{"id":139,"date":"2005-11-01T14:13:38","date_gmt":"2005-11-01T18:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/2005\/11\/01\/hagedorns-filial-subtext\/"},"modified":"2005-11-01T14:15:50","modified_gmt":"2005-11-01T18:15:50","slug":"hagedorns-filial-subtext","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/2005\/11\/01\/hagedorns-filial-subtext\/","title":{"rendered":"Hagedorn’s Filial Subtext"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are so many postmodern concepts in Dream Jungle<\/em> already mentioned, I am left to ponder the unanswerable or, at least, the elements of the novel that puzzled me. The time shifts involved in the story of Zamora’s life and the Tabao and the many angles Hagadorn employed to fill in the gaps of first hand experience at ‘The White House’ leaves one with more questions rather than less. For instance, the time frame spanning from Paz’s second attempt to interview Zamora at his delapidated mansion and his death is not documented, and the reader is left to wonder what exactly ‘killed’ Zamora. Was his demise and death a self-fullfilling prophesy since he was no longer a benevolent celebrity venerated for his stone age discovery of the Tabao, but rather, known as an ignoble scam artist, as Paz’s father believes?<\/p>\n

 The constant infiltration of "Antonio Pigafetta’s account of Magellan’s expedition" coupled with recurrent Conradian illusions that bind Zamora, Tony Pierce, Moody, and absurdly, Sabastian Claiborne seem to answer the question of Zamora’s death. "Zamora held out his arms, ready to give as well as to receive. He was a long-lost king, a glorious saint, a triumphant savior. Our hero, our savior<\/em>." This man, Zamora, is Conrad’s Kurtz reinvented. Zamora’s home, whether imagined or real, whether among an authentic Tabao people or a constructed or "fake" tribe, is "the darkness." The stark comparison between Kurtz and Zamora leads me to believe that Zamora, while literally self-isolated in the darkness of his vacant house, is consumed by the darkness, or the chaotic void of a universe in which humankind is persistently trying to impose social order. Zamora’s construct of order, again whether imagined or real, was the adoration "of his devoted supplicants," the Tabao and the fame, the parties, and the glory that the alleged "the ethnological find of the century" brought him. Zamora, like Kurtz, and Magellan before them, are at home among strangers, among the suppliant, the colonized "other," people that are transfixed with the godlike appearence of a distanced fatherly benevolence. <\/p>\n

None of the characters, however, are ‘at home’ with their families, the traditional unit one should be closest to according to premodern\/modern standards. Kurtz abandon’s Europe and ‘his beloved,’ Magellan was a notorious conquistador, not a family man, and Zamora is so isolated from his wife Isle and his daughter Dulce, he no longer exists to them at his death and posthumously. "My daughter’s happy now, lost int he warmth and glow of my rum and her mother’s radiant smile…The girls are having fun. And not once does my name come up. Not once." Is this Hagedorn’s assessment of the postmodern condition of family? Is family more fragmented, detached, and without connection in contemporary, globalized societies?<\/p>\n

Paz’s alienation from her bible thumping sadist of a brother Ricky and her break from her family when she moved to the U.S., Lina’s flight from her mother and her home with Zamora at Casa Blanca and her relationship to her sexually and physically abusive father, Janet’s distanced relationship to Pierce (a strictly professional relationship in film and a biological partnership to propagate the species), and Moody’s escape from his girlfriend and son, Alex, are all instances of the postmodern disconnection of family. The unit no longer represents unconditional solidarity or loyalty, but is something that can physically dissolve and break down at the drop of a pin. However, Lina, Paz, Janet, Moody, and Zamora are all characters that Hagedorn depicts with the substantial conscience to yearn for their family connections to be reconstructed and made whole again, even if only in remembrance. In Zamora’s case, even in death as his spirit is peering out from the urn, "the source of his agony," the "failed love" of Isle is what his restless spirit realizes was most important. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are so many postmodern concepts in Dream Jungle already mentioned, I am left to ponder the unanswerable or, at least, the elements of the novel that puzzled me. The time shifts involved in the story of Zamora’s life and the Tabao and the many angles Hagadorn employed to fill in the gaps of first … Continue reading Hagedorn’s Filial Subtext<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}