“From”
Friday “comes a slow stream, without breath, without interruption” which “runs
northward and southward to the ends of the earth” (157). This story, which does
not require breath, is the story of silence. Coetzee asserts through Friday
that silence is ubiquitous; embedded in every story, supporting every truth,
are certain absences.
To
me, the notion Coetzee constructs in Foe
that truth requires silence reads very similarly to Vonnegut’s argument in Cat’s Cradle that beliefs entail lies. Susan
agonizes about telling her story, because she believes the truth of her
identity and her history is determined by the story that people (herself
included) believe about her. Truth in Foe
is the story that one has conviction in. However, every tellable story of Susan’s
life must be built on silence: no one but Friday, who cannot tell stories, has access
to Friday’s identity, so his history must be either contrived by the teller, or
his silence must be included. In the former case, Friday is silenced, in the
latter case, Friday is silent. Susan’s story is her truth, and it requires
silence.
In Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut questions to veracity of every belief
system. Whatever story his characters tell about the world, be it a scientific
explanation or a spiritual paradigm, Vonnegut derides them when they believe
they are objectively right. When beliefs become truths for individuals in his
text, he illuminates how untruths lie beneath their conviction.
Silence in Foe is omitted truth, lies in Cat’s Cradle are ignored and replaced
truths; essentially, these are the same concepts, and they are both required in
their respective tests for characters to understand their lives. Each text,
however, presents silence (I use silence for both concepts here) in a different
light. Where Foe cautions that when
we tell stories about the world, we necessarily appropriate and silence other
stories, Cat’s Cradle generally
claims that truth is inherently meaningless, and advocates understandings rife
with silence as long as they improve our lives.
Reading the novels
together reinforces my understanding that conviction entails silence, while both
making me cognizant of the impacts of my silencing, and impressing me with the
capacity of conviction to imbue life with meaning.
While I agree with your point about Cat's Cradle, I would argue that in Foe, Friday's silence does not help the characters understand their lives. Susan actually appears to have less and less understanding of her own story as the book progresses, and she constantly struggles with Friday's lack of speech. Even when he does express himself through the slate, Susan just becomes enraged. In spite of this, I think that Friday's silence does convey fundamental truths to the reader. At the end of the book, Friday exposes himself in the world of silence upon an unknown narrator, who arguably represents the reader himself. Foe is not a book in which dynamic characters learn about the world around them. All of the major players, including Friday, remain static, while the reader progresses ever deeper into their world.
ReplyDeleteDan you wrote, “Susan’s story is her truth, and it requires silence. I agree with you that her truth comes from the story. Susan does not have anything without her story and she is aware that she can make her life with this story. I really like how you talked about silence though. At first I did not think Susan needed silence, but then I thought of Friday and realized that his silence allows Susan to write her story. Since Cruso died, the only one that can challenge Susan’s story is Friday and since he is silent he cannot say what happened. Therefore the only one capable of telling the story is Susan. Without the silence of Friday, Susan would not be able to tell HER story. We do not know the truth here, but we believe that it lies in the silence of Friday. Therefore the only truth that the reader knows is that silence is not lies. We do not know if Friday is truthful, but we know he hasn't lied. It is hard for the reader to believe Susan and some of the other characters. Since the silence does not have the capability of lying, like the other characters, it is the “most truthful” source in the novel.
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