How Pure is Baseball?

W.P. Kinsella's novel, Shoeless Joe, is the final novel we read in my senior seminar class. Unfortunately for Kinsella, the four books which preceded it were by some of the most lyrical and talented authors of the 21st century. As a result, this book was compared to other narratives well out of its league and did not fair very well in that comparison. The writing style seemed simplistic and the metaphors clunky. Of course, we were used to Morrison, Updike, Erdrich and O'Brien, so there are not many writers who could follow up satisfactorily. But my issues do not solely rest in style. I take issue with much of the content as well. Most people know this story in the form of the Kevin Costner movie, Field of Dreams. It is a heart warming tale about the purity of the American dream and the value of small town America. I loved the movie as a kid and still can't bring myself to change the channel if I flip to it on cable. That could partly be because I am inexplicably a sucker for Kevin Costner movies, but there is also something seductive about this story.

The movie does take the typical artistic license in its telling of the story. One interesting change which I imagine has something to do with some sort of legal issue is casting James Earl Jones as the author figure rather than including J.D. Salinger as the book does. Besides any legal issue, it may also have been more convenient for the Hollywood story. Instead of Ray having to travel all the way to Boston to find J.D. Salinger like he does in the book, he only has to go to Chicago to find James Earl Jones character. Yet something is definitely lost because the book dwells a lot on the similarities between Holden Caufield and the protagonist of Shoeless Joe, Ray Kinsella. Also the presence of J.D. Salinger connects the narrative to the history of the American novel in a way the fictional author who James Earl Jones plays does not. Yet what is retained is a meditation on the nature of creativity and creation itself. Ray seeks out J.D. Salinger because he believes he has received a divine message that Salinger has a secret pain that needs to be resolved before he can write again. Ray believes Salinger owes it to his many fans to continue to create the narratives which people have identified with and love. That is a belief which Salinger himself greatly resents since it is Salinger's gift to use as he sees fit not because the American public demands more. Despite Ray's conviction that Salinger should write more, he reacts in a similar manner to the author when faced with a similar dilemma. Ray becomes quite upset that Salinger is invited to leave the ballpark which Kinsella built with the ball players. Ray believes it is his right to see what is beyond the corn because he built the venue in which the ghostly ballplayers play. He is forced to realize that the actual act of creation does not guarantee him control over what is created.

One change which Hollywood made which actually improved on the novel was included a more rounded character as Ray Kinsella's wife. The women of the novel are beyond deplorable. They are either completely compliant to their man's desire and beautiful or ugly, disagreeable and highly religious. Ray's wife Annie constantly supports him in whatever he desires and then waits in bed for when he is ready. Ray's identical brother's partner, Gypsy, provides the same unfailing supports as Annie, despite the fact both men could use a hard dose of reality at times. Also Ray's father and Moonlight Graham both give up their dreams centered around baseball to settle in a small town with the women they have met. Their wives are the proverbial ball and chain. As Ray never fails to remind us, it was Annie's idea to rent the farm. Other women such as Annie's mother and Eddie Scissons' daughters, hide behind their religion and care for no one but themselves. There is not a single woman in the entire text who has any authority, input or real voice at all. In the movie version, Annie has some opinions and a little backbone. She is still blind in her support of Ray, but she is still an improvement over the book version.

The poor depiction of women is just one element of what I feel is the biggest failing of the novel. To me, the novel romanticizes a past which is dominated by white men. There are two themes which jump out immediately to the reader, the first is baseball as an allegory for religion and the second is an undercurrent of anti-authority. It pits small town America against corporate, urban America. Despite being set in Iowa, the narrative almost has a North verse South feel. Baseball is not only an allegory for Religion but the true American dream. Baseball is supposed to represent the purity of the American dream, small town American and rural life. Yet that begs the question, how pure is Baseball? That question is particularly relevant in Today's world of steroids and HGH. But it is revisionist to think Baseball was any more pure in the days where only whites were allowed to play. Despite Baseball's elevated status as America's pastime, it has never been an entirely pure or good thing. In this novel in particular, it seems to represent a misogynistic pastime. There is a yearning for a time when things were simple, women obeyed and blacks weren't allowed to play.

I still managed to enjoy this book overall (I still blame my being a sucker for Kevin Costner movies), but there are obviously parts I have take exception to as well. It is a nice story if you can get beyond the sexism (which most of my class could not). There are some really interesting parallels with Religion which have been explored to a great degree. Overall though, I think I'll stick with the movie version.

Magical Realism

I am going to have to put Dickens on hold for awhile as I start my final semester of college. I do intend to continue the blog and use it as a place to log thoughts about the books I am reading for my senior seminar, which is the only literature course I have this semester. The senior seminar is titled American Magical Realism and we are reading books by Updike, Tim O'Brien, Louise Erdrich, Toni Morrison and W.P. Kinsella. We have already read the Witches of Eastwick by Updike and now will be moving on to Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien. Before I get into the novels though, I want to briefly talk about what Magical Realism is as a point of reference.

Magical Realism's roots begin in German and Eastern European literature in the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It is characterized by the presence of something(s) amazing or magical in an otherwise ordinary situation and the fantastic element is usually treated as a matter of course by the characters and narrator. That is about as simple of a definition as I can give but since there is not a truly agreed upon definition, it does not encompass everything. It is important to note that if the Magical elements mount up to the point that the book clearly does not take place in this world or becomes fantasy (ie. Lord of the Rings) then it is not Magical Realism. From my own experiences, a good indicator is if an event takes place in an otherwise realistic novel that has you questioning whether or not that actually happened or was a figment of a characters imagination or symbolic language for another event, then it could be Magical Realism. The key is that in Magical Realism, the fantastic event actually took place and while it may be symbolic, it is a part of the reality of the novel. My popular culture analogy was the TV show, Family Guy, in particular Stewie's ability to talk. In the first few seasons everyone was confused as to whether or not the family could hear what he was saying or it was just an internal monologue that was made external for our benefit. Of course my professor did not exactly get or appreciate the reference, but I think it is a fairly decent example.

From its roots in Germany, Magical Realism was then claimed and developed as a distinctly Latin American literary form. Its development in Latin America added an element of faith to the Magical Real. In a culture that is more religious and more accepting of events the Western World labels impossible, Magical Realism was a perfect fit and became tied to an emerging cultural identity in Literature. It is no coincidence that the growth of Magical Realism took place during a time period in which Latin America was struggling to find their own identity and voice in the global community. We read several short stories in the beginning of the class to give us an ideal of what is and is not Magical realism. My favorite was the Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, it is short and worth a read if you are interested in an example. (Click on the title to get to the story online).

That cultural investment makes it a difficult form to break into if you are an outsider and yet there is enough American literature which can be classified as Magical Realism I am taking a class on it. From my brief introduction to Latin American Magical Realism in the short stories I mentioned earlier and North American Magical Realism in Updike, there is a marked difference in style. At least in Updike, the tone is much more cynical and irreverent than the more mystical and religious tone of the Latin American work. Of course, Updike is more irreverent and cynical than most, but I believe the lack of true mysticism in American culture makes it impossible to believably replicate the Latin American treatment of magical events. It will be interesting when we get to Erdrich and Morrison since the Native American and African American traditions feature mysticism much more prominently and are far more conducive to this sort of style.

I'll keep this post focused on Magical Realism in general and in the next post I'll give a brief synopsis of the Witches of Eastwick as well as some thoughts and reactions to the novel. It is going to be a great semester and the class has been really exciting so far. I would definitely recommend the novel if you enjoy Updike. If you are easily offended by salacious Literature, I would avoid it because sex is a central theme in the novel. If you can get beyond that though, it is worth it because there is an incredible amount of depth and very interesting thoughts and insights on a variety of subjects.