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Story 3: THE SILENT MEN

#50: June - July 2008 (Fiction)
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Chris OConnor

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Story 3: THE SILENT MEN

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Story 3: THE SILENT MEN

Please use this thread for discussing the short story "The Silent Men." :shock:
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Thomas Hood
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http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_59211539
Camus's "The Silent Men" and "The Guest": Depictions of Absurd Awareness - Critical Essay
Studies in Short Fiction, Summer, 1997 by Rob Roy McGregor
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Thanks for the link, Tom. I found it helpful in my mulling over of the stories.

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yodha
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Thomas Hood wrote:http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_59211539
Camus's "The Silent Men" and "The Guest": Depictions of Absurd Awareness - Critical Essay
Studies in Short Fiction, Summer, 1997 by Rob Roy McGregor
Woah Thomas, that article was quite some read! :cry: I don't think I understood any of his absurd philosophy. But, it did help me in understanding the stories better.

As for all the stories from this book, the endings are the most puzzling. In this story, why does Yvars say that "Ah, it's his fault!"?
The above article provides some of the possible reasons:
Is the blame for the general collapse of interpersonal relationships? For his own daughter's illness, a kind of retribution for his treatment of the workers? For establishing a personal barrier that prevented Yvars from expressing concern for Lassalle's daughter? Or is the placing of blame a self-serving exculpation for his failure to call out in sympathy to Lassalle?
I wasn't quite satisfied by any of the above.
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yodha
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At the end of the story, Yvars wishes that if he and his wife were younger and they would've gone to the other side of the sea. Any idea what could the other side of the sea possibly be here? :smile:
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Yuvie
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Major differences of translation

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Since I'm reading the newer translation by Carol Cosman, I'd like to point out a couple major differences for this third story:

1) The older translation's title is "The Silent Men." The newer translation's title is "The Voiceless." That change puts the question of agency into completely different terms. Being silent implies a choice, being voiceless implies a lack of choice.

2) The line "Ah, it's his fault!" becomes "Ah, that's the trouble!" Put in context, it reads:
When he had finished, he sat motionless, turned toward the sea, where the swift dusk was already running from one end of the horizon to the other. "Ah, that's the trouble!" he said. He would have liked to be young again, and Fernande too, and they would have gone away, across the sea.
Yvars's last sigh refers to some vitality or agency that was lost--the dusk runs without him now, as does the sea. I suspect we could read both translations that way if we wanted (eg: putting the blame on the boss would also take agency away from Yvars), but the newer translation points more directly to that idea.

I'm still pondering what the heart of the story is, and what is meant by the last line...
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Now I wish I had ordered the book in French, so I could at least see, if not intelligently evaluate, the original choice confronting the translator. "Silent Men" vs. "The Voiceless" is significant; "Ah, it's his own fault!" vs. "Ah, that's the trouble!" is not even in the same ballpark!

This story is more like what I had remembered of my slight reading of Camus. The language is more spare, not like the luxuriance or violence of the first two stories. I do feel that, behind these spare details, there must lurk a philosphical key. I am able to read the story with satisfaction without knowing about absurdism, but I think that Camus must be pointing to some significance beyond the simple events and characterization. I don't know if I like this, to be frank.

But I do like very much the drama of this story, a drama provided first of all by Yvars' doubts about the meaning of his life and whether he has any significance. But he is not hapless, as I see him; there is a strength in him, an ability to adjust to loss, and a knowledge that although events seem to overwhelm him, there is value in human relationships, as at the end with his wife and as reflected in his feelings for his boss. Camus is not heavy-handed here. The boss is not a bad man; the declining state of Yvars' trade is not due to anyone's meanness; the failure of the strike does not indict the whole capitalist system. Life is struggle and gets some of its meaning through this struggle. Another theme is what really unites us as human beings. We can put ourselves on opposite sides and refuse to speak, but then something happens which we all understand to be more important than the differences we erect, like the illness of the boss's child. We may then be powerless to respond as we'd like to, because of the need to keep manning our barriers.
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Robert Tulip

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The Silent Men is a beautiful and painful story about mortality and how men are bound by existential finitude. In the liquid light of the Mediterranean, coopers build barrels in an obsolete industry, where the factory cannot increase their pay. The strike fails, and the boss resents the sullen attitude of the coopers as he would pay them more if he could. They do not answer when he speaks. The sea is a symbol of mortal life, the early morning sparkle reflecting the promise of youth, and the evening darkness symbolizing old age and death. Yvars is getting old
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That was a great capsulization of the story, Robert. I find that there is nobility as well as tragedy in Yvars' life, sweetness as well as bitterness.
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