{"id":507,"date":"2021-04-04T23:59:59","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T03:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/?p=507"},"modified":"2021-04-09T17:48:28","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T21:48:28","slug":"on-fools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/2021\/04\/04\/on-fools\/","title":{"rendered":"On Fools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Giovanni\u2019s Room <\/em>broke my heart. Like, seriously, I did not expect it to be quite so distressing a read, and part of me isn\u2019t even sure what\u2019s sadder: David\u2019s doomed relationships or the fact that he\u2019s the one that dooms them. David himself says it best during his discussion of his father: \u201cI did not want <\/em>him to know me. I did not want anyone to know me\u201d (232). And indeed, this much is evident in almost all of David\u2019s relationships: from his father, whose attempts at bonding David constantly rejects; to Hella, the fiancee to whom David is unfaithful and dishonest; to even Joey, the first love to whom David is terrified of \u201c[losing his] manhood\u201d (226) and who David then bullies until he moves away, David seems hellbent on alienating himself from any person that might care for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giovanni, of course, is only the latest victim of this cycle of self-destructive isolation. David\u2019s fondness for the Italian bartender is so overshadowed by his own internalized homophobia that, despite the all happiness that he experiences while with Giovanni, David helplessly \u201c[resists] him with all [his] strength\u201d (287). David is unable to accept the greater implications a relationship with Giovanni has on his own sexuality and perceptions of masculinity and is therefore equally unable to accept Giovanni himself: David chooses a loveless marriage to a woman over a heartfelt affair with a man, toppling the first in a string of dominoes which ultimately results in Giovanni\u2019s execution.\u00a0I guess it all goes to show that whether we examine his familial, platonic, or romantic relationships, David\u2019s self-hatred burns so intensely that it immolates his ability to connect to the people around him; he so despises himself that he loses the ability to love at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s funny, because at one point David eavesdrops on a woman\u2019s conversation about her lover and rather snidely remarks that \u201cOne had the impression that, though she certainly did not wish to be a fool, she had lost one definition of the word and might never be able to find another\u201d (293). I recently watched Ma Rainey\u2019s Black Bottom <\/em>on Netflix and they just happened to suggest such an alternate definition, though one which I believe David would benefit to learn more than the woman: A fool is responsible for what happened to him. A fool cause it to happen. <\/em>David causes his own pain, his own suffering, and his own loneliness; he chooses (and keeps choosing) to be alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Giovanni\u2019s Room broke my heart. Like, seriously, I did not expect it to be quite so distressing a read, and part of me isn\u2019t even sure what\u2019s sadder: David\u2019s doomed relationships or the fact that he\u2019s the one that dooms them. David himself says it best during his discussion of his father: \u201cI did not … Continue reading On Fools<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3922,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[489038],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-giovannis-room"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3922"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":508,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions\/508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}