{"id":442342,"date":"2023-08-01T01:00:33","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T05:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/?p=442342"},"modified":"2023-08-02T07:06:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T11:06:55","slug":"anatomy-monotony-reading-the-dalkey-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2023\/08\/01\/anatomy-monotony-reading-the-dalkey-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"Anatomy. Monotony. [Reading the Dalkey Archive]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

Anatomy. Monotony.<\/h2>\n

Edy Poppy<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Original Publication: 2005<\/p>\n

Original Publication in English Translation: 2018<\/p>\n

Original Publisher in English: Dalkey Archive Press<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although I\u2019m filing this as a \u201cReading the Dalkey Archive\u201d post, it\u2019s actually about two books: Anatomy. Monotony. <\/em><\/a>by Norwegian author Edy Poppy, translated by May-Brit Akerholt, and Natural Causes <\/em><\/a>by Norwegian author Nina Lykke, translated by B. L. Crook.<\/p>\n

And no, I\u2019m not putting these two books together simply because they\u2019re both by female Norwegian authors; I\u2019m putting them in conversation because they\u2019re both about extramarital affairs, the quest for romantic freedom and satisfaction, and jealousy. The two novels explore two different approaches\u2014an open marriage, a secret affair\u2014to the dissatisfaction, or incompleteness, so often found in traditional relationships.<\/p>\n

They also present two different types of monotony. In Poppy\u2019s book, the repetitive nature of the couple\u2019s open relationship\u2014taking a lover, returning to one\u2019s \u201cprimary\u201d partner, cutting things off, starting again\u2014becomes repetitive. Poppy states this much more eloquently in her conversation with Siri Hustvedt (read the whole conversation here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

I had sent them an early version of the novel, then called:\u00a0Speculations About What Once Was, But That I Can Now Only Remember<\/em>. In return I got a big analysis of my work and a refusal. One criticism was regarding the marriage of my main protagonists, a Norwegian wannabe writer called V\u00e5r and her French husband and mentor Lou. It was that the couple\u2019s constant love experimentation was resulting in an unexpected form of monotony. Of repetition. And even though it was meant negatively, I thought, well, that\u2019s very interesting; I want to explore that more, not less! I understood many things about my writing through this rejection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Natural Causes<\/em>, the monotony is of the narrator Elin\u2019s life and marriage. She\u2019s a general practitioner whose patients tend do the same things over and over again. (Sometimes dangerous, such as continuing to smoke and drink, never to diet. Other times not so dangerous, but just as annoying, such as the hypochondriac who never stops coming in hoping for a diagnosis.) And her relationship with her husband, who is obsessed only with participating in skiing competitions, is a total monotonous drag.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an affinity between these two books, a shared urge between the two female protagonists to find the best way to keep going, to live a life that\u2019s fulfilling<\/em> in a way that feels deserved and right.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s back up and take these one at a time.<\/p>\n

Anatomy. Monotony<\/em>. is the story of V\u00e5r who, like any good protagonist in a Dalkey book, is struggling to write a book about her relationship with her husband. She\u2019s married to Lou, but early on in their marriage was encouraged by him to maintain an incredibly passionate, almost obsessive relationship with a painter. (He\u2019s referred to as \u201cThe Painter\u201d in the excerpts from the novel she’s writing, and referred to as \u201cThe Lover\u201d in the \u201creal life\u201d sections of the novel. I’ll use “The Lover” from here on out.)<\/p>\n

A thruple, in modern parlance, and one that works . . . sort of . . . for a time. Lou encourages her to pose for, be painted by, and make love to The Lover; and V\u00e5r is caught between the love and desire she has for her husband and the freedom he allows, and the near animalistic passion she experiences only with The Lover.<\/p>\n

But then, jealousy. And things end with The Lover.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lover and I . . . We could never get enough. It was on the border of cannibalism . . . I really loved him, I truly did, I almost sacrificed Lou. But then it turned out to be wrong after all. Because now it\u2019s over. Now I feel something else, less painful, safer . . . Friendship.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Lover remains a constant in the background, throughout the rest of the novel, sometimes as the friend V\u00e5r wants to talk with late at night, the love she hasn\u2019t really \u201cgotten over\u201d (one of the best lines in the book is \u201cnostalgia doesn\u2019t mean anything other than what used to be is over, and now you wish it could be again\u201d), and as an experiment that maybe went too far\u2014at least for Lou. Which is why he proposes a sort of game, a chance to do it all over again, to find a similar type of freedom, but that this time he’ll be able to handle himself, to deal with the jealousy, to do things right<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Of course, in the present time in the book, Lou has gotten quite involved with Sidney, a young girl who resembles Jane Birkin (R.I.P.), and with whom he takes lots of long walks, pines over, randomly spends nights with, so on and so forth. Which makes V\u00e5r jealous.<\/p>\n

In her words: \u201cJealousy is something I have nothing but contempt for, but it still gnaws away inside me. I refuse to be broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Lou makes a proposal. With a sort of Nietzschean logic he tells V\u00e5r that if she falls in love with someone again, like she did with The Lover, he\u2019ll leave Sidney for good.<\/p>\n

Enter The American. A cello player (his cello being the \u201conly woman I\u2019ve never left, and who has never left me,\u201d a line so cheesy that Lou\u2019s mocking groan slightly vindicates him) who lives in Amsterdam, has written a composition called \u201cThe Sexual Life of Plants\u201d (another groan) that he\u2019s about to debut, and with whom V\u00e5r has an instant, intense connection.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to recount this book beat for beat\u2014and to be honest, I\u2019m cherry-picking moments here to try and logically build a sordid situation, whereas the book itself is muddier in a delightful, emotional way with semi-erotic digressions and meditations, and lots of other details rounding out these characters and their love affairs\u2014but I wanted to get to this point, because this is where the masculine jealousy really starts to kick in.<\/p>\n

Jealousy is always bad. And masculine jealousy is toxic and frequently dangerous.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Edy Poppy<\/p><\/div>\n

If what I’ve written so far has you at all interested, you really should read this book for yourself. If you\u2019ve ever felt love for multiple people at once, regret a relationship from the past that went sour or ended, or simply entertained the possibility of a nontraditional arrangement (\u201cI never dreamed of finding the man of my life. I wanted to be independent. Free. Feminist. Lou, on the other hand, always dreamed about finding the woman of his life, even if he didn\u2019t dream that this woman would be me. He wanted to be dependent. Macho. But it didn\u2019t turn out like that.\u201d), this book will raise a lot of questions and bring to light a lot of complicated feelings.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a pervasive sense of male creep throughout this novel, which the book undermines without being didactic or strident. Occasionally Poppy will be direct and on point, like in this passage:<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean that you should go to Amsterdam, V\u00e5r, that you should see, smell, feel, and let yourself be \u2018fertilized\u2019 . . .\u201d says Lou and mocks me with the American\u2019s clich\u00e9. \u201cThat you should take a chance. And if it goes to hell, if it goes the way I want it to . . . then I\u2019ll take you back<\/strong>.\u201d [Emphasis mine.]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But oftentimes the creep is just lurking, there in the background, in the form of phone calls and questions, and a latent desire to control the narrative<\/em> . . . which all leads to a surprise (in part because it is not <\/em>physically violent) resolution.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\"\"By contrast with V\u00e5r, Elin in Natural Causes <\/em><\/a>has always lived within the bounds of what\u2019s deemed \u201cacceptable.\u201d From the way she deals with her patients (who all test the bounds of her patience in different ways, each expecting the world, a quick and easy solution, without consideration for anyone or anything else), to her cozy life with her husband in a totally pleasant suburban community.<\/p>\n

It’s not that she\u2019s \u201cbuttoned down,\u201d rather that that\u2019s just the way things are. You work hard, earn a decent salary, live a comfortable life, and enjoy (maybe too much) drinking wine.<\/p>\n

And then, almost by accident, she messages her former boyfriend\u2014the one before her husband, the one with jealousy issues\u2014and her life swerves.<\/p>\n

At the start of Lykke\u2019s novel, a year has passed since Elin sent that initial message, and a lot has happened. Most notably, Elin\u2019s been having an affair with Bj\u00f8rn, and more notably, her husband just found out. And unlike Lou from Anatomy. Monotony.<\/em>, he\u2019s not about to entertain the possibility of any sort of \u201copen\u201d relationship.<\/p>\n

What follows are essentially two plotlines: one recounting the development of the affair with Bj\u00f8rn, the joy and freedom and hope and peace it brings to Elin\u2019s life, the other a micro-analysis of her day at the clinic and all the stresses and impossible requests the average person makes of doctors and science in today\u2019s day and age.<\/p>\n

These intersect and bounce off one another, and equally held my interest, but for the sake of this particular piece, the affair is the only one I really <\/em>want to write about.<\/p>\n

In this instance, the jealousy displayed isn\u2019t necessarily as tinged with destructiveness\u2014or at least that isn\u2019t the primary focus when it comes to Aksel, Elin\u2019s husband\u2014instead it plays as a sort of selfish narcissism, an inability on her husband\u2019s part to understand Elin\u2019s <\/em>needs and desires. (\u201cAksel might have wanted the same thing that I did, that we would get over this crisis and grow from it and keep the home fire and the hearth fire and the daily fire burning, but none of that helped as long as other parts of him did not agree. And since these other parts of him were the parts that determined the basic functions, he was unable to sleep as long as I was next to him in the bed.\u201d) And that\u2019s just as hurtful, and just as disappointing. Especially since Elin sees the vibrancy gained through her relationship with Bj\u00f8rn as a potential positive\u00a0<\/em>for her relationship with her husband.<\/p>\n

\n

And yet, quite clearly, and with my full consciousness, I noticed how quickly the normal, ordinary version of myself was replaced by this being who must have been asleep inside of me, and who behaved contrary to all of the things I\u2019d said and believed up to that point.<\/p>\n

Early on I began thinking in this way: What if I can take this energy and joy which I\u2019ve found, all of this secretiveness and excitement, everything that\u2019s welling up inside me, and which makes me have less desire for drinking wine and watching TV and everything else that I used to chew and drink and swallow in order to soothe and calm myself\u2014what if this could give me and Aksel a new life?<\/em><\/p>\n

By applying a kind of controlled and intelligently designed alchemy, the illegal would become legal, the dirty would become pure, and the painful would transform into something edifying. The end would sanctify the means, and all of this goodness, this wonderfulness, the delectable, the forbidden, would be permitted to go on and on and on, for eternity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"

Nina Lykke<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019m not going to use this (very small) platform to promote cheating on your spouse, or necessarily embracing an open relationship\u2014which isn\u2019t for everyone, and can be tricky even for those who are into it\u2014but it\u2019s not unusual to reach a certain age and, despite the quality of your relationships, feel like there might be something more. Not necessarily a Grand Love Affair, or a Passion for the Ages, but a connection that is invigorating. Life is simultaneously very short and very long, and confining a person\u2019s ability to love and experience\u2014especially the way men have traditionally restricted their wives\u2014feels so small and petty and limited.<\/p>\n

And although neither of these books offer any direct solution to this age-old issue, they both wrestle with the complexities and paradoxes of love and freedom in ways that will definitely resonate with a wide swathe of readers\u2014male and female, jealous or supportive.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

To return to Anatomy. Monotony. <\/em>for one second, with that idea of complexity and paradox in mind, it\u2019s worth thinking about the way in which V\u00e5r is writing what is essentially autofiction inside of Poppy\u2019s novel that, well, reads like autofiction.<\/p>\n

The book is dedicated to: \u201cmy husband, who has given me everything, even what I didn\u2019t want. (He is now my ex-husband).\u201d<\/p>\n

And ends with the Fres\u00e1n-esque disclaimer: \u201cP.S.: Everything I\u2019ve written is true apart from what I\u2019ve invented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, there\u2019s this quote from V\u00e5r that\u2019s right at the heart of desire\u2019s contradictions: \u201cI answer that to miss me is wrong. That to miss me is the same as wasting time. A lot. If he can\u2019t forget me. I close my eyes and I suppose that deep down, that\u2019s what I hope. That I\u2019m unforgettable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anatomy. Monotony. Edy Poppy   Original Publication: 2005 Original Publication in English Translation: 2018 Original Publisher in English: Dalkey Archive Press   Although I\u2019m filing this as a \u201cReading the Dalkey Archive\u201d post, it\u2019s actually about two books: Anatomy. Monotony. by Norwegian author Edy Poppy, translated by May-Brit Akerholt, and Natural Causes by Norwegian author […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":442352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67486,71882],"tags":[69362,72222,3316,69372,72232,72212,72202,746,17946,72032],"class_list":["post-442342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-readingdap","tag-anatomy-monotony","tag-b-l-crook","tag-context","tag-edy-poppy","tag-may-brit-akerholt","tag-natural-causes","tag-nina-lykke","tag-norway","tag-norwegian-literature","tag-reading-the-dalkey-archive"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442342"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442512,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442342\/revisions\/442512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}