.
“I mourned the things I had stolen from my father- first, two years of his life, and now his memory”
Baker questions his role as historian and the use of memories that are not his.
Harsh filters, bleak mis-en-scene, metonymic weather conditions
Colourlessness of Joel’s costume and apartment early on, frozen lake, beach scene
Convey the desolate and dismal nature of the re-represented past.
Emotional close-ups
Bookshop scene
Emphasise personal distress engendered by the erasure/re-representation of the past
Irony of film’s title
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”
This extract from Alexander Pope is the founding principle of Laguna Inc., that the erasure of memory enables the eradication of the emotional pain attached to it. By the film’s end however, the audience is positioned to question the moral implications of re-representation. Through the tragic experiences of all characters (especially the adulterous example of Howard and Mary), it is established that the “spotless mind” only causes pain and the repetition of history.
Symbolism
Ubiquitous spotlight
Connotes the unnatural, relentless, antagonistic, and exposing threat of representation to the individual.
Conclusion:
In this way, the act of representation evokes a plethora of ethical dilemmas which compel both composer and responder to question the morality of such attempts to represent the past in light of its impact upon the individual.
ARGUMENT THREE: Representations of H&M distort the meaning of the past through their subjectivity of emotion and the authority of the composer’s purpose.
FUNCTION: forces us to recognise the ultimately unreliable nature of all representation, and to question the intent of the composer (especially manifest in choices of form, omission, structure, tone etc).
Tone of remorse juxtaposed against accumulation of emotive images (“a child left lying helplessly”) and other eye-witness accounts
Hermann Muller’s testimony
Clear contrast between Muller’s testimony and Baker’s use of other evidence positions readers to see guilt as self-preservation rather than genuine regret. This illuminates a duality in purpose, where Muller’s desire to establish his innocence is thwarted by Baker’s desire to generate sympathy for his victims
Contrast
Leo Krochmal’s brief autobiographical account, with prior information regarding his past.
Leo’s omission of his daughter and distortion of residential history are shown as an attempt to “Germanise his life” in order to aid his post-war existence.
Surreal imagery
Beach house scene – sand and water flood the building
Establish the emotional dimension of memory as a distorting quality.
Motif
Facelessness
Expository dialogue
“All memory has an emotional core”
(Insert this quote early on mid-sentence)
Symbolism
Joel is handed a physical item to exact an “emotional response”
History and memory are intrinsically linked with human emotions
Newspaper article of local death
“yet another example of the laxity of out present social services”
Media uses history to facilitate socio-political comment.
P.O.V, collective language
“What do we hope from it? Applause, envy, respect? Or simple attention, of any kind we can get? At the very least we want a witness. We can’t stand the idea of our own voices falling silently, like a radio running down”
Iris highlights the vanity of representation as a means of self-preservation and vicarious immortality.
Dramatic irony
“You might decide it was cowardice that inspired me, or a failure of nerve, or simple prudence”
Iris admits that history (the authorship of The Blind Assassin) is wholly false because of her deliberate choices in representation.
Conclusion: The composer’s purpose and the innate emotional essence of memory make a precise and objective representation of the past impossible, given the transformative and intrinsic nature of these two characteristics.
ARGUMENT FOUR: Challenged by the frequent contradictions between H&M, the composer and responder are confronted by conflicting perspectives, details, and accounts, and so forced to recognise the impossibility of ascertaining any degree of absolute truth.
FUNCTION: challenge to composer, redefinition of perspective – the past is not straightforward and can not be conclusively established
Juxtaposition of history (tapes) and memory (the confusion of J&C, close-ups, multiple audio tracks – dialogue, monologue, voice-over)
Mary: “we’ve met, but you don’t remember me”
Joel’s prior harsh feelings toward Clementine are exposed in a damning recording as the pair listen on.
Here, history (as documented by Lacuna Inc. tape) contradicts the absence of memory. Characters are confronted with two alternate versions of the past and the sheer incongruence between the two.
Symbolism
“You won’t find Mattis in a book”
Baker is confronted by his mother’s “credibility as a survivor” and the failure of history to acknowledge her past.
Metaphor
“Unlike my father, she could never show her children the scars in her arms; hers were invisible”
Genia’s experiences exist only in memory, they are not physically documented, yet they are by no means false.
Contrast
“He says it was cold. Winter. But it was warm. Autumn”
Physical, empirical facts are juxtaposed against personal recollection to highlight Baker’s frustration at the conflict between his “fecks” and the memories of his parents.
P.O.V, sentence structure
“Legally she was his daughter; I had no way of proving otherwise”
Iris directly highlights the discrepancy between evidential history and personal memory, inviting the reader to vicariously share in her helpless struggle to reconcile the two.
ARGUMENT FIVE: Whilst both beset by their own limitations and imperfections, H&M are essentially interdependent discourses best valued equally, and so represented in conjunction with one another. Not only does this enable a more balanced representation, but also a deeper appreciation and more mature grasp of the past and those individuals who experienced it.
FUNCTION: realisation/redefinition of perceptions (for composer and responder), a way of representing the past, an influence upon meaning, a key step toward a more complete understanding of the past
Structure
“It always begins in blackness…” Gate 1 and 50
The cyclical structure of 50th Gate demonstrates that the relationship between H&M is a reciprocal one.
Extended metaphor for interdependence
In order to erase memory, Joel must first destroy its historical evidence in physical objects.
Conveys the idea that H&M are not only inseparable, but co-dependent, existing in intimate relationship with one another rather than as two separate discourses.
Irony
Alexander Pope: “eternal sunshine of the spotless mind”
When memory is marginalised to create the “spotless mind”, the individual is prevented from truly understanding the depth of past actions, and so is fated to repeat history’s mistakes.
Symbolism
Convinced of the ethically degenerate process of representation, Mary seeks to redress the erasure of memory by “sending everyone’s file back to them”.
Through personal experience Mary has come to recognise that it is only when history and memory are equally acknowledged that the individual can move forward, armed with a more complete understanding of their past and the lessons they have learnt from it.
Variation in style and form
Gate 22 – Historical documents (lists and statistics from Buchenwald, documents of birth and death, letters) ,Yossl’s monologue of memory (“All I remember is that it came o us, a little box with ash…”), dramatisation of events surrounding Leib’s death (i.e. officer in camp record’s office), Baker’s own memories of Jewish remembrance at Yom Kippur (Jewish prayers: “May God remember the soul of…”, and spiritual concepts: “esh tamdid, the eternal flame”)
Baker cobbles together history and memory in order to create a multi-layered understanding of his grandfather’s death. He uses historical records to provide important details and a sense of legitimacy, simultaneously supplementing these with personal monologue and memories to explore the personal significance of this event to Yossl, and finally employing his own experiences with remembrance within the context of Jewish culture to equip the theme of death with a greater religious depth
ARGUMENT SIX: When used in conjunction with memory, history can be a valuable source of illumination and validation to supplement its more personal counterpart.
FUNCTION: a reason why both discourses need to be equally valued, a redefinition of perception (for both composer and responder)
Symbol of history as a light in the darkness
“It always begins in blackness, until the first light illuminates a hidden fragment of memory”
First used in connection with a physical, historical place. Demonstrates the power of history to elicit memory and shed light upon it.
Furthered by physical imagery (“throwing”) to create sense of the injection of substance and filling the gaps of memory.
“I share my discoveries with my parents, throwing facts into their stories …”
History not only authenticates, but also clarifies and furnishes memory with detail.
Extended metaphor of Genia’s unofficial memories
“I was searching for her history in order to vindicate her stories”
Baker actively pursues the importance of using history to validate memory. In striving to equip his mother’s past with an authority she herself cannot provide, Baker highlights the power of history to recognise the individual and the experiences which have shaped their identity, and their provision of dignity and authority.
Allusion to Gate 2
“Wheee…” (when receiving report card)
Recalls Genia’s child-like joy and pride in officially owning her memories (of excelling in school) in the same way she earlier revels in her family’s validated ownership of the “Krochmal fields”
Irony
Iris’ memory is the sole custodian of truth, yet the absence of historical evidence to justify it prevents her from proving and convincing others of its veracity.
Highlights the importance of history to defend memory and so ensure that it is recognised.
ARGUMENT SEVEN: Likewise, memory offers a remedy to the emotionless discourse of history and can be used to awaken the individual to its personal dimension.
FUNCTION: a reason why both discourses need to be equally valued, a redefinition of perception (for both composer and responder)
Hyperbole and tone of frustration
“How can you be so sure? Were you there? You think because you’ve read a few pieces of paper that you suddenly understand everything?”
The arrogance of history marginalises the personal, and can only be overcome by something more substantial “a few pieces of paper”. To “understand everything”, or at least a greater portion of the past, memory must be valued.
Rhetorical question
“You read, you read…But do you know how it feels?”
Knowledge of the past (“you read, you read...”) is futile without equal understanding of “how it feels”.
Contrast and use of media
Atwood intersperses sparse and impersonal local and national newspaper articles throughout her novel which reference events in character’s lives (which construct a bold contrast with Iris’ intensely personal memories)
Through this sustained juxtaposition, Atwood highlights the minimal and detached detail which history provides, and the way in which memory furnishes such detail with emotional depth, colour, scandal, tragedy, and a deeply personal aspect completely overlooked by history.
Juxtaposition of imagery
“I only recognise suffering in numbers and lists and not in the laments and pleas of a human being, of a mother, screaming for acknowledgment”
Baker realises the cost of his bias: he discounts the personal, and so cruelly and unfeelingly discounts the humanity of his family and those history is made by and is made up of.
ARGUMENT EIGHT: The representation of H&M is not only inhibited, but often compromised by the composer’s preconceptions of both discourses, especially where one is held as superior to the other.
FUNCTION: flaws in representation, realisation from studying representation, a perception which may be overcome, a reason why both discourses ought to be equally valued
Instances where one discourse is held superior to the other
Symbolism
Joel places historical evidence (photographs, sketches, journal entries, associated objects) in garbage bags
On one level this suggests a disregard for history. [Yet the reason why Joel destroys it is because it is complicit in memory, and so equally powerful and destructive.]
Paradox
Iris holds the sanctity of memory in such high regard that she prevents history from preserving it, engineering the false record of events throughout the novel (fake authorship of T.B.A, birth details, false reports to newspapers etc.)
The composer values one discourse above the other as the vehicle for truth. Iris does not trust history, but relies on memory as a more loyal phenomena.
Unanswered questions and uncertain language
“You sure this is the right place? …Where’s our house?....Where am I?”… It was there, or maybe here”
Baker presents memory in a highly dubious and unreliable light, initially emphasising it’s shortcomings and limitations rather than it’s power to enrich and foster empathy as he does later on.
Realisation that this compromises the depth of representation
Rhetorical question
“Does history remember more than memory?
Baker begins to question his perceptions of history as the superior discourse.
Personification of memory, contrast
“I only recognise suffering in numbers and lists and not in the laments and pleas of a human being, of a mother, screaming for acknowledgment”
The cost of blindly marginalising the personal dimension of history transforms the composer into a cruel and insensitive academic monster.
ARGUMENT NINE: In representation, the meaning of the past is shaped by the composer’s deliberate choices in form, structure, selection, and omission.
FUNCTION: evidence of the composer’s underlying purpose, ways of shaping meaning/methods of representation
Dramatic and fictionalised style
Novelistic style featuring present tense, first person, surreal imagery, strongly descriptive language →i.e. Gate 42, simile: “wrinkles on his forehead fold and unfold like an accordion”
Such choices position responders to perceive the past with a greater degree of sympathy and awareness of its intensely emotional dimension.
Use of historical documents and conventions.
Statistics, letters, records, a glossary, and an explanation of sources.
In equipping his work with a strong historiographical dimension, Baker infuses The 50th Gate with a sense of academic authority and validity so that readers are unable to regard it as a purely emotional treatise, and so dismiss its intellectual merit.
Hand-held camera work
Frequent close-ups and unstable movement create an intimate and familiar tone.
Gondry invites the responder to experience the past as an essentially human experience. Creating a sense of intimacy, this technique is especially effective in heightening paranoia and bewilderment in scenes where Joel struggles against memory erasure.
Mis-en-scene, colour, contrast.
Whilst the whole film is shot in bleak tones, memories are conveyed with distinctly brighter hues. Joel’s memories of his mother (warm yellows and reds, bright blues, a sunny kitchen), in the furnishings of Clementine’s intriguing and gaudy apartment (golden glow under bed-sheets). First scene in Joel’s apartment.
Positioned to perceive memory as an enriching, stimulating, and positive phenomenon. The stark initial scene of a life without memory creates a severe contrast which furthers this idea.
Reasons for representation:
- Representation is a form of remembrance to honour individuals from the past.
- Blind Assassin → symbol of weary soldier (“he himself favoured ‘lest we forget’, which put the onus where it should be: on our own forgetfulness. He said a damn sight too many people had been a damn sight too forgetful.”), memoirs of Iris (honour and tell the truth about her sister Laura)
- “But I leave you in my hands. What choice do I have? By the time you read this last page, that – if anywhere – is the only place I will be” – memory as a legacy”
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- Representation is an attempt to prevent the pain of past mistakes
- 50th Gate →insight into horror and inhumanity
- Representation is a means of self-preservation , vanity, dignity, and identity
- 50th Gate →Genia’s vanity, validation, affirmation, “He remembers, therefore I am” (appropriation of Descartes quote)
Additional quotes:
- “So when I exhausted memory I turned to history”
- Claws onto cloth and reaches toward clementine as Clementine spins into darkness – inaccessibility of memory
- Motif of journal → “it appears this is my first entry in two years”
- By end of T.B.A, readers realise how vulnerable they are at the hands of the author, understanding that they have believed a whole set of lies. This highlights the authority of authorship over representation.