John Reddick

On the Foreclosed Reading of Eroticism

"Of course i don't believe in God. He's just a swindle to stultify the people. The only thing I believe in is the Virgin Mary. That's why I'm never going to get married."— Cat and Mouse, Gunter Grass

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"The only thing I believe in is the Virgin Mary."— Cat and Mouse, Gunter Grass
—— John Reddick

Other than the Catholic-Liturgical critique, it is not evident what Reddick is "opening up" in the three texts under discussion. Regarding, show more perhaps, the most homoerotic novel ever written, Cat and Mouse, Reddick, notably, appears to have foreclosed an "Invert-reading" of the text. (Foreclosed in the Lacanian sense i.e. rejecting the incompatible idea together with its affect and behaving as if the idea has never occurred to him at all; perhaps in an effort to praise Grass by omission of an untoward association, for we know Reddick is no stranger to the facile Freudian simile of tank barrel as phallus.) In a remarkable (intentional?) fixation, we are also forbidden to play with the metaphor/signifier chain: Mahlke = Mouse (prey); Pilenz = Cat (predator). An unfortunate rigidity in a critic. So we are lead to imagine that we are adding to the text by subtracting some pertinent questions from consideration. Why is the reading fixated on a "Cain and Abel" relation when this is not the analogy from scripture. What is the role of Judas as ambiguous (and necessary per Borges) actor in the Christ-story. How are the roles reversed and solicited; how is a relationship changed/deconstructed as a product of these solicitations; how are we to read the erotic elements/desiderata; how are we to read the comedic elements over tragedy; and what of that protuberance of thyroid cartilage. show less

I am looking for Tin Drum, yet i didnt find it, rest of the Trilogy is with me.want to start soon.:)