To go back a little bit, from pages 312-317 we learn a lot about Mario, the middle of the Incandenza boys. He is severely deformed, but of the characters in the novel seems to be the one with the best heart. So to bring some different threads together here are some things to think about:
- As a result of his deformity, Mario is described as being "pain-resistant" in a novel that is filled with all sorts of pain, both physical and psychic. What does this tell us about Mario's place in the novel?
- Madame Psychosis talks a lot about the deformed, and sees herself as being so beautiful that she hides her face behind a veil. Mario is an avid listener of her radio show--any thoughts about what we are to make of these two?
- Mario is also Hal and Orin's brother, and while his relationship with Orin is almost non-existent, his relationship with Hal is complicated. Mario is the older brother, but Hal is the one taking care of him. What do you have to say about this relationship?
- And finally, Mario is in some ways following his father JOI by continuing to be interested in film making. What can we learn about Mario through his films (Tennis and the Feral Prodigy pgs 172-176) ? Is Mario like us and just an audience to the book's events, looking at everything through a particular lens?
You're right that Mario's relationship with Hal is to tough to figure. Hal sincerely loves him, and Mario really is supposed to be the one with the biggest heart. (I love Mario's humble introduction to his yearly 45 minutes of attention on p.380: "Thanks everybody and I hope you like it.")
ReplyDeleteNow tell me if I'm getting this wrong, but I don't know that Mario needs a lot of help from Hal. But the other boys (even Hal himself!) think Mario naturally needs help, because he appears TOO sincerely happy. It's not that Mario doesn't appreciate sarcasm. He finds Avril's "mock-dry tone" on 193 funny every time. Sarcasm seems to be OK; the perceived problems are that Mario enjoys it without tiring of it and without it satisfying any inner cynic. He's too happy, or he's cultivated too much optimism. Some people think he's dead inside (156), and I think this is why.
You can tell Mario is saddened by the other boys' inner cynics. On 592, around the time Pemulis's dial-a-prayer for atheists joke appears to cause ironic, uncomfortable laughter that patronizes Mario's sincere, "truly happy" laughter, there's a statement that sounds like Mario's voice: "It's like there's some rule that real stuff can only get mentioned if everybody rolls their eyes or laughs in a way that isn't happy."
Mario loves Madame Psychosis b/c he thinks it's real hurt on display, but I suspect everybody else thinks it's somebody's vain attempt to be très hip, like "here I am being all non-confluential and obtuse and emotional." There's the disconnect. Mario thinks the mature thing is to be authentic and open, vs. tightly guarded and hardened by cynicism. I bet it doesn't even cross the recording engineer's mind that the whole thing could be something other than pseudo-intellectual wordplay: the narrator's voice on 625 says some "vacantly grinning, damaged in some way" people are "actually" coming down here to check on her.
But here's the thing. There on 625, somebody travels with Mario ("one hideous little inquirer") over to WYYY. Avril's too busy for it to be her. It's gotta be Hal. Here's Hal's brother who seems to need help because his pleasures seem too simple, but I bet Hal recognizes what Mario thinks: that those who give over to cynicism are the ones who are dead inside and who are too cool for school, not Madame Psychosis. This has lots to do with living tightly guarded/controlled lives in the bubble of ETA and being cynical or apolitical or taking drugs (which Mario wouldn't see the point of--154) or being "catatonic", which kept coming up earlier, so what do you guys think?
Actually, it could have been Schtitt that went up to the station with Mario in tow in the sidecar...
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