On Tom McCarthy's Remainder

"Think about it: the lighter doesn't spark first time you flip it, the first wisp of smoke gets in your eye and makes you wince; the fridge door catches and then rattles, milk slops over. It happens to everyone. It's universal: everything fucks up! You're not unusual.
You know what you are?"
"No," I said. "What?"
"You're just more usual than everyone else."

Woah. I was blown away by this. "[M]ore usual than everyone else." This statement is so profound. Since, it's hard to relate to such a schizo, screwy, wonky, willy wonka, cognitive dissonanced freakozoid like Mr. Obsessive Compulsive here BUT maybe that's the point, that's the irony. This crazy dude that a lot of readers might not like is, in fact, a sort of reflection of the common man, of us. Like him, we all have unrealistic expectations about what our life should be like -- what we should be like. But, I ask you the reader, has there every been a time where your life was "one. Perfect. Real." Where you were "just being." I would say, rarely, if ever. There's always something that takes the perfection away, always some awkwardness or lack of coolness, smoothness, and sublime verve which defines Hollywood productions. In every way, Remainder's protagonist is the archetype of every human -- if only in an exaggerated way. Really, he conveys the essence of the human experience in this schizo, screwy, wonky, willy wonka, cognitive dissonanced freakozoid post-modern world we live.

But still, he expects some sort of ideal that never materializes. One can sincerely relate to his experience where he drank with buddies at the bar in a post Settlement victory celebration. The quote goes:

"It felt strange -- the whole exchange. I felt we hadn't done it right -- tangental BREAK -- (interjection: "right" interesting that he should put it that way, like what happened in reality wasn't right, like life's natural process isn't right -- in fact, here the natural becomes the awkward and contrived, while the impossibly idealistic, the contrived, becomes the natural, in his mind.) --- End tangental BREAK -- It would have seemed more genuine if he'd thrown the drinks up in the air and we'd danced a jig together while the golden drops rained slowly down on us, or if we'd been young aristocrats from another era, unimaginably wealthy lords and viscounts, and he'd just said quietly Good show, old chap before we moved on to discuss grouse shooting or some scandal at the opera. But this was neither-nor. And beer got on my elbow when I leant it on the table."

Isn't this precious? I personally found it amusing, eliciting a chuckle from my dry lips. There are many like quotes scattered throughout the novel but anyway... This is a perfect example where there is a mismatch between his expectation and reality. And notice how, compared to the rest of the passage, the last sentence, which sums up what actually happened, is the shortest, the most trivial, the dullest. Reality pales in comparison to fantasy, but then, aren't we too obsessed with fantasy? That obsession gets in the way of "just being," as our protagonist puts it.

Another and last thing, somewhat related but not quite, is the airport coffee stand scene. "When you order they say Heyy! to you, then they repeat your order aloud, correcting the word large into tall, small into short. I ordered a small (emphasis added) capuccino. Simultaneously, perhaps making no sense, this says to me that - like the trainer and his efforts to "rewire" the man - society trains you to be a way you are not -- and so, you become an actor. It is no wonder the man, archetype of all modern day men, feels so fake, so unnatural. Every inch of our society's ideological space is filled with unnatural programming -- programming that goes against what we find most natural. For instance, the trainer had him visualizing carrots to activate parts of the brain meant to do things other than manage motor control. The result is him having to consciously reflect upon his every physical action. It doesn't come naturally. With the coffee vendor, so many labels have been created to make drinks sound fancy. A small is a short, even though a person's natural reaction is to call it as a small, not a short. In this way, we are made hollow, we are made actors, and our reality becomes fake -- and, we wonder why.

PS: Random thought - notice how in Settlement there is a capital S, as if to suggest when you get material wealth you are Settled, finito. Of course, we early on see the folly in this statement because if it were true, the book would have ended at chapter 1, with the nirvanic contentment of our disturbed stalwart.

The End.


by Joshua Lam