After talking about Septimus in class, I realize that there is some method to his madness. I suppose I wasn't looking hard enough. At first glance, Septimus seemed to me to be a few fries short of a happy meal. Actually he seemed to be many fries short of a happy meal. The earth bursting into flames, the trees talking to him, the delusions of grandeur, and the voices telling him to kill himself all seem a little too much for me to make sense out of. The thing about Septimus that bothers me the most is that as far as we knew (for a while), he just has shell shock (or PTSD as we know it today). I did research on PTSD for health freshman year and none of my research shows anything where victims experience what can be described as something similar to an acid trip. This pre-existing knowledge made it even harder for me to understand Septimus. However, having recently learned that Septimus had some sort of voices in his head before the war explains quells my worries a lot. Now I can just accept that Septimus is just unique.
So far, this whole 20th Century class has made me fell narrow minded. I didn't get the poetic sense of beauty in everyday life from the Mezzanine, and I haven't gotten a poetic vibe from Septimus' mind; at least not until today's class discussion. Reading Septimus' twisted observation on how all life is connected made me realize that there may be some method to his madness. I guess I just have to read a little deeper into his thoughts, which I plan on doing right now.
3 comments:
Where in the text do you get the idea that Septimus hears voices in his head *before* the war? If we take "hearing voices" extremely loosely, perhaps: as an aspiring poet, his mind echoes with the words of Shakespeare and Keats, and maybe he's "deluded" to presume that Miss Isabel Pole will return his affections. Maybe he has a slightly overblown sense of his own centrality and importance. But there's no indication (to my eye) that he's suffering from anything like the mental breakdown that the war precipitates. It's shell shock, a reaction to becoming a "good soldier" and showing no emotion whatsoever when his friend is killed. The awareness that he "can't feel" brings on the more severe symptoms. (And don't be too hard on yourself, Juan: it's not that you are "narrow minded"; reading new stuff is *always* an opportunity to expand/open our minds! A novel compels us to look more closely at our reactions to characters and life-situations than we're able to in real life. Going back and reassessing first impressions is part of the game.)
You're right. I messed up on that part. I don't remember reading anything about Septimus having voices in his head before the war, but I thought I heard something like that in a class discussion. During the next day's discussion, I re-read the Septimus section and realized I messed up. I don't know why I didn't bother to change it. I admit I was wrong in that assumption. I guess what I meant to say that Septimus' version of Shell Shock is unique simply because of his unique personality mixed with the intensity of his battle experience.
Oh and sorry if my Baker pastiche was a little inappropriate. I just want to say that if you had as much reading it as I did writing it, then I fulfilled my mission.
Post a Comment