In our discussion of The Following Story on Monday Dr. Sexson brought up the instances that Herman, and Nooteboom, reach across the boundary between reader and author/character and pull us into the story. After having read The Following Story for the third time, don’t worry I plan to read it again before I present my paper, and thinking about all the suggestions for who the “you” could be in the work, I got to thinking about it more myself.
After reading it several times I believe that the “you” is not only the obvious reaching out of Herman to the reader, but also Herman talking to Lisa d’India more importantly. Nooteboom writes earlier on in the work the following lines, “I’m glad the others have gone and that I need tell only you my story, even though you yourself are in it.” We as readers are the “you” and yet at the same time Lisa d’India is there as well contained in that little three letter word.
The importance of her connection to the “you” at the end is established when Herman first mentions that she is Crito to his Socrates. The philosopher and the beloved pupil. This role is first taken on by Lisa d’India in the class in which Herman enacts the death of Socrates. Nooteboom writes, “I stand still in the corner nearest the blackboard and look at Crito, my dearest pupil. She is sitting pale-faced and upright at her desk.”
Throughout the work Lisa d’India and the reader are all wrapped into one, the "you", to exemplify the importance of the “relationship/bond” that Herman and Lisa share. Not sexual but intellectual. It is only within the last page that the separation between Lisa and us, the reader, becomes distinct.
“You needn’t not beckon me any longer, I’m coming. None of the others will hear my story, none of them will see that the woman sitting there waiting for me has the features of my dearest Crito, the girl who was my pupil, so young that one could speak about immortality with her. And then I told her, then I told you-the following story”
Like Crito and Socrates, Lisa is there to close Herman’s eyes as death takes hold. In the end we also realize as readers that we are on this journey with him, we are on the boat to nowhere too, stuck between two worlds. His tale is a preview for what all of us will face at some point in time. We will all be on that boat telling our story to the one that means the most to us.
“…an immeasurable space of memories can be stored in the most minute time span…” and this is what we will share at the end. The memories that haunt us the most and come back to us in that instant of déjà vu to share with those that are awaiting our arrival.
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Nice work and great topic! I love the lines at the end, "None of us will ever know what the other saw when he was telling you his story, but whatever face you show, recognizable or absolutely not, expected or unexpected, it must have something to do with fulfillment." That always gives a good shiver up the spine.
ReplyDeleteI quite agree with you about the personage denoted by the "you." There is someone there, powerful and infinite behind the specific. I suppose Nooteboom is urging us as readers to understand the importance of listening to stories. That possibly the soul is chained to its story, both a hindrance and a ticket to freedom. But we must listen.
Thanks for this post, and enjoy this book for the fourth time around!