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juushikaTitle: The Day of the Locust
Author: Nathanael West
Published: Signet Classic, New York: 1983
Pages: 182
Total pages: 1638
Text number: 7
Read for: Themes in Apocalyptic Literature course
In brief: Set in the City of Angels, this book is the ultimate irony: it is about humanity at its lowest lows. Written in a dry satirical style, containing exaggerated characters and events, it is a dark near-comedy about social interactions and the corruption of humanity.
I'm too tired of these to write this in structured full paragraphs. Instead...
The good: Engrossing, a clean writing style (much like Fitzgerald, but darker), and wonderful satire. Not much goes on in terms of "plot" but that doesn't matter. Instead, the text has just enough reality (stories of social events, characters with human quirks, and unforgiving honesty in the writing) to pull the reader in and convince him that the dark, satirical events are possible. Indeed, they are possible, if not in such exaggerated terms, and that makes the text disturbing, scary, and ultimately a very worthwhile read.
The bad: Characters are so exaggerated, so strange, and get into such strange situations that the book can be almost uncomfortable to read. Of course, this fact merely speaks to the text's effectiveness, but it is nonetheless true. That aside, the book is really quite simple and quite short. The author could have made more definitive points about sexuality and simply could have covered more: more about the characters, a greater exploration of his apocalyptic themes, etc.
The ugly: I had so many problems with my class in the discussions on this book because it is far too easy to read it and judge the female characters more harshly than the male characters. The main female character in the text, Faye, unabashedly uses her sexual (and non-sexual) appeal to gain power. In our society, that is a critiquable offense in women but is rarely critiqued in men. West critiques sex-as-power, specifically the unscrupulous, abusive use of sex-as-power, in both men and women, making comparisons that set the two on very equal levels and merely mark women as more effective in their use of sex-and-power. In short, West says, both genders do it—but women do it better. This subtly, however, is easily lost on our audience. Be careful not to impose your own ideas of ethics, sex, and gender onto this piece. If you don't look for the critique of males, you won't see it. That, in my view, is very damaging to the text and is an insult to West.
Author: Nathanael West
Published: Signet Classic, New York: 1983
Pages: 182
Total pages: 1638
Text number: 7
Read for: Themes in Apocalyptic Literature course
In brief: Set in the City of Angels, this book is the ultimate irony: it is about humanity at its lowest lows. Written in a dry satirical style, containing exaggerated characters and events, it is a dark near-comedy about social interactions and the corruption of humanity.
I'm too tired of these to write this in structured full paragraphs. Instead...
The good: Engrossing, a clean writing style (much like Fitzgerald, but darker), and wonderful satire. Not much goes on in terms of "plot" but that doesn't matter. Instead, the text has just enough reality (stories of social events, characters with human quirks, and unforgiving honesty in the writing) to pull the reader in and convince him that the dark, satirical events are possible. Indeed, they are possible, if not in such exaggerated terms, and that makes the text disturbing, scary, and ultimately a very worthwhile read.
The bad: Characters are so exaggerated, so strange, and get into such strange situations that the book can be almost uncomfortable to read. Of course, this fact merely speaks to the text's effectiveness, but it is nonetheless true. That aside, the book is really quite simple and quite short. The author could have made more definitive points about sexuality and simply could have covered more: more about the characters, a greater exploration of his apocalyptic themes, etc.
The ugly: I had so many problems with my class in the discussions on this book because it is far too easy to read it and judge the female characters more harshly than the male characters. The main female character in the text, Faye, unabashedly uses her sexual (and non-sexual) appeal to gain power. In our society, that is a critiquable offense in women but is rarely critiqued in men. West critiques sex-as-power, specifically the unscrupulous, abusive use of sex-as-power, in both men and women, making comparisons that set the two on very equal levels and merely mark women as more effective in their use of sex-and-power. In short, West says, both genders do it—but women do it better. This subtly, however, is easily lost on our audience. Be careful not to impose your own ideas of ethics, sex, and gender onto this piece. If you don't look for the critique of males, you won't see it. That, in my view, is very damaging to the text and is an insult to West.
