As many of you may recall, the epigraph seemed to make very
little, if any sense to use when we first started reading Lorrie Moore’s Self-Help. Now, however, having finished
the book, quite a bit more light has been shed upon these cryptic, super-random
seeming quotes.
“‘The purpose of this book is to direct attention to the
various ways in which non-backboned animals reproduce… Some animals reverse
sex, some shoot stimulant darts at each other, and some lose an arm while
mating.
-Haig H. Najarian
Sex
Lives of Animals Without Backbones’”
This quote is quite intriguing just because very few people
tend to think about the sex lives of invertebrates in their free time. It seems
to draw back to a very common theme throughout Self-Help, however. Many of the stories were about relationships,
and the various ways to approach, maintain, or destroy them. The first story,
“How to Be an Other Woman”, tells us about how to be a mistress. This could be
seen as an alternate to the traditional monogamous marriage, even if it is
immoral. We also see a divorced family, in “A Kid’s Guide to Divorce”, a family
that is being torn apart by a terminal illness and “rational suicide” and a
family with a mother and father with some obvious strife, in “What is Seized”.
As there are variations in ways to reproduce in the above quote from the
epigraph, so there are various kinds of families and dynamics in the stories of
Self-Help.
“‘If you start to shake hands with someone who has lost an
arm, shake his other hand. If he has lost both arms, shake the tip of his
artificial hand (be quick and unembarrassed about it).
-The Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of
Etiquette’”
This quote, while equally confusing and seemingly unrelated
to anything the book could be about, has a subtext to it as well. If presented
with an awkward situation, simply do things that make logical sense for the given
scenario. This can draw, somewhat cynically, a parallel to “Go Like This”,
which presents what the narrator thinks of as a logical way to deal with a terminal
illness, her own “awkward situation.” While the rationality of this decision can
draw some moral debate, it’s really only about what the narrator thinks that
matters.
“‘Give some bones to the dogs and bury the rest around fruit
trees…
-Phyllis
Hobson
Butchering Livestock at Home’”
Now that I’ve
shared my thoughts about the first two quotes of the epigraph, I’d like to
leave one to you all. What do you think of this, possibly the hardest quote to
draw a parallel to? Any thoughts?
Hmmmm, the last quote is really interesting. Bones are something that are/were very important to some living thing. Perhaps it's saying that when you're in a relationship and it ends, you leave some "bones" (feeling, memories, etc) with that person and you're left with your own that you will have to eventually let go of. I'm trying to think of a connection to the fruit trees-- usually when I think of fruit trees I see them as happy and yummy fruit producing things. Perhaps the bones buried under the tree will somehow nourish the tree so that you can get good things out of it in the future? I guess it's sorta saying how good things will come no matter what after a relationship ends.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your assessments of the first two quotes, the way the first one entails the wide variety of relationships that are out there in the world, and the way the second quote is telling us to be straightforward and unabashed even in awkward or otherwise difficult situations. These both seem to embody the "themes" of Self Help (I loved how each character dealt with various awkward situations, in either comical or serious ways -- very relatable). As for the third quote, I somewhat agree with Lizzie, how the "bones" could represent leftover emotional baggage from a relationship, and some of the emotions aren't worth keeping so you have to leave them behind for the dogs to gnaw on, but you have to keep some of them, and plant them under the fruit trees so that they can grow into something better in the future. In other words, you have to let go of some of the negativity, you can't carry it all, but you need to keep some of it so you can learn from it and grow.
ReplyDeleteI think that while the first two quotes comment on the stories and themes themselves, the third is a little more meta. As you suggest, the first two offer metaphors for the ways the main characters keep screwing up relationships, and react in difficult situations. As for the third, I think that the bones are short stories. Some of them are given to dogs, and some are buried under fruit trees. The dogs may be the readers.
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