The Manuscript Found In Saragossa
Thus, our journey into books begins with a novel that I have been obsessing over for a good couple of years, albeit mostly in a distant way. Like, watching The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
on TV when you're a kid and holding certain scenes close to your heart for years and years after but completely forgetting what movie it was. Yes, that happened to me. It always happens to me with Terry Gilliam films for some reason... Brazil
was another one. Anyway, yes. Now we've understood the concept of 'faraway obsession', let us begin to tackle this sprawling novel.
I picked up this book quite by accident in the library and was completely entranced by it for two weeks before totally forgetting what the author and title of the book was. Then, I searched the same place in the library, found it again, and forgot again. And this happened yet again. And again. Until one day, over the course of many years, I took it upon myself to sit down and memorize the title until the words were burned into my brain. THE. MANUSCRIPT. FOUND. IN. SARAGOSSA. BY. JAN. POTOCKI. Yes!
Ah! And now we can begin talking about the book! The book! The book! Oh my! Oh oh! Okay!
Having been brought up on a diet of Dostoyevsky
and Tolstoy
has gotten me used to novels with IN YOUR FACE CONCEPTS and plots which conform quite closely to the message the writer wishes to convey. Don't get me wrong, I'm not painting any of this in a negative light, they do it well. With style and pizazz and a lot of passion. But that said, it's easy to understand how something like The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
was a shock to my system.
The plot of this novel, if the word 'novel' can contain such an epic, starts with a manuscript found in Saragossa during the war which tells the tale of one Alphonse van Worden who is traveling through Spain and his subsequent adventures and dealings with people he meets along the way. And their adventures and dealings with other people, in the past. And the adventures of these people and the people they met. And the adventures of these people... and so on and so forth. It is hard to say the plot 'revolves around' something because it honestly doesn't. The Manuscript Found in Saragossais built more like a Russian doll with tales within tales within tales. Some which connect, some which do not, some with the same themes, some without any themes, some which are completely fantastical, some bordering on prosaic.
Although this 'style' (I think there are too few books utilizing this 'frame narrative' kind of structure to merit a 'genre' ALTHOUGH IT SHOULD BE A GENRE BECAUSE I LOVE IT) has been used to great effect in The Arabian Nights
and to pretty-good-but-maybe-not-so-great effect in The Decameron
, I think The Manuscript Found in Saragossais a totally different ball game if only because of the MASSIVE CONFUSION the SHEER NUMBERS of INTERTWINING STORIES evokes. Whereas in the other books, the frame narrative is more to provide context, in The Manuscript, there are SO MANY FRAME NARRATIVES that the frames lose their meaning and melts into... into... maybe the closest word I can find for it is LIFE.
How I came to that conclusion... please, just imagine I explained to you my thought process and it's logical.
Whereas Tolstoyanishbooks aim to be ONE THING to ALL MEN (like encapsulating and EMBODYING universal aspects of the human struggle in a single tale), The Manuscript Found in Saragossais ALL THINGS to NO MEN. It is an orgy of ghosts and bandits and priests and prostitutes and their superstitious stories which, though seeming fantastical to us now, would have actually been more realistic in ye olden times of superstition. In short, they seem very much like stories that folk of that period would have told each other. And they are just stories. No reason or rhyme, just a bunch of stories which snake around each other like... like... MONSTERS.
I can't go on! I can't go on! Even writing about this book, I'm losing myself in the forking, twisting paths of my own mind!!!
ARGH. Just buy it now and read for yourself!! But beware!! This book will haunt you forever!! THIS BOOK WILL SEE YOU IN HELL!!!
on TV when you're a kid and holding certain scenes close to your heart for years and years after but completely forgetting what movie it was. Yes, that happened to me. It always happens to me with Terry Gilliam films for some reason... Brazilwas another one. Anyway, yes. Now we've understood the concept of 'faraway obsession', let us begin to tackle this sprawling novel.I picked up this book quite by accident in the library and was completely entranced by it for two weeks before totally forgetting what the author and title of the book was. Then, I searched the same place in the library, found it again, and forgot again. And this happened yet again. And again. Until one day, over the course of many years, I took it upon myself to sit down and memorize the title until the words were burned into my brain. THE. MANUSCRIPT. FOUND. IN. SARAGOSSA. BY. JAN. POTOCKI. Yes!
Ah! And now we can begin talking about the book! The book! The book! Oh my! Oh oh! Okay!
Having been brought up on a diet of Dostoyevsky
and Tolstoyhas gotten me used to novels with IN YOUR FACE CONCEPTS and plots which conform quite closely to the message the writer wishes to convey. Don't get me wrong, I'm not painting any of this in a negative light, they do it well. With style and pizazz and a lot of passion. But that said, it's easy to understand how something like The Manuscript Found in Saragossawas a shock to my system.The plot of this novel, if the word 'novel' can contain such an epic, starts with a manuscript found in Saragossa during the war which tells the tale of one Alphonse van Worden who is traveling through Spain and his subsequent adventures and dealings with people he meets along the way. And their adventures and dealings with other people, in the past. And the adventures of these people and the people they met. And the adventures of these people... and so on and so forth. It is hard to say the plot 'revolves around' something because it honestly doesn't. The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
is built more like a Russian doll with tales within tales within tales. Some which connect, some which do not, some with the same themes, some without any themes, some which are completely fantastical, some bordering on prosaic.Although this 'style' (I think there are too few books utilizing this 'frame narrative' kind of structure to merit a 'genre' ALTHOUGH IT SHOULD BE A GENRE BECAUSE I LOVE IT) has been used to great effect in The Arabian Nights
and to pretty-good-but-maybe-not-so-great effect in The Decameron, I think The Manuscript Found in Saragossais a totally different ball game if only because of the MASSIVE CONFUSION the SHEER NUMBERS of INTERTWINING STORIES evokes. Whereas in the other books, the frame narrative is more to provide context, in The Manuscript, there are SO MANY FRAME NARRATIVES that the frames lose their meaning and melts into... into... maybe the closest word I can find for it is LIFE.How I came to that conclusion... please, just imagine I explained to you my thought process and it's logical.
Whereas Tolstoyanish
books aim to be ONE THING to ALL MEN (like encapsulating and EMBODYING universal aspects of the human struggle in a single tale), The Manuscript Found in Saragossais ALL THINGS to NO MEN. It is an orgy of ghosts and bandits and priests and prostitutes and their superstitious stories which, though seeming fantastical to us now, would have actually been more realistic in ye olden times of superstition. In short, they seem very much like stories that folk of that period would have told each other. And they are just stories. No reason or rhyme, just a bunch of stories which snake around each other like... like... MONSTERS.I can't go on! I can't go on! Even writing about this book, I'm losing myself in the forking, twisting paths of my own mind!!!
ARGH. Just buy it now and read for yourself!! But beware!! This book will haunt you forever!! THIS BOOK WILL SEE YOU IN HELL!!!
Labels: books
posted by palehorsesailor at
8:38 PM
3 Comments:
Howdy, I found your blog by doing a Technorati search on Saragossa Manuscript. It's also one of my favorite novels and periodically I wonder if anyone else has ever read it.
Not too much to add right now to your review. There are so many great stories contained within the novel. I spent a few days once researching Mexican history so that I could write a screenplay of the story of, is it Lorenzo?, who ends up travelling to Mexico with his wife where he later falls in love with a descendant of Montezuma? Yeah, that story. It's a movie to be made one day, though likely not by me. Of course, there are 100 different movies to be made from this book.
Hi! Actually a film was made! It's a Polish film by Wojciech Has and it really does the book justice. I was actually going to review it after doing the novel.
Right. I've seen that movie, but I'm not sure if I've finished it. But it was rather faithful, I agree. However, I think there are lots of stories to re-tell that aren't part of the main flow, just like Potocki grabbed certain items from the Decameron for his book without grabbing the whole thing.
Anyway, I look forward to your review of the movie, and I will check back for not Potocki things as well.
Actually, I also once found someone who did an adaptation of the manuscript as a very recent stage play. I want to say in Chicago or something like that.
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