In band this year, we received a movement from Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, one of the 1800s conductor's more famous pieces. This one, titled March to the Scaffold is very dark.
The background goes like this: the protagonist is dreaming that he has just killed his wife and is sentenced to death. His drug- induced dream culminates with watching himself getting decapitated. All the while, he dreams of how much he loves his wife.
It's this constant, knowing march to his death that I think is related to Amir's story. On a more subtle note, Amir is marching to his scaffold (guillotine). We think of execution as a form of justice for a pretty bad crime, in this case murder.
Throughout all of the Kite Runner, we get the sense that Amir is seeking atonement for his sins. The book builds up to Hassan's assault, in the way a symphony builds. From there, like a decrescendo, it's all downhill. The idea is that Amir has killed his honor, his love, and he needs to find a way to get it back.
So, while Amir isn't literally walking towards his beheading, he is building up to some sort of redemption. We mentioned that memoirs are all about reconciliation and atonement. In a way, Berlioz's symphony speaks of the simplest form of redemption, execution.
We can only hope that Amir won't face the same fate as Berlioz's character, but there are parallels in their seeking for justice.
And is not a decapitation a form of redemption? We will absolve the body pure of sins caused by fallible mind, then, and the heavenly clumps of neurons encased in gentle skull will sever their earthly ties. The brain is unencumbered by its plodding, flaccid support systems. Only in this has it achieved a true release - binary switches revert to inert nothingness. The mind is an empty slate, prepared for conversion to Scientology and reinstatement in the cryogenically frozen figures of the politically important.
ReplyDeleteOk, since you made a post about band I have to do it for Blogging Around! I have this song on my iPod and yes, I still listen to it. Although parts of this piece are in a major key (which we can imagine as the happy patrs in his life, like getting married), a lot of it still conveys pretty heavy dread. I disagree that beheading is equivalent to redemption, though. Life goes on after redemption, whereas beheading is a definite end. But they both bring some sort of closure, so I can see how the analogy still stands.
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