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Flashcards in The Golden House: Key Quotes Deck (61)
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1
Q

Monologue of Baba Yaga - pg. 91

“a few instants after she dropped from sight the fire roared out through the open window” pg. 365

A

fairy tale is then subverted

  • destroys the essentialism of the fairy tale narrative ie. good vs evil - Vasilisa exists outside of the binary, in another form of metaxy
  • becomes the character that D interacts with most closely
2
Q

“this was their untold story”

A
  • indicates the ontological shift of the script
  • shifts Rene to the status of an omniscient narrator
  • severely disrupts the diegetic levels of text as the script becomes part of a metadiegetic level which breaks with the central narrative
3
Q

“D has worked this out but does not mention it”

A
  • an indication that Rene has shifted to an omniscient narrator
4
Q

‘Blackout’

A
  • satirises the drama of the pronoun scene
  • film/ drama is a heightened form of reality - we are operating in a realm of surreality to which we are all complicit
  • single italicised word - undercuts and offers an alternate perspective on the central narrative
  • offers both sincerity and cynicism in many cases (ie. ‘cut’ or ‘slow dissolve’) - indicate an aspect of tragedy but also the grandiose quality of the scene
  • metaphorically recreates the cloud of confusion in D’s brain in encouraging our mental recreation of cinematic lighting
5
Q

“entered her father’s house” as “her true self”

A
  • this emphasises the gravity of her breaching the barrier that excludes her - her father’s presence has permeated the house with ignorance and oppression which D fears
  • she makes the transition from the identity that she has to actively work to construct and the identity that she innately inhabit - the message being that true identity should not require construction
  • indicates that in the realm of the “home” she is required to inhabit the identity that aligns with her father’s wishes instead of the house being a physical realm into which she can extend her own expression
    (comes to fruition when she “walked the length of the Gardens” and reappropriates the space into a realm of freedom)
6
Q

“fire in his eye”

A

e

7
Q

“there’s also ze”
“there’s also ey”
“there’s also hir, xe, hen, ve, ne, per, thon and Mx”

“Thon for example is a mixture of that and one”

A
  • asyndetic listing increases the pace of the speech, and contributes to a disorientating effect which is only amplified by the continued layering of terminology
  • weaves them together in aysndetic confusion
  • suggests that it has descended into the ridiculous
  • what Rushdie said in an interview with Emma Brockes: “The 73 pronouns, all of that”
  • draws on ideas of language deconstruction - indicates that signifiers have become inadequate for describing the signified
    (Lacan - signifiers are a barrier to the comprehension of reality) - D cannot achieve the identity she desires while operating under the oppressive structure of language
  • structural fragmentation of their dialogue reflects their deconstruction of the metanarrative
  • overwhelming list of possible pronouns that transcend the binaries of male and female
8
Q

“maybe transfeminine” “maybe you’re non-binary”

A
  • identity has become speculative
  • exposes the hypocrisy of saying “choosing an identity” “is not like choosing cereal at a supermarket” because they are comfortable to inundate D with options, opinions, and advice which undermines the intensely personal nature of identity
  • also reflects that language is perhaps inadequate for fully encapsulating the complexities of identity ie. her identity finally takes a visual form where silence is notable
  • identity must be internally generated, cannot be categorised by external sources - exists in contradiction etc. - this is ultimately where she finds power and comfort
9
Q

Rushdie is: “not hostile to [transitioning],” but he “worries about it”

A
  • also spoke about the absurdity of trigger warnings and concept of ‘safe spaces’
10
Q

Rushdie: “‘truth is stranger than fiction’ has never been more true”

A

e

11
Q

Rushdie: “human identity is actually very multiple and complicated and even contradictory”

A

w

12
Q

“(when this scene is filmed the women actors can decide who says which line)”

A
  • individuality becomes unimportant and both women (Riya and Ivy) become subsumed into the single voice of the mass social conglomerate
13
Q

Salman Rushdie: “this is not an age of heroes”

A

e

14
Q

“worked on this metamorphosis”

“to speak, dress, act, be American”

A
  • “metamorphosis” - weighted word, scientific language - something fantastical and mythic about this transformation
  • political comment about why this is incredible and awestriking but immigration is so heavily criticised
  • also Kakfa - neutralises the word, casts a negative connotation, metamorphosis can still connect to isolation
15
Q

“shedding their Gatz origins to become shirt-owning Gatsbys”

TGG: “she sobbed, her voice muffled in the
thick folds”

A
  • reflects modernist influences
  • but also intertextual referencing creates a pastiche which also indicates postmodernist influences
  • “shedding” - reminds us that Gatsby left his family behind etc. - uncomfortably dismissive ie. Map Woman - Carol Ann Duffy (“her skin sloughed like a snake’s” “hunting for home”)
  • foreshadows the eventual tragic connotations - especially the “shirt-owning” connotations, it is the point at which Daisy realises he will never be respected as an authentic man of wealth
  • cannot escape your essential origins
  • New York is famous for being the womb of reinvention
16
Q

“excellent taste, excellent clothes, excellent English”

A
  • asyndetic listing, identity becomes a category of requirements
17
Q

“an unexpected metamorphosis”

A
  • different types of transformation

- identity also transcends cultural identity, identity is also highly personal - not so directly politicised

18
Q

“to speak, dress, act, be American”

A
  • relates to the idea of Lyotard
  • the Goldens seek to live within an ‘idea’ of America that is more of a utopia than the reality
  • means that ultimately they cannot escape the reality of who they are
19
Q

“They became Petronius, Lucius Apuleius and Dionysus”

A
  • “Dionysus” - aptronym
  • twice-born’ - born of Semele’s womb and was then sewn to Zeus’ thigh
  • god of the vine, grape harvest, wine, fertility, ritual madness, religious ecstasy and theatre
  • theatre fits well with the eventual visual spectacle of the suicide
20
Q

“La Belle Dame sans Merci hath thee in thrall”

A
  • intertextuality
21
Q

“Can I try that one?”

“Yes. Of course”

A
  • visual experimentation - changing the perceptions of others
  • gender becomes performative
  • his tentativeness (ie. I can’t) indicates that he is also experimenting with the fluidity of the self
22
Q

“I want to leave them there for a minute, to give the two of them their privacy, averting my eyes discreetly”

A
  • because of the visual mode of the film our line of sight can be redirected etc.
  • we are at the mercy of Rene’s camera lens - he averts his eyes and our gaze is also shifted away
  • reader’s gaze also has the potential to become politicised and invasive
23
Q

‘Maybe I am not a completely, thousand per cent evil bitch”

“She smiles conspiratorially. I should end the scene there, a tight close-up of that sphinx-like Mona Lisa smile”

A
  • both characters exist on borders - two different realms of metaxy
  • both identities are performative (whether that be gender identity or general personality)
  • “tight close-up” - Rene becomes the director of our imaginations - mental visualisations can be manipulated in more versatile ways
24
Q

“Jean-Luc Godard move, Le gai savoir, 1969”

A
  • pioneer in experimental French film (1960s - French New Wave)
  • self-reflective
  • employed the montage technique
25
Q

“We are nowhere near that point yet”

A
  • “we” - identify themselves with D’s struggle
26
Q

“Right now you could be TG, TS, TV, CD. Whatever feels right to you.’ Transgender, transsexual, transvestite, cross-dresser”

A
  • “TV, CD” - shift into mockingly familiar abbreviations
  • deliberately disorientates the reader - mimetic representation of D’s thoughts also, asyndetic listing - inundated with options for personal expression
  • “feels right” - very superficial option, appears to extend freedom of expression and yet still offers a finite amount of options
  • in Lacanian philosophy - words are inadequate for expressing our real intentions, even with such variety - the suggestion is that we have to attempt to visually recreate the complexities of the mind
27
Q

“no compartmentalisation”

A
  • no boundaries to identification

- self defeating comment

28
Q

“Choosing an identity,’ Ivy Manuel says, ‘is not like choosing cereal at the supermarket”

A
  • potentially a challenge to Baudrillard who discusses the ‘pick n mix’ identity - identity is formed on the basis of consumptive habits and choice etc.
  • the concept of identity has become so weighted and monumental
  • the intricacies of our identity become the frame through which we present ourselves to the world
29
Q

“Wide shot. Manhattan Street. Night.”

“Narrator (V/O)”

A
  • (V/O) creates a layered textured soundscape
30
Q

“The ghost-NERO walks calmly back to the bed”

A
  • liberates the mind to the varieties of special effects possible
31
Q

“Cut.” (italicised)

A
  • visual break from the central narrative
  • brusque and practical - apt for releasing the high tension of this scene
  • visual distinctiveness emphasises the terseness in the direction, has a dual purpose in offering both satirical undercutting but a sincere reflection (indicates the oscillating aspects of the text)
  • becomes a metaphor for the violent fissures that occur in character relations as a result of Rene’s actions
  • enhances the satire of the moment - metaleptic shift makes a critical perspective on the character’s vices
  • the reader is urged to turn their gaze away which heightens the drama
  • repeats again at other points of rupture in the narrative
  • reminds us that reality is a construct just the same as the text is a construct
32
Q

“Slow dissolve”

A
  • directorial instruction reflects the psychological states of those in the scene - similar to “blackout” ie. a mixed and merging mindset
33
Q

“[him]”

- “‘I don’t yet know what my pronouns are’, [he] told me with a kind of embarrassment”

A
  • if identity is something we can freely construct then it should be easy to construct but in reality it is not
  • experiences the pressure of having to declare and construct his own identity
  • exists in a blur of attempts at self-identification
  • Rushdie seems intent on preserving the singularity of the individual with the consequence that some do not find the safe harbour of personal definition
34
Q

“Now it had become appropriate to change her pronouns and say simply she, her, herself!”

A
  • undergoing her metamorphosis

- narrator’s reconsideration is a highly respectful and enlightened display

35
Q

“she was wearing a long scarlet Alaia evening dress, over which her cascade of hair shone alluringly in the sun”

A
  • Romantic allusions - indicates influence from modernist and pre-modernist sources in which utopic metanarratives still held precedence
    (metamodernism is a structure of feeling in which individuals return to thinking in terms of ‘utopia’ while simultaneously realising that this is an impossibility)
  • “Alaia” - hugely expensive, indicates her dressing as if an artwork
  • “scarlet” - connotes power, passion, and desire, all heightened emotional states
  • “cascade” - sublime natural imagery as typically featured in Romantic literature
  • she becomes a symbolic martyr for a utopia that is not currently conceivable
  • regains autonomy by reconfiguring the gaze of others - (according to Lacan) no longer is forced to surrender autonomy to the gaze of others because she constructs her own gendered visual appearance which disrupts the power of the gazes of external individuals because this must be internally generated
  • artistically dressed etc. - reflects her artistic pursuit as a performance artist - reflects that just as performance art is entering mainstream culture, transgender people etc. are entering the mainstream consciousness
36
Q

“she dressed to kill”

A
  • black humour
  • the melodrama of the act warns against oscillation between modernist and postmodernist principles
  • illustrates the paradox of metamodernism in which society is cynical of metanarratives but equally is striving towards them
  • a metaphor for killing the previous version of the self as constructed by the gaze of society - instead she presents the self that accords with the self that she observes in the ‘mirror phase’ as Lacan calls it
37
Q

“her true self… she had had such difficulty of setting free”

A
  • the fundamental metaphor of the true self as within - requires deconstruction of boundaries to unearth the ‘true’ self
38
Q

“Well, what a fluttering of curtains at the windows then ensued! Seemed everyone living on the Gardens wanted a look”

A
  • becomes a public event/ visual spectacle
  • publicisation politicises the act - might consider it to be a form of performance art (2010, ‘No Fun’)
  • potentially might threaten to cheapen the act
  • finally drawing a gaze - implies that a lack of attention given to her becomes part of the impetus for suicide - becomes the ultimate goal
39
Q

“In the film I would intercut her stillness with a scene of rapid movement”

A
  • creates co-occurrence
40
Q

“D Golden in the Gardens opened his eyes and rose to his feet”

A
  • the suggestion of continued oscillation between genders - has not ultimately decided because there is too much indecision and identity has become too fluid of a concept
  • potentially otherwise transcends pronouns - experiences such strength in self-identification that external identification becomes superfluous
41
Q

“on the soundtrack we hear D’s voice reading the suicide note”

“It isn’t because of the difficulties of my own life that I do this”

A
  • interweaves with the voice of the narrator
  • gives us close proximity - suddenly we are striving to recreate a voice that is not our own, becomes the final form of her self-expression
  • italicisation and different font of the voiceover indicates how disjointed D is from external circumstances
  • NB: at this point chooses to depart from the visual effects to disembody D’s voice from her body - the view is aligned with what Peggy Phelan says that visual representation only shows us gender etc. which erases the power of what is unseen
  • also to only view the visual manifestation of the individual limits the capacity for her message to be universally applied, whereas if she is disembodied then her message can be foregrounded instead of the political site of her body
  • disembodies D’s voice - indicates how she is released from her body and is immortalised in a different form - she cannot exist as her true self in this form of existence in this earthly realm, is required to enter another realm (truly a ‘metamorphosis’ rather than a death)
  • does not just exist as a visual symbol in visual medium, using the literature alongside the film agitates our potentially passive reception
  • the suicide and the transformation of the body replicate the complexities of the inner workings of D’s mind which are inadequately communicated through language
42
Q

“And because it’s a movie, at this point its necessary for Riya to burst through the French windows”

A
  • difficult to locate sincerity or cynicism - potentially seems to surrender himself to film tropes, mild frustration at the formulaic occurrences OR surrenders to the tragic inevitability that is about to occur
  • maintains the feeling of apathetic repetition, is not received as shocking or incongruous by Rene
  • maintains suspiciously calm - suggests the influence of Rushdie’s views
  • “because it’s a movie” - seems to disrupt the genre of film he is making, comment that the surreality or drama of life sometimes demands a departure from the empiricism of a documentary (Rushdie: ““‘truth is stranger than fiction’ has never been more true”)
  • the scene itself is quite dissonant - the emotional impact of the cutting becomes more important than acting (Vertov’s montage effect OR the Kuleshov effect) - indicates that even in our most private moment we exist in relation to others - perhaps that we are not only obsessed with our own identities but also how these assimilate into society
43
Q

“‘Don’t’”

A
  • contradicts D’s suicide note - “the unkindness of people It is disenchanting”
  • final word of D Golden’s story is a word of hope and the extension of care and compassion - suggestion that we must continue to believe that society is capable of this even if it is too late for some
  • jarringly switches between the diegetic narrative and the parallel narrative circumstance of Riya
44
Q

“The residents of the Gardens, abandoning all discretion, stood behind the glass transfixed by the approaching horror”

A
  • becomes a reflection on their own identities ie. they have a moment of self-reflection in which they observe their own reactions to a crisis - identity is performative but this also means it is contrived and potentially artificial
  • the visual spectacle implicates them in this scene - all are cast as extras in the movie of which D has become the star - her centralisation of the self replicates the physical structure of Foucault’s panopticon which reverses the power of the gaze
  • politicised destruction of the body becomes an act that exposes and regulates the behaviours of individuals in society
  • the only totalising characteristic in contemporary society is dissonance
  • rendered impotent and disconnected from the immediacy of the scene
  • “behind the glass” - metaphor for the emotional screen of contemporary culture that exists between individuals and protects emotion (Marina Abramovic - ‘The Artist is Present’)
  • “transfixed” - don’t even have the strength or courage for intervention (metaphor for the mediating mode of media
    have become disconnected from ourselves)
  • interrogates the diversity of different visual forms ie. D has transformed the scene into the setting of her visual art piece to agitate us into interaction and is also cast in Rene’s film
45
Q

“After Riya Z’s cry, nobody spoke, and Riya, too, ran out of words to say”

A
  • indicates that humans have become disconnected from each other
  • visual format encapsulates this - means we are distanced from the narrative occurrence itself
  • Rene as ‘director’ also experiences that emotional apathy
  • D has embraced the deconstructionism of postmodernism BUT - ultimately this also alienates her from other individuals
  • reflected in the suicide note: “I don’t know how to reach out to anyone any more”
  • the visual is more powerful than language for communication
  • creates a dramatic visual entrance and then language is rendered impotent
46
Q

“It is a way of narrowing us until we are like aliens to one another” - Rushdie

A
  • Rushdie on identity politics etc.
47
Q

“the unkindness of people It is disenchanting”

“I don’t know how to reach out to anyone any more”

A
  • Rushdie himself understood the pain of being displaced and the consequence of the freedom of expression
  • some aspect of autobiography in the suicide note - realises that he is facing his greatest fears in the experience of the contemporary condition
  • oscillates between hope and melancholy - captured in his own life also in that he experienced the consequences of free speech and yet continues to write highly politicised work
48
Q

“walked the length of the Gardens”

A
  • transforms the natural landscape into the symbolic equivalent of the sublime landscape in which idealism and hope are embraced
  • her simplicity of movement reflects Kuleshov’s composition of movements that occur with economy and precision in order to present simple, direct and easily assimilable units of information which indicates clarity of mind that has not previously been achieved
  • ie. because her body has always been a site of confusion etc.
  • strives for attention - possible criticism that individuals are self-obsessed in contemporary culture
  • self-directive - able to physically decide her own destiny
49
Q

“in the film I would” and “on the soundtrack we hear”

A
  • interjects with directorial musings

- creates a parallel narrative circumstance

50
Q

“her grandeur was that of a queen”

“she was her own emperor now”

A
  • to destroy the body is ultimately to take the greatest ownership
  • exists limitlessly because she exists without fear ie. even to destroy the body is not the restriction but the goal (in contrast to Marina who experienced frustration when she passed out etc.)
51
Q

“who am both Adam and Eve”

A
  • learns to be able to live in a state of plurality
  • finally reaches peace with the self but understands that this won’t be accepted by society
  • returns to an ancient text that establishes the origins of gender to entirely rethink the narrative
52
Q

“shedding their Gatz origins” - what text might we connect this to, offer quotes

A
  • Map Woman by Carol Ann Duffy
  • “As she slept, her skin sloughed
    like a snake’s,”
  • warning because by the end - “Deep in the bone
    old streets tunnelled and burrowed, hunting for home.”
  • form of identity within her is still longing
53
Q

“his eyes and his feet”

A
  • indicates the inadequacies and inconsistencies of language
  • the visual presentation occurs and then the boundaries of language have to be interrogated and modified to keep pace with complexities
  • establishing that it is unnecessary to totally deconstruct language, it is more necessary to maintain fluidity
54
Q

“It’s just a word”

“Blackout”

A
  • juxtaposition - refutes the validity of what Ivy says, indicates that words eg. ‘blackout’ actually have huge power and significance
  • entered the void of language
  • Rene’s directorial interjection indicates that words have immense power - adjusts our mental recreations of the cinematic lighting
55
Q

“made and
unmade
both”

A
  • “both” literature but also a visual art form due to the shift in typography
  • “made” as in Francesco has become successful but ultimately “unmade” because she will only be remembered to history as a ‘he’ - ultimately history only recalls what is visually presented, lacks the capacity to seek behind the visual and embrace the concept of metaxy, relies on essentialism - true identity of the painter has been erased
  • raises the question of the degree of societal acceptance of metaxy or duality
  • spaces between words convey that identity exists beyond the line of sight and extends behind the gaze
    (CF: TGH - when our gaze is urged away, performs the unseen)
56
Q

Picture of the eyes and Saint Lucia in How to be both

A
  • symbolised the academic attempt to re-evaluate and reconstruct the ancient wisdom teachings
  • called “learning by eyes” and represented by a pair of eyes - new eyes through which to see a new reality
57
Q

“How to be both”

A
  • ‘both’ - paradoxically, suggests twoness, duality, two things perhaps two people, something impossible
58
Q

“at least they’ve used an apostrophe, the George from before her mother died says”

“I do not give a fuck about whether some sit on the internet attends to grammatical correctness, the George from after says”

A
  • huge shift in emotions and sense of identity - begins to transcend the necessary bounds of language - becomes more dismissive of language’s ability to convey the intricacies of her experience
  • also indicates that language has to modify and evolve to express the complexities of her experience, instead of abiding by grammatical regulations she wants to transcend language
    (instead transforms the conveyance of emotion into visual form with the calligramme of the final pages etc.)
59
Q

“Past or present? George says. Male or female? It can’t be both. It must be one or the other”

A
  • CF: TGH - does not necessarily have to be limited to a gender binary but external sources still abide by the necessity for terminology that is an all-encompassing description of identity
60
Q

“afterwards when George tried to watch any more of this kind of sexual film that girl was there waiting under them all”

“except the mother is showing the baby Jesus how to look something up on an iPad”

A
  • life and history does not necessarily easily translate into the media
  • the media enables a state of parallelism ie. these figures exist in both past and present - historically in the past, whereas they have been transposed to the present in a media form (CF: TGH - the film mode allows D to exist as both a physical form but also a media constructed visual art in a state of simulacra)
61
Q

“Allowed, her mother says. Like I was being allowed”

A
  • erotic division of labour between the subject and the object of the gaze - “being allowed” - implies a wholehearted liberation of emotion and exposure of the intricacies of identity
  • CF: TGH - why we feel complicit in D’s suicide - D has regained autonomy from our gaze and reappropriated it into a display of liberation which takes the form of presentation and destruction