Page 52 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 52
Ideology in the 20th Century: studies of literary and social discourses and practices
The relatively linear narrative of Tony Webster about his school days
ends with the last history class with their teacher Old Joe Hunt, who
has taught the students throughout the national history and asked them
to draw certain conclusions. The question to answer is as simple as this:
What is History? Tony hastily responds: “History is the lies of the vic-
tors” (Barnes 2011, 16); Colin says that it is “a raw onion sandwich”, be-
cause it constantly repeats and burps; finally, Adrian Finn pronounces a
sentence that echoes the other part of the novel, the second part of Web-
ster’s story: “History is that certainty produced at the point where the im-
perfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation” (Barnes
2011, 17). Finn’s illustration of this kind of understanding will be Rob-
son’s suicide, which definitely suggests the importance of the dark sub-
ject of suicide. Nothing can replace the absence of Robson’s testimony, as
52 nothing will replace the lack of Adrian’s. Finally, we find out that Tony
Webster himself became a man who is professionally dealing with the
past: he enrolled in history studies.
But there is something more important here, a far-reaching pair of op-
posites personalized in the characters of Tony and Adrian. Tony will get
used to compromise and small ambitions (average in life, average in truth,
average in morality), but he will stay alive (Barnes 2011, 94). Adrian is his
antipode who practices the use of thoughts on life, becomes a great stu-
dent, but, under unclear circumstances, he commits suicide to return to
the story forty years later by disrupting his friend’s established memories.
The deep unconscious link between Adrian and Tony will be the mysteri-
ous girl Veronica and her puzzling mother. As Tony reconstructs his past
and reassesses it, one event takes on the special importance: an unpleas-
ant stay in Chislehurst in the home of Veronica’s parents; as the story un-
folds, we get the impression that Tony Webster symbolically ended his
life during this visit when masturbating in a poky room in which he was
placed. The couple, Tony and Veronica, had no sex (Barnes ironically ob-
serves, through the mouth of the narrator, that the sixties, known for sex-
ual freedom, were sixties only for some, not for all people). In fact, their
sexual intercourse happened only after the breakup, and Veronica will
soon disappear from Tony’s life and go with the brighter, deeper Adrian,
in a seemingly repeating history, but which is not the same again. It all
changes, however, when in the second part of the novel we find out that
Veronica’s mother died and that her last will was to leave Tony five hun-
dred pounds and Adrian’s diary.
In the first part, we find out that the narrator married, got a daugh-
ter, divorced ... Webster is a lonely retiree who, in the course of time, built
The relatively linear narrative of Tony Webster about his school days
ends with the last history class with their teacher Old Joe Hunt, who
has taught the students throughout the national history and asked them
to draw certain conclusions. The question to answer is as simple as this:
What is History? Tony hastily responds: “History is the lies of the vic-
tors” (Barnes 2011, 16); Colin says that it is “a raw onion sandwich”, be-
cause it constantly repeats and burps; finally, Adrian Finn pronounces a
sentence that echoes the other part of the novel, the second part of Web-
ster’s story: “History is that certainty produced at the point where the im-
perfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation” (Barnes
2011, 17). Finn’s illustration of this kind of understanding will be Rob-
son’s suicide, which definitely suggests the importance of the dark sub-
ject of suicide. Nothing can replace the absence of Robson’s testimony, as
52 nothing will replace the lack of Adrian’s. Finally, we find out that Tony
Webster himself became a man who is professionally dealing with the
past: he enrolled in history studies.
But there is something more important here, a far-reaching pair of op-
posites personalized in the characters of Tony and Adrian. Tony will get
used to compromise and small ambitions (average in life, average in truth,
average in morality), but he will stay alive (Barnes 2011, 94). Adrian is his
antipode who practices the use of thoughts on life, becomes a great stu-
dent, but, under unclear circumstances, he commits suicide to return to
the story forty years later by disrupting his friend’s established memories.
The deep unconscious link between Adrian and Tony will be the mysteri-
ous girl Veronica and her puzzling mother. As Tony reconstructs his past
and reassesses it, one event takes on the special importance: an unpleas-
ant stay in Chislehurst in the home of Veronica’s parents; as the story un-
folds, we get the impression that Tony Webster symbolically ended his
life during this visit when masturbating in a poky room in which he was
placed. The couple, Tony and Veronica, had no sex (Barnes ironically ob-
serves, through the mouth of the narrator, that the sixties, known for sex-
ual freedom, were sixties only for some, not for all people). In fact, their
sexual intercourse happened only after the breakup, and Veronica will
soon disappear from Tony’s life and go with the brighter, deeper Adrian,
in a seemingly repeating history, but which is not the same again. It all
changes, however, when in the second part of the novel we find out that
Veronica’s mother died and that her last will was to leave Tony five hun-
dred pounds and Adrian’s diary.
In the first part, we find out that the narrator married, got a daugh-
ter, divorced ... Webster is a lonely retiree who, in the course of time, built
