Arnold
Tash Jayasinghe
CibbuanoVox by Nicholson Baker
May 9th 2008 03:26
Amitava Kumar wrote an insightful review of the book, expressing her appreciation for Baker's prose. From the review:
"The telephone here is not just a toy, though; it is emblematic of the crisis of sexuality today. The triumph of Vox is the literary canonization of safe sex. Instead of bodies touching, rubbing each other, exchanging diseases, we eavesdrop on the stimulating play of voices as they engage each other sexily and with humor.
Almost inevitably, Vox celebrates language and discovers feeling by reinventing words. Cliches are discarded, new words minted, and the particularity of experiences given shape through this poetry of remaking language."
Almost inevitably, Vox celebrates language and discovers feeling by reinventing words. Cliches are discarded, new words minted, and the particularity of experiences given shape through this poetry of remaking language."
I picked this book up for 50 cents from a small bookshop in Montreal. I used to pass it every morning, and I'd always scan the titles of the books that no one wanted, out on the bargain shelf. For 50 cents, you could take a risk on a book, even one that you'd never heard of, as Vox was to me.
Months later, a friend talked about the novel, praising it in front of a group of disinterested people. He bought it from Chapters, ostensibly for $24.95 or whatever the going price is for books these days. I marveled at the power of the written word - how both of us had access to the exact same work, at different ends of the cost spectrum.
Baker's writing is tinged with the modern hunger for cool. The two characters discuss masturbation and trade sex stories. As the reader, we get a voyeuristic look into a seedy discussion, which it probably why the novel is so enticing. Baker's idea of phone sex, though, is from another dimension, where both parties are remarkably intelligent and have too many interesting things to talk about.
Where are the awkward pauses, the facades, the silences? Are the necessary?
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