I agree: it seems like it gives us a world of bodies moving, machines moving, smells, sights, etc....
Rachel suggested this had to with a new interest in "indexicality"---say more, perhaps?
Indexicality, as I note in film class, is the new power of machines to represent EVERYTHING---think of a taperecorder running all day..... what would you hear?
LOTS of noises...Raw/uncut....
I like this part in Yekl:
"Poor mother! He will not forget her--But what is the Italian playing on that organ, anyhow? Ah it is the new waltz! By the way, this is Monday and they are dancing at Joe's now and he is not there." (31)
It could be said that modern literature is about the attempt to represent noise----at its most extreme in expressionist works like Machinal that we'll consider later. But what is noise like in Yekl? What are its implications? How do we hear it and through whose ears?
On another note, I am struck by the authorial/character relations in the line quoted above: does the author like Yekl?
In closing Yekel, the narrator describes Yekel’s outlook on life prior to his divorce and soon marriage to Mamie; “Still worse than this thirst for a taste of liberty was a feeling which was now gaining upon him, that, instead of a conqueror, he had emerged from the rabbi’s house the victim of an ignominious defeat (89).” In coming to America, this thirst to immerse himself in its culture and embrace his new found freedoms and liberties caused Yekel to forgo many of his “old world” virtues and values. In stating how the divorce was an “ignominious defeat”, it seems as if the narrator does indeed have some pity towards Yekel, emphasizing the effect that America had on him. Though Yekel is often portrayed as this tough and brawny womanizer, we now see that perhaps he was just a man struggling to find a place in a society. The narrator, in following Yekel’s life, illustrates how easily people, especially immigrants, can be influenced into forgoing their past and those they once held so dear in pursuit of the American dream. Yekel is just another victim of society’s influence.
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