“The Topeka School” by Ben Lerner (post 4): Main theme may be novelists sometimes use deceptive technique called “the spread,” but they shouldn’t

The Spread

Both the first chapter title (1, p. 5) and the novel’s last two words (1, p. 282) are “the spread”: a debating technique defined in this novel as an intentionally confusing barrage of information. It is a technique used by the protagonist, Adam Gordon, a debating champion.

Since the character who uses “the spread” in this autofictional novel is the author’s alter ego, Lerner may be implying that this is a deceptive technique used by novelists.

At the end, Adam hopes that people will stop using “the spread” and learn “how to speak again” (1, p. 282).

Multiple Personality

There are symptoms of multiple personality in this novel, but they are unacknowledged and unintentional. As I’ve previously discussed regarding the works of literally hundreds of fiction writers, such symptoms are present, because they reflect the writer’s personal psychology.

In addition to the symptoms of multiple personality that I’ve already cited from the first half of this novel, the second half includes the following:

“That part of him inclined to panic about how he would get home was checked by that part of him engaged in calculating if he’d been abandoned by his friends or if they’d first made an earnest search for him” (1, p.149). Note: Persons with undiagnosed multiple personality often think of themselves has having “parts” that think and feel differently from each other.

“…his tongue feels like it belongs to someone else…” (1, p. 180).

“But was Adam in the audience? Yes and no. He was a flickering presence, rapidly changing ages…” (1, p. 199). Note: A person’s alternate personalities often see themselves as being of different ages.

“Only when I heard it clatter on the asphalt was I fully aware I’d knocked the phone out of his hands” (1, p. 270). Note: His host personality is surprised by what his more aggressive personality has done.

Comment

Does anyone disagree with any of the above?

1. Ben Lerner. The Topeka School. New York, Farrar Straus Giroux, 2019.