Grim(m) for Grownups

Ben Marcus’s TheFlaming Alphabet was recommended by none other than George Saunders in an NPR interview.  Never read anything by Marcus, so why not give it a try?

 Well, it probably ranks among the top ten strangest books I’ve ever read.  This is a serious book by a serious writer, don’t get me wrong.  But such an unusual blend of genres: science fiction, apocalyptic vision, Jewish mysticism, traditional thriller.  The basic premise is that language itself (the element that elevated humans to a unique position of dominance in the animal kingdom) becomes toxic to human adults.  There’s just too much of it everywhere, and especially the speech of children causes adults to become severely ill, and in many cases to die.  The children themselves are mostly unharmed, but they will mature, and when they do they will be subject to the same curse.  Eventually all language (written, spoken, even thought) becomes deadly. Survival means giving it all up and ‘living’ in an uninviting, unrewarding, and utterly empty space. Or maybe that’s where we are now and we don’t know it?

Ben Marcus

What a strange idea: a novel (language in a particularly potent and seductive form) in which language itself becomes toxic. Ironies abound.  While in the early sections there is a slightly humorous approach to the dynamic of two parents living with a teenager (we’ve all been there and can relate), when that dynamic is exaggerated to the extreme things get ugly pretty quickly.  The remainder of the book is dark and gory.  Things go from bad to worse to awful damned fast, and there really is no way out.  Many places feel like holocaust literature.  It’s not a pleasant read.

Marcus indulges himself in many places, allowing himself to splurge in linguistic feasts that ultimately exhaust and defeat the reader.  For him there really is no way out.  Those miniature verbal orgies are upsetting but also very telling.  It’s a truly virtuosic performance, but a poignant portrayal of utter degradation and loss is not fun to read.  It was tough for me to get through, though I’m glad I did.

Think of it as a cautionary fairy tale:  what might happen if we don’t recognize and cherish the redemptive power of language.  If we continue to abuse our words we will forfeit their potential for enlightenment, growth, and expression, and we will be forced to live without language and its positive capabilities. We will retreat from our elevated human status. Perhaps the book could be shorter.  Maybe it’s really a novella or even a short story.  But just think of how much ‘fast food’ language surrounds us in our everyday lives, and how infrequently we protect ourselves from language inflation and devaluation.  No wonder that serious poetry is so far from the mainstream.  Too many words to consider any of them carefully and lovingly. Too much of a good thing.  Way too much.

Say it ain't so.  Please?