Talking Heads, Italo Calvino, and the Surface of Things: An Essay in Pieces

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1 The Iow Review Volume 18 Issue 1 Winter Article Tlking Heds, Itlo Clvino, nd Surfce Things: An Essy in Pieces Dniel P. Gunn Follow this nd dditionl works t: Prt Cretive Writing Commons Recommended Cittion Gunn, Dniel P.. "Tlking Heds, Itlo Clvino, nd Surfce Things: An Essy in Pieces." The Iow Review 18.1 (1988): Web. Avilble t: This Contents is brought you for free nd open ccess by Iow Reserch Online. It hs been ccepted for inclusion in The Iow Review by n uthorized dministrr Iow Reserch Online. For more informtion, plese contct lib-ir@uiow.edu.

2 Tlking Heds,?tlo Cl vino, nd Surfce Things: An Essy in Pieces Dniel P. Gunn EARLY IN Sp Mking Sense, Jonthn Demme's 1984 film Tlking Heds concert, cmer films three musicins s y dnce slowly for wrd nd bckwrd during song. Intent on ir instruments, shivering with ir heds down, move y bck nd forth in front cmer t different rtes speed, crossing nd on recrossing rhythmiclly, seprte plnes motion, like pisns in slow motion engine. The cmer lingers for moment or two over this imge from its position slightly behind nd side musicins, plying with motion on stge, seeing wht udience cnnot see. Wtching this for first time, three yers go, I thought: se re bodies words; I m wtching wy words move. Seen from right ngle, words re dense nd supple mteril, present, in ny sentence, like flesh. And y move: y ywn nd stretch with thletic grce; y move bckwrd nd forwrd t different rtes speed; y roll nd tumble nd collide; ir cries echo nd reverberte in gymnsium words, in prticle chmber words. As responsible reder, intent on serious business lnguge, its ideologicl nd cul turl work, I pretend tht words re mere ghosts, fleshless nd trnsprent when held light. But I cnnot lwys mintin this pretense. After ll, even responsible reder hs some interests which refuse become entwined with words like ideology, clss, overdetermined, nd structure, nd which persist, in spite every effort t renuncition, with stubborn intensity desire. Two sentences, from Henry Fielding's Tom Jones: Twelve Times did iron Register Time bet on sonorous Bell-metl, summoning Ghosts rise, nd wlk ir nightly 162 University Iow is collborting with JSTOR digitize, preserve, nd extend ccess The Iow Review

3 Round.?In pliner Lnguge, it ws Twelve o'clock, nd ll s we Fmily, hve sid, ly buried in Drink nd Sleep, except only Mrs. Western, who ws deeply engged in reding politicl Pmph let, nd except our Heroine, who now stly sle down Stirs, nd hving unbrred nd unlocked one House Doors, sllied forth, nd hstened Plce Appointment. (Book X, chpter 9) In first sentence, Fielding is clerly writing like someone else?like bombstic drmtist, sy, even? perhps like Shkespere nd we re not ment tke his borrowed lnguge seriously. It is prody, or, more pre cisely, burlesque: joke. But in this sentence, s so ten in we Fielding, re neverless invited tke plesure in lnguge, indulge our selves in it, even s we recognize it for wht it is. If we respond this in vittion, something curious once hppens: words revel mselves, y sp functioning in ordinry wy, nd we become wre ir density nd mteril relity. Even s we red, we see tht words re just words, fter ll, nd we enjoy ir rtful disposition in pttern sentence, ir bsurd nd wonderful sonority: iron Register Time, Round nightly ghosts. This curious kind wreness leks over in next sentence, o, when we encounter our Heroine nd stly sle down Stirs, sllied forth nd Plce Appointment. These re plyful, flirttious phrses, drwn from romnce or dventure sry, nd y reverberte gently ginst lnguge first sentence. Cn we tke m seriously, fter wht hs just occurred? not: Perhps, perhps words re just wking in self-consciousness, just ywning nd re wre stretching; y mildly mselves s words. Here is nor sentence, this time from Mr. Plomr, by trnslted by Willim Wever:?tlo Clvino, Now his gze, giving lndscpe fickle glnce, will on linger brest with specil considertion, but will quickly include it in n impulse good will nd grtitude for whole, for sun nd sky, for bent pines nd dune nd bech nd rocks nd clouds nd seweed, for cosmos tht rottes round those hloed cusps. (1.1.2) 163

4 Here it is not prody but syntx tht clls our ttention ply ln guge. As Mr. Plomr's "impulse good will nd moves out grtitude" wrd, sentence expnds in series lists: first two nouns, n six, n noun nd subordinte cluse recpitulting whole nd drw ing sentence bck its center. These lists (nd prticulrly second one) give Clvino opportunity linger, himself, over words: bent pines, dune, bech, rocks, clouds, seweed. The sentence tkes on chrcter chnt or some litny, kind hypnotic ritul: one noun succeeds n or, ech preceded by "nd" nd definite rticle, nd we over linger ech with loving ttention, s Mr. Plomr over lingers brest. Originlly description something hppening in Mr. Plomr's con sciousness, sentence trnsforms itself in beutiful nd self-sufficient list nouns, conscious only its own rhythm, expnding wrd cosmos, with everything else shrinking wy in distnce, until lst imge "those hloed cusps" clls us bck in rel world nr rtive. For moment, words re not merely windows in ides or de scriptions; y cloud up; ssert y ir own relity, ir heviness texture; y drw our ttention mselves, for ir own ske. nd When, in n unchrcteristiclly lyricl moment, priggish questioning voice "Ithc" section Ulysses sks "Wht in wter did Bloom, wterlover, drwer wter, wtercrrier, returning rnge, d mire?" nswering voice replies with long list, prt which reds s follows:... its indisputble hegemony extending in squre over legues ll region below subequril tropic Cpricorn: multi seculr stbility its primevl bsin: its luteulvous bed: its cpc ity dissolve nd hold in solution ll soluble substnces including millions ns most precious metls: its slow erosions peninsuls nd islnds, its persistent formtion homotic islnds, peninsuls nd down wrd tending promonries: its lluvil deposits: its weight nd volume nd density: its imperturbbility in lgoons, lls, trns: highlnd its grdtion colours in rrid nd temperte nd zones: frigid its vehiculr rmifictions in conti nentl lkecontined strems nd confluent ocenflowing rivers with ir tributries nd trnsocenic currents, gulfstrem, north nd 164

5 south courses: equril its violence in sequkes, wterspouts, Ar tesin wells, eruptions, rrents, eddies, freshets, sptes, ground swells, wtersheds, wterprtings, geysers, ctrcts, whirlpools, melstroms, inundtions, deluges, cloudbursts: its vst circumterres tril horizontl curve... ( ) The plesure reding, in pssge like this one, comes lrgely sensuous nd tctile feel words s y roll f ngue from or rever berte in udiry imgintion, syllble by syllble: luteulvous, rmifi ctions, circumterrestril, subequril. We re lso conscious, s we red, richness nd verbl ingenuity writing, in long list violent phenomen, sy, or use conspicuous or violence imperturbbility mintin syntcticl prllel, nd comprehensiveness nd inter nl consistency lnguge, wy it fills out form nd uches every conceivble bse. This is hyper-consciousness, reding second power: we see how words work t very moment re y working on us. There is literl sense, course?orwise we would not be ble recognize fetures like or ingenuity comprehensiveness?but mking sense seems no longer principl business lnguge in this pssge. Here, s in or pssges I hve quoted, wht we re conscious is not mening, but mteril which produces mening. And we get lost in this mteril, s we red, wtching ply lnguge. Sense shrinks wy in distnce, nd word detches itself, ll surfce, hevy, solid, opque. But this is most ordinry thing in world, perhps, for n experi enced reder prose: see words s words, puse nd dmire grceful conurs sentence. Just lst summer, for exmple, reding Mrilynne Robinson's I Housekeeping, found myself spping constntly respond dizzying ppel writing, in sentences like this one: Her net would sweep turning world unremrked s wind in grss, nd when she begn pull it in, perhps in scen pell-mell sion forml gentlemen nd thin pigs nd old women nd odd socks tht would snish this lower world, she would gr net, so esily, until very burden itself ly ll in hep just under sur fce. 165

6 To dmire sentence like this one, however, see it s I must lnguge, step bck nd cese reding. There is none dzed inwrd tendency we hve seen in first three exmples; re is no sense here tht ln guge is somehow seeing itself, or enclosing itself in quottion mrks. My consciousness rtfulness lnguge, n, remins somehow seprte from my consciousness sentence's mening; it is n intellec tul distrction, n side, something tht hppens in literture clss or in moment reverie. Wht mkes pssges from Fielding, Clvino, nd Joyce unusul, I think, is wy n wreness y incorporte mteril relity lnguge in very process construing sen tence. To red se pssges ttentively is necessrily recognize density nd rtificility lnguge. In fct, t one level, such recogni tion is wht se sentences re bout. Mrilynne Robinson's sentences, menwhile, re bout Fingerbone nd Sylvie nd Ruth, bout birds nest ing in ttic, bout this trin sliding f rilrod bridge in wter, s grcefully, if in slow motion. Becuse lnguge first three pssges I quoted invites wreness its linguistic chrcter? seems even be wre it is itself? possible spek it s "self-conscious," nd I m use going tht term describe it. But effect I m concerned with here is distinct from chrcteris tic technique wht is ordinrily clled "self-conscious" fiction?lur ence Sterne's Tristrm for or Shndy, exmple, Cervntes' Don Quixote. Such fiction, which, s Robert Alter writes in Prtil Mgic: The Novels Genre Self-Conscious (Berkeley, 1975), "flunts its own condition rti fice" nd "probes in problemtic reltionship between rel-seeming rtifice nd relity," usully does so overtly, eir by mking direct refer ences reding nd writing, mteril relity lnguge, nd flse nd rbitrry chrcter nrrtive or representtion, by mking symbolic or metphoric references (using mirrors, rtists, doubles, nd like) which hve sme effect. These references my remind us mter il relity words, but re not y mselves instnces wre lnguge its own heviness nd s opcity, in three we exmples hve been considering. In stndrd self-conscious references (Don Quixote nd Sn cho discussing novel in which y pper, for or exmple, Tristrm complining tht he is living fster thn he cn write), met-lnguge is creted cll ttention fictionl enterprise, including its ln 166

7 guge?but met-lnguge is itself used in n unproblemticl nd trnsprent wy; it mkes sense, communicting us bout lnguge fiction, without putting up ny resistnce or becoming involved with itself. The peculir effect self-consciousness I hve been considering in Fielding nd Joyce nd Clvino occurs s reflex incorported in very lnguge fiction; s words turn in on mselves nd cll tten tion ir rtificil chrcter, y constitute ir own met-lnguge, by impliction rr thn direct sttement. Sometimes, n, lnguge congels nd thickens s we red; it clls tten tion its own rtificility, its dense mteril texture s medium ex pression. The ordinry production mening is suspended, for mo ment, t lest, nd we re left with words in ir pure stte, in some zone ntecedent convention nd re interprettion. They in condi tion frozen words Pntgruel throws like rocks on ship's deck in Rbelis: hin, hin, his, tick, ck, crck, brededin, brededc, frr, frrr (Book 4, chpter 56). And s we wtch, se words shiver nd grow, right re on deck. They blloon gigntic proportions, like plyful letter A which invdes mn's house nd rments him in n old Estern Euro pen cron. We might clmber over se words now, we think, y re so huge. Or we might jump from sentence sentence, like Nbokov's Grdus, "swinging down foot pge from line line s from brnch brnch," now nd n "hiding between two words." (See Ple Fire, note line 17.) When self-conscious lnguge revels itself, I feel t once es plesure tic nd intellectul; it is s if some mysterious nd ecsttic lyricl energy hs been relesed. This occurs, I think, becuse rich mteril pres ence word, sensuous nd plesurble in itself, nd lso becuse n implied thret ginst ordinry mening. A moment self-consciousness diminishes ordinry mening, mkes it seem smll nd thin, lie we hve been living ll se yers. There is lmost sense dnger, thrill: list might go on forever, sentence never might re-emerge from prody, we never might flicker bck in ordinry nd unproblemtic reding. All this comes in sudden nd momentry flsh wreness, rush blood fce, nd n it is gone. 167

8 In Clvino's novel, Mr. Plomr looks down from his terrce on city, trying see it s he imgines birds see it?tht is, s if "this rise nd fll ros, old tiles nd new" were " true crust erth... uneven but compct, even if furrowed by gps whose cnnot depth be known, chsms or or pits crters": Seprted by irregulr nd jgged gulfs ter emptiness, proletrin rces with lines for drying lundry nd with m plnts growing in tin cns directly fce residentil terrces with espliered plnts growing ginst wooden trellises, grden furniture white-pinted cst iron, wnings; peling cmpniles; fcdes public buildings, in prile nd full-fce; grrets nd penthouses, illegl nd unpun ished constructions; pipe scffoldings constructions in progress or left hlf finished; lrge windows with curtins, nd little WC win dows; ocher wlls nd burnt-sienn wlls, wlls color mold from whose crevices clumps weeds spill ir pendulous folige; elevr shfts; wers with double nd triple mullioned windows; spires churches with mdonns; sttues horses nd chriots; gret mnsions tht hve decyed in hovels, hovels restructured in smrt bchelor prtments; nd domes tht mke round outlines ginst sky in every direction nd t every distnce, s if con firm femle, Junoesque essence city: white domes or pink or violet, ccording hour nd light, veined with nerv tures, crowned by lnterns surmounted by or, smller domes. (2.1.1) These "domes tht mke round outlines" nd "confirm femle, Juno esque essence city" my remind us brest in previous ps sge?nd repetition imge emphsizes continuity Mr. Plomr's medittion, persistence his chrcter s n observer. More importnt here, though, is imge richness nd vriety sur fce, its dense texture. Prt Mr. Plomr's medittive seems enterprise be force himself ttend surfce things?not see through s things, he hbitully does, but over linger "pnorm sur fce," which is so "lredy vst nd rich nd vrious tht it more thn suffices sturte mind." This is built-in insight, I think, bout reding Clvino's prose: s sentences unwind, ten in long, luxurint 168

9 lists, mets, birds, trees, nmes, or in rich syntcticl ptterns, we re invited dopt sme ttitude tht Mr. Plomr dopts wrd world, by ttending ply lnguge, which, in sentence, consti tutes rich nd vrious surfce things. Such reding is n effort or imgine build up mteril relity surfce, see it s dense nd uneven crust rr thn trnsprent window in mening which lies below, see it s possessing weight. on Reding surfce, we re wre presence lnguge, its shimmering nd numinous beuty, which pushes ll or considertions in bckground. This ccounts for feelings mingled exhilr tion nd longing tht writing like Clvino's is likely produce. It is im possible for me not feel tht this desire in presence pure word is prt some more comprehensive longing, for idel, for some mys tery t boundry consciousness. Pl explined mystery which ttches itself even wve simplest erotic longing, in corridor or public squre, by postulting tht sexes were once united in single idel form. Erotic desire is desire regin tht originl stte; it is our wreness tht originl stte, which we cnnot pprehend with ordinry consciousness or senses. In sme wy, moment in bsolute presence lnguge mode pprehending is shrouded in mystery: wve excitement is idel. Self-conscious lnguge drws us thus in presence words, reles ing ir exubernt, lyricl ply. How odd tht scientific nd technicl discourse "Ithc" should be lyricl?tht it should strike us s some how beutiful?but it does strike us tht wy, becuse we re in position wtch motion words, listen ir strnge echoes nd reverbertions. Americn populr culture is on lwys verge unintentionl prody, t best just this side collpse in purely conventionl nd bnl. In Sp Mking Sense, Demme nd Tlking Heds tke this condition nd mke it positive virtue, built-in feture discourse concert nd film, so tht everything is prodie or hlf-prodic, nd consciously so, nd cn nothing be tken seriously. Here, s in Joyce, re re no purely stright pssges; re re only vrious levels posturing. But, s gin 169

10 in Joyce, discourse will not cohere s prody, eir; it is o rndom nd nihilistic in its undermining, nd we re not llowed dismiss one criticized discourse in fvor nor. is Everything consciously rtificil nd produced (nd reproduced), nd, in this se we frgments, lose our illusion some coherent mening for imges beneth surfce, nd we re left only with surfce, estic imges mselves, seen s imges. But s in our verbl exmples, this turns out not be loss: re is finlly buoynt ply imges, motion words, ecsttic dnce sign freed momentrily from lbor significtion. When Dvid Byrne performs "Psycho Killer" ccompnied by smll portble tpe t plyer beginning o? Sp Mking Sense, it is wrning, t beginning film dominted by sound, tht sound on film is not nturl, not rel, but shped nd determined by conventionl estic nd technicl system. It is step outside culturl code concert, which usully presents illusion tht se humn re beings producing se sounds, right now, spontneously, nturlly, in this cler nd under stndble wy. Byrne plces himself on level tpe s plyer, symbol, word, s tht which is not nturl. As film nd show progress, Demme nd Tlking Heds extend nd re inforce this initil imge by pointedly exposing technicl processes concert production nd film mking?lying bre technique both production nd reproduction. The concert stge, for exmple? princi pl imge t ny rock concert nd visul center film?is s sembled out pieces nd frgments before our eyes. At first, we re con fronted with junky bckstge chos, ll red brick nd stepldders, white block letters on wll, piles nondescript equipment here nd re, with only Byrne present t center stge, in white suit. One by one, over course first six songs, or members bnd ttch mselves Byrne, ech with n ttendnt penumbr m chinery nd out mplifiers, filling nd deepening centrl imge concert: bss guitr, drums, guitr, more synsizer, drums, bck-up more singers, spekers nd mplifiers. During this period construction nd mnipultion, nd throughout entire film, for tht mtter, members crew production mke no effort disguise ir presence; y move nonchlntly round stge, djusting spekers, crrying 170

11 lights nd cmers nd instruments, dollying pieces set from here re. Finlly, when screen is lowered in front wht remins bckstge clutter (colors nd re split-screen imges projected on it lter), we relize tht ssembly is complete, nd we re t looking glossy, high-tech set, t bnd, t rock concert. But never frgments relly colesce in ordinry wy, becuse, s Michel Srgow wrote in Bosn Phoenix, Tlking Heds "seem be testing just how mny musicl influences group cn incorporte without losing its own cutting edge" ("Once in Lifetime," Ocber 30, 1984). The members bnd don't seem on belong ger sme stge. The bss plyer, in fishnet sckings nd go-go boots; tee shirted nd wonderfully kinetic bckup singers; Ltin-influenced rhythm section; sned-out guitrist; drummer, refugee from some suburbn tvern bnd: re y ll echoes, prodie references or musicl styles nd culturl scenes, nd y insist on ir frgmentry identities. Byrne himself is chmeleon, eqully resistnt interpret tion?prt revivl singer, prt thlete, prt crzed umn, in ner vous dnce. Throughout film, se visul nd musicl elements persis tently resist our ttempts mke coherent whole out m; re y min imges, consciously rtificil, cretures surfce. In substnce ir show, Tlking Heds complement self conscious production by consistently stressing ir own rtificility, by refusing llow mselves become "nturl." The members bnd hrdly tlk t ll during show, except for degenerte chtter during prodie "Tom-Tom Club" segment?which is sy, y do not tlk in ir own voices. The songs mselves sever intentionlly connections between gesture nd sense or lyric, between segments song; re lyrics chnted, frgmented, surrel, on just edge mening, nd music consists eir prodies discrete or styles repeted electronic nd synsized motifs, inhumn nd impersonl. And on imges stge during show, like those t beginning, re ten disquieting nd bizrre. one During song, for exmple, detched pictures flsh on screen behind stge? house, bookshelf ginst white wshed wll, prts humn body. A floor lmp stnds t front stge, ner microphones. Imges tht we might feel comfortble 171

12 with re jmmed in unfmilir contexts, so tht ir rtificility nd unhominess cn be so exposed, tht we will see m s imges, first nd lst, nd sp so being comfortble with m. Lte in film, Byrne wlks out in huge version white suit (someone gets credit for "building" it), monstrosity which dwrfs his hed nd hnds. But he cts s if nothing is wrong: re is nothing unusul bout this, he seems sy; re is nothing unusul t ll bout big suit. The imges in Tlking Heds show re thus rbitrry nd surrel, ten consciously weird; y resist interprettion, threten nd jm it, nd ttempt remin on surfce, pure lnguge, like words in sen tence or by Fielding Clvino or Joyce. In film, this resistnce is tinged with despertion: it is prt n unesy response burden modern consciousness, our sense tht ny public self must be, in Crter Rtcliff's words, "Frnkenstein self, monster put ger from bits nd pieces imge tissue" ("Dvid Byrne nd Modern Seli," Artforum, My, 1985). The rel thret, Rtcliff nd Tlking Heds suggest, is not condition frgmenttion, but wht thretens disguise tht condition: " world institutions, 'lifestyles,' nd scenes designed bsorb self" in semless ptterns which pretend mke sense. In light such thret, frgmenttion nd nihilism n gr ethicl dimension; surfce ln guge us provides with lst vestige unticity, lst home for crzed nd insistent dnce humn spirit. If, s Michel Srgow sys, this film celebrtes "humn elsticity nd resilience," it does so by cele brting elsticity nd resilience lnguge, its cpcity for resistnce even in fce "dehumnizing violence," "nomie," nd "mechn iztion" modern culture. At home on surfce lnguge, Tlking Heds ply in interstices mening, ccording guerrill rhythm voidnce, like sxophone plyer snking round ll conventionl lines nd phrses without becoming identified with ny m. Self-consciousness bout rtificil chrcter lnguge nd re sistnce ordinry mening: se re llied in phenomen, prose nrr tive nd in film. In Sp Mking Sense, y produce tremendous lyricl energy, visul equivlent ply lnguge. Wtching this film, we know we re wtching show, nd it is not impossible be swept up in ply imges nd gestures nd words, sheer euphoric feel 172

13 visul nd musicl even s we see lnguges, m for wht re. y The beuty film, its estic qulity, hs nothing do with ordinry definitions or lyricism grce; like felicities "Ithc," it is product self-consciousness nd motion words. Let me conclude with one more smll frgment, from nor film, Woody Allen's The Rose Purple Ciro. A film chrcter escpes in rel world, where his ttrctions nd limittions re exposed: he hs lots money, but it is fke; he is good kisser, but he doesn't know wht hp pens fter fde; in short, he is enderingly fithful, nive, nd cour geous, but somehow cold nd inflexible, not s good s genuine r ticle. At end film, re is moment which hs something like sme effect s pssges I quoted t beginning this essy. Mi Frrow sits in movie ter wtching Fred Astire nd Ginger Rogers dnce cross screen. There she is, t movies, wtching imges; here we re, wtching her. Her fce is ple nd luminous, brely freckled, frmed by griny drkness ter nd lit by flickering gry nd white light from screen. Eventully, imge begins fde, slowly, nd film seems be over, but this is only drk moment on screen, nd picture returns for brief self-conscious reprise before credits come up. Why does it move me so, this reflex medium, this brief ply on light screen? Perhps becuse, like pure word, lst im ge knows itself. It is on present its own terms, eerie nd consciously rti ficil, t once s resonnt nd s s grceful gesture by Fred Astire. 173