A-Bombs, Yoshiko, and the Futile Fight
We’ve been watching videos in World Since 1945 about nuclear
bombs and the effects they have, from explosion to fallout. It’s pretty
gruesome and scary, so reading about how Gunnar wants the A-bomb to drop on
them is like really? But I guess the
point is they just want to die, no one’s thinking about blood radiation
poisoning or agricultural collapse.
Gunnar really became something. At the beginning I thought
he was a scrawny little kid with a resilient sense of humor who just wanted to
make friends. He worked so hard to fit in. By the end of the book, he couldn’t
have cared less about fitting in. It was impossible for him to—he was above
everyone else, so he had no place among them on their level. He never actually
fit in in the first place. With the basketball group he immediately became the best. In
the gang he did things on his own terms. In school he was so elevated that
nothing could touch him. His only group is his two close friends Scoby and
Psycho Loco. Eventually Yoshiko came in too. But he has no peers. Just pointing out, his only three
friends are all different ethnicities--does that mean anything? Also, can we talk about Yoshiko? I hope
someone writes a blog post explaining her because I’m flummoxed. I couldn’t
believe what I was reading—in my mind Gunnar was still so young and then all of
a sudden Psycho Loco of all people orders him a bride and he accepts. What was
Psycho thinking? Maybe through careful observation of his friend he saw a need
in Gunnar, a need for unwavering community when none on earth were good enough—so,
wife. At first we were all like what on
earth, this is not going to go well, she’s just out for a green card, but
then they had love at first sight. Another layer of unreality in this book. Yoshiko
was somehow his soul mate. What are the chances? She’s like a female Gunnar. Both
of them are so different from everyone else, and better too. I mean, she
quadruple majored. I died. Where do you think Yoshiko came from and how do you
explain her relationship with Gunnar?
Gunnar glides above the rest of society. He can literally do
whatever he wants. It’s true that he got there because of his supernatural
talents, but everything’s still kinda trippy. Police don’t touch him because he’s
a poet. No one tries to stop him from influencing thousands of people to die. Gunnar
doesn’t care about life or death anymore. Maybe he did at one point. It’s like
his incredible success is what ruined his life in the end. We are all a bit
like young Gunnar Kaufman, scurrying around and trying to fit in, trying to be
the best at what we do. Gunnar actually achieved that—he’s the best. Standing
there at the top, he then had the view to see that nothing matters. You reach
the top and you realize you’re just as low as you were before. People still don’t
care, your skin still incites certain perceptions, and you still have to strive
for love like every man. Most of us spend our whole lives chasing the best for
ourselves, wanting success and fame and everything, and we think that once we
have such and such, our life will be complete. Here’s Gunnar to tell us that it
won’t be. In fact, it’s probably better for us if we never achieve our goals,
because then we’ll always have motivation to keep on going. Almost there, almost have it! I’ve worked so
incredibly hard and I’m so tired but it’ll all be worth it in the end. The delusion
sustains us. Without it, life would be pretty empty. We’d realize the fight is
futile. At least if we’re still striving for something, we can always tell
ourselves the reason I can’t do such and
such or the reason so and so treats
me like that is because I haven’t fulfilled my goals and so it makes sense, it's not because of my x,y,z, but Gunnar’s showing us that no, it doesn’t
matter what you do, life is inherently fucked up on so many levels which no
one, no one, can ever hope to make
any semblance of sense of and because of that fact, you are labeled by the
things about you that you did not choose or make or achieve and nothing will
change that. In that context, the ending makes sense. The fight is impossible,
Psycho Loco. The only options are to strangle your soul and hang your head and
resign yourself to the reality, or commit mass suicide.
I also found it pretty weird that Gunner got married to a mail-order bride, but Yoshiko ended up being an awesome character. The ideas you mention sort of remind me of the poem I did my poetry reading on - Is It Because I Am Black? by Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr. He talks one way and he gets infantilized, or another way and he's sneered at - there is no winning. I guess if you can't win then the fight really is impossible so why not just commit mass suicide like Gunner says.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of what a nuclear bomb would do is really interesting, I had only really thought of it as a method for Gunnar and followers to die and not of the consequences. The area would be irradiated and anyone nearby that didn't just die would probably have long term illnesses and the land would be virtually useless for agriculture for a very long time. The whole point of a nuclear bomb is that beyond the big explosion it leaves traces that poison the area for decades, similar to how discrimination is a huge problem when it's happening but also results in long term consequences that can continue on for generations.
ReplyDeleteI, too, was so shocked when Yoshiko entered the picture and ended up being like, totally perfect for Gunnar. She was a mail-order bride, yet she's SO funny and badass and she and Gunnar actually seem genuinely in love, which contradicts many of our ideas about these kinds of endeavors. I also find it interesting how Gunnar decides on the A-bomb that was meant for Japan, while his wife is literally Japanese. I wonder if, because she's so like him, she has some beliefs of "life is futile, why don't I just give up" in her.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about the fusion of Japanese culture and American culture later in the book. How did Beatty come up with the idea of translating the Japanese concept of hara-kiri into contemporary Black America? It seems like Japanese cultural influence comes up in a lot of unexpected places, and I'd have to study more about it to understand all the layers of White Boy Shuffle.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that. First of all, he doesn't study attend the classes at all and then he still scores highly on the SAT/ACT or whatever testing he had to do to get into college. The way that Beatty shows that you can have everything that you might have thought you wanted, but you still will be treated differently because of how you look is very enticing. This is still a problem today and it is similar to how Black people have to do double the effort to be seen as good or taken seriously in the academic perspective. Additionally, humans will always find something else to differentiate themselves by. If it's not race, it's gender, if it's not that, it's sexuality. Beatty is showing that there are still problems going on in the world, even if a person doesn't know that they are contributing to that problem. In this case, ignorance is not bliss.
ReplyDeleteI love this interpretation of the ending and how much it resonates with society and the time of year it is. We're all so worried about grades and doing well and good colleges and getting ahead in life but what really is life when all that is stripped away? What does it all amount to? Happiness? not if that's your only focus, and i think that is what Gunnar is pointing out - his life has been made to focus so much on being good at basketball and poetry, but it doesn't hold any meaning for him. When those things are stripped away, what makes him happy? It seems like the answer towards the end is not much.
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