The meeting was
necessary and not entirely in vain for all intents and purposes just like a lot
of other work meetings and consultations. Recently it has dawned upon me that
there are those people who work smart and those others who are opportunistic and if one should
lean towards the latter, it connotes that one is inclined to be devious and
unprincipled. Quite often truth and lies are almost indistinguishable for subordinates
who do not care much about how they perform at work as they just want to carry
on with their routines so they can collect their paychecks at the end of each
month.
In
The Room, the novel written by
Swedish actor and writer, Jonas Karlsson and translated from Swedish by Neil Smith, Björn is thrilled to
discover a small, secret room where he can work in the civilized manner he
deserves and his efficiency yields exemplary results but his strange behaviour
drives his colleagues to a point of no return. The room might have been a
figment of Björn’s imagination as the other colleagues see that he stands by
the wall between the lift and the toilets when he tells them there is a room.
He asks one of his colleagues about the room. The following extract appears in chapter 23.
“
Jörgen, ” I said. “ I want you to
be completely honest now. I want you to tell me what this room is for.”
“ What
room?”
“ This
one,” I said, touching the door with my finger.
“
There’s the lift,” Jörgen said.”And there are the toilets.”
“ Mmh, but what about in between them?”
“ In between? Well ,there’s a recycling bin, if that’s what you mean …”
“ That’s not what I mean,” I said. “ What’s this room for?”
I slapped my hand on the door, fairly hard.
Actually harder than I had expected. I realized that this nonsense was wearing
my patience. I had to try to keep a cool head.
“ Well …” Jörgen said, looking at
me.
I could see that he was extremely
uncertain. He was evidently disconcerted at having to talk to me.
“….it’s a
wall.”
I glared at
him.
“Is that all
you’ve got to say?”
Jörgen obviously
finds Björn weird and yet Björn believes “Whoever was responsible for this
deception was on a different level of the hierarchy.”
Here are some samplings of the passages from The Room:
The following passage is from chapter 8
‘Inhibited people don’t see the world the way it really is. They only see what they themselves want to see. They don’t see the nuances. The little differences.
‘Inhibited people don’t see the world the way it really is. They only see what they themselves want to see. They don’t see the nuances. The little differences.
A lot of people , more than you’d imagine, think
everything’s fine. They’re happy with things the way they are. They don’t see
the faults because they’re too lazy to allow themselves to have their everyday
routines disturbed. They think that as long as they do their best, everything
will work out okay. '
The following passage is from Chapter 33
The following passage is from Chapter 33
‘ On
the other hand , it’s good to realize that we aren’t as remarkable as we might
imagine. We want to earn a lot , eat well, and generally have a nice time.
Listen to the radio sometimes or watch something on television. Read a book or
a journal. We want to have good weather and be able to buy cheap food close to
home.
In these terms we are
all relatively simple creatures. We dream of finding a more or less pleasant
partner, a summer cottage or a time-share on the Costa de Sol. Deep down we
just want peace and quiet. A decent dose of easily digested entertainment every
now and then.
Anything more is just vain
posturing.’
The Room reminds me of The Trial, a novel by Franz Kafka.
Karlsson’s writing is minimalist and easy to read. It is an exhilarating story
about how far we will go-in a world ruled by conformity- to live life on our
own terms. If we pay attention, everyone of us needs a place or a mode ( physically or
metaphorically) to re- centre
ourselves whenever things
overwhelm so as not to be overcome by whatever is happening .
San Sebastian July 2015 |
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