The Golden House: Key Quotes Flashcards
Monologue of Baba Yaga - pg. 91
“a few instants after she dropped from sight the fire roared out through the open window” pg. 365
fairy tale is then subverted
- destroys the essentialism of the fairy tale narrative ie. good vs evil - Vasilisa exists outside of the binary, in another form of metaxy
- becomes the character that D interacts with most closely
“this was their untold story”
- indicates the ontological shift of the script
- shifts Rene to the status of an omniscient narrator
- severely disrupts the diegetic levels of text as the script becomes part of a metadiegetic level which breaks with the central narrative
“D has worked this out but does not mention it”
- an indication that Rene has shifted to an omniscient narrator
‘Blackout’
- satirises the drama of the pronoun scene
- film/ drama is a heightened form of reality - we are operating in a realm of surreality to which we are all complicit
- single italicised word - undercuts and offers an alternate perspective on the central narrative
- offers both sincerity and cynicism in many cases (ie. ‘cut’ or ‘slow dissolve’) - indicate an aspect of tragedy but also the grandiose quality of the scene
- metaphorically recreates the cloud of confusion in D’s brain in encouraging our mental recreation of cinematic lighting
“entered her father’s house” as “her true self”
- this emphasises the gravity of her breaching the barrier that excludes her - her father’s presence has permeated the house with ignorance and oppression which D fears
- she makes the transition from the identity that she has to actively work to construct and the identity that she innately inhabit - the message being that true identity should not require construction
- indicates that in the realm of the “home” she is required to inhabit the identity that aligns with her father’s wishes instead of the house being a physical realm into which she can extend her own expression
(comes to fruition when she “walked the length of the Gardens” and reappropriates the space into a realm of freedom)
“fire in his eye”
e
“there’s also ze”
“there’s also ey”
“there’s also hir, xe, hen, ve, ne, per, thon and Mx”
“Thon for example is a mixture of that and one”
- asyndetic listing increases the pace of the speech, and contributes to a disorientating effect which is only amplified by the continued layering of terminology
- weaves them together in aysndetic confusion
- suggests that it has descended into the ridiculous
- what Rushdie said in an interview with Emma Brockes: “The 73 pronouns, all of that”
- draws on ideas of language deconstruction - indicates that signifiers have become inadequate for describing the signified
(Lacan - signifiers are a barrier to the comprehension of reality) - D cannot achieve the identity she desires while operating under the oppressive structure of language - structural fragmentation of their dialogue reflects their deconstruction of the metanarrative
- overwhelming list of possible pronouns that transcend the binaries of male and female
“maybe transfeminine” “maybe you’re non-binary”
- identity has become speculative
- exposes the hypocrisy of saying “choosing an identity” “is not like choosing cereal at a supermarket” because they are comfortable to inundate D with options, opinions, and advice which undermines the intensely personal nature of identity
- also reflects that language is perhaps inadequate for fully encapsulating the complexities of identity ie. her identity finally takes a visual form where silence is notable
- identity must be internally generated, cannot be categorised by external sources - exists in contradiction etc. - this is ultimately where she finds power and comfort
Rushdie is: “not hostile to [transitioning],” but he “worries about it”
- also spoke about the absurdity of trigger warnings and concept of ‘safe spaces’
Rushdie: “‘truth is stranger than fiction’ has never been more true”
e
Rushdie: “human identity is actually very multiple and complicated and even contradictory”
w
“(when this scene is filmed the women actors can decide who says which line)”
- individuality becomes unimportant and both women (Riya and Ivy) become subsumed into the single voice of the mass social conglomerate
Salman Rushdie: “this is not an age of heroes”
e
“worked on this metamorphosis”
“to speak, dress, act, be American”
- “metamorphosis” - weighted word, scientific language - something fantastical and mythic about this transformation
- political comment about why this is incredible and awestriking but immigration is so heavily criticised
- also Kakfa - neutralises the word, casts a negative connotation, metamorphosis can still connect to isolation
“shedding their Gatz origins to become shirt-owning Gatsbys”
TGG: “she sobbed, her voice muffled in the
thick folds”
- reflects modernist influences
- but also intertextual referencing creates a pastiche which also indicates postmodernist influences
- “shedding” - reminds us that Gatsby left his family behind etc. - uncomfortably dismissive ie. Map Woman - Carol Ann Duffy (“her skin sloughed like a snake’s” “hunting for home”)
- foreshadows the eventual tragic connotations - especially the “shirt-owning” connotations, it is the point at which Daisy realises he will never be respected as an authentic man of wealth
- cannot escape your essential origins
- New York is famous for being the womb of reinvention
“excellent taste, excellent clothes, excellent English”
- asyndetic listing, identity becomes a category of requirements
“an unexpected metamorphosis”
- different types of transformation
- identity also transcends cultural identity, identity is also highly personal - not so directly politicised
“to speak, dress, act, be American”
- relates to the idea of Lyotard
- the Goldens seek to live within an ‘idea’ of America that is more of a utopia than the reality
- means that ultimately they cannot escape the reality of who they are
“They became Petronius, Lucius Apuleius and Dionysus”
- “Dionysus” - aptronym
- twice-born’ - born of Semele’s womb and was then sewn to Zeus’ thigh
- god of the vine, grape harvest, wine, fertility, ritual madness, religious ecstasy and theatre
- theatre fits well with the eventual visual spectacle of the suicide
“La Belle Dame sans Merci hath thee in thrall”
- intertextuality
“Can I try that one?”
“Yes. Of course”
- visual experimentation - changing the perceptions of others
- gender becomes performative
- his tentativeness (ie. I can’t) indicates that he is also experimenting with the fluidity of the self
“I want to leave them there for a minute, to give the two of them their privacy, averting my eyes discreetly”
- because of the visual mode of the film our line of sight can be redirected etc.
- we are at the mercy of Rene’s camera lens - he averts his eyes and our gaze is also shifted away
- reader’s gaze also has the potential to become politicised and invasive
‘Maybe I am not a completely, thousand per cent evil bitch”
“She smiles conspiratorially. I should end the scene there, a tight close-up of that sphinx-like Mona Lisa smile”
- both characters exist on borders - two different realms of metaxy
- both identities are performative (whether that be gender identity or general personality)
- “tight close-up” - Rene becomes the director of our imaginations - mental visualisations can be manipulated in more versatile ways
“Jean-Luc Godard move, Le gai savoir, 1969”
- pioneer in experimental French film (1960s - French New Wave)
- self-reflective
- employed the montage technique
