Making Things Present

After reading both novels, I found profound similarity between the two conclusions.  Both embody the idea that stories have the power to “make things present.”

Vonnegut lists things he “would” have done “If [he] were a younger man.”  Although the immediate effect and perception I have is one of regret, all of the actions he lists are ones that his characters or he himself have done.  For example, he writes, “I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe,” which Jonah, the narrator, did.  He says, “I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statutes of men; and I would make a statue of myself.”  Just a few pages earlier, Jonah came across Bokonon who did just that.  At the beginning of the paragraph Vonnegut writes, “I would write a history of human stupidity,” which he (Vonnegut and Jonah) did.  Because of this statement, the “I” becomes more ambiguous.  Did Vonnegut write Jonah to be himself?  Furthermore, Vonnegut made up Bokononism.  Vonnegut is technically the author of the Books of Bokonon, thus also equivocating himself with Bokonon.  Bokonon made a statue of himself from blue powder, and Jonah said he would have made one of himself.  Now all three of them are connected.  By making readers identify him with his characters, Vonnegut essentially puts himself in the book, which is impossible because in the book the world ended; yet here we all are, in the present.

O’Brien’s conclusion is more obvious in its connection to the present: it is written in the present tense.  He says, “I’m young and happy,” describing his current state.  Also, like Vonnegut, O’Brien draws himself closer to his character O’Brien when he says “Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story.”  This statement describes what O’Brien the author is currently trying to do, in part, with the novel, and his other writings in general.  Through his writing, O’Brien brings people to life in words, telling a story that makes himself and readers feel deeply, so much that those they read about come alive and feel present.  Through his ability to make himself believe certain “foma” through stories, O’Brien demonstrates the power stories have to redefine what it means to be present.  It doesn’t only apply to what is physically visible.  Being present can mean being in someone’s thoughts, or even evoking emotion from words on a page.

*All Vonnegut quotes are from page 287; all O’Brien quotes are from page 233.

*Thanks Professor Schwartz for helping synthesize my idea.