The Tradition that Keeps on Giving

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKeyOkoCyo4&feature=youtube_gdata

Of Suspense, drama, and painters

Right now, I’m sitting in front of my computer writing this blog.  Approximately twelve seconds ago, I was making weird noises and celebrating Zeitoun’s turn of events with odd giddiness.  Now, I’ll keep reading. 

All right, I’ve read ten more pages.  Now, let me explain to you why it’s important to recognize my willpower: I stopped reading the book at this stage in the storyline.  A book that has been based on the retelling of a series of inspiring and thought provoking events has now turned to suspense.  As Zeitoun was just about to call his wife, the mother of his children, the bearer of his crazy decision to remain in New Orleans after the storm, something happened that only happens in movies like Paranormal Activity, Fargo, Saw, or Freddy.  “When he put the phone down and looked toward the front porch, he saw a group of men, all of them armed, bursting into the house” (170).  Zeitoun is a painter, he knows how to fix windows and paint doors, and he’s spent the last week paddling around in a canoe feeding homeless dogs.  It would be fair to say that he isn’t prepared for a violent encounter.  This is what makes this occurrence so extraordinarily fantastic.  Eggers, who has a knack for exaggerating the drama behind a character’s feelings (mostly in order to highlight his ethnical origin) has opted to not overdramatize the only really dramatic moment thus far.  Just when the main character is about to get robbed, beat up, raped, or I don’t know what, Eggers decides to conclude the chapter, and then go on ten pages without mentioning Zeitoun or the armed men at his door.  How does this work? Clearly, this isn’t a suspense novella, or a horror film, and Zeitoun didn’t refuse to tell Eggers about what happened next.  Eggers is doing this on purpose because he can, because he knew that I (you and we) would enjoy it.  So, as I continue to read, and Kathy continues to “pace[s] the rooms, the phone an extension of her arm,” (179) all I can think of is how this experience will affect the rest of the retelling of Katrina’s aftermath.  Will Zeitoun spiral into depression and do nothing until his family arrives? Will he move on unharmed, continuing his borderline heroic actions? Will he die?

On another note, Eggers hasn’t ceased to include even the goriest details about “little babies being raped” (175) inside the Superdome.  Will Bush’s administration find a way to be remembered positively in what remains of the book? Doubt it.

Informative Entertainment

I’m inventing a literary genre.  Through a snapshot realization that everyone is petty, I’ve coined (as far as I know) the term: informative entertainment.  Even Zeitoun, the man that decided to stay in New Orleans (cue the patriotic music) for the sake of the city, for the sake of the country, for the sake of munificence (end music) is petty.  As I’ve continued to read about the trials and travails of Zeitoun and New Orleans, all I’ve thought about is his utter kind-heartedness.  His family left, and he stayed.  He wanted to help! I tell myself.  While this is true, Eggers has finally shown the underlying reasoning behind his apparent good will. “A hope flickered within Zeitoun that…” (167) he would be rewarded on some level, for his actions.

I’ve conveniently decided not to include the latter part of that sentence.  What Zeitoun, and behind him Eggers’ cynicism, want to tell the reader, is that there is no good guy in this book.  More than a praise for Zeitoun’s actions and a celebration of Muslim acceptance in the South, the book targets the reader that wants informative entertainment.  Yes, this is a genre that I just made up.  Zeitoun is described as a “disturbing, inspiring nonfiction account of a New Orleans married couple that w[as] dragged through their own special branch of Kafkaesque hell…”*   As I began reading the account I lost sight of the target for the author.  An account, seeks to inform.  This particular account not only seeks to inspire, but also to provide the reader with a bright light after a natural disaster and a terrorist attack. Now, I’ve been forced to take some time for introspection.  As Zeitoun mentions his wish for “his siblings to see him like this, on the water, a sailor, being useful, serving God,” (167) I realize that all this time Eggers has been blatantly manipulating me. My empathetic melodramatic self has gobbled up a cover story.  Zeitoun is an account of how Katrina is comparable to the war on terror. 

Kafkaesque: "it describes a nightmarish situation which most people can somehow relate to, although strongly surreal." - Urban Dictionary 

The step by step explanation of the story, including the sometimes-omniscient yet sometimes ignorant narrator, is a way to get the reader to be entertained. The contents regarding the storm are informative.  As Zeitoun reaches out to the average American, noting that there are some Muslims, even after 9/11, that are willing to help, Zeitoun reaches out to the reader, simply to show them how he saw Hurricane Katrina.

Again (insert event)

Zeitoun has progressed.  The storm is now almost completely gone, and it seems that from here on in there will be smooth sailing.  I don’t mean to be insensitive, I know that Zeitoun sacrificed a lot to help his adopted city, but I feel that the story will only get less interesting as the book goes on.

At times, Eggers (obviously through no fault of his own) resorts back to events he has already mentioned.  In an attempt to further solidify the ethos and logos behind Zeitoun and his decision making, he tends to become repetitive.  “Just as she had the day before…” (182) seems to be an ongoing phrase, used to describe a series of similar events that vary somewhat in terms of the immediate outcome, but end up just fine at the end.  I’m trying to contain my growing cynicism right now, and give Eggers the benefit of the doubt.  Having read his works before, and having read about the passion for the unknown that drives Zeitoun, I have faith that the story will pick up again.  As I’m writing this it is occurring to me that Eggers is simply trying to be faithful to the story. After all, for the educated reader, the more factual Eggers is, the better.

Finally, I want to leave myself room to retreat.  In my opinion, the book is going through a rough patch in terms of edge of your seat action, b

Four Times a Fool

At some point in time, we’ve all been met with incompetence.  Or at least we’ve been met with what we identify as incompetence.  As Zeitoun paddles around in his canoe, meticulously setting up a routine that rotates around saving and helping people and animals, he is met with incompetence.  Here I will lie out the latest example of incompetence of the worse kind, poor organization.

Step one:

Zeitoun observes a looting.  “An organized group of military criminals” who “fit the description of those Kathy had warned him about,” (129) were robbing a gas station.  As he attempts to get close, one of the men shows Zeitoun that he is armed.

loot: steal goods from (a place), typically during a war or riot 

Step two:

Zeitoun paddles miles to get to the corner of Napoleon and St. Charles in order to tell the armed forces of a developing situation.  The soldiers, “holding their M-16s,” (135) tell him that they’ll “take care of it.” Because Zeitoun isn’t convinced, he asks them how long they would take and whether he could help. They respond that “about an hour” (135) and that he had to leave.  However, after waiting more than three hours, no one has come to save the person that Zeitoun indicated.

Step three:

Zeitoun encounters, collects, and distributes MREs all throughout the area surrounding his house.  As he “found an abandoned military jeep” (136) with a box full of MREs, Zeitoun “welcomed the opportunity to unload” (136) the merchandise and gives it to a family in need.

MRE: Meal Ready to Eat (given to soldiers when dispatched for a mission)

Step four:

Zeitoun helplessly observes as an entire block is burned to the ground.  Zeitoun simply sat there, “there were no sirens, no authorities of any kind” (152).  He is frustrated that he can’t help, and he realizes that because of the lack of organization, anything can happen.

These four events are proof that the government should have done more.  There are always excuses, always-bureaucratic issues that impede organized help. But, to the people who weren’t helped, or got robbed, this isn’t an excuse. Zeitoun decided to stay in New Orleans to help as many people as he could.  However, there is a chance that his good spirits will end up putting him in harms way.  Of course, I’m being overly simplistic in my analysis of how the government could have done more.  If I’m wrong, if the government was doing anything and everything in its power to help, then at least this blog was a testament to how the book has successfully appealed to my sentimentality (pathos).

No Big Deal

Zeitoun has taken an unexpected shift.  In the beginning of the story, the family was all together, and the storm hadn’t arrived.  Yet, they were all quite scared and vigilant.  Now, the storm has come, and its worse than they expected, yet, the panic has passed and they have all reacted perfectly in the midst of the crisis. 

As the first hundred pages of the book were dedicated more to upping the ante, this new portion has been rather disappointing.  Eggers spoke of the Muslim tension, the lack of financial stability in the family, the improperly positioned levees, and the mandatory evacuation.  With this kind of build-up, I was expecting an apocalyptic showdown between Zeitoun and Katrina.  A sort of cheesy, Hollywood take on the agony and braveness of an immigrant soul.  Instead, I’ve gotten a straight up recounting of events.  Don’t get my wrong, Zeitoun is a hero and W’s government is exposed as a third world poorly arranged mess.  However, I’m surprised.  What is to become of the family, of their house? 

I realize now that I’m the idiot.  I expected Eggers to be just as arrogant as he was in his memoir.  I expected him to blow everything out of proportion.  I was wrong.  The only way that the book was going to truly have an impact, to move the people that know little about Katrina and scare the people that endured it, was if it was true to the facts.  I’ve changed my perception of what is to come, and I’ve changed my mindset as well.  Take it away, Eggers, show me how Zeitoun represents everything that’s right in the city of New Orleans.