Eli Solt

"It’s to me this evening something has to happen, to my body as in myth and metamorphosis, this old body to which nothing ever happened, or so little, which never met with anything, wished for anything, in its tarnished universe, except for the mirrors to shatter, the plane, the curved, the magnifying, the minifying, and to vanish in the havoc of its images."
- Samuel Beckett, "The Calmative"

The phrase “we’re alone” is an oxymoron. The nature of the contraction for “we are” implies that there is more than one person in some state of existence. “Alone” is that existence. If there are two people together, how could they possibly be alone?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines an oxymoron as a form of rhetoric: “A figure of speech in which a pair of opposed or markedly contradictory terms are placed in conjunction for emphasis.” However, the second definition explicates a more general sense of the word: “a contradiction in terms.” This contradiction within the words themselves can often be used to reveal a kind of paradox, something that allows the reader to view an idea from a different perspective than before. Therefore, “we’re alone” acts as a kind of analytical stepping stone in the reflection of our lives:

What is the nature of being alone? In today’s world are we ever truly by ourselves?

***

In Renee Gladman’s 2010 novel Event Factory, the main character is trapped within this oxymoron. She wanders the streets of the mysterious, yellow city of Ravicka and is constantly navigating through bizarre social situations, still feeling quite lonely. Gladman uses the color yellow to reflect the variations in perspectives of reality in a postindustrial society. The main character’s role as a tourist demonstrates Silviano Santiago’s theory of a postmodern narrator who is more distanced from the experience and suggests different individual interpretations of the world through linguistic relativity and the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis.

Event Factory begins with the unnamed main character arriving by air to the city of Ravicka. On her first impression of the city, she describes it as “large, yellow, and tender” (Gladman, 11).  At first, she refuses, or is possibly unable, to elucidate the nature of her surroundings beyond these vague descriptions. The world around her appears shapeless, without form, or at least without consistent form. When she meets some locals, including Simon and Madeline Savoy, they, like the city, are not vividly illustrated. This lack of description and visual clarity is disorienting, acting as a departure from narrative expectations readers may have. Gladman doesn’t feel the need to elaborate on the nature of the city beyond a single color because that is all the main character seems to grasp from her initial experience. Like the readers, she is confused by the spatial and temporal boundaries of the city, some of which don’t seem to exist. Her quest to find “downtown” is hindered throughout the story as she can’t seem to see the tall buildings that typically act as signifiers of a downtown space and no one else appears willing or capable of providing her with any helpful directions. All she can see is the yellow, everywhere she looks. The main character isn’t the only one who notices that the color is the foundation of the city. Dar, a Ravickian who befriends the main character says, “We’ve come from the outer yellow” (Gladman, 56). This shows that the observation of the color is a shared experience both by a tourist, like the protagonist, and the residents of the city. To understand Gladman’s usage of yellow and its significance in a city that is as abstract as the story built around it, it is important to explore the symbolism of yellow in a historical and cultural context.

Yellow was one of the first colors ever used in art. It appeared in ancient cave paintings like that of the horse in Lascaux Cave in France which dates to around 17,000 years ago. Part of the reason yellow was so commonly used in paintings early on was because the yellow ochre pigment, found naturally in clay and sand, was incredibly abundant and accessible. For a long time, yellow has held mostly happy and optimistic connotations given its universal association with the sun and as a color of “warming.” Yellow has also long been viewed as a color symbolic of wealth and power, due to its close resemblance to gold. In many African nations, yellow clothing is typically reserved for people of high status while in Japan, warriors wear it to show bravery. Yellow also carries religious connotations as well. In Buddhism, yellow is reflective of “The Middle Path,” a way of living that Buddha explains as “moderation, between the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification” (Mulamadhyamakakarika, 133).

However, yellow has not always been viewed as a color of happiness, wealth, and prosperity. In some instances, it has been viewed as an “off-white:” an actual detraction from purity and innocence. Many Latin American countries see the color as a sign of death and mourning. In the Middle Ages, it was a symbol of otherness and exclusion, a symbol revived in both art and society in the twentieth century. The Star of David, sewn into the clothes of Jews in Nazi Germany was yellow. In the United States, yellow is typically used as a cautionary color. Dr. Ann Marie-Fiore, a professor of Hospitality and Apparel at Iowa State University explained that “yellow is seen before other colors when placed against black; this combination is used to issue a warning” (Marie-Fiore, 164). In Ravicka, the city seems to be screaming this sort of warning to its inhabitants. It is a caution that acts not as the signified but as the signifier, denoting an unknown conflict or disturbance which is felt but not seen. It represents an event that cannot be spoken of in regard to temporal structure because it is not bound by those limits.

Let’s look at the city of Ravicka and analyze it through a contemporary lens: a reflection of the ‘American Dream’s’ demise. It can also be reflective of a capitalist system in some form of decline. In Ravicka, it appears that some sort of capitalist system was in place but has slowly begun to fall apart as the narrator arrives in the city. The biggest evidence for this comes in the main character’s note to Simon when he has disappeared from the hotel:

            “Dearest Simon, we need you. All systems have collapsed. People and money are one. The corridors lead to unmarked doors that will not open. I have admitted thirteen new guests and said goodbye to six. But with no core, we are acting without music. You are       the only one who truly lives here. Please return” (Gladman, 39).

The main character explains how people and money have become “one,” a sort of fusion based on materialism and a lack of societal awareness around them. Many Ravickians that she encounters seem apathetic toward the mysterious deterioration of the city as though they are powerless to do anything to stop it. It could also be that the residents have turned toward wealth and materialism to distract themselves from this impending collapse instead of working together to find a solution to the problem.

When she states that they are “acting without music” she suggests that there is no sense of genuine creativity or individual expression, another indication that capitalism has failed. She tells Simon that he’s “the only one who truly lives” there in acknowledgement of his internal fight against this societal breakdown. On one occasion, she finds him meditating in the hotel lobby, showing that he has some degree of individualism left.

The main character also notes that all systems have collapsed, which can be interpreted as not only an economic system, but cultural and political ones as well. The interaction of a common greeting is seen frequently in the story. The main character is constantly saying “hello,” “hi,” and “hola” to Ravickians she meets. These gestures toward strangers is typical of most modern societies, yet in Ravicka it is pushed to the level of hyperbole. The narrator is trying to communicate with the citizens but is only occasionally successful. Despite being fluent in the language, she is often misunderstood. These formal greetings reflect the human need for some sort of structure. Even as society and language collapse all around them, Ravickians grasp onto the very basic nature of language and human communication within their world. The attempt is desperate and can be seen as the narrator repeats the word “hello” to the same person, just in hopes of making some sort of connection.

There also seems to be no politicians or ideology of any kind beyond individual fulfillment and the accumulation of wealth. The lack of government in Ravicka suggests a kind of libertarian system that has fallen, with limited government and more personal freedom. It is also significant that yellow is the main color of Anarcho-Capitalist symbolism, an anarchist political philosophy that advocates for the abolition of government and the creation a pure free market system. Ravicka seems to be in some period of urbanized post-industrialization, a period crucial for the existence of postmodern narrator that Santiago argues for.

A postindustrial society refers to a society that has transitioned from an economic system that produces goods to one that provides services. A postindustrial society places emphasis on “theoretical knowledge” over “practical knowledge” and creates more technical and professional jobs than blue-collar work. Santiago’s “postmodern narrator” must be an inhabitant of this world to function. The postindustrial society’s increase in the outsourcing of jobs to other countries is reflective of the narrator’s distance from the experience and the complete freedom of individual thought. This seems to be the disillusioned world that the protagonist of Gladman’s novel steps into. The city as an entity seems to be distanced from the main character in the same way that she is distanced from the experience of the city itself, an experience that she is never able to truly find. As a tourist of the city, her main goal appears to be to bring something back with her from Ravicka, like a souvenir, just something to prove that it even exists. However, she finds nothing.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines tourist as “one who makes a tour or tours…one who travels for pleasure or culture, visiting a number of places for their objects of interest, scenery, or the like.” The conflict for the main character is that there is no culture to take pleasure in, no objects of interest, no important scenery beyond the yellow haze. Viewing her as a tourist, we can also look at her as Santiago’s third narrator, “one who extracts himself from the narrated action in a manner similar to a reporter or a spectator” (Santiago, 134). Her distance from the city and the Ravickians themselves acts as a barrier for knowledge and genuine experience. If we view this new narrator as a certain part of a “narrative aesthetic” then she is as much a character within the story as she is a function of it.

Within Event Factory, the focal point is less about the city itself than the internal dialogue of the main character, who at times seems erratic, nonsensical, and filled with anxiety. This narrator is a conduit for the audience to experience the world of Ravicka but it is impossible for the reader to get a clear sense of this world when the narrator is unable to interpret what she is seeing. In this regard, as Santiago suggests, we are no longer viewing the world through an objective lens and are forced to witness the gaze of the subjective narrator. This makes all the difference in the experience we receive. If the narrator was a different character, like Simon or Dar, the city of Ravicka might look completely different and it might not even be yellow. If Santiago’s narrator acts as a testament to the modern gaze within narrative, Gladman’s narrator is a testament to the ways in which that gaze can be manipulated. The novel uses the distortions of language and expectation of gaze to warp and even eliminate these fundamental components of human existence in the twenty-first century and demonstrates the fear and isolation that can result. 

As Santiago points out, postmodern literature is about the reader and their reading experience. As we cross into an era of new discourse, the boundaries of representation that were once so clearly defined by modernity have become blurred, much like the boundaries of Ravicka.

As the main character arrives to the city, she notes, “There was no sign of Ravicka” (Gladman, 11). Perhaps the reason that there is no sign is that there is nothing for a sign to signify. The relationship between the signified and the signifier is what creates meaning, but if no relationship between the two exist, then there cannot be meaning. We only understand signs by their context. In this sense, Gladman, in the first sentence of the book, is saying that Ravicka is a place without meaning.

Throughout the book, language is key not only to the main character’s understanding of the world, but for readers as well. Yet this is where the meaning gets confused. The main character is a linguist, one fluent in the language of Ravicka, yet, throughout the entire novel, she is constantly on the outside of every experience, unable to properly communicate with anyone.

Language does not equate to communication; language is simply a tool for that end goal, part of a process and a way we understand the world around us. This can be found in the concept of linguistic relativity or the idea that language influences the worldly perspective of the speaker. Known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, this controversial theory implies that language holds significant power over our everyday lives and present day discourse. Ancient Sophist philosophers tended to believe that we were only capable of experiencing our physical world through the construct of language which places the concept of truth in a state susceptible to varying aesthetic preferences. However, Plato argued against this notion, stating that the universe is built on bigger, more abstract ideas that transcend language. He added that our own language should be accurately able to reflect these ideas.

The main character of Event Factory can’t possibly understand the world she is in because she can’t communicate, and she begins to doubt her own linguistic abilities. She can’t find answers because, without meaning, there are no answers to find. In the city, we know yellow, but we don’t know the boundaries of Ravicka, both in a physical and metaphysical sense through language. The main character writes, in her note to Simon, “The corridors lead to unmarked doors that will not open” (Gladman, 39). No doors will open for her because there is nothing behind them. As part of human nature, we constantly want to find the “why” in every situation. Like the main character looking for clues to what is wrong with the city, we try to look for the source, the center. But what if there isn’t always a why? What if there is nothing wrong with the city and our narrator is simply placing that meaning onto it? What if, as a postmodern narrator, she transmits that idea to the reader? Authenticity is based around the construction of stable meaning, yet nothing is stable in Ravicka. Like Santiago, Gladman provides us with no answers or solutions. She doesn’t let us rest in the narrative, she simply forces us to look at the problem and place our own meaning onto it.

If the purpose of oxymorons is to reveal a paradox, then the paradox found in “we’re alone” is the nature of our existence in a postindustrial society in a postmodern era. We are never truly alone. Technology places us into a permanent state of connectivity. People and information are everywhere and we as individuals are responsible for our interpretation of it all. Just as the protagonist of Gladman’s book is a tourist in Ravicka, we our tourists of our own world, trying to find some semblance of authenticity. Santiago argues that the gaze of the postmodern narrator reveals why we still need the written word in our society. It is no surprise that the main character of Event Factory seeks out a famous novelist at the end in the hope of finding answers. Literature can bring us those answers, it can bring us meaning in a meaningless world. Words can save us and in the twenty-first century we have the choice to either ignore our problems and let the world dissolve around us or attempt to find our place and meaning within all the chaos. We cannot exist in a world without meaning, we cannot live in a vacuum. Santiago and Gladman are both saying that it is up to us to bring color to our yellow world.

Works Cited

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