A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
(40)
A Confederacy of Dunces
By
John Kennedy Toole
Grove Press
Copy right 1980 by Thelma D. Toole
“ When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign,
that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.- Jonathan Swift “
요즘 자주 드나드는 책 방에서 이 책을 고르게 된 이유는 “ Summer Reading” 이라고
쓰여져 있는 shelf 에 눈에 익은 여러 클라식과 함께 놓여져 있었기 때문이었고,
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize 라고 쓰여져 있었기 때문이었는데
Foreword 에서 Walker Percy 라는 분은 author 인 John Toole 이
서른몇살에 자살을 하였다고 알려주네요.
이 책은 John Kennedy Toole이 죽은 후 그의 어머니인 Thelma Toole씨가
Walker Percy 에게 자신의 아들이 쓴 소설인데 읽어봐 달라고 여러번 졸라대고
그 당시 어느 대학에서 강의 중이던Walker 씨가 한편 귀찮은 마음이 들면서도
어머니의 노력이 가여워어쩔 수 없는 마음으로 읽게되었는데 의외로 너무
좋다고 판단되어 publish하게된 책이었는데 나중에 Pulitzer 상까지 받게되었다고…
책을 읽어나가면서 놀라왔던 점은 소설 속 주인공 캬락터가 요즘 인물처럼
느껴질 정도로 60년대에 쓰여진 책이라고 보기 힘들었고
작가도 30년대에 태어난 인물이라고 믿기 어려울 정도로 생각이 모던하였다는 점입니다.
이 소설은 세상에 대한 Sarcasm : 비꼬는 말, 비꼼, 빈정거림 이 주를 이루며,
저는 바로 이 점이 그가 살았던 60년대보다는 모던한 이 시대 젊은이들의 상을
더 반영하고 있다고 생각하고 있기에 이 작가는 그 시대가 (30년대가) 아닌 70, 80년대쯤
태어났더라면 어떠했을까 그랬다면 어쩌면 자살을 하지 않았을지도 모른다고 상상해봅니다.
제 마음에 드는 점, 우선 description skill (캬락터 묘사) 이 좋고,
생각이 original 하며 글이 comedy처럼 유머가 넘칩니다:
주인공인 Ignatius Reilly 의 외모 묘사에서 : ( page 1 )
“ Possession of anything new or expensive only reflected a person’s lack of theology
and geometry; it could even cast doubts upon one’s soul.
Ignatius himself was dressed comfortably and sensibly.
The hunting cap prevented head colds.
The voluminous tweed trousers were durable and permitted unusually free locomotion.
Their pleats and nooks contained pockets of warm, stale air that soothed Ignatius.
The plaid flannel shirt made a jacket unnecessary while the muffler guarded exposed
Reilly skin between earflap and collar. The outfit was acceptable by any theological
and geometrical standards, however abstruse, and suggested a rich inner life.”
Ignatius Reilly 가 job 을 구하게 된 공장주인집의 묘사: (page 93):
The Levy home stood among the pines on a small rise overlooking the gray waters
of Bay St. Louis. The exterior was an example of elegant rusticity;
the interior was a successful attempt at keeping the rustic out entirely,
a permanently seventy- five- degree womb connected to the year –round
air-conditioning unit by an umbilicus of vents and pipes that silently filled the rooms
with filtered and reconstituted Gulf of Mexico breezes and exhaled
the Levy’s carbon dioxide and cigarette smoke and ennui.
The central machinery of the great life-giving unit throbbed somewhere
in the acoustically tiled bowels of the home, like a Red Cross instructor
giving cadence in an artificial respiration class,
“ In comes the good air, out goes the bad air, in comes the good air.”
주인공 Ignatius Reilly 는 저자인 John K. Toole 을 반영한듯 대학과 대학원을 나와
대학에서 학생들을 가르쳐본 경험이 있는 서른살로 이 소설속에 나오는 대부분의
인물들의 대사는 단어와 문장이 틀린 영어를 쓰고 있고 그에 비교하여Ignatius 의
단어 선택은 대사임에도 불구하고 꽤 인텔리하며, 어머니와 단 둘이 살며 글을 쓰는
Ignatius 의 글이 작은 font 로 몇 페이지 끼어져 소개되고 ,
그 글에서 그의 사상을 엿볼 수 있도록 구성되어 있습니다 : ( page 90 ):
“ Dear Reader,
Books are immortal sons defying their sires. – Plato
I find, dear reader, that I have grown accustomed to the hectic pace of office life,
an adjustment which I doubted I could make. Of course, it is true that in my brief
career at Levy Pants, Limited, I have succeeded in initiating several work-saving
methods.
Those of you who are fellow office workers and find yourselves reading
this incisive journal during a coffee break or such might take note of one
or two of my innovations. I direct these observations to officers and tycoons, also.
I have taken to arriving at the office one hour later than I am expected.
Therefore, I am far more rested and refreshed when I do arrive,
and I avoid that bleak first hour of the working day during which
my still sluggish senses and body make every chore a penance.
I find that in arriving later, the work which I do perform is of a much higher quality.
My innovation in connection with filing system must remain secret for the moment,
for it is rather revolutionary, and I shall have to see how it works out.
In theory, the innovation is magnificent.
However, I will say that the brittle and yellowing papers in the files constitute
a fire hazard….”
( 여기서 그의 이노베이션이란것은 그냥 파일들을 쓰레기통에 버려 버리는것임)
…생략…(page 100) :
“ As I have told you in earlier installments,
I was emulating the poet Milton by spending my youth in seclusion, meditation,
and study in order to perfect my craft of writing as he did;
my mother’s cataclysmic intemperance has thrust me into the world in the most
cavalier manner; my system is still in a state of flux.
Therefore, I am still in the process of adapting myself to the tension
of the working world. “
(page 118):
“ A great writer is the friend and benefactor of his readers.- Macaulay
생략…(page 122):
“ In a sense, I have always felt something of a kinship with the colored race
because its position is the same as mine; we both exist outside the inner
realm of American society. Of course, my exile is voluntary.
However, it is apparent that many of the Negroes wish to become
active members
of the American middle class. I cannot imagine why. I must admit that this
desires on their part leads me to question their value judgments.
However, if they wish to join the bourgeoisie, it is really none of my business.
They may seal their own doom. Personally, I would agitate quite adamantly
if I suspected that anyone were attempting to help me upward toward
the middle class.
I would agitate against the bemused person who was attempting to help me upward,
that is. “
생략…(page 123) :
“ Then, too, if I were a negro, I would not be pressured by my mother
to find a good job,
for no good jobs would be available.
My mother herself, a worn old Negress, would be too broken by years of
underpaid labor as a domestic to go out bowling at night.
She and I could live most pleasantly in some moldy shack in the slums
in a state of ambitionless peace, realizing contentedly that we were unwanted,
that striving was meaningless.”
(page 124) ( 그가 일하는 회사의 factory 를 방문한뒤):
“ I discovered that their average weekly pay envelope contained
less than thirty dollars.
It is my considered opinion that someone deserves more than that
in the way of a wage
for simply staying in a place like the factory five days a week, especially when the
factory is one like the Levy Pants factory in which the leaking roof threatens
to collapse at any moment. And who knows?
Those people might have much better things to do than to loiter about Levy Pants,
such as composing jazz or creating new dances or doing
whatever those things are that they do with such faculty.”
그 외,:
(page, 268) :
“ Nature has sometimes made a fool; but a coxcomb is always of man’s
own making.-
(page, 270): “Degeneracy, rather than signaling the downfall of a society,
as it once did, will now signal peace for a troubled world.
We must have new solutions to new problems.”
(page 306): “The only problem that those people have anyway is that
they don’t like new cars and hair sprays. That’s why they are put away.
They make the other members of society fearful.
Every asylum in this nation is filled with poor souls
who simply cannot stand lanolin, cellophane, plastic, television,
and subdivisions.”
“Ignatius, that ain’t true. You remember old Mr. Becnel
used to live down the block?
They locked him up because he was running down the street naked.”
“Of course, he was running down the street naked.
His skin could not bear any more of that Dacron and nylon clothing
that was clogging his pores.
I’ve always considered Mr. Becnel one of the martyrs of our age.
The poor man was badly victimized.”
(page 315): “ The room itself was what decorators would probably call severe.
The walls and high ceiling were white, and the room itself was sparsely furnished
with a few pieces of antique furniture…생략…the two or three antique
chairs had apparently been chosen for their bizarre design and not
for their ability to seat anyone,
for they were delicate suggestions, hints at furniture with
cushions barely capable of accommodating a child.
A human in such a room was expected not to rest or sit or even relax,
but rather pose, thereby transforming himself into a human furnishing
that would compliment the décor as well as possible.”
방을 묘사하는것으로 시작하였는데 그 방을 차지하게 되는 한 인간의 마음까지
묘사하는 통찰력있다고 (insightful 한 ) 느껴지는 문장.
단어 몇 개:
- mensch: the guy was really amazing; in addition to his tough mind,he was a real mensch. He was so gentlemanly and thoughtful I could hardly believe it. (page 179)
- rumpus room (= recreational room) : ..and that senile bag out of my rumpus room. (page 186)
- tarsi : “ my tarsi are apparently about to throw in the towel completely. (page 210).
- epicene : “… a lout in a black leather jacket who was teaching judo holds, to the great delight of his epicene students…” (page 315)
- weltanschauung: (세계관) : “you must realize the fear and hatred which my weltanschauung instills in people.” (page 51)
- ersatz: “ the most prevalent motif is one which attempts to make of the river an ersatz father figures.” (page 119)
- coxcomb : noun. a conceited dandy who is overly impressed by his own accomplishments, syn.cockscomb.
- dunce: noun, a stupid person; these words are used to express a low opinion of someone's intelligence.