i have been a long time brautigan fan, and i remember reading "my name" a few years back. i simultaneously like and dislike this piece. what i initially like, and what has made this work very memorable for me are the one line descriptions that instantly give the reader a familiar, sweet, and almost nostalgic reaction. these feelings even build up as they go along, from "perhaps it was raining very hard" which might deliver a slightly less emotional response than: "perhaps you stared into a river. there was somebody near you who loved you. they were about to touch you. you could feel this before it happened. then it happened" which is only a few lines down. it almost feels like brautigan knows who we (as the reader) are, the small intimate things that we like, and is able to connect us to him by directly saying that those things are his "name". To me, it felt incredibly enjoyable to read all braugtigan's different "names", but it was almost in vanity or something. greediness, i guess. i wanted braugtigan to feed me more and more of the warm cozy feelings that i love.
but after the chapter in this story was over, i was somehow disappointed with the work. first off, and i know how un-intellectual this may sound, i kinda wanted a name. actually, i didn't need a name, but i wanted to be able to identify this character with a specific something so that i could connect with him in some way or another. the idea that he was, or his name was "whatever is in [my] mind" irked me a little bit. not too much, just a little bit.
secondly, i thought the way the chapter ended pretty weak. i had fallen into the pattern, like was seen in "the school" and the pay off here didn't quite do it for me. i was becoming more pleased and curious, pleased and curious every time the pattern repeated itself, but then he ends with "and i wish margaret would leave me alone" and i feel a little let down. i feel like that sentence itself speaks poorly of the character. i think i might have liked it better if he ended it revealing something more concrete about his character, or even just omitting the final line all together.
I agree with you on a couple points. One- I really like Brautigan because his words flow beautifully with one another. Also, I enjoyed this piece. It was witty, interesting, very poetic and sounded great. However, I still don't know who Margret is.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you that Brautigan's pattern becomes almost as addictive as the good feelings he conveys through it. The final line about Margaret, I too am somewhat confused about. One thought I have regarding "And I wish Margaret would leave me alone" is that perhaps the entire story was in fact leading up to that line. Maybe the description of the narrator's name is actually a definition of his relationship with this Margaret character. All of the touching one-liners which produce such nostalgia and emotion in the reader, are actually memories of events which the narrator experienced with Margaret. Brautigan refers to many "somebody's" in the piece, some of which seem to refer to the company of a loved one, and once refers to a "she" in "Or you felt bad when she said that thing to you. She could have told it to someone else..." And this leads up to the idea that perhaps the character is so engulfed by these memories with Margaret, so obsessed, that he is unable to focus on his own life (his name), and this is why he wishes that Margaret would leave him alone. And this is why his name is defined by the memories he has when he thinks of Margaret. Although we read both "My Name" and "Margaret" as separate stories, they both are a part of the entire novella In Watermelon Sugar, so it is not out of reason to compare the relationship of the narrator with Margaret in "Margaret" to the relationship of the two in this story.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought...
First off, I want to echo your disappointment in the story's ending. The analogy you made to The School really fits: both authors treat us to lots of fun build up and then blindside us with seemingly non-sequitur endings. What’s up with that? Intentional ambiguity doesn’t float my boat. Still, after some thought, and the comments of classmates, in both cases I am inclined to change my mind about the apparently arbitrary endings. I think kt is right, and this is ultimately the story of love gone sour, just told in a totally unconventional way. I think the vivid little memories in this story are actually the narrator’s, and each is in some way related to his relationship with Margaret. Together they paint the picture of a person hung up on his past, someone whose memories define him even more than his name does. With that in mind, maybe the final line means “I wish I could forget Margaret.”
ReplyDeleteAlso, since I can’t seem to shut up, and since the other reading underscored the importance of tiny details, I wonder what purpose drove Brautigan to give his nameless narrator a problem with plurals. In Margaret the narrator refers to Margaret as "they" a few times and in My Name, he describes himself as "one of those who do not..." those who remember their Strunk n White will recognize these errors as uses of the plural forms where the singular is correct. Maybe this is just the nit picking of an ex-grammar-nazi, but even though this kind of mixing up of plurals and singulars is a fairly common mistake to make, it seems to fit in with the inclusive anonymity present in My Name in a way I can't quite describe. It feels like there's a statement about the commonality of experience in there somewhere, but I just can't flesh it out.
I agree completely about the last line. It feels so out of place. Knowing the storyline of In Watermelon Sugar helps somewhat, but taken out of context it's completely devoid of meaning. It almost feels like it's just a randomly added line, like "My Name" is really just the product of a Copy/Paste error. I also agree with your statement about the last line making the character unlikable, or at least less likable, which is sad because the rest of the piece builds up, making the reader feel increasingly more connected to the author.
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