Comments on: Apex Hides the Hurt (2)

By: Esther

Esther — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:00:12 +0000

I’m going to do it Marina, I am going to bridge that gap that separates the end-of-the-table-globules, and reply to your post. I think I’ll have to agree with your globule-mates that Whitehead often suggests something, but then leaves the reader hanging, or perhaps it is the reader’s fault for assuming that whatever has been deemed necessary for the novel is necessary for us as readers to take notice of. Besides the library scene, the conflict with the housekeeper is never resolved, and the Nomenclature Guy never seems to find peace with himself.

Perhaps we are expecting something from this novel that it does not intend to give: solution, or absolution. I think it might be suggesting that there are no happy mediums in tensions between classes or races. There has been so much physical and emotional damage done that it may be impossible to find a common ground that prevents anyone from feeling that they were not ‘made whole’.

By: Kim S. Clune

Kim S. Clune — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:35:05 +0000

The maid is hysterical. She’s so pushy, demanding, unnerving. What makes this so funny? I wonder what gives her the right to be this way.

In her first attempt to gain access she says, “I need to get inside! You should be up by now!” It’s as if the corporate cogs in the wheel must keep the machine running like clockwork. Every day jobs like that of the maid’s keep things moving, circulating, advancing. Without this progress, the door and everything else threaten to splinter under the weight of resistance. Get up, get out, and do something productive. Isn’t this the American work ethic? No time for rest!

“I have honored your respect for PRIVACY but will admit to ownership of a rising anger to your refusal to allow ME entrance. This HEAVY FEELING sits on my chest. WHO do you think you are?”

It’s almost eerie the way she’s so demanding. Her anger at the narrator’s refusal to grant access in the name of her progress is unreal. It’s as if the tables are being turned on our nameless wonder. He typically pushes, prods and manipulates the public into doing their job – purchasing, purchasing, purchasing. Now he stands in the way of progress and feels the wrath.

I look forward to seeing more of this woman with the crazy, crashing cart.

By: Christine

Christine — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 03:37:18 +0000

I like the thoughts you’ve mentioned so far. I think my post is going to be very similar to that since I’m kind of shot in terms of forming any coherent sentences… Anyway, the part I most wanted to comment on is the sexual thoughts the narrator has. Like you, they caught me off guard. Much of the novel so far has been fairly straightforward — or if not straightforward, at least empty of sexual references and then once there was one, a bunch seemed to follow. I find it sort of weird because there was obviously quite a bit of sex in “Written on the Body” but it didn’t creep me out as much as the narrator in “Apex” imagining the librarian on her bed. I’m also thinking that with how many stereotypes he brings up and mocks, I think this may be another one…. The naughty librarian seems to be a fixture in most heterosexual men’s brains so this seems to be another comment that the narrator/Whitehead is making. Comment in reference to what, though? I’m not sure….