Simulacrum: VAS as Derivative

Flipping through VAS, it appears a combination of prose, graphic novel, and poetry. The format along with the themes seems a nod to the modern phenomena of the self-described “over-educated” individual. That said, I don’t think this is a defining characteristic of VAS, as much as it is a defining character of Square’s psyche. VAS jumps about Square’s associations, memories of read or heard text, through large differences in time (à la The Waste Land). VAS Also shares The Waste Land’s eccentricity, a love of the tangled obscure. It also shares the theme of isolation budding from stock-piled conflicting knowledge (such as false science or false exhibits in the Natural History Museum). The different languages seen in Eliot’s work manifests in VAS in format and images, but the message is the same “there’s no other way to express my thoughts, even if you cannot read them.” There’s the heart of it all, lack of communication. Square, Circle, and Mother identify issues as being too complicated to discuss in full. With each character dancing around the others’ perceived biases, everyone is too careful not to offend to be effectual confidants. Square has taken to an anthropological perspective as if the culture and knowledge that educated him seems foreign.