On "The Lazy River" by Zadie Smith

THE LAZY RIVER by Zadie Smith

Session 18^th November

Some Keywords: Metaphor (μεταφορά), Short form, Circular Flow, Heraclitus, Social Media, Migration, Brexit.

    Zadie Smith's “The Lazy River” was first published in The New Yorker , December 2017. One reads the title and does not expect the despair and hopelessness that lies ahead. Incantations of idleness and a Huck Finn journey acrosss the Mississippi, on long Sunday evenings, crosses the mind. Instead, hazy and disquieting borderlines spring as the eye wanders through the opening background blurry illustration by Geoff McFetridge which depicts a faceless lady adrift on a “buoyant” floating device.

    More confusion lies ahead with the genre: an explanative metaliterary approach imbibes the reader inside the word “metaphor” and thrushes us into the narrative. “We” become part of the journey that leads nowhere. We find ourselves emmeshed in a circular journey, on an unnamed river, inside a metaphor that gives the impression of flow but leads us to the the starting point. It should not pass unnoticed that the word “metaphor” comes from the Greek μεταφορά (meta-behind, along / ferein: carry), which means “transfer,”” transference from,” “journey from one word to the other” which brings us back to the original.

    We wonder whether this short form shapes into fantasy, essay or article. Clichés of British holidaymakers in Southern Spain twist into further depths, at least,“three feet depth.” The narrative voice wanders around the empty rituals they perform: lounging around the lazy river, letting themselves go with the flow; some carry buoyant floating devices, under the same relentless sun, forever, never advancing: others resist the ”ouroboros” thrashing a stroke, but finally yielding to the heraclitean curdled flow.

    These holidaymakers do not venture the vast ocean, nor the Moorish ruins, nor the arid mountains, “nor infinite horizons.” They do not venture into unknown territory. The fascinating literary journeys are replaced by sudokus, they gobble at the buffet, but, this is a non-judgemental zone, the narrative voice claims. Yet, there is stealthy shame that arises in between the lines. Shame is a concept that Zadie Smith brings forward in this interview.

    This short form warps themes of migration (the ladies from Senegal and Gambia that plait hair in the liminality of the lazy river and the ocean; the polytunnels in Almeria,  or the sea of plastic with their enslaved workers),“performative” social media where the props are displayed, the “I” turns into a “mini-celebrity” (see Zadie Smith's interview on “Facebook Addiction”), generational circular motion, Brexit...

Go ahead and comment on any of the issues above that arose in our last session, and, to which you contributed,as usual, with sharp insights and wonderful readings.

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

(Shakespeare, “As you Like it”)