Reverse Metamorphosis (Open Genre)

Ezra Johnson

Open Genera Project

The Reverse Metamorphosis

One morning, Rufus woke up all by himself. Normally the pheromones from his neighbors awoke him, but today he just woke up. He sniffed the air to catch a waft of the morning pheromones. Nothing. “That’s odd,” Rufus thought to himself. He tried again in vain. Rufus opened his eyes, but everything was all wrong. He looked around to the back corner where he kept his secret possessions collected while foraging. Rufus looked in the pile for his new shiny bead – Rufus had found it in the trash pile a few days ago while foraging for food—but his eyes couldn’t focus on anything. He was determined to make sure it was there, so he began to move towards the pile. As he began to move Rufus realized something was amiss. He looked behind him to make sure all six of his legs were in working order, but instead of six thin legs he found just two soft, thick, pink legs. He thought that maybe his vison was acting up again, so he tried to move them. The right one twitched but then went limp again. Confused, Rufus looked down and found that he had two smaller legs close to his head. These legs were different. They had floppy things at the end which each spawned 5 tiny stick-like appendages.

Rufus’ thoughts returned to work when he heard scurrying in a nearby tunnel. “If I’m late one more time Archibald will kill me!” Archibald was head-forager, specially bred for administrative roles. Rufus resented Archibald. While Rufus was out foraging all Archibald did was emit anger pheromones and scare the foragers. Rufus pondered his options. He knew Archibald would come scurrying by with his anger pheromone completely maxed out if he didn’t get up soon. He willed his new form to move, but all he got was a lot of twitching. “Maybe if I emit some help pheromone, Zoey will come by and help me get to work,” Rufus thought. He tried, but felt no odor being emitted. Rufus was at a loss. He couldn’t call for help or move his new body. “I guess I will just wait for Archibald to come by,” he thought.

As he was waiting, Rufus couldn’t help but fall asleep. When he awoke, he found Archibald standing above him his antennae in a flurry over his body. He sniffed the air. “No anger pheromone,” he thought “Why is he not emitting any anger pheromone?” Again Rufus made an attempt to communicate. However, in this attempt rather than emitting a pheromone he felt an odd sensation inside of his neck. It was a small vibration that reverberated through his body. Not only did it reverberate but it made an audible sound. Archibald was still feeling around when Rufus accidently did this, and it caused him to scurry away in panic and fear. Rufus could hear his scurrying get further and further away. He resolved to just wait for him to come back.

After a while, Rufus could hear lots of scurrying, it got louder and louder until seven workers came and approached him. Rufus attempted to communicate again, but it only sent the entire group of workers cowering away. Rufus made no more attempts to move or communicate while the workers picked him up and carried him away. He had only visited a few sections of the colony. It just wasn’t his business to explore the nursery or the workers area. All the same, Rufus was being carried through unknown territory and he couldn’t help but be curious. He wondered where they were taking him. “Maybe this happens often and they have a special food to fix it,” he thought optimistically. The tunnels seemed to go on forever and he began to wonder about the life ahead of him. “There must be some way that I can go back to work,” he thought. “I want to find more shiny beads to add to my collection.”

The tunnel slowly got wider and emerged into a large room with a dark endless pit in the center. “Oh, no!” he thought. He began to struggle – or attempt to struggle—with the workers. He sensed that he was unnerving them with his small movements, so he began to vocalize and squirm as much as he could. Rufus could smell the stench. Every single dead member of the colony was dumped into this pit. Every corpse was thrown down to rot and decompose. “They think I am dead!” he thought as he wrestled free of their grip. Rufus fell to the ground. His soft pink skin was punctured by the sharp rocks he fell on. Rufus felt a hot gooey liquid begin to flow over his body. He didn’t know what the liquid was and he realized that his soft pink skin was useless for protection. After he fell the workers, who were past uncomfortable, quickly rolled Rufus’ limp body into the pit.

When Rufus woke up he was ready to put the nightmare behind him and go to work. Except when he opened his eyes he saw nothing but utter darkness. He realized that it wasn’t a dream. He really did transform into a soft pink useless monster. He took a whiff of the air. It was so putrid and repulsive that he could hardly breathe. After collecting himself, he discovered that he had some control over his large lower legs and smaller upper legs. It was enough that he was able to scoot himself over to the wall through all the slimy corpses. After feeling around with his new appendages, Rufus realized that he had grown to about twice the size as he when he first got thrown down. His body felt incomplete, like it needed to stretch out and expand. There was nothing Rufus could do but sit and wait for something to happen.

As Rufus’ form began to grow, the pain from the wound returned. One day he was able to muster enough effort to reach around and feel around for the wound. As soon as he touched it his entire body shuddered. The wound had gotten worse. Rufus felt dizzy and went back to sleep. With each day Rufus grew larger and larger, but so did the wound. One day it was only a small spot on his back. A week or so later the wound had grown so large that it overwhelmed his entire back. Rufus tried to move as little as possible. He began to drift off to sleep more and more often. He slept for longer periods of time and soon forgot how long he had been in the pit. Sleep became the only thing that comforted him.

After about a month Archibald came to check up on him. Archibald emitted so much panic pheromone when he saw the giant pink skinned monster that the whole colony stopped to come see. Archibald had an idea, rather than letting all this soft decomposing flesh go to waste he would use it. He commanded the workers to start to dig a hole in the center of the soft-fleshed thing. “That’s a human,” one of the workers responded. “I have seen them up on the surface.” Archibald emitted a little anger pheromone “I don’t care what it is,” he said “Just make a hole in the center!” Archibald would use the new hollowed out area as a nursery. “It has all the perfect conditions,” he thought. “It’s warm, damp, and the larvae can just feed on the flesh rather than eating the foraged food.” After about a month the nursery inside of Rufus was ready. It was as perfect as Archibald had envisioned. Archibald was promoted in the social ranks of the colony and everyone prospered.

Craziness and the Past

Let's set aside Milkman for a moment and just look at the people in his life. Macon, Ruth, Pilate, Hagar, Guitar; they all have some insanely crazy story. Milkman is stuck with these people and can't seem to break away. Early in the book we established that Milkman was stuck in the past. On the Sunday drives Milkman was forced to look backwards (symbolizing the past). We see the same dynamic at the end of this novel. As an adult Milkman is driven to explore his past so that he can uncover and get rid of all the craziness in his life.

 

Even before Milkman was born he was surrounded by his crazy parents. Ruth, who is already crazy because Macon refused to sleep in the same bed with her, goes to Pilate and asks for a potion or drug that will allow her to sleep with him again. Pilate agrees and Ruth becomes pregnant. Macon, who is totally confused as to why Ruth is pregnant, tries to make her abort the baby. I'm pretty sure normal people don't ask their sister-in-law for a potion to have another child. On top of this Ruth is crazy to start with, she had a "different" relationship with her father that made us all super uncomfortable. Macon refuses to love Ruth because she had this odd relationship, but this refusal only causes more problems later on. 

Macon is not with out his own set of problems. His past seems to be a mystery for the most part. Milkman knows that he murdered a man in a cave when he thought the man was a ghost. Again this is totally insane, but with all the other insanity going on we sort of pass this an average thing people in this novel would do. 

Now Hagar's type of craziness is a little different than the others because it was provoked. A good portion of the fault is assigned to Milkman. He broke off a lifetime relationship with just a letter and a wad of cash. However, there ways to communicate that do not involve killing your lifelong friend. 

Milkman leaves his home to "find the lost gold", and at first it seems like it will just be another errand for his father. His whole life his father would tell him to do something, and the naive young little boy would go off to complete his father's work. However, part way through his journey Milkman becomes his own man. He realizes the reasons people dislike him, and the reason why Hagar is trying to kill him. The book becomes a coming-of-age novel. I think we see Milkman make the first steps to becoming his own person and escaping all the craziness that has been placed around him. Milkman has journeyed away from all the craziness and is now discovering and uncovering his past. Instead of this quest for gold Milkman's motive switches to finding out about his family. His ancestors seem to be heroic and well-respected, almost the opposite of his current family. Milkman is driven away from the craziness so that he can embrace his past and finally get rid of the insanity that surrounds him. (I haven't finished the book yet, but I guess I will find out if Milkman really does "solve the puzzle" of his past and get away from all the crazy people in his life.)

I'm with Rochester (mostly)

It is really hard to pick a side in this novel. I think I'm 60% Rochester 40% Antoinette. Here is why I sort of lean towards Rochester. The only thing that Rochester did wrong is have an affair with Emile. I think that this was really not that bad of a thing. Don't get me wrong, I think that sleeping with other people when you are married is a terrible thing to do, but I think he kinda had the right to retaliate in some manner. After all it was Antoinette who started it. All she wanted was to be loved, but she went to pretty desperate measures to get it. She gave him the love potion which is just a little too far in my opinion. This made me lose a little sympathy for Antoinette. 

Micheal brought up a point in class that he shouldn't fight fire with fire. I think that this is in general a pretty valid point. He did have reason to be angry though. I mean if someone gave you something like rohypnol I think you would get pretty mad. Yes I totally understand that you shouldn't sleep with other people, especially when you are married. However what did Antoinette think was gonna happen when the "poison/love potion" wore off. I think she kinda had it coming. 

Another reason I sympathize with Rochester is that never had any ill intentions, he just ended up in a bad situation. I think it is similar to Meursault in a lot of ways. It says Rochester was feverish and hallucinogenic when he first arrive in Jamaica. I think it is interesting to draw a parallel between Rochester's hallucinogenic feelings when stuff happened, and Meursault's  hallucinogenic feelings when he shot the Arab. Both Rochester and Meursault didn't really know what they were doing and they had to suffer the consequences because "life happens" and they couldn't control it. I feel sorry for Rochester in this sense, he sort of just got roped into a marriage that he maybe didn't think clearly about.
I also feel sorry that he got the bad end of primogeniture and has to work to get money. Those sorry feelings sort of got canceled out when he marries Antoinette and realizes that he gets all the money and that he is no longer a disappointment to his father. I understand completely why people think he is a jerk and side with Antoinette, but in my opinion I think he is a good guy that is just trying to make his way in the world. He wasn't deceptive to try to get Antoinette's money, it just sort of happened that way and he seems happy that it did. 

"It doesn't matter" or does it?

One of the largest points that Camus tries to get across is the idea of neutrality and meaningless. Meursault's character is the definition of this point. At face value we see this as being the main point of the article. The argument that “Nothing, nothing mattered and I knew why”. Meursault knows that his life is going to end no matter what. He makes the argument that society will go on just the same as it always has which means individual life has no meaning.

“But everybody knows life isn’t worth living. Deep down I knew perfectly well that it doesn’t much matter whether you die at thirty or at seventy, since in either case other men and women will naturally go on living – and for thousands of years. Whether it was now or twenty years from now, I would still be one dying.”

It obvious that on the Meursault is indifferent to the time of his death. I always figured him as one of the people that when asked the question “Do you want to know the exact time of death?” he would answer “I guess, but it doesn’t matter”. The information wouldn’t matter at all to Meursault because he knows it would come anyway. I think we are all a little disturbed by his indifference and neutrality. Having individual thoughts and opinions is part of human nature.  When we see Meursault thinking about his own life we feel uncomfortable that he doesn’t care to preserve it. Or at least that’s what we think at first.

I may be reading a little too far into the book but I like having some sort of logical reason for everything. I like to impose a little more logic that “it just happened” or “it doesn’t matter”. When I read the passage above my attention was drawn to the one right below it.

“At that point, what would disturb my train of thought was the terrifying leap I would feel my heart take at the idea of having twenty more years of life ahead of me. But I simply had to stifle it by imagining what I’d be thinking in twenty years when it would all come down to the same thing anyway”

In the first line we see Meursault have a small realization that his life could have been so much more productive and eventful if he wasn’t in this situation. But then right after this realization he “stifles it”. My panel presentation in class talked about alexithymia, I don’t want to dive into it too much, but the gist of it was Meursault stores all his feelings and emotions behind a wall of no emotion. I think this part where he finally realizes his life could have amounted to something but then “stifles" that thought is a good example of some of those subconscious feelings trying to break through and manifest themselves.

I just don’t like the argument of “nothing matters” and I would rather have some sort of reason to justify all of Meursault’s actions. At the same time that I wish for a reason, I understand that it sort of defeats the entire purpose of the novel. 

Science behind "The Metamorphosis"

By definition metamorphosis means "the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages". The key idea that I am getting at is the idea of transformation through stages. When Gregor first wakes up he is still able to communicate and speak with his family, even though his speech is affected with an “irrepressibly painful squeaking”. This is the first stage of his transformation.

The next stage in metamorphosis is when Grete brings him food and he begins to lose his ability to communicate. His speech becomes hissing and squeaking and he can’t communicate verbally with his family. Grete continues to bring him food and Gregor takes joy in eating, and discovering his new bodily functions (like climbing on walls). This stage is like a larva in metamorphosis. The primary function of a larva is to eat. They eat continuously so that they have enough energy to develop into the next stage.

The next stage in metamorphosis is the pupa. In this stage the larva changes into a stationary chrysalis. The pupa does not eat or move. It just preforms the changes necessary to develop into an adult. Gregor in his case also becomes stationary in the stage. He has the apple lodged in his back which causes him to have minimal movement. He also does not eat in this stage. Grete puts food in his room, but he doesn’t even touch it.

After a while Gregor leaves his room to listen to his sister play the violin, I believe this moment is where the adult Gregor is manifest. This is one of the only moments where we see Gregor have some sort of human interaction. He comes out of his pupa stage and everyone is horrified at the “adult” form. In fact even Grete has had enough, this is the stage where she no longer sees him as her brother. This is the stage where the metamorphosis is complete. Gregor’s family no longer sees him as a human, because Gregor has completed his metamorphosis. He has changed from his human form to an insect form. Adults in metamorphosis often have the shortest life-span. This also makes sense in Gregor’s case. He dies shortly after he completes his metamorphosis.

I believe Kafka named this book very intentionally. Not only does it follow similar stages to the scientific version of the metamorphosis. It also can be interpreted as the way Gregor thoughts change throughout the novel. 

Analyzing Hemingway's Characters

This book totally got on my nerves but sort of in a a good way. Don't worry this won't be a blog ranting on about why each character sucks and how The Sun Also Rises is a terrible book or anything. This is just my opinion about Hemingway's Characters. The characters are very realistic and therefore very annoying and subject to a lot of judgement and dislike.

To start off lets begin with the character I dislike the most; Robert Cohn. It seems that I am not alone in the loathing of Cohn. In fact just about everyone in this book hates Cohn. Even Brett who showed some initial interest in Cohn began to dislike him.

 "Was I rude enough to him?" Brett asked. Cohn was gone. "My God! I'm so sick of him!" 

"He doesn't add much to the gayety."

"He depresses me so."

"He's behaved very badly."

"Damned badly. He had a chance to behave so well." (p 185)

In this conversation both Brett and Jake express their dislike for Cohn. He had the chance to be a really cool nice character but he blew his chance. He blew it for me multiply times when he would get too serious when insincere comments would be made, or at least comments that where casual. Like when he picks a fight with Jake when Jake is telling Cohn things about Brett.

"Well," I said, "don't ask me a lot of fool questions if you don't like the answers."

"I didn't ask you that."

"You asked me what I knew about Brett Ashley."

"I didn't ask you to insult her."

Oh, go to hell."

He stood up from the table his face white, and stood there white and angry behind the little plates of hors d'oeuvores (p 47)

Like what the hell Cohn . Take a flippen chill pill. Really though this scene gets on my nerves. I really dislike people (or characters) who take everything way too seriously. Jake did nothing wrong he is just telling Cohn the facts about Brett. Cohn then has to jump to the rescue and defend his ladyship. Really is that necessary Cohn? His prewar values are completely different than everyone else's values in this book, and it makes everyone have a bad time.  

Next lets move on to Micheal. We all know Cohn is a little annoying but Mike just tears Cohn apart. When Mike gets drunk he gets very brutally honest. He says the first thing that comes into his mind.

"Shut up," Cohn said. He stood up. "Shut up, Mike."

 "Oh, don't stand up and act as though you were going to hit me. That won't make any difference to me. Tell me Robert. Why do you follow Brett around like a poor bloody steer? Don't you know you're not wanted? I know when I'm not wanted. Why don't you know when you're not wanted? You came down to San Sebastian where you weren't wanted, and followed Brett around like a bloody steer. Do you think that's right?" (p 146)

Ouch. I mean I was thinking all those things about Cohn in my head, but to go say them out loud to his face is a little over the top. Mike is just too mean to be likable. When he is not drunk he's a pretty funny character and a lot like Jake. Jake and Mike are basically in the same boat. They both like Brett but Brett just finds new people to love and flirt with.

Brett just has a unquenchable thirst, she can't ever settle down and she just lives in the fast lane. She claims to love Jake but is engaged with Mike, goes off to San Sebastian with Cohn and then falls in love with Romero. She is a person that sees something and will do whatever she wants to attain it. These type people are almost never satisfied. They think they will get satisfaction from something but when it doesn't come they move on. Brett is a perfect example of this and is never happy just with one person. I don't loath her, like I do Cohn, but she is just doesn't know when to stop and got on my nerves a few times.


Jake and Bill are obviously the best characters in the book. The best part in the book is when Jake is feeding Bill lines and he is just going off on random ideas.

"It wasn't a bicycle," I said. "He was riding horseback."

 "I heard it was a tricycle."

 "Well," I said. "A plane is sort of like a tricycle. The joystick works the same way."

 "But you don't pedal it."

 "No," I said, "I guess you don't pedal it."

 "Let's lay off that," Bill said.

 "All right. I was just standing up for the tricycle."

 "I think he's a good writer, too," Bill said. "And you're a hell of a good guy. Anybody ever tell you were a good guy?"

 "I'm not a good guy."

 "Listen. You're a hell of a good guy, and I'm fonder of you than anybody on earth. I couldn't tell you that in New York. It'd mean I was a faggot. That was what the Civil War was about. Abraham Lincoln was a faggot. He was in love with General Grant. So was Jefferson Davis. Lincoln just freed the slaves on a bet. The Dred Scott case was framed by the Anti-Saloon League. Sex explains it all. The Colonel's Lady and Judy O'Grady are Lesbians under

their skin." (p 120-121)

This banter between Jake and Bill is hilarious and actually made me laugh out loud. Even after Bill called Jake impotent he was still able to get going again and make me laugh. Jake is the serious "straight man" who asks all the questions and facilitates the banter while Bill just rambles on and on about random things that make people laugh. Jake and Bill are also both out of the loop in Brett's man-chasing game which makes them a little more likable. 

Overall the characters are very real. They are so real that they make me laugh and cringe when things happen in the book. Hemingway did a great job making his characters have a certain level of depth, he didn't give away too much at one time; we only got bits and pieces. As those pieces came together we got a deeper sense of the characters personalities and how they fit into the novel.

Who needs Septimus anyway

We briefly discussed the way in which Woolf wraps up this story. I believe we were all a little confused at the sub-plot of Septimus and Rezia when it was first introduced. It was difficult to determine if they were important characters and if they were going to keep appearing throughout the novel. As we read on we learned of Septimus and his story, but the question was still in my mind; What is Septimus doing in this novel about Mrs. Dalloway?

There are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between Clarissa and Septimus. It was mentioned in one of panel presentations that Septimus embodies Clarissa's dark impulses and thoughts. I find this quite an engaging idea. The first thought that comes to my mind is the connection with windows. Clarissa first mentions windows in the scene with Miss Kilman and Elizabeth. After Miss Kilman leaves with Elizabeth for the stores, Clarissa looks out the window (p 126). She sees the old lady next door walking upstairs and go to her bedroom. In the midst of Clarissa's hostile thoughts towards religion, love, and Miss Kilman she takes a moment to realize the solemnity of the moment. She respects her in a way that is unknown to us. She sees the lady and thinks how peculiar it is that she moves away from the window as soon as Big Ben strikes "as if she were attached to the sound"(p 127). She realizes there is a connection between something "gigantic" and the "midst of ordinary things".

We see that she has some sort of almost subconscious connection with this neighbor and she feels connected to something bigger. Woolf uses this idea to articulate the relationship between Clarissa and Septimus. Towards the end of the novel Clarissa finds out about the suicide of one of Mr. Bradshaw's clients. Somehow she recounts the events in almost the exact way they happened. I believe Woolf used this to re-articulate the idea of this broader connection. The connection is supported when Clarissa looks out the window again during the party. She sees the old woman, but this time the woman looks back at her. The woman pulls the blinds in response to the sound of Big Ben. By thinking of this gigantic vs ordinary connection she somehow connects with Septimus. She thinks of his suicide and realizes his situation and we get a sense of contrast between Septimus and Clarissa. "He made her feel the beauty, he made her feel the fun." (p 186) I think this shows that Septimus was the dark side of her thoughts, the suicidal insane part, and by connecting with these darker idea she was better able to appreciate the beauty and fun of life.

Following Footnote's Footsteps

"Awww Crap. I still have summer reading to do. There are only  a few weeks of summer left. Well, I better get it over with." I open to page 1 of The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker. "... undulating outer edge of LP. ¹ " "Hmm a footnote, what stupid vocab or explanation do I get to learn about today?" I jump down to the bottom on the page and read "I love the constancy of shine of the edges or moving objects".  "What?? This isn't a footnote, there most be something wrong." Weird.

That about sums up exactly what was going on in my head the day I started reading The Mezzanine. It probably sums up the internal conversation everyone had when they first opened this Baker novel. As I continued reading the novel I was shocked at the way the footnotes were used. It was something that Ii had never seen before. It wasn't an editor explain complex concepts or abnormal vocabulary. It was the actual author of the book using them as an opportunity to digress from the actual substance of the book. Baker goes off on these wild tangents ranging from paper vs plastic straws to people's eyebrows (p 97).  It was quite entertaining most of the time.

It was nice to have a change of pace for once. Most books just roll right along never pausing to allow time for thought. They just impose a strict plot that follows a linear path of events until the climax. This novel was fun to read because it encouraged digressions and time to think. When I was reading I could space out for 5 minutes just to think about what I read and how I had never thought about/noticed it in my own life. While this change was nice it was also very annoying at times. In addition to the fact that it took forever to read -- because I would space out randomly -- sometimes Howie would rant about stuff that I didn't care about what so ever.

When I started writing my pastiche to demonstrate this same technique in the footnotes I found it really difficult. I made an outline to direct my thoughts and sort of planned out digressions and ideas. However, when I actually started writing I found opportunities for much better digressions that I hadn't intended. This is the sort of tangents that Baker is after. The kind that one can just write about -the kind that just keep going and going- and then have a problem coming to a stop.