The Unconscious Discourse of the Other

Among the psychoanalysts in the recent years, Lacan has had the greatest
influence in literary theory. He reinterprets Freud in the light of structural
linguistics and he is perhaps best known in theoretical circles for his
pronouncement that the unconscious is structured like a language."
For Lacan, the unconscious of mind is structured like Saussure's
language system of operation as paradigmatic and syntagmatic or like
Jakobson's metaphoric and metonymic. He goes against Freud's
controversial idea about biological drives. He asserts that the
development of an identity of a subject is a social construct not
biological, that is, our identity is somewhat conditioned by the way in
which other people perceive us.
In Crooner this identification with the other becomes obvious in the
case of both Janeck and Tony Gardner. Practically, Janeck identifies
himself with his mothers wishes.
But when I realised it was Tony Gardner sitting there, that was different. I did
get excited.
Tony Gardner had been my mothers favourite. Back home, back in the
communist days, it had been really hard to get records like that, but my mother
had pretty much his whole collection. Once when I was a boy, I scratched one
of those precious records. The apartment was so cramped, and a boy my age,
you just had to move around sometimes, especially during those cold months
when you couldnt go outside. So I was playing this game jumping from our
little sofa to the armchair, and one time I misjudged it and hit the record
player. The needle went across the record with a zipthis was long before
CDsand my mother came in from the kitchen and began shouting at me. I
felt so bad, not just because she was shouting at me, but because I knew it was
one of Tony Gardners records, and I knew how much it meant to her. And I
knew that this one too would now have those popping noises going through it
while he crooned those American songs. Years later, when I was working in
Warsaw and I got to know about black-market records, I gave my mother
replacements of all her worn-out Tony Gardner albums, including that one I
scratched. It took me over three years, but I kept getting them, one by one, and
each time I went back to see her Id bring her another.
So you see why I got so excited when I recognised him, barely six metres
away. At first I couldnt quite believe it, and I might have been a beat late with
a chord change. Tony Gardner! What would my dear mother have said if shed
known! For her sake, for the sake of her memory, I had to go and say
something to him, never mind if the other musicians laughed and said I was
acting like a bell-boy.


If we look at the text from a traditional Freudian point of view,
uncovering the unconscient mechanisms which lie at the basis of Janecks
admiration towards Tony Gardner is not difficult: just think how would
this story unfold if we hadn`t known about the deep admiration Janecks
mother had had for Tony Gardners music? Deeply influenced by his
mother, Janeck had always had an unknown desire to meet Tony Gardner,
unconsciously, it has been his lifelong dream.
From a Lacanian point of view, one of the main gaps in the text is
the fact that there is no mention of Janecks father, so it is possible that,
on the level of the unconscious of the text, that Janeck grew up without a
father, being raised solely by his mother. This reveals a different
approach to Janecks admiration towards Tony Gardner. Drawing upon
the Freudian analysis, we might believe that the representation of Tony
Gardner combined with his mothers adoration lead Janeck to the
unconscious realization of the father figure in the shape of Tony Gardner.

When Id first spotted him, hed had his dark glasses in his handI doubt if
Id have recognised him otherwisebut as our set went on and I kept
watching him, he put them on his face, took them off again, then back on
again. He looked preoccupied and it disappointed me to see he wasnt really
listening to our music.

In the light of further events happening in the story, Tony Gardners
glasses which he keeps putting on, taking off, putting on again stand as a
symbol for his indecisiveness, showing clearly that, in Freudian terms, his
id, the unconscious part of his being is struggling to emerge, but the ego,
that is- the conscious, rational calculated part of his psyche, tells him that
what he is about to do- divorcing his wife for fame and an artistic
comeback- is just the right thing to do. In Lacanian terms, we can very
well see traces of the mirror stage, which Tony Gardner hasnt
completely been able to surpass.
According to Jaques Lacan, there are stages of human development
They are: the mirror stage, the imaginary stage, the symbolic stage.
In the mirror stage, the child discovers his own image, which becomes
other to the self, thereby establishing subjectivity. In this stage, there is
no split in personality. The baby treats mother as mirror and identity itself
with her. But in reality the image of mother is other. As a result, when
the language intervenes, the child knows that the identification was false.
However, the child's reconstruction of ego to be one with mother
continues thereafter. As the baby develops, the love to the mother
increases and the father is seen as threatening to its desire. The subject
(identity) has the split into two conscious and unconscious where our ego
is decentered. It is also called the imaginary stage because there is an
imaginary identification with mother. Mirror stage is also called the
imaginary stage or mirror stage is also a part of imaginary stage. In this
stage, firstly, child feels its image coherent. It feels united with the
mother's body. Secondly, the child feels that the image does not belong to
itself. The image has separate existence. So, the sense of harmony and
alienation goes on simultaneously during the imaginary phase.
Lacan claims that the sense of unification and the sense of alienation
do not remain only in the mirror stage. This sort of double sense remains
throughout our life. Thus, the mirror stage refers to the confrontation
with ourselves as our self is seen by the others, with the image the other
have projected upon us. This is why we always need some sort of
recognition from the others, some sort of acknowledgement of our selves;
of the way we are, of our being, of our achievements. This is the main
motive which drives Tony Garner to choose fame instead of love. He
needs to gain recognition again, he needs to be famous again, and hes
not separating from his wife for earning more money. Hes not doing this
for the music either. Hes doing this because he needs some sort of
acknowledgement, and the first one to satisfy his need for recognition
was Janeck with his almost overwhelming admiration and his wonderful
stories about his mother listening to Tony Gardners records.
Another clue pointing to Gardners need of recognition is the fact that he
keeps repeating the fact that Janeck comes from one of those communist
countries. So you come from one of those communist countries. That
must have been tough (Ishiguro 1). This constant emphasis on Janecks
origin points out that Tony Gardner realizes at the level of the
unconscious the magnitude of the fame he once had, since his music
reached even those communist countries where music was so hard to find.
Lindy, Gardners wife, on the other hand, due to Gardners decision of
leaving her for the sake of public recognition, refutes the very notion of
public and her ego manifests itself in a rather aggressive way towards
who she considers to be the public, represented by Janeck.
Lindy Gardner said: You mean your nicknames longer than your real name?
How does that work?
Dont be rude to the man, honey.
Im not being rude.
Dont make fun of the mans name, honey. Thats a good girl.
Lindy Gardner turned to me with a helpless sort of expression. You know
what hes talking about? Did I insult you?
No, no, I said, not at all, Mrs. Gardner.
Hes always telling me Im rude to the public. But Im not rude. Was I rude
to you just now? Then to Mr. Gardner: I speak to the public in a natural
way, sweetie. Its my way. Im never rude.
Okay, honey, Mr. Gardner said, lets not make a big thing of it. Anyhow,
this man here, hes not the public.
The moment she realizes that he is not the public shes so angry at, her
attitude towards Janeck changes:
Shed looked at me before, but this time it was different. This time I could feel
her charm. It was like she had this dial, going zero to ten, and with me, at that
moment, shed decided to turn it to six or seven, but I could feel it really
strong, and if shed asked some favour of meif say shed asked me to go
across the square and buy her some flowersId have done it happily.
Janeck, she said. Thats your name, right? Im sorry, Janeck. Tonys right.
Id no business speaking to you the way I did.
In conclusion, in all the main characters of the short story we can see
clear traces of the mirror stage Lacan was talking about, of the stage
which is responsible for the way they construct their identities according
to the way they are seen by the Other: Janeck as the former communist
country citizen who came to a foreign country to gain recognition, Tony
Gardner by the fact that he is willing to sacrifice the love he has for his
wife for public recognition and Lindy Gardner in the way she rejects the
idea of not being considered Tonys wife anymore in the eyes of the
public.