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Emilia Ivancu Ways of Seeing, Illusion and Memory’S Time in the Novel the Enigma of Arrival by V

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Emilia Ivancu Ways of Seeing, Illusion and Memory’S Time in the Novel the Enigma of Arrival by V Caietele Echinox, vol. 23, 2012: Imaginaire et illusion 142 Emilia Ivancu Ways of Seeing, Illusion and Memory’s Time in the Novel The Enigma of Arrival by V. S. Naipaul 1 ABSTRACT “To walk is to lack a place” – this pro- Building on John Berger’s theory regarding position expresses all the essence of V. S. the multiple ways of seeing constitutive of a Naipaul’s works, particularly of The Enig- contemporary work of art, the present paper ma of Arrival, a novel full of verbs and aims to prove that, in the autobiographical phrases denoting movement against a space novel The Enigma of Arrival by V. S. Nai- not empty of meaning, on the contrary, but paul (named after a painting of Georgio de empty of warmth and shape, a space which Chirico’s, whose title was given in its turn by could never become a place. Half autobio- Apollinaire), the painting which stands at the graphy, half a novel, The Enigma of Arrival centre of the novel is turned into a personal revolves around the errand of a man who is mirror of the narrator’s life. The painting is trying really hard to make a connection with an illustration of the personal experience of the territory he decides to turn into his dwel- the narrator as regards his relation to the ling place, but all his effort to feel the land, newly discovered territories of Britain, and to feel the spirit of the place remains echo- the history of the place under the aesthetic less and the shivers of solitude and home- experience of the painting and his memory’s lessness become even more acute. The time. Under the aesthetic experience of the stranger who arrives in England comes with painting and his memory’s time, the narra- an imaginary map in his mind, an imaginary tor’s life becomes in the end, a prolongation map which was supposed to become real. of his own experience of the painting, that is This imaginary map induced by the literary a self-projection onto it, which results in a and historical works the character has fed delusionary experience of space and time, himself with for years turns out to be cold and thus of his own life. and deserted, lacking the will to open to the eyes of the stranger except in a form of a KEYWORDS decaying illusion, whose taste will turn V. S. Naipaul; Mirror; Home(ly); the Other; bitter in the end: Narrative. The history I carried with me, together EMILIA IVANCU with the self-awareness that had come Université Adam Mickiewicz, Poznan, Pologne/ with my education and ambition, had Université 1 Decembrie 1918, Alba Iulia, sent me into the world with a sense of Roumanie glory dead; and in England had given [email protected] me the rawest stranger’s nerves. Now Ways of Seeing, Illusion and Memory’s Time in the Novel The Enigma of Arrival ironically – or aptly – living in the identity and alterity and the 143 grounds of this shrunken estate, going mystery one lives in the pre- out for my walks, those nerves were sence of the Other. The ar- soothed, and in the wild garden and rival is the ultimate end of a journey and orchard beside the water meadows I Naipaul’s book is a book of a double jour- found a physical beauty perfectly sui- ney: one is that of a Trinidadian to the East, ted to my temperament and answering, to become a writer and the other is that of besides, every good idea I could have an uprooted person who is striving to find had as a child in Trinidad, of the phy- his roots in a land constructed by then only sical aspect of England.2 with illusions. The novel The Enigma of Ar- rival is a representation in frame, it is the From the point of view of aspect, the personal meaning and experience of the stranger’s imaginary map overlaps with the mystery that man carries everywhere he geographical map, but the lands, decayed should go: and under powerful industrial changes, stir emotions. The peaceful feeling at the begin- I felt that in an indirect, poetical way ning disappears, while moments of the per- the title referred to something in my sonal past and of the historical past of En- own experience; […]. What was inte- gland overlap with the slowly but irever- resting about the painting itself, “The sibly changing lands. The text abounds both Enigma of Arrival”, was that – again in chronicity and topology, in chronotopy. because of the title – it changed in my But even the multiple historical points memory. The original (or the repro- which meet in the novel cannot make up for duction in the “Little Library of Art” the desolation of being, cannot offer accom- booklet) was always a surprise. A clas- modation for the self, and under the dissolu- sical scene, Mediterranean, ancient – tive background of England, which resonates Roman – or so I saw it. A wharf; in the into the melancholic heart of the stranger, background, beyond walls and gate- and which seems a journey through a ways (like cut-outs), there is the top of painting, and consequently through another the mast of an antique vessel; on an story. otherwise deserted street in the fore- The painting, which inspires the title of ground there are two figures, both muf- the novel itself, seems to be both a mirror of fled, one perhaps the person who has the stranger’s destiny, as it speaks about a arrived, the other perhaps a native of meeting point between one and the Other. the port. The scene is of desolation and Before transmitting the message of its repre- mystery: it speaks of the mystery of the sentation, the painting is first a symbol in arrival. It spoke to me of that, as it had itself through the function it has, that of spoken to Apollinaire.3 representing, of creating a double of a rea- lity it mirrors. On the other hand, Giorgio de The narrator, whose writing is inspired Chirico’s painting is a painting of illusioned by this painting, manifests the need to get limits; it presents two identities, one who out of himself and transfer to another reality has just arrived and another one who disco- that the painting brings. It is the need that vers the mystery of the seashore, comprising the status of the migrant, which comprises the mystery of a journey, but also the mys- both solitude and unsettlement, urges within tery of one’s journey to the Other. Hence, with the aim of finding another identity in a the painting contains the dimensions of limited space to make one’s home. It is the Emilia Ivancu 144 desolation and the mystery conveying the message of its representation, that spoke to the narrator is first a symbol in itself through the func- from the painting and which tion it has, that of representing, of creating a mirrored the solitude expressed throughout double of the reality it mirrors. On the other the novel. The narrator’s identity is, in this hand, Giorgio de Chirico’s painting is a way, shaped and coloured by the enigma of painting of illusioned limits; it presents two the arrival he himself experienced and re- figures, one who just arrived and another created in his memory time and time again. one who discovers the mystery of the sea- Only that this meeting in reality never shore, comprising the mystery of a journey, seems to take place and the result will be but also the mystery of one’s journey to the only a journey of solitude and self-refe- Other. Hence, the painting contains the di- rence, a walk with no place to attach to. The mensions of identity and alterity and the narrator can only identitfy this scenery he mystery one lives in the presence of the meets with the part in himself that spoke to Other. The arrival is the ultimate end of a the new location, to the new unhomely journey, and Naipaul’s book is a book of a home. The narrator tries a transgression of double journey: one is that of a Trinidadian identity, but what he actually accomplishes to the East, to become a writer, and the o- is an extreme feeling of alterity that the ther is that of an uprooted person who is illusion produces. And the cleavage that ap- striving to find his roots in a land construc- pears rises from the very attempt of the ted up to then only of illusions. The novel stranger to adjust to the space he intends to The Enigma of Arrival is a frame represen- make his home. tation, it is the personal meaning and expe- In his book Ways of Seeing, John Ber- rience of the mystery embedded in a per- ger states that the visual arts have always e- son’s personality, and carried along inside, xisted within a social preserve, and this pre- no matter where he might go. serve was initially magical or sacred4. Thus The Narrator, whose writing starts the experience of art was the experience of from this painting, manifests the need of the sacred, and art was conesquently set getting out of himself and relocating to ano- apart from life so that it could maintain its ther reality, created by the painting, thus influence upon it. Together with the arrival confirming what Sanda Berce opines when of modernism, art was deprived of its sa- analysing the work of art of the Norwegian cred, magical function, and became ephe- artist Jeannet Christiansen: “The viewer meral, ubiquitous, insubstantial, available, [here the Narrator of The Enigma of Arrival valueless, free.
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