The top 5 metamorphic tales...
Wednesday, 16 May 2007
The top five metamorphic texts
Metaporphism has long been a fascinating idea for all cultures; the consideration of oneself, free of their corporeality allows for great introspection into what it is that makes us human, and how we identify ourselves. It's no suprise then that the theme is one that has been used a number of times, and seems continually fresh. This then, is my top five metamorphic texts of all time, in reverse order.
5.Great Apes - Will Self
Deeply satirical, and often quite disturbing imagination of one Simon Dyke waking up to find that unfortunately, the girlfriend he wakes up next to, and seemingly everyone else in the world, has turned into monkeys. Some people hate his verbosity, I think he's grand.
4.The Master and Margerita - Mikhail Bulgakov
There is no specific incident in Bulgakov's Soviet satire, it just happens to be a device used a
number of times when Satan and his troupe come barging into Moscow one day. The book, magical realism at it's best, is about more than just physical transformations. Within an incredibly funny scaffolding, Bulgakov examines the rotting of Soviet systems, and the transition from religion into secularism in a beautifully effective, but never effected way. And to be honest, I have never ever laughed so much as I did at the idea of a bumpticious giant black cat walking the streets of Moscow3.The Wasp Factory - Ian Banks
Whilst the theme of corporeal transformation only reveals itslef at the very end, the novel drops subtle clues, both in the text and the textuality of the writing, so that by the end of the novel, when the shocker comes, there is a sense of inevitablity about it matching the protagonists's own unformed suspicions. Notable for dealing with the idea of gender, something no other book on this list really tackles.
2.Rhinoceros - Eugène Ionesco
Probably my favourite Absurdist writer, Rhinoceros tells the story of a small community that gradually change into raging pachiderms, one by one. Dealing with the ideas of conformism, a reflection on the actions of the Iron Guard in Romania, the play also takes on an interesting counter idea, of the dangers of fetishising individualism. I was tempted to put The Lesson in here, which documents the transformation of the teacher, in a role of mentor into tyrannical dominant, violent intellectual rapist. Not obvious enough however, so Rhinoceros it is.
1. Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
What is there to say. It had to be this really didn't it. I was interviewed about this book once, so I will forever hate it in a small way, but there is something so charmed in Kafka's writing. The openng line is one of the best ever written in my opinion:As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.
A great deal of pathos and humanity goes into this story, but it's also a story of paranoia, of claustrophia. Supoib.
posted by danny @ 06:59,
