I chose to look at the writing in Boyd's Armadillo as I must have read this book at least four times, I like the set up Lorimer Black is a Loss Adjuster with a nightmare boss called Mr Hogg, the book begins with Lorimer finding a hanged man in a burnt out warehouse full of mannequins, Mr Dupree, who he was about to offer a suitcase full of cash to settle his possibly bogus insurance claim. Lorimer has always had sleep problems and goes to a sleep clinic and also, my favourite part, he writes a diary called; The book of transfiguration, which is why I am looking at it here.
'117. The First Adjust.
The first adjust was at a shoe shop in Abingdon whose stock had been ruined as a result of a burst water pipe, inundating the basement, unnoticed over a bank holiday weekend.
How did you know the owner was lying? How did you know that the grief and handwringing was a sham? Hogg said later it was pure instinct. All good loss adjusters, Hogg said, can spot a liar at once because they understand, at a fundamental level, the need to lie. They may be liars themselves - and if they are they are excellent liars - but it is not necessary. What is necessary is this understanding of the philosophy of the lie, the compulsive urge to conceal the truth, its complex grammar, its secret structures....
'How do I know you just didn't turn your hose on the rest of the stock that weekend, Mr Maurice? It seems tremendous damage for one burst pipe?'
It is the quality of the rage that gives them away. The rage is always there, it always erupts, and Mr Maurice's rage was impressive, but something about the pitch and tone of an indifferent liar's rage rings false, troubles the inner ear, like the whine of a mosquito in a darkened bedroom, unmistakable, unerringly disturbing.
The Book of Transfiguration' (Boyd W. 1998:129)
The book of transfiguration does reveal Lorimer himself and his thoughts as all diaries do and I chose this extract as Boyd states that; 'Lorimer's life is in a way a kind of lie, he's created this carapace around himself and slowly but surely in the course of the novel it begins to fall apart and reveal the man beneath." (Mansfield, 2020) Looking at the writing here the way that this has been written uses recount, self questioning and answers and then Lorimer's own thoughts and philosophy which is beautifully written. If we look at how the commas are used here to consider Mr Maurice's reaction to the accusation that he is a liar, give a pace and forward motion that is urgent and insistent.
Bernstein (New York Times) considers this one of the novels that is part of the 'globalisation' of British novels, Boyd has used Lorimer as a character as; 'Lorimer Black is the son of an immigrant family. His original name was Milomre Blocj (an anagram, OK? And the family is insistent on a dot below the c and a silent j).' (Boucher, 2001). Bernstein also reflects that 'The multiculturalism of modern Britain -- and of London especially -- has become a staple of British fiction and has supplied it with new subjects and new energies.' (Bernstein, 1998), it could be argued that we have gone so much further now as this was written in 1998, decolonisation and the reimagining of the English canon of literature and what we teaching schools and universities have now evolved tremendously. Here, Lorimer's origins are re-imagined, and reconfigured by himself, he tries to construct a new self and considers very precisely how to do this through the way he dresses, speaks and acts throughout the novel, he collects armour but his own armour is through his new modern day persona that he has created. The name of he book does encapsulate the idea here and Boyd states; 'The Spanish word armadillo means 'little armed man' they saw these strange creatures running around and they look like they are wearing armour, so the name stuck' (Mansfield, 2020)
The Book of Transfiguration in terms of writing is a fantastic work to consider how writing works in diary form. Boyd created a very specific and personal diary for Lorimer, through Professor Zimmerman's diaries I intend to do the same however I think they may have more in common with The Smoking Diaries as Zimmerman does like a little rant!
'Yesterday, rudely interrupted when writing by the stupid telephone, the Dean had called me, at home! Unbelievable! There is no peace from that man he wanted to know what I would be contributing to the termly staff meeting and how it would be interactive so that the staff would engage, he let the word linger for what seemed like hours. I lit a cigarette and considered the best possible ways of killing him.' (Van-de-Velde Z. 2023)
Here is an example from my own writing and here I use commas to to make a point. I consider this almost like jabbing someone in the chest with a finger; stupid telephone (jab) called me (jab) at home (jab)! I like the pace here and the insistence and in Boyd's writing there is an unravelling of truth, of story that I want to capture in my own writing, I say unravelling as in this book it does do that. I will end on Bernstein's words as this does encapsulate much of my feeling towards this work; '''Armadillo'' is full of loose ends, unsolved mysteries and red herrings. But it is also charming, unsettling and sneakily, serendipitously profound.' (Bernstein, 1998)
References
Boyd W. (1998) Armadillo, Penguin Books, London.
Boucher, C. (2001) Observer review: Armadillo by William Boyd, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/sep/02/features.review3 (Accessed: 08 May 2023).
Bernstein, R. (1998) New York Times Article Archive, The New York Times (Archive). Available at: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/nytarchive.html (Accessed: 08 May 2023).
Mansfield, P. (2020) Insurance covered christmas special – a look at armadillo (with William Boyd), RPC. Available at: https://www.rpc.co.uk/perspectives/insurance-and-reinsurance/insurance-covered-christmas-special-a-look-at-armadillo-with-william-boyd/ (Accessed: 08 May 2023).
No comments:
Post a Comment