1 post tagged “darkness visible”
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness; William Styron
Ostensibly: William Styron's memoir on his struggle with depression. Actually: why William Styron should keep his day job and never, ever dabble in scientific writing.
I initially heard about Darkness Visible though an article in the New Orleans Times Picayune; the article was about columnist Chris Rose's plunge into depression, and it was written with the mix of earnestness, honest self-analysis, and self-deprecating humor that makes for perfect navel-gazing. After spending a mostly vegetative and dismal summer in the armpit of New England (also known as Providence), I too felt what I believed to be the pangs of existential crises and reached out to Styron for comfort. We could cry, loathe, eat marshmallows, and get fat together. It would be wonderful! And deep!
So imagine my surprise when Styron's memoir was less a deep and soulful search but instead a grab-bag of pop psychology and badly butchered neuroscientific theory. To put it simply, I came for emotional catharsis and heart-rending empathy (see: the beginning half of The Bell Jar, Gary's hefty section in The Corrections, hysterical entries on LiveJournal), and all I got was this half-hearted, mealy-mouthed textbook on Bill Styron's brain. Personally, I blame Styron's lack of focus.
Darkness Visible breaks down as 40% puttering scientific theory, 50% exposition on what Styron will talk about but not now dude not now just wait like five minutes until I finish this Cinnabun, and 10% actual explanation. To make things worse, Styron puts the worst of all these elements into a great big blender and spews it out without any real organization. He sluggishly hops from topic to topic until nothing emerges except the most muddled timeline: Styron is depressed in Paris, depressed elsewhere, Styron grinds his ax against those that have Done Him Wrong, Styron enters treatment, and suddenly, Styron is happier than a fifteen year old boy at a titty bar.
Styron makes little room for searing descriptions of his struggle with depression and the gems are few and far between. His occasional anecdotes hit the wrong note and seem more cranky and petty than honest and sympathetic. His interest in the scientific theory is half-hearted - Styron seems much more at home cherry-picking explanations to seem like a reliable source. And he lacks any sort of commanding voice. In the end, I was left high and dry. Darkness Visible is meandering at best, and completely unwilling to devote any amount of real energy into probing into the depths of its subject.
