Winton-Schneider, Linda

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University of Kentucky

Ariel Volume 1 Number 1 Article 5 1983 A Conversation in Loneliness: Manuel Pulg's Eternal Curse on the Reader of These Pages Linda Winton-Schneider University of Kentucky Follow this and additional works at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ariel  Part of the Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits you. Recommended Citation Winton-Schneider, Linda (1983) "A Conversation in Loneliness: Manuel Pulg's Eternal Curse on the Reader of These Pages," Ariel: Vol. 1 : No. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ariel/vol1/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Hispanic Studies at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Ariel by an authorized editor of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact UKnowledge@lsv.uky.edu. A Conversation in Loneliness: Manuel Pulg's Eternal Curse on the Reader of These Pages LINDA WINTON-SCIINEIDER University of Kentucky For over a decade. readers have been fascinated by the experimental style of the Argentine. Manuel Puig. The Incorporation of expressions from popular culture and the use of cinematographic techniques in his novels have made his narrative style challenging. In the past, Puig has utilized cinernatograRhic techniques and plots as a means lo explore the realm of human fantasy. This style has not been without its critics, who feel that it detracts from the novel: "Trash appears in lhe novel as the effect of a complex system of artifices." 1 The author, however. sees the cinema as a powerful means of communication. As the "camera" moves from scene to scene, the reader can visualize the action unfolding and thereby get a broader view of the psychological developments of the character. Puig's innovative narrative techniques deepen the perspective through which plot theme and action are viewed, presenting the reader with a greater understanding of the trauma. In one of his more recent books, Elemal Curse 011 the Reader of These Pages, (the first of Puig's novels written entirely in English), we find a departure from the authors previous style. This novel is his attempt lo broaden his horizons to include lhe realm of the purely psychoanalytic. In all but the last few pages, Puig concen-trates on one type of narration. dialogue, his way of allowing the characters to reveal their thoughts. Through the constant barrage of questions and answers, the deepest. darl\est areas of the characters' minds are probed. Puig uses this type of narration to support his main premise: that man is an alienated and morally abject being who lives his entire lire in inescapable solitude despite his attempts to ~0111-municate with his fellow man. The story. which takes place in New York City. is a compilation of conversations between seventy-four-year-old Jose Juan Ramfrez, an Argentine expatriate now in a rest hcime, and thirty-six-year-old Larry John, a former history teacher, living in poverty. 11e is hired to push Ramfrez around the city in his wheelchair. Ramirez is a political dissident who spent a good portion of his life in an Argentine prision for his Involvement with union~. lie suffers from amnesia, enabling him to remember only the literal meaning of words, which he manages by reading the Encylopeclia Britan-nica. lie asks Larry to explain the meaning behind these words, and the emotions which they portray: -That woman crossing the street What's wrong with her teeth? -Nothing is the matter with her teeth . She's smiling at the baby, that's all. -Smiling? -It's exhausting for me to explain every word to you. I won't. -Whal d0'1'0U mean you won't . , . The pain is unbearable! Explain "smiling." Explain ... -When something pleases you. you smile. Plea .. ·. pleases?2 . Through Ramfrez's constant cross examination. lhe author is able to probe Larry's psyche. thereby revealing his fears ancl dreams. This type of questioning parallels a session on the psychiatrist's couch where the patient is forced to reveal more and more about himself. Larry tells Ramfrez about his childhood and his loveless rela· tionship with his sometimes violent father who rarely spent lime with him. Larry was always the sole object of his mothe(s affection until his father came home from work. when he would have to share his mothe(s love with his father. This pro· clucecl a feeling of alienation in Larry who only wanted to be close to his father rather than resent him for taking away his mothe(s attentions. Since Larry would always dream of having a normal relationship with a father. he and Rarnfrez would role play. bringing out paternal and filial feelings in them both. Although they begin with the best of intentions, the game takes on shades of Lany's experience with his father: -Well. maybe if you talked to me as a son I would know what to ask as a father. -But fathers are supposed to have answers; sons are the ones with questions. -fathers have answers . . . Well. they always know everything and give orders. -I couldn't talk to you like a father, then. . -I guess nol. (p. 29) Al this point. Ram(rez and Lany change places as father and son. Puig. at times. leaves the reacler somewhat confused as to who is speaking. The lack of punctua· lion and the presentation of fragmented thoughts sometimes force the reader to rereacl passages to ascertain which character is speaking. In the following segment. Larry tries to imagine the perfect father/son relation· ship: that of God and Christ. lie visualizes God as a powerful old man who could destroy mankind and comes to the conclusion, "The way to please God Is to stay In line and do what he says. not to give him any trouble. not to disrupt things. but to stay in line.", (p. 128). Interestingly enough. Lany sees the relationship between God and Christ much like the one between himself and his father. He sees God as a cocky . self-assured man. who feels superior to his son and who says lo him as they are looking over the world. "One day you'll have to clean this up. All by yourself.", (p. 128). The dialogue during role play also allows Ramfrez to discover the strong Oedipal complex that Larry has carried with him into adulthood, frustrating Larry's at· tempts to have a meaningful relationship with a woman. Larry's sexual relation· ships are far from fulfilling. tlis fear of being honest with women led one woman for whom he really cared to leave him. since he could not bring himself to ask her to slay. lie also talks of his experiences in the brothels he frequented when he was sla· tionecl in Vietnam. When he used to make love lo a certain proslilute, he would posi· lion her on top while lool\ing at her back reflected in a mirror. lie saw this as an ob-j ective way of lovemaking since he never had to look at the woman's face. lie car-ri ed this objectivity into his marriage. When he and his wife did have sex. she was . always drunk, out of control. In that way Larry again felt in charge. objective. Another problem in his marriage was Larry's adherence to Marxism. Larry, being a 2 I Marxist, gives Puig an opportunity to express his own views on Marx's theory of alienation. The theory holds that one can become so en~rossed in his work that he gradually becomes part of it, "There were some personal difficulties that I managed to postpone when I plunged into Marxism ... it enabled me to remain really passive by accepting an ostensibly active and aggressive set of ideas.", (p. 188). This estrangement renders man unable to deal with others on a socially acceptable basis.J Because of Larry's involvement in his work, his wife soon felt rejected and turned to alcohol and affairs with other men. Ironically, after hearing his wife and another man making love, Larry is sexually excited for the first time in his marriage. He tells Ramfrez, "and my fascination with hearing her being turned on by another man, it's my father fucking my mother, it's my fascination with hearing my mother moan.", (p. 287). In this way Larry has another objective experience with love where again he is quite content just to be a voyeur. Another artifice used by Puig to capture the repressed fears and desires of his characters is the use of dream interpretation. Larry has a series of dreams about fish which he relates to Ramfrez. In the first, he sees a hunchback fish on a green carpet with a woman standing nearby. He regards the fish as a symbol of a woman with whom he once made love on a green carpet. Her round and soft shoulders account for the image of the hunchback fish. The second dream concerns a Nova Scotia macheral he was going to devour while a woman stood by him. Larry feels that the mackeral represents a Nova Scotian woman with whom he had an affair. In this dream, eating is equated to the sexual act. Freud's theory of repression as manifested through dreams is applicable here since he believed that dreams which are presented in an obscure form are somehow connected with repressed thoughts, thereby becoming a "disguised fulfillment of repressed wishes." 4 Since Larry wishes to have a normal sexual relationship, these dreams also show his desire and inabili-ty to relate to a woman in an acceptable manner. As Ramfrez probes into Larry's psyche, he does not disclose much about himself. Little by little, Larry finds out about Ramirez's life. When Ramfrez's condition worsens and he is transferred to a hospital, Larry befriends a nurse who tells him more about the old man. She reveals that Ramfrez was imprisoned for organizing strikes, released, and then sent to the United States under the auspices of a human rights group. She also tells him that in retaliation for offenses against them, the Argentine government placed a bomb in Ramfrez's house killing his wife, son and daughter-in-law, (a fact Ramfrez has blocked out of his mind). Later a package arrives at the hospital which reveals more about Ramfrez. In it are three French novels: Les 1/asons dangereuses, Adoph and La prlncesse de Cleves. These three volumes were Ramfrez's only possessions during his prison stay. The plots concern themselves with amorous situations similar to Larry's in that they deal with unfulfilled marriages and affairs. Upon examining the books, Larry notes a numerical code which corresponds to certain letters in the novels. The first transla-tion of the code brings forth the words: "malediction ... eternelle ... a .. . qui ... lise ... ces pages" (p. I 02). Larry decides to continue decoding and uncovers Ramirez's prison memoirs. He is fascinated by these books because of his interest in history and feels that they might be a stepping stone to a Job In soclopolitical research. He contacts a universi-ty that Is Interested not only In the manuscripts but also in giving Larry a Job work 22 ing with them. By his work he discovers that Ramfrez had a son who w.as treated in much the same manner as Larry was treated by his father. Ramfrez's son hated him for leaving his mother alone all of those years while waiting for his release from prison. Ramfrez in tum depised his son because he wanted to work in a theatre in-stead of in politics like his father. Finally Ramfrez's son realizes that his father's cause was a just one and possibly worth all the suffering that both parties went through . Ramfrez unfortunately never had a chance at a reconciliation owing to his son's abrupt death. Ramfrez is also a very insecure man and constantly fears that people are going to harm him. This insecurity and poor self-image are reflected in his dreams where he is a witness to horrible deeds and unable to help the victims. For example, he tells Larry that he sees a German soldier raping a woman who is crying for help. Rami'rez is present but because of this insecurity is unable to move or help the woman in any way. Puig also uses a type of dream:hallucination to probe deeply into Ramfrez's mind. Throughout the text Ramf rez carries on an intelligent and organized conversation with Larry. However, in these dream-like segments, Ramfrez's speech is choppy and incoherent, designed to show a weakening of his mind and spirit. Seven such se-quences are integrated into the text, most of which occur at night in the form of im-aginary conversations with Larry. Ramfrez believes that Larry sneaks into his room late at night to converse with him, which is impossible since the hospital is locked and guarded. These imaginary visits are at first mild in nature with Larry wanting only to confide in Ramfrez about mundane affairs. However, th!'.} soon become symbolic and dream-like. For example, Larry, in real life, tells Ramirez that in Viet-nam he shot an old man, thinking he was the enemy. In Ramfrez's nocturnal im-aginings Larry tells him that he has just shot an old man who he thought was go-ing to kill him. In another of these "nocturnal visits", Ramfrez envisions Larry in the Arctic look-ing for food and shelter. He sees a grotto where Larry may find warmth, and although Larry needs his help, Ramfrez cannot pull him into the grotto because he is too weak. In reality, Larry is having anxiety attacks similar to those of Ram(rez, who has been told by his doctor to alleviate them by imagining himself in pleasant surroundings such as mountains or grottos. Ram(rez, therefore, gives Larry the same advice. During this segment Ramfrez is, in actuality, in an oxygen tent too weak to move. In the last of these "meetings" which ends with his death, Ram(rez's garbled, Inarticulate phrases contain parts of previous conversations between him and Larry. , Ramfrez, in his last years, is a man tormented by guilt. He feels guilty for having been a poor father and husband, and for never being able to apologize to his family for his actions. This guilt slowly feeds on him, deteriorating his mind, turning a once strong, domineering leader Into a pitiful old man. Ramfrez's last wish is for Larry to get his son to forgive him. He dies knowing that it is too late. The book ends in epistolary form through which the reader gets a summary of the novel as well as other people's opinions on the characters' behavior. We read that Ramfrez left a written will, making Larry sole owner of his books; however, the will is lost during Ramfrez's transfer to a psychiatric hospital, giving an ironic twist to the end of the novel. In his last delirious moments, the old man mistakenly wills his 23 books to the hospital library. With Ramfrez dead and the books gone, Larry has come full circle. He started alone. met and developed a relationship with another man, and in the end lost it all. leaving him as alone and alienated as before. Never-theless there is a slight and unexpected change in Larry and how he looks at his future. He is left with a desire to work in sociopolitical research. especially that deal-ing with reactionary unions. Puig begins the novel throwing together two unlikely and lonely people who try to discover a personal and inner depth in one another. Each searches for feelings beyond his present experience. Instead of discovering the better side of themselves, they only learn more completely how alone they really are. A nearly desperate quality in the dialogue between the two men forces each to reach far enough into the other's past to discover common ground and experience. But the more the characters learn from each other, the more they see that it is their sameness, their alikeness, that makes understanding each other impossible. Eternal Curse on /he Reader of These Pages is a portrayal of alienation. It begins as a picture of two men's alienation from the world, follows their search for relief from it, and concludes that alienation is inescapable. Puig has taken the reader in a large circle. a circle that shows us that, in the author's opinion, escape from loneliness in this world is impossible. NOTES 1Alicia Borinshy, "Castration Artifices. Notes on the Writing of Manual Puig," OAR, 29, No. I ( 1975), pp. 98-104. 2Manual Puig, Eternal Curse 011 the Reader 011 These Pages, (New York: Random House, 1982), pp. 6-7. Subsequent references to this book will be made in the text. 31farl Marx, Early Writings, trans. R. Livingstone, (New York: Random House. 1975), p. 324. 4Sigmund Freud, On Dreams, trans. James Strachey, (New York: Norton. 1952), pp. 89-90. 24 

A Conversation in Loneliness: Manuel Pulg\u27s \u3ci\u3eEternal Curse on the Reader of These Pages\u3c/i\u3e

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A Conversation in Loneliness: Manuel Pulg\u27s \u3ci\u3eEternal Curse on the Reader of These Pages\u3c/i\u3e

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