In today’s class discussion, I enjoyed the close reading exercise and figured it would be a good topic for my post. Kaitlyn and I chose the following as our excerpt from The Landscape of His Dreams:
“This nonstop verbosity, this reminiscence of concrete episodes, seemed to be in a quite different mode from his painting. When he was alone, he said, the yammer and clatter of memories would die down, and he would get a calm impression of Pontito: a Pontito without people, without incidents, without temporality; a Pontito at peace, suspended in a timeless “once”, the “once” of allegory, fantasy, myth and fairytale”
I believed that this was Sacks way of giving readers a clearer picture on what was going on through Franco’s mind. The first word that stuck out to me was verbosity, the definition is “the quality of using more words than needed” or simply “wordiness”. To think of Franco’s state of mind as “wordy” gives the text a whole new feeling. The words used to describe what he felt like “yammer and clatter” also help one better understand, maybe even be able to imagine his state of mind. We know that Franco can see these clear images of his town in his mind, but how he felt about being able to constantly see it so vividly was not explicit. Here we can assume that he didn’t enjoy it or see it as such of gift as we all might think- EXCEPT maybe when we was alone. Thats when we see words like “peace” “calm” and “timeless” come in to the text. These words ease up a very tense situation. Sacks use of anaphora with the word “without” also makes the text feel more open as Franco must have felt when he was alone. The words “fantasy, myth and fairytale” make it easier to connect to Franco and give readers a chance to not only relate but no longer associate his “condition” as something that needs to be sympathized with but maybe even something one would envy.
Mike and I also chose this passage to close read during class. The word verbose stood out to us as well. When we first read it we had different impressions of the word “verbose”. Mike thought it was a good word, I thought it had negative implications. I thought so probably because of the word “non stop” before it. To me it came off negatively. Another point I would like to bring up is when what Franco is painting is described. To me it shows that Franco doesn’t like people too much. I’m assuming this because 1) Sacks makes a point to include that his painting don’t include people and 2) because after he says that he doesn’t draw people, incidents or temporality ( which in this context I would think are negative things to him), he says he draws peace. That sentence is implying that people and incidents aren’t peaceful.
Natasha,
I see why “nonstop verbosity” seemed negative to you! It definitely does seem to have some sort of negative implication. And I never thought of the fact that Franco probably did not like people very much. That’s a very interesting point. You’re right, the fact that he says “without people… a Pontito at peace”, it is safe to assume Franco believes the people make it chaotic and take the peace away! Is it possible that something in his life, some “incident” made him feel this way?
Really interesting reading!
A “wordy” state of mind is a pretty interesting idea! Also, it’s interesting how often Sacks lets us know that he finds conversation with Magnani annoying–despite traveling the world with him.
I like the close read you did of this passage, as well as seeing the connotations others are drawing from it. For me, I didn’t take the “nonstop verbosity”/wordiness to necessarily be a bad thing; on the contrary, I think it ties in well with the haunting “I shall create it again for you” (on page 167 and closing on 187) and intentful “I want the whole world to know how fantastic and beautiful [Pontito] is” (177) sentiments that Sacks develops in regards to Franco. I think it’s important to note that this wordiness only appears when Franco is with other people, as he has this intense desire to share what he loves with whoever he can. However, when no one else is around, he can devote this uncontrollable desire to his painting. Granted, I only get these ideas because of how Sacks structures this essay, particularly by bookending on “I shall create it again for you.” Perhaps others (particularly Franco) have their own feeling about this mental yammering.
Sacks seems to contradict himself in some parts of the book. This being one of them. Its difficult to really know exactly how Franco felt because we are really only getting Sacks point of view. Sacks is sharing with us how Franco feels; this brings us to that question the Professor proposed in Thursday’s class – Is Sacks reliable?
Awesome gateway in to that question!