As we've gotten further into The Tomcat Murr (abv.) as a class, I've been sensing a lot of hostility towards our furry narrator, in conversation and frustrated plurk updates. I think Danny may have put it best in a facebook update: "He's a cat, pompous and full of himself." That more or less seems to be the complaint against him, and I think it bears some discussion (admittedly one sided seeing as this is a blog post). First off, I won't argue he isn't overbearingly arrogant at times- a Philistine, self-centered, egomaniac, what have you. But perhaps he deserves some recognition. After all, if he truley wrote this biography, as a cat, that would make him somewhat special. That's not to say I think he's a genius, as this novel has shown that all cats are not only sentient but equally cultured and intelligent as homo sapiens (or if you believe Murr, smarter). Murr seems to be stuck between two opposing beliefs- if he is to be a genius he must be a more educated, poetic, emotional, and interesting cat than not only other cats but also humans, his inspiration. Simultaneously he holds it to be self-evident that cats have the potential to do greater things than humans, as evidenced by lines like "how superior is my own kind to Homo sapiens." It doesn't get much more obvious than that... but Murr both idealizes and romanticizes humans while scorning them as lesser to himself. As he sets out to be a pioneer for feline intellectualism, he fails to recognize how much he borrows from the gaints he is riding on. Hoffmann, however, is quick to make the absurdity of a self-titled genius cat-scholar abundetly clear. For one, all of Murrs pretention and intellectualism (and he is hardly stupid) is useless when he is forced to deal with his innate cat-ness. His size and status as a cat means he has to study in secret. Lost in the city, Murr is forced to hide and steal food to survive. In one of my favorite scenes, Murr, Kitty, and Mazius are singing an (in his mind) unparalleled rendition of "My Love, Shall I see you no more," and right when you almost forget that these are cats you get a harsh (and realistic) interjection of "Can't those bloody cats pipe down?"
The juxtaposition of Murr's narration of the event to the image of a bunch of cats screaching and meowing is hilarious, but also rather poignant- as a cat, Murr's ability to impact the pool of genius which he draws from is limited, and a genius who makes no mark on the world is a talent wasted (this would seem to be Murr's opinion anyway).
Murr reveals his arrogance in one more interesting way which I want to discuss. Our Tomcat is a Fur-vent namedropper, in the rather irritating way in which (to be horribly stereotypical) hipsters introduce their latest super indie find not so much to talk about the band but to claim superiority for having found it. Murr, for example, makes constant reference to Greek and Latin myth, Shakespeare, and contemporary German writers, but rarely in a context where it contributes to his point, or any point other than to have hinted at obscurity. While some writers demand a lot from their audience, Murr has admitted, thrugh his supressed forward, that he is writing this book for young Tomcats, or for his audience to admire him. References like Goethe, Kotzuebue, and Tieck all feels like namedropping intended to go over the heads of his readers for the sake of inflating his own image as a scholar. This ego-centric abuse of literature draws a lot of credibility away from his own claims at literary intellectualism. Murr deserves sympathy despite his bloated ego: he is a cat who raised himself a human, and all of his human knowledge and insight can't help him understand what it truly means to be a cat. Nor can he ever be a man. As Danny so perfectly put it: "He's a cat, pompous and full of himself." For that I pity him, and read his every word with fascination.
This is part one of my musings on Murr's nature, if you were wondering what the title referred to. It's uh...it's pretty obscure so I doubt you've ever heard of it.
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I agree that Murr is a cat and must be taken as such. But I think where we differ in opinion is that no matter how we try to analyze him from our all too human perspective, he is still at his base somehow cat-like and therefore somehow other.
ReplyDeleteIt brings about a level of otherness, of alterity that keeps him from ever being something I can relate to. To summarize much of what you said, he is both a cat and a human but at the same time because of that, can never be either despite how he may try.
It is because of this that I cannot take Murr as anything more than an amusing commentary on Hoffman's contemporaries. Murr is an interesting oddity, but insofar as I understand he is only that: An oddity and a spectacle. This is why to me at least, the real story and complexities are to be found in Kreisler's narrative. After all, why would Hoffman take the time to write it as (I believe it was) 60-70% of the actual book if it weren't in some way meant to be more important. Why waste the "waste paper" as it were.
Kreisler is human, admittedly an odd one who's life and music create a fantastical universe of romanticism, but human nonetheless. And so his follies, his life and his triumphs are much more prevalent to our human experience.
It's more difficult to read, because it's chronologically fragmented and continuity is purposefully spotty, but if you read between the lines, seeing the parallels between Murr and Kreisler's respective stories, it makes sense and actually becomes more interesting because of it.
Granted, Murr is always other, much in the way that happa exist between cultures. But isn't understanding the other a huge part of learning and our human experience (clearly not as large a concern for him)? We don't reject women because they don't relate to our male experience, right? Well, some people seem to, I don't think we should though. Murr is fascinating to me because he crosses boundaries- for the exact reason you find him boring I find him much more interesting. And absolutely, we are forced to view his life and story with our "all too human perspective," but Murr is hugely a product of human enlightenment/intellectualism and in that we should be able to ignore his smug attitude and his catness and find in him some common ground.
ReplyDeleteThat was both hastily and poorly written but you get the idea. Kreisler's narrative may have greater depth to it, but Murr shouldn't be written off quite as easily in my opinion.