a writer's passion

What are sheer playfulness and deadly seriousness related to each other? Two sides of the same coin. They are the best friends of Philip Roth.

The introduction of Steena is by the letter she writes to Coleman after a brief meeting she and Coleman have at a subway. The letter appears twice in the novel. First, in Coleman's remembrance of this girl while talking to Nanthan, the narrator, at the beginning of the narrative.

'Quick. Smart. Pretty. Tall. Marvelously tall. That statuesque recumbency. Never forgotten it. With her for two years. Used to call her Voluptas. Psyche's daughter. The personification to the Romans of sensual pleasure.' Roth is at ease to write such a limpid, yet powerful words to sketch a woman, which creates a sensational immediacy to stimulate imagination. A pleasure indeed to go a bit further to feel more about this 'Voluptas' while her letter to Coleman is read. The sentence like 'Brief as our meeting was, after I saw you I felt an autumnal sadness, perhaps because the six years since we first met make it wrenchingly obvious how many days of my life are "over"' goes consistently with the quality of voluptuousness. The following words then puts up an innocent girlish tone, which I think is Roth's intention to mimicry Steena's style. 'Do you remember yourself? You were incredibly good at swooping, almost like birds do when they fly over land or sea and spy something moving, something bursting with life and dive down-or zero in-and seize upon it.'

However, such a vivid personification runs out of its steam when Steena appears later in a more detailed account of Coleman's affair with her, in which, strange as it is, the perspective of the narrative has been obscured by the interference of Coleman's memory. The latter part leans heavily on the impact of the social bias both Coleman and Steena struggle against, but could not escape its grip. Of course, one can sense the importance of social indication that Roth has tried hard to assimilate in his narrative, but the lively and voluputuous quality of Steena is not sustained, and the narrative seems sluggish.

Maybe it's overburdened with the intension to show some social factors through the story of Steena, the later portrait of Steena seems flat, and even disappointing, as the anticipation created by Coleman's mysterious description about this voluptuous little woman is not fulfilled.

A day passed without an event is groundless, a day without passion is hopeless, a day without meditation is meaningless, and a day without writing is … well, just an awful day. I can’t remember how many awful days I have passed. The promised writing about Roth’s the Human Stain has not been fulfilled.

Read a bit about his life from an interview by a journalist of the Guardian. It has reinforced my not-so-generous impression that this work basically is the by-product of a kind of self-obsession on some issues strictly limited to the academic circle. Unless you are well known about all sorts of cultural studies, and some names such as Julia Kristiva, you would find it’s difficult to grasp some nuances in his sarcasm about French culture and feminist theory originated from than land.

Actually, I think all the lively writing in this novel are about the lives in a small university. Otherwise, it would be pale, and the end is a well-crafted stain of the whole narrative, a residue that tries to reminds readers of its self-importance. A critique finds it’s quite difficult to appreciate the story of the young French female dean. To me it’s the most impressive part of the whole novel. I have laughed a lot on her compulsory journey to New York public library, sitting there with a book by Christiva, hoping to find her Mr. Right.

It’s amazing that Roth can write the story with such confidence, like a psychological detective into the mental labyrinth of a chic, young, thoroughly cultivated French female academician, while discreetly subversive on the subject. Perhaps it’s a syndrome of Roth’s unpleasant affair with a French, or the French culture in general. Whether or not Roth has a love-hate complex with France is out of the question, obviously he is obsessive about it. And that, I think it’s the writer’s passion.