Postmodernism in A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Introduction

A visit from the goon squad was an “exquisite work of postmodernism” (Gray,2010:46),[1] the Pulitzer Prize comments was “a unique examination of the process of growing old and older in the digital age, with an unrestrained curiosity about the rapid changes in culture.” Indeed, this is a postmodern novel with science, technology, music, time and humanity. Egan developed a new style by using pop music factory as a cultural polygon prism, casted the change of social culture, showing the past, present and future of a specific American generation behind the background of the loss of traditional culture. The novel had a novelty structure divided into A and B two parts, just like old time cassette tape, within 13 asymmetrical chapters. It crossed from the early 1970s into the near future, area included America, Italy and even Africa. Her creation keeps pace with the current times, it incorporated many elements of postmodern media such as search engines, power point, blogs, text messages and Facebook, demonstrated the representation of the media in postmodern literature and the construction of the text. Th novel kept on transferring stories, locations, characters, set up foreshadows, changing narrative perceptions and tongues, showing the life condition of American generation truly, making a symphony full of hope and lost, unconstrained life for many music dreamers. The novel collaged pieces of broken texts, put audiences into the fragments to seek out the connotation. This essay will talk about three significant postmodernism features in this novel: hypertext, Polyphony and digital media narration.

Hypertext Narrations Sublimates Nonlinear Narration

Disorder, fracture and uncertainty are the main features of postmodernism, influenced many creation concept of postmodern writers, whom consider the linear narrations of modernism and realism novels can no longer reflect objective reality truly. They bravely “destroyed the metaphysical routine of modernist art, broke its closed and self-satisfied aesthetic form, and advocates the thorough diversification of thought modes, expression technique, artistic them and language tricks” (Liu,1999:13)[2], that made up western postmodernism today. The reality of current postmodernism must have influenced the literary creations, aesthetic and thoughts, the spring up of hypertexts nowadays is a new writing method under the environment of digital time, “hypertext literature is a new type of literature that takes network as the carrier and is supported by hypertext technology. It sets hypertext connections in the text and provides different plots, so that audiences could go to multi-direction reading choices. Different reading choices will lead to different endings, so it is also called ‘multi-direction text literature’” (Chen,2012:129)[3]. Egan is a new-generation writer who grew up in the network age, also influenced by postmodernism, her literature creation could be impressed under these two features, A Visit from the Goon Squad is such a first experimental work. Its nonlinear narrative features were embodied in, its individual 13 stories, the fragments of plots, time, space and logical dimension were formed between them. All these materials combinate together to show a fragmented world of texts, dissolved the stability of traditional text narration and form, and makes the text form and meanings open endlessly.

A Visit from the Goon Squad’s carrier is somehow paper books, so its narration can never be like hypertext, having many hyperlinks, providing audiences many reading choices of a new story. But its construction is most likely a hypertext form, the 13 chapters of this novel has already implied it. The audiences could pick any chapter they like to read, break down the time arrangement of story, the scenario between stories is individual. Pick any chapter, it is an individual story, it can’t affect the understanding of any other chapters. The connection in-between chapters are joined by a key character, just like how web redirects with a link. Sasha, the character who ran through in this novel, a victim of her parents’ failed marriage, experienced tragic childhood, teenage rebellion, homeless, had a homosexual relationship and kleptomania in college time, only after her meeting with Drew, she started to pursuit the meaning of life. That’s how it this book is, the delay of the plots in time and space, set up suspense for the audiences. Every character is a main character but also a peripheral character.

The Text Carnival of Polyphony Theory

The polyphony theory was original from Russian literary critic Bakhtin, it meant the condition on how different pitches combinate together to create music. Bakhtin appropriated this theory into literature, emphasized on the equability of different narrative tongues, because from what he believed “Truth is not born nor is it to be found inside the head of an individual person, it is born between people collectively searching for truth, in the process of their dialogic interaction” (Bakhtin,1998: 372)[4]. This kind of polyphony could have all characters to speak fairly, reflect the reality objectively, it realized the conversations in an equal position between characters and characters in the book, also author and characters. Therefore, the story development isn’t controlled by the authoritative author, but the diversifiable narrative perceptions, not single perception any more, but constantly changing narrative tongues and perceptions. Different viewpoints are put together, like different scenes are put together so they make up a solid image, avoiding the lopsided views towards the characters. This strategy put character into different stories, or by using different tongue, perception to describe the same character, to present ab objective writing as comprehensive as possible.

The novel used three different perceptions, third person omniscient perception, second person and first person. Under the third person perception, author could tell the story objectively; at chapter, it used the unusual second person perception, pulled the audiences into the story toughly, let audiences take part in the text construction, make narration a direct conversation with audience, the narrative distance is cut short immediately. First person perception limited the observation, which gives rights to characters in the story to tell how they truly feel. That, Egan creatively realized a text world where audiences, author and novel characters could interact at same time, they could witness the social changes under the influence of technological development. The novel contains more than ten voices, many voices and changing perception mutually complement and interweave, perform a carnival of polyphony, like a shook symphony, reflects the social life changes in the digital age: “The hippies are getting old, they blew their brains on acid and now they’re begging on street corners all over San Francisco. Their hair is tangled and their bare feet are thick and gray as shoes. We’re sick of them” (Egan,2012:45).[5] At seventies, the divorce boom in America caused many children heartbroken disorders. The divorce of Sasha’s parents put a scar on her mind, which was the reason why she liked to steal. Rolph was one of the six kids in the three marriages of Lou, his suicide also was inextricably caused by his parents’ divorce. Suicide, drug use, run away from home, rebellion, they are shackles for an American generation. Chapter 12 was constituted by Sasha’s 12-year-old daughter, Alison, which turned out to be a power point slides. It represented aspirations of the new generations, revealed how communications at the high developing technical time changed. At last chapter, pure language, Egan used online contacts and social media to seek out how people’s life changed in network time, showing how capital was everywhere, worried about people who grew up at the time of network. “For babies and young children the ‘kiddie’ handset ‘Starfish’ has been created, a handset with features like finger drawing, GPS systems for babies just learning to walk and ‘PicMail’” (Egan 333)[6], it is truly our time.

Digital Media Collage Narration

Postmodernist believes world is consisted by fragments, they hate the oneness of modernism, are opposed to totalitarian and class grading, advocate uncertainty, try their best to put world back to its original fragments. Collage is, “some postmodernists imitate newsreels from John Dos Passos, put other texts, such as fragments of literary works, colloquial tells in daily life, newspapers and periodical, etc. Make these irrelevant fragments connect and become one, therefore, breaks the solidification form of traditional novels” (Chen, 2010:13)[7] the innovation of collage is, “dissimilar things are stick together, which creates a reality. This new reality, at its best condition, could be nor imply that, a comment on its another reality, maybe more than that” (Chen,2002:137-138).[8] The mixed collage, arbitrary features dispelled the traditional grand narration, turned to small narrations, restore what world is really is. The novel is an aggregation of many fragments, focused on am organization of a group of music lovers incompactly, reflects the big revolution because of digital age.

The collage embodied on the structure arrangements and character perceptions, author used montage method to collage 13 individual stories to show audiences, the whole novel had no sequence or logic, but a world with fragments scattered disorderly. The character’s perception also presented collage features. First chapter was Sasha talking to her psychologist, second chapter was about a head of music company taking gold flakes to help his sexual ability. Third chapter brought us back to 1980, showing how teenagers at that time fight against tradition, culture like crazy. Every chapter, Egan switched perception from different characters to collage her work, it makes her tongue changed in serious, poetic, ironic and ridicule freely, reached to a new level of art.

Again, at chapter 12, “Great Rock and Roll Pauses”, was written by Alison, using a power point. Egan changed the traditional narration, put power point slides into a novel, showing how much postmodern digital technology’s development affect culture. This chapter was told from a child’s view on memories of Sasha and little nothing of life from other children’s family. Every part is individual but consistent overall. These 75 slides of power points were thumbnails of the whole novel, it indicated to audience that how difficult it was for people to communicate at the time of post-industrial consumer society, the told language seems not to express the major experiences any more, only by using media to transfer message, all were to show how technical development affected the whole world, including its communications, creations and reading methods.

Except this chapter, at chapter 9, “Forty-Minute Lunch: Kitty Jackson Opens Up About Love, Fame, and Nixon!”, also used collage. At this chapter, the footnotes were 6 times more than the main text part, author used particle theory in physics to explain how starlet Kitty was recognized by a waiter, collage out a dozen of mental activity possibilities, which is a collocation technique. At the end of that chapter, it collages many interviews from varies of newspaper companies. At the footnote part, Egan attached a long letter from Jules to magazine editor, is a parody to Wallet’s tedious footnote style. All chapter was collaged, which brought audiences feelings of disorder and stray from the point.

Conclusion

Egan is a new generation writer in digital age, postmodern media elements allow her not to stick with nonlinear narration, collage technique was intergrade into digital time’s flash slides, the narrative voices could shuttle in past, present and future, the skill it dealt with time and space revealed literature’s new form under the influence of network. This work consistently put music in place to prospect cultural change, but not only music and culture dJeid Egan concern, she also concerned about society, American generation, wrote about their rebellious youth, confusions, self-pursuit, reflected the change of whole society, history and culture under the revolution of new age.

Works Cited

 Gray, B. Allison. Review. A Visit from the Goon Squad[J]. Liberal Journal.1. Oct.2010.

2 Mingjiu Liu Editor. From modernism to postmodernism [M].Beijing：China social sciences press，1999.

3 Shidan Chen. Media Representation and construction in postmodern literature [J].Foreign Literature，2012:（2）124-132.

5 Bakhtin, M.M. (1984) Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. Edited and trans. by Caryl Emerson. Minnieapolis: University of Michigan Press.

6 Egan, Jennifer. A Visit from the Goon Squad. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.

7 Egan, Jennifer. A Visit from the Goon Squad. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.

8 Shidan Chen. American postmodern novels explain in details[M].Tianjin：Nankai University Press，2010

9 Shidan Chen. American postmodern novels technics[M].Dalian：Liaoning Normal University Press，2002.

[1] Gray, B. Allison. Review. A Visit from the Goon Squad[J]. Liberal Journal.1. Oct.2010.

[2] Mingjiu Liu Editor. From modernism to postmodernism [M].Beijing：China social sciences press，1999.

[3] Shidan Chen. Media Representation and construction in postmodern literature [J].Foreign Literature，2012:（2）124-132.

[4] Bakhtin, M.M. (1984) Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. Edited and trans. by Caryl Emerson. Minnieapolis: University of Michigan Press.

[5] Egan, Jennifer. A Visit from the Goon Squad. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.

[6] Egan, Jennifer. A Visit from the Goon Squad. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.

[7] Shidan Chen. American postmodern novels explain in details[M].Tianjin：Nankai University Press，2010

[8] Shidan Chen. American postmodern novels technics[M].Dalian：Liaoning Normal University Press，2002.