Saturday, February 16, 2008

squares cro-mag body

i feel like a jerk for posting this late, i forget on fridays because i get so excited that it's finally the weekend.

i want to talk about square being cro-mag. page 180: "his own cro-mag face masking a brain that remembered what it had been to be neanderthal." cro-mags didn't survive. square is freaking out because he thinks his 'own kind' won't survive. his family name will end when he dies. he doesn't have anyone to carry on his name. what if oval gets married and changes her name? i remember hearing something about men needing to spread their seed, it's their natural instinct. he has to snip his vessels that provide these seeds.

this leads into squares feelings about his body. page 181: "all he wanted: for someone to acknowledge that it was okay to feel like you owed your body a fond farewell." i think the 'someone' in this sentence is circle. square understands why she wants him to get a vasectomy, but perhaps he needs her to understand why he doesn't want to. she might think he's just being stubborn and immature (i think you'd be hard-pressed to find a dude who would jump at the opportunity to get this procedure done) but she might not be taking the time to truly understand what's going on in his mind. i don't think she's in the wrong for this, she's just trying to take care of herself and her body. her baby-having days might be over, but it doesn't seem as though square's baby-making days are anywhere near their end.

on 179: "What would she see looking at her child with its five parents, four of whom would be unknown to her?" this is the part where his imagination is running wild and oval is picking out traits for the child she wants. so maybe squares also freaking out about the extinction of a tradition that is a huge part of our lives-baby production. he's starting to think that his body will be useless no matter what because soon enough, women won't even want to have sex with men to make babies, they'll just pick and choose what they want from a catalog.

basically, i think he's just freaking out, which is completely understandable. circle isn't giving him enough attention and she's not being very sympathetic, but she's got a lot of stuff going on too. it'll be interesting to see how the rest of the story plays out.

4 comments:

Brian M said...

I really do think that the problem Square has is that he won't be able to leave behind a legacy. I think every guy instinctively wants to have a son so that he can hopefully carry the family name for as long as possible.

Mike said...

I agree with your post, but at the risk of being slightly off topic, I think Square, being a guy, also has an attachment to his genitalia that many men can relate to. The mere thought of any type of "snip snip" or similar actions to that area would be enough reason for many men to react in the way that Square has throughout the story.

Alyssa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alyssa said...

I think what he wanted acknowledged was that it may be "a simple procedure" to the doctor but not to the patient. Perhaps something more personal and symbolic than a "procedure" (like a ceremony) or some symbolic appreciation of his Serious decision and the dedication it required. The reiteration that a vasectomy is a "simple procedure" denies his independence and will power, as he has the ability to leave and transform his life away from Circle just as he's able to symbolically sacrifice a part of his body for his family.