Knut Hamsun’s Christian Perversions

After reading this article, I was astounded at the almost identical person Hamsun and the protagonist of “Hunger” seemed to be. Throughout this article, many of Hamsun’s beliefs and qualities were commented on and I realized how evident this was incorporated into his writing.

Firstly, Hamsun was born into poverty. He struggled through a tormenting childhood yet grasped the opportunity and managed to become a great writer, Kudos. I can understand how daunting it must have been because his writing really allows the reader to connect and be the character/protagonist. For example, the incomplete endings to some sentences with the three dots: “. . .” stir up the reader’s imagination and lets the reader absorb and react to the situation.

Secondly, Hamsun contained another quality similar to the protagonist: pride. Hamsun was very self-conscious about his peasant origins and so was the protagonist. To society, he carried himself with heaps of confidence yet to himself he was an unstable, anti-social wreck. His mind is a distraction, it is his audience and all the self-dialogue that the protagonist has is exhausting.

What I enjoy about Hamsun’s style of writing is his inconsistency. It gives the overall piece a mysterious edge that makes me ponder over his inventive sentences. The unpredictability of his writing makes Hamsun’s style altogether very unique.

In addition, Hamsun portrays “how our charity rides on gusts of egotism and self-flattery.” This is absolutely true! It is human nature to feel good about one when you help someone else in need. And what gives Hamsun’s writing a twist is the irony he allows the character to make. For example, the protagonist in “Hunger” gives all the money to the cake lady without having any money leftover for himself.

Lastly, I found the Christianity perspective and Hitler references very interesting. Hamsun claimed that he had no religious beliefs yet he created a similar imaginative relationship as established through the protagonist in “Hunger”. I also found his relationship with Hitler quite frightening. Personally, I label Hitler to be the murderer with a moustache and this article states that “his Nazism was a kind of anarchism”. And then when he meets Hitler, he thwarts him. I cannot figure Hamsun out at all. He is as complex a character as he writes his protagonists to be.

 I can understand how perhaps his tormenting childhood and very strong beliefs enabled him to write the way he did. The lack of consistency, the irony and contradicments, the self-dialogues, the rhetorical questions and many more elements creates an inquisitive aura of the character that the reader cannot figure out because the character himself cannot figure himself out.

The Pencil

I looked at the long, skinny pencil with its white rubber head and pointy lead hat on the other end. Maybe if I looked hard enough it would wake up. The pencil woke up, its eyes appeared magically in the middle of the pencil and it stood up and started moving its body in circles writing huge letters across the paper. “You moron” I thought to myself, a pencil can’t wake up. I shook my head vigorously to clear the perfect image out of my head. What if I touched it? My finger slowly moved towards the pointy lead hat and as soon as I felt it prick my skin, a huge pair of black eyes bulged out of the pencil. It blinked. The white rubber head and pointy lead hat extended and bent to grip the paper. It looked like a two legged dog trotting along the paper. It started dancing and shaking one leg, then the other, and then altogether every part of its body was quivering. Within a millisecond, a huge BANG and there was crushed pieces of lead and shards of pencil falling in the air. I looked down at my hand and saw my finger in contact with a tiny shard of lead. I pulled it back instantly and squeezed my eyes shut as hard as I could. Opening them slowly, I looked down at where the pencil was before it exploded and it was laying there asleep like nothing had happened.

A Hunger Artist, Franz Kafka

The Hunger Artist endured many emotions and thoughts similar to those of the narrator from “Hunger”. This experience of the hunger artist however, gave me a different view. It portrayed how this hunger artist was thirsty for fame and although he first admitted that he liked to fast, in fact, what he really meant was he liked the attention but what he really wanted was to eat like the rest of society.

“The hunger artist would never, under any circumstances, have eaten the slightest thing, not even if compelled by force. The honor of his art forbade it.” (1) I understood from this quote that the hunger artist had a lot of pride like the protagonist of “Hunger”. He was proud of his capability to fast, to starve. He was proud to have the attention on him. The protagonist of “Hunger” had a lot of pride not because he wanted to retain his image as a hunger artist but rather because he had too much pride to beg for food. He wanted to retain his image as a popular, comfortable living guy. Begging would really bring down his class status.

Another similarity between these two characters is that they both have trouble sleeping:

“Generally he couldn’t sleep at all…” (2) The Hunger Artist as demonstrated from this quote could not sleep. Additionally, the protagonist of “Hunger” couldn’t either because both their minds are constantly buzzing with thoughts. Their mind and emotions distract them from the desires that their body craves for. The hunger artist did not understand this; he did not understand that he had to make his body happy because his mind and body were connected. “…there were no limits to his capacity of fasting.” (3) – I disagree with this quote completely. There is a limit! His body cannot take so much; his physical appearance is proof of that!

Moreover, both characters have sudden bursts of rage: “the hunger artist responded with an outburst of rage and began to shake the cage like an animal, frightening everyone.” (4) These rages are symptoms of starvation. With a lack of food, one gets impatient and frustrated very easily. I personally know that when I am hungry, I become a different person altogether. I become much more impatient, frustrated and grumpier. This explains how the hunger artist explains his mood to be “usually gloomy, and it kept growing gloomier all the time…” (4) Also, I noted how the hunger artist was compared to an animal. This then connects to the fact when he leaves to join the circus and is placed in the area of animals. This shouts out another message to readers. Both characters were hardly recognized to be humans because firstly, they were physically very weak and secondly, they were mentally unstable. They were not human anymore. They were like wild animals, running around in the jungle. Uncontrollable.

BBC NEWS: The distraction society

Before this article, it never occurred to me that technology could damage my psychological resources so greatly. A few classes ago, I told my classmates that I watched ten television shows. Of course, this is not regularly but ten television series is an awfully large amount of television for my brain to take in. In general for all viewers, these television series become addictive and we become distracted from what we should be working on. This then forces one to work late into the early hours of the morning, learning nothing as we are simply doing for the sake of doing and not learning. Our brain is switched off because all our energy has been used up in taking in information from distractions provided by technology for one night.

This article has opened my eyes to the effects that media and social media such as Facebook can cause someone. Facebook is a genius creation which allows us to remain in contact with many of your friends around the world; however, we all become obsessed with socializing all the time and we become distracted from our priorities.

How does this article relate to “Hunger”? In “Hunger”, technology is not the distraction that drives the protagonist insane but rather it his mind alone that does because it is in an unstable state due to his starving condition. Counsellor Peter Smith said some gamers “get so obsessed . . . they forget to eat and drift towards an anorexic and undernourished state.” This is similar to the way that things occur in “Hunger” but for different reasons. He has too much pride to beg which drives him to his impoverished state of living.

Philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal said: “The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.” I agree with what Pascal says completely! The protagonist in “Hunger” is constantly miserable because his mind is continuously buzzing. When he is in the room, walking on the streets, sitting on the bench in the park, I feel that his mind plays the role of the antagonist as it continues to feed information and advice to the protagonist: “So I walked along giving myself advice, and stamping impatiently when I didn’t take it, and scolding myself as a blockhead while astonished passer-bys turned around to watch me.” (90)

As you read further into the book, we see his mind eventually drives him to insanity. It is due to the fact that his mind is always picking out observations of his whereabouts that he is constrained from writing. His mind is his distraction and what are the effects of his mind on him?

1)      His mind stops him from writing.

2)      His mind stops him from earning income.

3)      His mind stops him from begging. (He has too much pride; hubris)

4)      His mind leads him to starvation.

“Rather than cultivating our faculties, these distractions can weaken them, leaving us unproductive, muddled or fettered.” This is demonstrated perfectly by the protagonist. As shown above, the effects that his mind had on the protagonist left him in an appalling condition and he was altogether “unproductive, muddled or fettered” all the time.

Existentialism Is a Humanism

This article raised many interesting concepts and was very thought-provoking. Before reading this article, I myself believed that to be an existentialist was not a good thing and that “ugliness is being identified as existentialism.” (2/18) However, the reasoning that Kaufman has used to support the beliefs of an existentialist is remarkable and I agree with many of his comments that he makes.

The main concept that Kaufman focuses on is existence comes before essence. This means that one must exist before being defined. Or better explained, “man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards!” (3/18) This is the argument that this whole article revolves around.

The first principle mentioned is: “Man is nothing else but that which he makes himself.” (4/18) I agree with this statement. Every human being is responsible for themselves and for their actions and hence whatever he does, thinks and feels defines him as a whole. If I have decided and talked about travelling to Argentina to acquire a special flower for my sister’s wedding, this is simply talk. If I actually commit the act and travel across the world to get these flowers, that portrays the love I have for my sister. That reflects a little bit of my personality.

 This principle then links other beliefs like “What we choose is always the better; and nothing can be better for us unless it is better for all.” (4/18) After this statement, there was an example given about how committing yourself to your marriage, to your husband/wife, to your children is also committing yourself to the practice of monogamy. With this example, I was able to understand that whatever actions one does, influences society as a whole. This led to me to think about famous Hollywood stars fashioning certain images towards youth and adults. For instance, Miley Cyrus was recently pictured inhaling a substance with a bong. She had chosen to do this act and perhaps at first she thought this was her business and this would affect her and only her however, as a worldwide child loved fan, this has corrupted her image as “Hannah Montana”. By choosing to do this act, she is now responsible for whatever people may say about her because the action she has done has defined her in many children’s and parents eyes no matter what the circumstances were. Another example is shown in a movie, “John Tucker Must Die”, which demonstrates this belief exceptionally well. In one scene during the movie, John was caught humiliated wearing a red thong by his teachers and classmates. Yet as he continued to wear it to school the next day, due to high popularity status, his other classmates followed suit and soon guys wearing thongs were in fashion. Both these examples portray the immense effect that one action can influence in a society or class.

Finally, I want to discuss one more belief which revolves around God: “If God did not exist, everything would be permitted.” (6/18) I strongly believe in the existence of God and that the world would be in chaos and anarchy if God did not exist. Today, there are many scientists who believe the world will come to an end in 2012. At first, I did not believe it, I laughed when I heard this absurd theory. On the other hand, there are things happening which I believe are signs from God. Dead birds in some areas in the United States, dead penguins, snowstorms, floods are some examples of what is occurring. The existentialist does not believe in the power of passion. I am in opposition with this belief as I am a strong believer in fate. Existentialists believe that “Man himself interprets the sign as he chooses.” (7/18) From an existentialist’s view, the dead penguins and such can be interpreted in a completely different way. I do not know. I choose to not know, I choose to remain undecided with what all these happenings are supposed to mean. With this, I would like to conclude that existentialism is a wide and complex theory that till now I question. I ponder upon many principles and beliefs made by them yet, I choose to believe in some of them and to disagree with others. That is human subjectivity.