 | A WRITER'S WIT |  K. Jaspers |
MY BOOK WORLD
Stadler, Matthew. The Sex Offender. New York: Grove, 2000 (1994).
Stadler is a unique and gifted writer. In this 1994 novel, he relates the tale of a thirty-year-old man charged with molesting one of his pupils, a twelve-year-old boy, Dexter. I say “tale,” because the man’s incarceration does not happen as it would in the America we know—with jail time, a trial, and imprisonment or institutionalization or both. No, in this fanciful land (seems European in nature), the former teacher is plopped into therapy. One type is the talking kind conducted with the Doctor-General. Another is an “aversive” type in which he is to associate his love for Dexter with negative stimuli. It doesn’t work, of course. And ironically, the teacher finds another young boy, Hakan, upon whom he lavishes his love. Only this time, as far as I can tell, he does not engage sexually with the youth, only emotionally. And no one ever knows of their relationship!
So many “odd” elements to the narrative. The teacher also knows magically how to perform a kind of facelift, an element that figures heavily into the novel’s resolution. His therapist, Doctor-General, is experimenting with the notion of replacing a human’s brain so that one’s impulses become “normal.” But nothing seems normal in this novel. The teacher still loves Dexter and insists that the boy loves him. However, the Doctor-General disabuses him of this notion, informing him that the boy is very unhappy (we have no idea if this is true or not, or why he is unhappy). In the end, the teacher believes he has fooled officials into thinking he is “cured” and hoping for release. Yet they proclaim he is not cured and perform a simple kind of castration on him. Snip snip, like that! And now finally, one understands the cover illustration, as the teacher dresses as a woman to attend an important function. Odd, odd, odd. But a great book because it forces us to consider a subject, that thirty years later, is still taboo. Were the Greeks and Romans “sex offenders,” too, or were they, in some manner, ahead of their time? It’s a notion worth considering, and this satiric look (partially) helps us to see its possibilities.
Coming Next:
TUES, MAR 5: A Writer's Wit | Leslie Marmon Silko
WEDS, MAR 6: A Writer's Wit | Gabriel García Márquez
THURS, MAR 7: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth Moon
FRI, MAR 8: My Book World | Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
Stadler is a unique and gifted writer. In this 1994 novel, he relates the tale of a thirty-year-old man charged with molesting one of his pupils, a twelve-year-old boy, Dexter. I say “tale,” because the man’s incarceration does not happen as it would in the America we know—with jail time, a trial, and imprisonment or institutionalization or both. No, in this fanciful land (seems European in nature), the former teacher is plopped into therapy. One type is the talking kind conducted with the Doctor-General. Another is an “aversive” type in which he is to associate his love for Dexter with negative stimuli. It doesn’t work, of course. And ironically, the teacher finds another young boy, Hakan, upon whom he lavishes his love. Only this time, as far as I can tell, he does not engage sexually with the youth, only emotionally. And no one ever knows of their relationship!
So many “odd” elements to the narrative. The teacher also knows magically how to perform a kind of facelift, an element that figures heavily into the novel’s resolution. His therapist, Doctor-General, is experimenting with the notion of replacing a human’s brain so that one’s impulses become “normal.” But nothing seems normal in this novel. The teacher still loves Dexter and insists that the boy loves him. However, the Doctor-General disabuses him of this notion, informing him that the boy is very unhappy (we have no idea if this is true or not, or why he is unhappy). In the end, the teacher believes he has fooled officials into thinking he is “cured” and hoping for release. Yet they proclaim he is not cured and perform a simple kind of castration on him. Snip snip, like that! And now finally, one understands the cover illustration, as the teacher dresses as a woman to attend an important function. Odd, odd, odd. But a great book because it forces us to consider a subject, that thirty years later, is still taboo. Were the Greeks and Romans “sex offenders,” too, or were they, in some manner, ahead of their time? It’s a notion worth considering, and this satiric look (partially) helps us to see its possibilities.
Coming Next:
TUES, MAR 5: A Writer's Wit | Leslie Marmon Silko
WEDS, MAR 6: A Writer's Wit | Gabriel García Márquez
THURS, MAR 7: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth Moon
FRI, MAR 8: My Book World | Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
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