Author Archives: Jacqueline Vargas

Loss of Control

Throughout the Neapolitan Novels Lila experiences episodes, she calls dissolving boundaries. Figures and people spill over their outlines and become shapeless and Lila experiences this in 1958 on New Year’s Eve when her brother Rino and his friends battle with fireworks to show up the Solaras. The dissolving of boundaries is attached to a loss of control. This sensation terrifies Lila and she expresses, “All my life I’ve done nothing, Lenù, but hold back moments like those” (TSLC, 177). But, when an earthquake hits the neighborhood, Lila is enveloped in a situation far beyond her control as she feels her own boundaries and the boundaries of the neighborhood dissolve.

When the earthquake hits, Lila has no control over anything, and it terrifies her. Earlier in the novels whenever things would scare Lila, she would use the men in her life to hide behind: Marcello, Stefano, Michele, Nino, and Enzo. When she fears one man she moves to the next and in this cycle, she has control. Lila has this natural control over men. Lila used men as a tool to avoid the episodes of dissolving boundaries but when the earthquake hits, she has no one to hide behind because it’s all around her. The fear and sensation of smarginatura engulfs Lila and she is left as helpless as ever.  

Identity

Elena continues to form her ideas on feminism into her years of “maturity,” as this section of book four is titled. An idea that Elena expresses on her book tour that struck me was when she states:

 “I talked about how, to assert myself, I had always sought to be male in intelligence—I started off every evening saying I felt that I had been invented by men, colonized by their imagination—and I told how I had recently seen a male childhood friend of mine make every effort possible to subvert himself, extracting from himself a female”(TSLC, 57).

Elena talks about her relationship to men and how she realizes the impact men have on her identity as a woman. This idea that Elena strives to be “male in intelligence” makes a lot of sense since many of the intellectuals she looks up to throughout life are male such as Nino, Franco, and Pietro.  Elena starts with an intellectual model as a woman, Lila, but that image of Lila fades with time and is replaced by the men in her life. The most puzzling part of this quote must be when Elena refers to the encounter with her male childhood friend, Alfonso, and how he is “extracting from himself a female.” I see how this is relevant to the idea of male and female identities influencing one another but I’m not entirely sure why in the previous chapter Lila is mentioned in relation to Alfonso’s new appearance. Elena states, “Now, mysteriously, with that long hair in a ponytail, he resembled Lila” (TSLC, 55). Elena describes Alfonso’s look as more female but not just any female, female like Lila. What does this comparison mean?

Lombardi’s Lecture on MBF

I am having trouble catching up on all the reading, but I still want to post so instead I want to talk a little about Professor Lombardi’s lecture this past Thursday. I’ll start off by saying that I really enjoyed learning more about the connections between the novel and HBO series and how it helps us better understand the complex nature of the relationship between Lila and Lenù.

In case anyone couldn’t make the lecture, I want to express a point made by Professor Lombardi that particularly struck me and that I believe is a very important peek into the true characters of Lila and Lenù. Lombardi talked about the scene in My Brilliant Friend where Lenù expresses to Lila that she is having trouble with Latin. Lila helps Lenù understand Latin because she too is studying Latin on her own.

“Read the whole sentence in Latin first, then see where the verb is. According to the person of the verb, you can tell what the subject is. Once you have the subject you look for the complements: the object of the verb is transitive, or if not other complements. Try it like that.’ I tried. Suddenly translating seemed easy” (MBF, 111).

Lenù initially looks for the subject/noun within the Latin sentence but Lila suggests that it’s easier to look for the verb first because then it’s easier to identify the subject/noun that performs the verb. Professor Lombardi proposed during his lecture that this interaction is linked to the characteristics that make Lila and Lenù who they are. Lila immediately looks for the verb which correlates to her inclination to act and do as she pleases without really thinking about how it will affect those around her. On the other hand, Lenù immediately looks for the subject/noun which correlates to her inclination to repress her actions and feelings because she constantly thinks about how others will react to them. I had never made this connection so I’m glad that Professor Lombardi shared this connection at the lecture.  

What’s in a Name?

Names carry great importance throughout the Neopolitan novels. Names are associated with power like Carracci and Solara; scandal like Sarratore; or even just plain mediocrity like Cerullo. On the other hand, the name Greco means little, the name of the porter. This changes when Lenù publishes her book. The following dialogue between Lenù and her mother demonstrates the importance of a name:       

“One morning she asked, ‘What’s the name of your fiancé?’

She knew, but she had something in mind and to communicate it she wished to start there. ‘Pietro Airota.’

‘Yes.’

‘Then you’ll be called Airota.’

‘Yes.’

‘And if you write another book, on the cover will it say Airota?’

‘No.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I like Elena Greco.’

‘So do I,’ she said” (Ferrante, 469).

            Lenù does something here, that most people in the neighborhood will never be able to do and that is give their name a new meaning. Lenù changes the name Greco from that of a porter to that of a writer. In doing so she simultaneously increases the power behind the name Greco. Her name printed on the cover of a book ties the name to higher education and success which holds a lot of power. It’s interesting to note Lenù’s confidence in answering her mother’s question as to whose name would appear on future covers because of Lenù’s inclination to self-doubt. She finally realizes that her excellence is what allows her to publish the book with her name rather than that of her fiancé. This is definitely a huge change in Lenù’s character. Lenù recognizes the importance her name holds and the potential power her name will attain through its place on the cover of a published book.     

Parasitism

With the date of the midterm presentation approaching I want to center my thinking and analyses on Lila and Lenù’s relationship. I want to narrow my presentation specifically on how Lila is a sort of parasite or disease in Lenù’s life.

An episode in this reading where Lila is seen as a parasite in Lenù’s life occurs through the events following the party at Professor Galiani’s house. At the party, Lenù feels confident, praised and accepted amongst people like her who are educated and strive to be brilliant. Lenù comes to realize after the party at Professor Galiani’s house that she does not want a real relationship with Lila anymore (Ferrante, 169). Lila viciously mocks the manner of the people Lenù strives to be like and this deeply upsets Lenù. All of Lila’s hateful remarks of the night turns Lenù’s joy sour. This immense influence Lila has over Lenù’s emotions is shown through this passage:

“She was so spiteful, all the way home along Corso Vittorio Emanuele, that I was silent, and felt the poison that was transforming what had seemed to me an important moment of my life into a false step that has made me ridiculous. I struggled not to believe her. I felt she was truly hostile and capable of anything. She knew how to set the nerves of good people alight, in their breasts she kindled the fire of destruction” (Ferrante, 163).

Lila has the power to ruin the joys of Lenù’s life. This party is one of the few moments so far that Lenù feels confident being herself; someone who continues to pursue her studies because they matter and will lead to a brilliant future. This party gives her hope and in a single car ride home Lila is able to dismantle that hope and leave Lenù feeling inadequate once again. Lila sucks the hope and joy out of Lenù like a parasite sucks the life out of its host.  

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Diverging Lives

For this post I want to focus on Ferrante’s women, and in particular, Lenù and Lila. When they are young Lenù and Lila experience similar lives because they live in the same impoverished neighborhood in Naples. But as they grow older, Lenù and Lila pursue increasingly different lives. Lenù continues her studies while Lila adjusts to her new life as Mrs. Carracci. This difference is evident in this description of Lenù and Lila as they walk together in the neighborhood:

“Walking next to her I felt embarrassment and also a sense of danger. It seemed to me that she was risking not only gossip but ridicule, and that both reflected on me a sort of colorless but loyal puppy who served as her escort. Everything about her—the hair, the earrings, the close-fitting blouse, the tight skirt, the way she walked—was unsuitable for the gray streets of the neighborhood” (Ferrante, 15, p.73).

In this section Lenù describes an important contrast. The contrast between herself and Lila in which she herself is “colorless” while Lila is “unsuitable for the gray streets of the neighborhood.” One could only conclude that Lenù seems to blend in with the gray neighborhood and Lila seems to stick out. Lenù continues to dress the part of the neighborhood in which she still resides while Lila, having become a Carracci, dresses in a wealthy manner. This is an important contrast to take note of because it really displays the dramatic split in the lives of these two friends. Lenù remains tied to the neighborhood and Lila has married her way out of it in a sense. It’s interesting to note how two girls growing up in the same neighborhood become so very different in the kind of lives they lead in the future. I think it’s pretty impressive how Ferrante is able to truly capture the nature of their two very different lives yet still make the interactions between the two realistic.

Porosity: Private is Public

I chose to write about Benjamin’s idea of porosity and the intermingling of private and public life in Naples. Benjamin describes this particular attribute of Naples as, “… each private attitude or act is permeated by streams of communal life” (174). The line between private and public life in Naples is blurred and this also rings true in the life of Lila Cerullo.

            When Benjamin talks of porosity, he states, “So the house is far less the refuge into which people retreat than the inexhaustible reservoir from which they flood out” (174). In other words, private life bursts out of homes in a way that privacy can no longer exist in the home. Without privacy, that home no longer feels like a place of refuge but more like an extension of street life where anything becomes a spectacle. This reminds me of how Lila explains her summer through the letter she sends Lenù while she is in Ischia. While Lenù is gone, Lila’s home life becomes street life as Marcello Solara continuously invites himself over for dinner at the Cerullo house. Lila not only has to deal with Marcello’s love conquest but also the scrutiny of those around her concerning her and Marcello’s relationship:

“Otherwise, everyone’s anger was unloaded on her: her brothers anger because she had abandoned him to his fate as a slave of their father while she set off on a marriage that would make her a lady; the anger of Fernando and Nunzia because she was not nice to Solara but, rather, treated him like dirt; finally the anger of Marcello, who, although she hadn’t accepted him, felt increasingly that he was her fiancé, in fact her master, and tended to pass from silent devotion to attempts to kiss her, to suspicious questions about where she went during the day, whom she saw, if she had other boyfriends, if she had even just touched anyone” (228).

 Lila’s home life becomes even more public when Marcello buys the Cerullo home a television to which Lenù explains, “… and now half the neighborhood, including my mother, my father, and my sister and brothers, came to the Cerullo house to see the miracle” (228). Lila explains this constant pervasion of her home life as, “… feeling all the evil of the neighborhood around her” (229). Benjamin explains this exact pervasion of the home by stating, “Just as the living room reappears on the street, with chairs, hearth, and alter, so, only much more loudly, the street migrates into the living room” (174). Lila is faced with the porosity of life in Naples in which private and public are one and the same. This characteristic of the rione leaves Lila feeling as though she has no refuge and is simply stuck in the public eye.     

Meta Post 2.0

There were eight posts for this week, and each brought up very interesting points. Some posts discussed things I have been wondering about myself and others brought up points I haven’t even thought of but really appreciated being exposed to.

Starting with the post titled “Luck and Stealth are for Escape Artists,” there was a particular line that really interested me: “As smart as Lila is, its Lenù who is the one who ultimately understands that she has grown too big for the neighborhood.” I had this same thought but didn’t know how to put it in words, but this explains it perfectly. Lila is incredibly smart, one could say smarter than Lenù, but in the end, the one who clings onto the hopes and dreams for something better beyond this neighborhood will prevail and that happens to be Lenù. Another interesting point was how Lenù picks and chooses the thoughts and feelings she shares with Lila. I think this fact gives us a peek into the type of friendship Lenù and Lila share (which in my opinion is a toxic one).

The next post is titled, “Catcalling and Men’s Behavior towards Women.” I liked the comparison between how Lenù talks about boys and how boys do the same. This post highlights the fact that from Lenù’s point of view the way she describes boys seems to come from an innocent place while the looks and catcalls her and her friends receive from men sexualize them. This contrast is important because it brings up a situation in which many women find themselves in today and I feel like any little experience from which we can relate to in this narrative can help us navigate the novel through Lenù’s point of view.

The post titled, “Rivalry and Teamwork,” also had an interesting point stating, “Lila acts as both Lenù’s inspiration, pushing her to do well in school, and her antagonist, making her feel inadequate.” This really got me thinking about the relationship between Lenù and Lila which I’m constantly confused about. I realize that they both wish the best for each other and push each other in positive ways but they can also be incredibly cruel to one another.  This quote explains the complexity of their relationship. This dynamic is one of the main reasons I question their friendship constantly while reading because in my eyes this is a toxic friendship that should end. Co- dependency is also a huge factor of Lenù and Lila’s friendship that I’ve been thinking about while reading as well and I’m glad that it was mentioned in this post and I’d want to focus in on co-dependency in their relationship in future posts.

In the post, “Lila Becomes a Women,” a quote that stuck out to me was, “The way Elena puts herself down when it comes to Lila is almost scary, as if Elena’s personality is connected to Lila’s.” This also alludes to the topic of co- dependency that I think we should all explore more in posts and in discussion. I also liked how Lenù’s view is described in this post as “obsessive teenager” because I think it’s exactly what Ferrante has managed to capture and put on paper even as an adult. I agree that it’s hard to successfully write in this point of view when in the moment you don’t own the mentality of a teenager. An understanding of the view from which the story is told is necessary in following the narrative.

A point I found interesting in the post titled, “A Look, a smile, a slap” was the “it” factor that Lila possesses that makes her a person to chase after. The post states, “I like to think its an energy, a free spirit which cannot be defined by just physical beauty.” The reason everyone always seemed so attracted to Lila did puzzle me but maybe its because it also puzzled Lenù and tit s her lens from which the story is being told. I want to say that don’t even think Lenù entirely knows why she is so drawn to Lila. Maybe the “energy” Lila possesses not only attracts boys to seek relationships with her but also why Lila seeks friendship with her.

The post, “Childhood: Proving Oneself,” focused on the “… very real struggle f carving your own path and finding your identity.” This theme is very characteristic to childhood itself and I also liked the use of “autonomous virtuosity” by ferrante and that it was brought into this post. Lenù in this time of her life like most children is going through the process of figuring out who she is and how she can navigate her strengths to create a better life for herself while also creating her own identity.

“Finding One’s Value Through Competition,” talks about the very evident and constant competition between Lenù and Lila about literally everything whether its grades or boys. The line in this post, “This is the only way that Lenù could attempt to make herself feel valuable and accepted,” is specifically interesting to me because Lenù does seek a lot of her own validation from being better than Lila and when she fails to be better, her identity crumbles.

A contrast to the previous post is titled, “Elena’s Realization: who is more dependent?”. This post talks about the very important time in Lenù’s development where she changes from thinking she needs Lila to succeed to thinking Lila may need her more than she had previously thought. This post describes it as, “Elena is at a place in her life where she finally feels comfortable and not necessarily inferior to those around her, especially Lila.” I do agree that this change in Lenù’s view of herself is very important and shows a great amount of growth.

Overall, I think the majority of these posts talked about the dynamics surrounding Lenù and Lila’s friendship. Reading these posts has made me realize that I find the interworking’s of their relationship the most interesting and the most confusing. I definitely was to focus more on the co-dependency factor of their friendship and how it affects them both, negatively and positively and maybe even delve into how toxic it really is.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

A paragraph I found emotionally charged is found on page 29 at the start of 2. that begins with, “When you haven’t been in the world long, its hard to comprehend…” and ends at the very top of page 30.

This paragraph compares the awareness of life and time a child has versus an adult. I found this paragraph emotionally charged because I feel its something I’m currently transitioning from now that I’m in college. As an adult, you are more aware of the days, yesterday, today and tomorrow but as a child those days seem to blend together. Children typically don’t worry about the yesterdays or tomorrows and really are only aware of the present as their time seems limitless. Adults on the other hand are weighed down by deadlines and time constraints whether its works or bills or household duties. Children live in the moment while the Adult mind expands to worry about things they can’t change in the past as well as things that haven’t even occurred yet in the future. This contrast between child and adult is explained in a way that invokes a sort of “aha” moment about something we rarely think about but at its core is one of the huge distinctions between being a kid and growing up.