Hey there! This reading was a little shorter than usual but, I had to force myself to stop reading because it was so good. This chapter was the first chapter where we got to view the relationship between David and Giovanni. Again, I’d like to draw attention to the literary devices and style in this blog. During this reading especially, I realized that there is a lack of emotion portrayed within the actual words of the book itself. When reading this novel, it feels cold and distant, as if David is trying to close himself off from his feelings towards Giovanni. I’ve also realized that the way Baldwin wrote this story tells us more about David’s emotions than he does as the narrator. Like I have previously mentioned, the story often jumps from present to past and shifts perspectives, and the reason I think Baldwin does this is to portray the mania and emotional unease of David’s mental state regarding Giovanni’s death. For example, David’s narration feels like he’s talking to a therapist in the sense that he allows himself to branch off into tangents and random, meaningless stories that seemingly have no meaning. That means that we, as the reader of this book, have to sort of unwrap what David is going through ourselves, which creates an intense interest for me in this novel moving forward. I sort of like that the reader has to interpret David’s emotions through the writing rather than him just telling us what he is feeling inside.
For those who read my previous blog post where I mentioned how I wished to see more of the interactions between Giovanni and David, I would like to say that this chapter did not disappoint. The chapter starts with Giovanni getting fired from Guillaume’s bar. He is upset and even becomes destructive, but he calms down once David speaks to him and calms him down. They also get into another argument later in the chapter over the fact that David wanted to leave Paris with Giovanni. Giovanni immediately took this the wrong way and started to sort of twist David’s words into making it sound like he was going to desert Giovanni. The argument nearly broke out into violence involving bricks (long story there…), but the two dropped them and embraced to make up. The most surprising thing about their relationship is that it was surprisingly healthy. They both shared a mutual understanding of each other and their wants, and neither was using the other for any advantage. The argument that could be made before this chapter was that David was using Giovanni for his room, but we see in this chapter that David admits that he will never love anyone as much as he loved Giovanni. That all being said, I still have some critiques of their relationship and how it’s prevented. David says he will never love anyone as much as Giovanni, but from what we see as the reader, there isn't anything to write home about in terms of love. We only see their love blossom after an argument, making their relationship not even seem believable to the reader as we only see them argue and make up. It frustrates me, but I feel like this is what Baldwin intended for the reader to see. He wants the reader to believe in this love between the two while speculating the legitimacy of it at the same time. He wants the reader to feel just as confused as David does to help create a sense of sympathy for not only the characters but also for the bigger picture of homosexuality. Baldwin knew critics of homosexuality would read this book, and he was aiming to write a story that these critics would be forced to sympathize or even empathize with against their own will. The story doesn’t show the overly sexual sides of the queer scene but rather the dark, tragic sides that each queer person has once struggled with. I believe that whether you support or don’t support homosexuality, you would still sympathize with David and feel just as confused as he is, and that is the mark of a powerful story and author.
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Welcome again! In this reading, I began the second part of Giovanni’s Room. As you may have read in the previous post, I struggled with the perspective changes at the beginning of the book, but now I realize the true purpose behind these shifts. I believe that this novel is going to utilize a framed story. If you read closely between parts one and two, you would realize that the tense that David is talking in has changed. In part one, he spoke of Giovanni and his feelings toward him in the past tense, but in part two, we see David living more in the moment and discussing his emotions in-depth and the confusion that comes with those emotions. Personally, and yet, I prefer the story progression of part two over part one. Part one feels like David, our narrator, recalls memories of his life in a very sporadic and random manner. In part one, David also speaks of Giovanni with an icy and distant tone and temper, which he does to rationalize and cope with Giovanni’s death emotionally. In part two, however, it appears that David is more open to discussing his feelings about Giovanni as he is narrating mainly in the present. This reading was the first reading where we see the emotions and romance between David and Giovanni that have long been alluded to in part one.
Again in this reading, we are beginning to see more critiques of American society: including its norms, culture, and morals. The one that stood out to me the most was when David mentioned that what he and Giovanni had was illegal in America. This idea of David’s immediately struck me with a question: “Why is he so concerned about what’s illegal in America when he’s in France?” I then tried to see if I could relate to this with another example of something I may do in another country that would be illegal in America. Oddly enough, in most of the scenarios I created, going against American laws felt morally wrong. Still, it makes me wonder if other people from different countries experience the same conflict. It makes me wonder if the American system is just so suffocating and overbearing that we believe our way of life is correct and everyone else’s is wrong, or that we have a better legal system with better morals. This line of thinking led to many spurring thoughts, but one stuck out to me. That thought was about how this book criticizes its existence to a degree. Within the book, we see Giovanni arguing that one’s sexuality shouldn’t be something that concerns others or the government or, as he subtly phrases it, “one’s privacy.” Any reference to anything that is homosexual in the book is subtle. Most of the romantic scenes between Giovanni and David aren’t strictly sexual but more sensual and suggestive. So far, the book hasn’t mentioned the term “homosexual” but only obscure slang terms that only gay people at the time would understand. While this isn’t surprising considering the timeline it was published, the shock, to me, comes from the realization that this book is the retelling of tragic gay romance but without the “gay parts.” In the novel, we only see David’s struggle with his sexuality about Giovanni and not any scenes where he is romantic with Giovanni. We aren’t presented any real love or romance between the two, so we must believe David when he says it’s there. There’s nothing for the reader to gush over between the two men, not that it's a necessity, but it sort of saps the believability out of their relationship. The truth is those societal beliefs heavily influenced this book at the time. Homosexuality was seen as a negative quality, so Baldwin could only discuss the negative aspects and publish the novel. Perhaps I am looking too far into this line of thinking, but it seems like this isn’t the story Baldwin originally wrote. The book was rejected many times before publication for its homosexual themes, and you can sort of recognize what parts have been modified and which parts have not. More often than not, the modified aspects are the sensual interactions between men, which are vague and watered down. Hopefully, part two continues to push that boundary as it already has begun to do so. Still, I’m afraid that it will not even dare to mention a kiss between Giovanni and David with the historical context of this novel. Welcome back, I have just concluded another significant reading of Giovanni’s Room, and it’s safe to assume that I love this book and somewhat dislike it simultaneously. My most extensive critique of the novel is its story pacing and confusing perspective changes. Baldwin always seems to shift the book's setting to the future or past at random, which leaves many open ends to the stories were heard from David. While this shift certainly creates suspense and lures the reader into the story, it often left me confused about who was speaking or why the characters’ relationships with each other have suddenly changed, as these shifts typically happen mid-chapter. I haven’t seen this technique used in writing. The author frames the story so that the readers build up their hopes for a happy relationship between the protagonists to only crush those aspirations with the dread of Giovanni’s death. Now that I think about it, perhaps Baldwin wrote the book with the intent to leave David’s stories in segments to depict how David is still piecing himself together following Giovanni’s execution.
Moving on from that topic, I’d like to discuss another quote I found while reading that I feel like I should shed light on, “I always found it difficult to believe that they ever went to be with anybody, for a man who wanted a woman would certainly want a real one and a man who wanted a man would certainly not want one of them” (27). I want to discuss this quote to show the evident transphobia (then and now), even amongst the gay community. Obviously, David is anything but an out and proud gay man, but he accepts gay people and often associates himself with them. Despite this progressiveness for the times, he was still transphobic. He refers to these people as “them” and implies that they aren’t real women. The truth is that people in America and around the world share the same beliefs as David does. Trans women are women, and trans men are men. The idea of “real” men and women is absurd and ignorant. The truth is that we are all real, living people, and if somebody ever invalidates that experience for you, then you have just exceeded beyond their realm of existence to the point where they think you are too perfect to exist. Lastly, I’d like to examine Giovanni’s perception of American culture and his critiques of our lifestyle. While he and David are conversing at the bar, Giovanni makes many points about American culture. His first point that stuck out to me was the idea that Americans see the world as something new when, in reality, most Americans emigrated from Europe. I contemplated what Giovanni meant by “new” for a while, but then it came to me that our history is concise compared to the rest of the world. As most people know, American history doesn’t start till the 1700s. Before the 1700s is practically irrelevant to most Americans as it did not include Americans yet. That means that our perception of the world is very new and modern. Our lack of a deep foundational history allows American culture to morph and shift as time progresses where other cultures are deeply rooted with traditions. Another great point Giovanni made about American culture is our focus on the concept of time. Giovanni pointed out that Americans are sort of ruled by time but have no sense of it at the same time. I thought this was a normal thing among cultures to constantly be worried about the time you have to do something and often delay it if time isn’t permitting. My understanding is that other cultures make the time for events rather than Americans who wait for the time to come to them. Also, the concept that Americans have no sense of time seems fitting. Americans always find that there are never enough hours in the day, but perhaps that is because Americans overfill their schedule or don’t use their time wisely compared to other cultures. I enjoyed Giovanni’s outside perspective of American culture. So, I just read the first chapter of Giovanni's Room, and all I have to say is that this book is incredible. I felt the need to read and reread each line that I read as the book is so jam-packed with so much good literature. There are a few quotes I would like to share that I found very beautiful and profound. The first quote I found myself very drawn to was from page 10, after David embraces Joey for the first time, "We had our arms around each other. It was like holding in my hand some rare, exhausted, nearly doomed bird which I had miraculously happened to find. I was very frightened; I am sure he was frightened too, and we shut our eyes." This quote stood out to me because it perfectly encapsulates the raw beauty and essence of the moment between these men while also portraying the societal pressures surrounding them. This hug is such a sensual moment between the two men that is truthfully ruined by the judgment of the outside world in the 1950s. Keep in mind, being gay could result in institutionalization in the United States during this era. Also, another quote I read that I believe we should all hear was, "People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception" (21). This quote was extremely powerful to me because it shows the inward thinking of David of his character from an outside perspective which helped realize the confusing point of view of this novel. It seems like the book is written in the past tense as if David is writing his own story, so we see his actions and the way he recalls and reflects on these actions. Personally, I love this storytelling style as it helps us fully understand the experiences that the narrator is going through and provides a helpful insight into the reasoning behind their actions.
Moving forward with this book, I am excited to see how the relationship between David and his father develops. Their relationship is similar to my own with my father. David’s father is very distant with his son and tends to give him a lot of space, hoping that it will be a good thing for his son. Much similar to myself, this relationship with his father left David with many questions and confusion. One part of him wishes to be seen and recognized by his father, while the other wishes that he had nothing to do with him. I hope they progress with their relationship in the novel, but knowing the grim undertones in this book, I’m afraid that might not occur. On another note, I would like to draw attention to how David struggles heavily with what we would call, in today's terms, internalized homophobia which is, again, influenced in part by society at the time. He constantly struggles with these conflicting interests where you yearn for something that you have been told for your whole life is disgusting or undesirable. This phenomenon is something that most queer people have confronted at one point or another before coming out. Although coming out and admitting who you truthfully are wasn’t an option during this period. The horrors you would face for being gay at the time were straight out of nightmares, from shock therapy to even torture/death. It truly puts into perspective the progress we have made socially in recent years, but at the same time, you still see similar punishments in foreign nations. As naive as this suggestion is, part of me hopes we see David overcome this internalized homophobia or come to terms with his sexuality in the later chapters. But, as I said before, I feel that we will not see that within this story. |
AuthorI am a high school student who loves to read (on occasion...) and would love to share what I'm reading with you all! ArchivesCategories |