Word: marcuses
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Somehow the personal narrative sections adopt a similarly aloof, mostly emotionless posture; Marcus is fully immersed in an alternate universe that we can only pick up in bits and pieces. The weirdness of this world is only revealed to us through matter-of-fact, but completely internally contained, descriptions of smaller, bizarre episodes or rituals...
...strangeness of this premise is only part of what sets Notable American Women apart, as Marcus discusses this world not only in his own voice and the voices of his parents, but in a third-person documentary style as well. The text is scattered with brief historical accounts of important events in the history of the Silentists, which also provides descriptions of experiments concerning the essence of women’s names. (These are remnants of the book’s initial conceptualization: Marcus stumbled across Jane Dark while writing fake historical accounts satirizing the patriarchal and condescending ones...
There is no easy introduction to the world that Marcus (the author) has imagined. We only learn by struggling to make sense of the evidence he presents to us, so that we must become historians of a what Marcus described to The Crimson as “a slightly parallel world to ours that seems alien but might be closer than we thought...
...website, www.benmarcus.com, is also full of elaborate gimmicks, such as cutesy minimalist illustrations and a glossary of terms from the book, designed to appeal to those who loved Eggers’ self-conscious style. Certain stops on Marcus’ reading tour will feature demonstrations of Silentist rituals. Marcus has even penned an essay admitting, “I have written a bad book,” for McSweeney’s, the newly prominent platform (born out of Eggers’ success) for this sort of youthful and experimental genre...
...take risks with the ways we normally think about words and emotions and its eagerness to push the boundaries of language. “I was interested in taking these modes of suppression against women, like silence and stillness, and turning them into elective powers,” said Marcus. “I wanted to take the affliction of silence and turn it into a power.” This sort of reimagination powers the entire novel, and the novel’s exploration of these extraordinary uses of silence, stillness and language suggests intriguing new ways to consider...