InspectorCaracal wrote: ↑Mon 21 Feb, 2022, 5:49 pm
Okay, the war. The war is given a lot less attention so I'm not entirely
sure what it is. It could be a lot of things. I don't think it's linked to masculinity or manhood - the Thursday lover is a woman with a ribbon and is conscripted, and the Procurer is a war vet and a woman.
I think,
tentatively, that the war is a metaphor for all the external strife and injustice and suffering in the world, wrapped into one package. Because of this part:
Besides, people are getting blown up at the border. The world is burning and I’m thinking about a ribbon? What a selfish, worthless son of a bitch.
He asks himself: Who do you think you are that you can reject this?
Who do you think you are that you can escape?
I think this is why he doesn't try to remove the ribbon until the end, as well, because he's been conscripted. He's in the war, now; he's hit rock bottom, so losing his head by removing the ribbon won't really lose him anything else any more.
And then he's fine.
Yeah, the suffering in the world or like Other People's Struggles maybe? There's this recurring phrase Jan uses "other people’s curses" and the word "curse" in general that I noticed when I was skimming it again.
"Jan/You know better than to ask after other people's curses." Occurs twice, first when he's asking himself about the birdman and second near the end when the final client asks Jan about why he won't run from the War.
And earlier when he asks himself why he feels that he is pulled towards the battlefield he calls it "a weakness perhaps, a curse."
There's two more mentions of the word curse when he's talking about the river. 1) "or not have children at all, spare them and the world a curse" 2) when talking about either the animals or the feathers/skin they shed floating down the river and "whoever finds one will be forever cursed."
There's also something interesting about the use of the word scar. Jan's first lover kisses the scars on his chest, which are presumably from breast a reduction surgery, and then immediately asks if he has been conscripted yet. And then the next thing that happens is that the lover says the following:
The lover tells him the stories of his own scars then, how he got some of them on the battlefield and others in the dark wooded area on our northern border where witches and snakes make your wishes come true in return for a bit of finger or a first-born child.
So I think the War is the suffering in the world, but I don't think it's an external thing separate from Jan, even if he thinks it is, because I think the War is just everyone's personal struggles represented as one big battlefield.
I think "other people's curse" is their personal struggles that's why it's mentioned in relation to the war and why him being drawn to the battlefield is "perhaps a curse", the battlefield is facing your "curse" and fighting your personal battle.
That's why it goes from Jan's surgery scars to the lover talking about the scars he got from the battlefield. They're the same thing. Scars are marks left from the battlefield, from your personal struggle/curse. Jan's literal surgery scars represent his emotional scars and the lover's battle scars represent his.
Maybe another reason the green ribbon metaphor was used as a symbol of womanhood is that in the story the ribbon could be described as a curse and to Jan in a way this feels like his personal curse.
And as for:
The world is burning and I’m thinking about a ribbon?
Don't most people feel like their personal struggles pale in comparison to that of the rest of the world?
InspectorCaracal wrote: ↑Mon 21 Feb, 2022, 5:49 pm
Transforming into animals to dodge the draft is even harder to pinpoint. I have some tentative thoughts that maybe it's about social camoflage, when you're pretending to be someone you aren't in order to "fit in" and not cause any waves and protect yourself. Which, if so, makes Jan considering it a metaphor for considering "going back in the closet".
Social camouflage makes sense, as does "going back in the closet".
I think this is why he doesn't try to remove the ribbon until the end, as well, because he's been conscripted. He's in the war, now; he's hit rock bottom, so losing his head by removing the ribbon won't really lose him anything else any more.
This part I see a bit differently, I don't think he takes of the ribbon because he's hit rock bottom and has nothing to lose because he's joined the war.
If the War is your personal struggle then being drafted into the war is I guess being forced to face your personal battle and then dodging the draft by turning into an animal is avoiding facing your personal struggle by pretending to be something your not.
The bargain Jan wanted too make with the witch in the woods was for him to not have the ribbon for a year, so to pretend he was never trans, but just a cis man. But he is denied this bargain because:
then the witch could have his heart, his liver, his bones, whatever other gory piece of him she desired. But she felt sorry for him and called it off at the last minute. She said, your head might still roll off, eventually, ribbon or not. You’ll only be giving me things and getting so very little in return.
He wants to pretend he never had a ribbon, like others pretend to be an animal, but it would not actually change anything, they would be giving up their body (heart, liver, bones) which I think means who they are deep down and get nothing in return.
And then at the end of the story:
He looks at his ribbon, lifts his hand to touch its length. Then he holds one end between forefinger and thumb and pulls and pulls until the ribbon gives and the knot comes undone. He tugs once more and feels the fabric slide silky over his skin and then he waits for the other sensation, the rip, the tilt, but the ribbon simply comes away, and it’s fine. Nothing happens. It’s fine.
I think he takes off the ribbon at the end of the story, the same time as he's drafted and goes to war, because the War is a metaphor for people's struggles and his struggle was with his ribbon, ie a marker of womanhood from his past, because he's ready to face it now, to go onto the battlefield.
He's no longer wanting to pretend he never had a ribbon, he's coming to terms with his ribbon and choosing to take it over regardless of the consequences even if he dies, but when he does he doesn't die, nothing happens, it's fine.