Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre is one of my favourite novels. Vernon Little, the protagonist of the novel, forced yet another entry into my consciousness today while I was attending a meeting. He entered with such ferocity that I am unable to resist the temptation to write these lines.
Vernon is a boy who is accused of a murder that he did not commit. The circumstantial evidences are against him. Moreover, he is unaware of the ways of the world and hence ends up making an "ass" of himself every time he tries to prove his innocence. It's not that Vernon did not try to learn the ways of the world. He says right in the beginning of the novel, "God knows I tried my best to learn the ways of this world... but after all that's happened... I mean, what kind of fucken life is this?"
His life was ruined by people who were close to him. His mother is eager to draw vicarious pleasure from thinking that Vernon is indeed the murderer because it gives her the opportunity to prove that she can love even a murderer! His neighbours are eager to be interviewed by the media and thus become popular though at the cost of someone's life. The girl that he loves betrays him in order to fulfil her ambition of becoming a success in the media. In fact, she goes to the extent of prostituting herself in order to achieve her goal. The person who gives him some sound and sane advice while he is in the prison happens to be a heartless murderer.
It's a bizarre world indeed that Vernon inhabits. That we all inhabit. That's what I learnt yet again today in the meeting. That's why Vernon entered my consciousness with a vengeance today.
"In a world where you're supposed to be a psycho, I just didn't yell loud enough to get ahead," Vernon realises towards the end of the novel.
Is it indeed a world of psychos that we inhabit? I wonder.
I see people preaching big ideals with the blackest evil lurking in their hearts.
I see people pulling down others' public images so that their own images will look elevated.
I see people manipulating statistics in order to prove their own truths.
I see a dagger in the hands of almost everyone, ready to drive it in from the back.
Knife appears as a leitmotif in Vernon God Little. Vernon believes that a knife was planted at his back by his mother when he was born so that she and other beloved people could twist it whenever they wished.
Is that the real condition of life?
I think it's not much of an exaggeration.
Vernon believes that truth succeeds in life just like in movies. In his case his belief is proved true, though it is his excreta that helps in proving it (not his character).
"This whole crowd of powerdime spinners, with their industry of carpet-fiber experts, and shrinks and all, who finish me off with their blah, blah, blah" will go on and on...
And the media will go on presenting Vernon's excreta to the audience!
P.S. Vernon God Little is black humour. Notwithstanding all the evil in it, there's much delight in it too. The smile may be warped, the laughs may be hollow, but they are there. At the end of all the tumult "Everything's back to normal." That's the last sentence of the novel: "Everything's back to normal."
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What you say is generally true, Maya. But there also a lot of exceptional cases in the world. For example, could you have applied your theory of getting goodness by giving goodness to Hitler or Goebbels, to take the examples given by Lakshmi below?
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That's right, Lakshmi. Perhaps this abnormality-normality question is not new. Didn't Shakespeare say: "Fair is foul, foul is fair"?
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And what is normal? v can choose 2 b what v want 2 b. And there's equal good and evil in all of us... its only wen v choose, v become that...... and U know Vernon may not have known this lil truth but if v seek gudness in others, that is what v will get also... :)
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matheikal
Abnormal becomes normal when it is all around................new generations that grow up only seeing abnormal may not accept any advice against it.
Like Hitler's spinmaster Goebbels famously said......."repeat a lie a hundred times and it becomes the truth"
lakshmi
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Dear Matheikal sir,
I can literally feel each word of yours....
I know how you are feeling......
Its so strange that we live in this world....
People call me insane... If it is sanity that they pocess then i prefer to remain insane....
Wonderfull read sir.... loved it....
rgds,
aram
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Dear Sampath ji,
I’ll be the last person to hate someone for holding a view opposed to mine. If I did start doing it, perhaps, there wouldn’t be many people whom I would be able to live with!
When I posted this blog I was aware of the danger of its being seen as bleak, dark, pessimistic, negative... because it shows one side of the world and its reality. But I did intend to focus on that one side today. Why? Because of a particular experience I had. Because the experience is not singular. Because I live with similar experiences. Because many people are ill-fated to live with similar experiences. Do you think the Booker Prize judges are fools if they thought this novel was worth the prize? Do you really believe that the world is anything similar to a paradise?
Hitler, Nietzsche and others of their ilk are not my heroes. Even Vernon is not. Not even DBC Pierre is. Whereas Hitler and Nietzsche prescribed certain ideologies, a novelist merely shows, or tries to show, the reality as he sees it. Pierre’s way of looking at today’s world does appeal to me because my experiences prove that his way is quite right. Now, does a literary writer have moral obligations? Presently we have a host of best-selling writers like Paulo Coehlo who write motivational kind of novels. But are they literature? I don’t think so.
Vernon is a young boy. As he grows up he may come to terms with the reality of the twisted knife. Learn to cope with it. That’s what we adults do, isn’t it? The luckier ones among us didn’t have to face that kind of a situation, perhaps.Reply | | Report Abuse
dear matheikhal,
my views.. hope you do not mind...
Crtain world views are progressive and certain others are regressive..
some great leadaers like hitler were powerful but had regeressive world views..
that includes some powerful authors, i do not want to mentinon the names . but i know of famous authors who influenced the adolescent and helped build a disatorous world view.the great author himself died as a raving maniac
i would plump for a world view which helps renew hope and brings in the possiibilities rather than closing them...reality is nothing absolute and is a mtter of one's identity and perceptive universe...
these are my personal views .. i would like to hate to see any one who is living wiht a reality of
twisted knife .. i would struggle hard to change his orld view as it offers him no hope....
i liked the blog and respect whatever view you may have...
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Vernon's life precisely represents the scapegoats of this society who happen to be innocent besides their being good and talented and just at sea when confronted with the malicious circle. In a way, I feel, Vernon himself is to be blamed for his being innocent and not knowing how to remove a prickle with a sharp needle - not having sharp brain to respond to the situation.
(I also keep myself in Vernon's place, you see)
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Extremely glad to see you here, Raghunathan ji, after a long time. Of course, I myself appeared on Sulekha after a gap.
You are right in some ways. Couldn't it be a matter of perceptions or prevailing paradigms? For example, if you believe in some socialist, egalitarian kind of society you will find almost everything wrong with a capitalist (neo-liberal, in Kerala's favourite parlance) system. I think we are living in a system that encourages us to do anything to further our own interests. Success at any cost is what matters here.
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Do read the novel, Anneshwa. It's a booker prize winner. It's just amazingly funny and deeply penetrating.
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