Lesson #6: The Enormous Radio (33): Edited and Expanded
Part One. Reading Questions.
1. What suggests marital ennui in the story and how does this ennui pique Irene’s interest in the radio’s banter? See page 35 bottom. And see page 37. Irene becomes addicted to the banter, the chatter, the private lives of others to distract herself from boredom, a common occurrence of getting into a marital rut. She's looking for something to break the monotony and the radio fills the role. Some people join Weight Watchers; others get a make-over; others fly to Tahiti; some have an affair; some get obsessed with a celebrity. You name it.
2. How is the radio banter in a way a precursor to reality TV? What unsavory appeal does reality TV and the radio banter have? Voyeurism as a distraction from personal emptiness, boredom, and frustration. This voyeurism speaks to the public appetite for scandal such as the “Tiger Woods case.” Reality TV, Twitter, facebook and other social media sites give us the opportunity to rake over the smallest detail of everyone's personal lives while we distract ourselves from our own life, which may very well be a train wreck, yet we don't even know it because we're on facebook 24/7 scrutinizing the private lives of others.
3. How does Irene’s newfound addiction affect her relationships? See page 38. She’s haunted by knowing the inner lives of others. This distracts her. She does not connect with people the way she used to. The radio gives her a sense of omniscience, which makes her elevated, superior. This puffed-up pride speaks to her growing isolation from others. Obsessing over others’ foibles deludes us into thinking we’re pristine and sinless. As a result, we cultivate pride and become more distant from others. During Irene’s radio addiction, she becomes a haughty buzzkill like Lawrence in the story “Goodbye, My Brother.” She doesn't face her own demons; rather she looks with disdain at others with a sense of self-superiority.
4. What evidences Irene’s lugubrious addiction to voyeurism? See page 39. She’s sad, but she’s addicted to the sadness, the drama, she receives from listening to private conversations. On the outside she laments the sadness, the upheaval, and the abuse she learns about others, but on the inside she finds pleasure in the drama: After all, people's private lives have become a soap opera for her entertainment.
5. How does the radio chatter open up the wound of Irene’s despair? See page 40. She sees in their despair a mirror of her own and she needs to quiet her despair as it was before by getting rid of the radio. In other words, the dark world afforded by the radio is a projection of her own misery.
6. In what ways does the radio become a religious instrument for Irene? How does this instrument fail her? It brings her no grace or forgiveness for her sins, only guilt and damnation. See page 41 as a litany of her sins are recited by Jim, her husband. She doesn't redeem herself of her sins or confront them or do anything to salvage the mistakes of her past. Instead, she intoxicates herself with the melodrama of other people's egregious misguided decisions.
Part Two. The radio is analogous to the voyeuristic impulse behind reality TV and celebrity scandal. What is the appeal of this voyeuristic impulse?
1. We like to see stories unfold about others because watching the deformities, grotesqueries, and disgraces of others makes us believe we’re normal. For example, I'm an overeater, easily consuming 1,000 calories a day that I don't need. Yet I am obsessed with the HomeTown Buffet customers who eat 10,000 calories over their dietary budget. I'm a pig times one, but they are all pigs times 1,000 so I can feel normal compared to these slop feeders.
2. Watching the sins of others distracts us from our own sins. We're all sinners, but we'd rather ignore our own as we throw eggs and slop at Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods is no different than any man. All men in fact are like kids in the candy store wanting to eat more than they can chew. Give a man wealth and power and all hell breaks loose. Yet we treat Tiger Woods like a freak and an "addict."
3. Sadly, part of human nature is schadenfreude, the pleasure of watching others’ failures. We are by nature competitive, always jockeying for an advantage and watching people fall from a high stature makes us feel relieved. We say, "Thank God that wasn't me." Jay Leno for decades has been admired as an effective comedian and a likable public personality but the perception that he stole his job back from Conan O'Brien has made him a fallen figure, rendering many people with a large dose of schadenfreude. The case with goody two shoes Tiger Woods.
4. Shared community experience of shaming the outcast makes the community feel stronger. We call this shaming a name: scapegoating. There are all these "Real House Wife" shows rendering people as selfish back-stabbers, fame-mongers, charlatans, ego pig-feeders, etc. By shaming these characters (who are no doubt playing to the camera for our delectation) we shame them and feel morally superior.
5. Voyeurism, such as access to the Tiger Woods scandal, allows us to knock down our celebrity gods and exact revenge and resentment against those we envy. We hate people being happier than us. We hate people who have special privileges like cutting to the front of a line at a fancy restaurant. We hate athletes who get arrested and then take celebrity photos with the police like Ben Roethlisberger. Let us cut them down to their rightful place in the universe so we can sleep better at night.
Part Three. Essay Option
In a page, write about yourself or someone you know who got addicted to a reality show or celebrity scandal. In your thesis, explain the psychological causes of this addiction by comparing these causes to the motivations behind Irene's obsession with the mysterious radio.
Lesson #5: “Goodbye, My Brother” (3)
One. Reading Questions
1. According to the narrator, what value is of utmost importance? 3
2. What evidences Lawrence’s anal-retentive personality? Attaining superficial perfection to mask the lack of connection, which leads to more disconnection. Asserting an authoritarian, censorious disposition on others. Modern American word for this type of person: buzzkill.
3. What’s eating away at Lawrence? He’s worshipped the false god of ambition and has nothing to show for it except trifles. He must prove that he is superior to others to hide his wasted life. And this assertion is exhausting and draining to him and others. To assert his “superiority,” he is animated by the need to issue grievances of all kinds. This sucks the life out of everyone. See page 11.
4. What are the rotten fruits of Lawrence’s personality? Soulless, emasculated, frightened children, not raised with an appetite for life. See page 8 and top of page 10.
5. What evidences that Lawrence is a philistine? He cannot define himself on human relationships, since his are woeful or nonexistent. He must define himself by the things he buys and owns. That is a philistine.
6. Why is the sea such a predominant figure throughout the story? The sea represents the opposite of Lawrence’s pinch-faced joylessness: The sea represents life and the giving and bearing of life. The sea is a celebration of life. The sea is also a place where we shed our anxieties and sorrows and connect with nature. See page 10. The sea is a celebration, shouting “hurrah” on page 18. But for Lawrence, the sea shouts “vale,” which means farewell. Then on page 19, the brother whacks Lawrence with a sea root, a club from the sea.
7. How is the acrimony (bitter antagonism) between Anna the cook and Lawrence significant to the story’s theme? See pages 10 and 11.
8. What nourishes Lawrence on page 12. Shaming others. Looking with disapproval or a censorious expression as if to say, “You should be ashamed.” What a buzzkill.
9. Why does the narrator describe his brother Lawrence as “misanthropic” on page 16? A misanthrope hates the human race because he hates himself. Unable to love himself, he must hate others.
10. How is the vacation paradise restored after Lawrence leaves? Strawberry jam smell, Diana and Helen swimming in the sea. They are naked but not ashamed, like Adam and Eve before the Fall.
Part Two. Essay Option
Write a profile of someone you know who reminds you of Lawrence. This person is a buzzkill and has the power to ruin a good mood just by merely walking into a room. For your thesis compare the distinguishing characteristics of this buzzkill with Lawrence.
Lexicon for "Goodbye, My Brother"
1. anal-retentive personality
2. supercilious pose
3. philistine
4. acrimony (bitter antagonism)
5. censorious
6. misanthrope
7. buzzkill
Lexicon for "The Enormous Radio"
1. ennui
2. banter, chatter
3. voyeurism
4. foibles
5. schadenfreude
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