It's All In George's Head
Dec. 10th, 2018 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
are_youready Now, Johnboy has... let's call them archetypes, in his work. Perhaps "idiosyncratic personal tropes" is more accurate. The most important of these, I would argue, is an archetype I like to call The Man. Now, The Man is a character, but his relationship to the protagonist is also an aspect of the archetype. He is a limping dark eyed slender diminutive charismatic Byronic attractive sexually ambiguous promiscuous suffering-under-the-state ex-lutheran or atheist Jewish German true-believing zealous socialist, but he is also most importantly the protagonist's fraught friend-nemesis. Now, there are different levels of that: Sasha is Teddy's friend who is also kind of a dick and keeps dragging Teddy into dumbass bullshit; Karla is George's nemesis who intentionally ruined his marriage and polluted the Circus and who George is obsessed with in a way that can sometimes reasonably qualify as hatred, at least in Smiley's People.
I would consider Axel H. in A Perfect Spy to be the most accurate depiction of the archetype of The Man, and I generally consider him to be the basic template which all other iterations deviate from. He was written later than most other iterations, true, but the combination of 1) the fact that he carries the most "The Man" archetypal traits of any of them, 2) the fact that his arc seems to kind of be what the others were portraying with the details changed, and 3) most importantly, the heavy autobiographicality of A Perfect Spy, cause me to still consider him to be the template.
Among other things, taking Axel as the template helps to explain Smiley's relationship with Karla.
First, I'm going to give a short summary of the relevant aspects of Axel H. and Magnus Pym (the protagonist of APS)'s relationship. This post assumes you have read TTSS; it does not assume you have read A Perfect Spy.
Axel and Magnus begin as friends. Their relationship has something of a mentor/mentee tone, certainly, and Magnus is definitely looking for a father in Axel, but then, Magnus looks for a father in everyone. And of course there is a strong, practically explicit erotic undercurrent: "Magnus was even less sure of Axel's sexuality than his own, except that whatever it was Axel was at peace with it," Magnus's jealousy over Axel's harem of girls taking Axel's attention away from himself, etc. But they are not significantly more complex than friends at this point. They're just a couple of runaway, parentless young men who happen to be lodging in the same house in Switzerland.
However, Magnus is a naive, pliable idiot, desperate for the approval of any father figure he can find; when British intelligence scoops him up, he cheerfully recounts Axel's entire biography to them without even realizing what he might be doing, and the police come for Axel, an illegal immigrant and a socialist, in the night. Axel is deported back to Czecho and Magnus believes he will never see him again.
But they do see each other again. Nearly a decade later, when Magnus is an up and coming young spy, someone gets in contact with his network, claiming to have information. That someone turns out to be Axel H., now an officer of Soviet intelligence after years of imprisonment, torture, and starvation at their hands and, by extension, Magnus's. Axel suggests that since, you know, neither of us really believe in our countries' overarching causes, but we do care about each other, we could advance each other's careers by swapping information. Magnus, naive, stupid, desperate for Axel's approval, overjoyed that Axel is alive, and carrying years of crushing guilt over Axel's supposed fate, agrees instantaneously. And so begins Magnus's tenure as the greatest traitor fictional British Intelligence ever harbored in its ranks.
The Axel who runs Magnus is a different, harder, darker Axel than the one who was Magnus's cool older friend in college. He has suffered a lot, and he has done terrible things. It's left up in the air whether turning Magnus into a traitor is an intentional act of revenge on Axel's part, but the possibility is highlighted, and running Magnus certainly involves a lot of vicious manipulation and control. Axel still loves Magnus, yes, but he is very very angry at how Magnus betrayed him, and he is also a good officer, he knows how to run an agent. At the end, Axel cares for Magnus, but he is also Magnus's enemy, because Magnus hurt him.
What does this have to do with Smiley and Karla?
Karla, too, is an instance of The Man. The interesting thing is that he is an instance of The Man who exists essentially entirely inside George's mind. Of course, there is a real person using the codename Karla, running moles, keeping George's lighter in his pocket. But the person George formed a relationship with in that Delhi jail cell - and the person he blames for ruining his marriage and his life - are a construct. A projection. And what's interesting is that he projects Axel's exact emotional arc onto Karla.
First, the betrayal: George fails to convince "Gerstmann" to defect. This is tantamount to leaving him to die, in George's estimation; an unforgivable sin. Gerstmann's fate is sealed, or so he thinks. And this is George's fault. Now, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense from an outside perspective, but remember: George has just finished having an entire mental breakdown in Gerstmann's general direction out of loneliness and exhaustion. Later, he calls it a "communion between damaged souls," which I would call hilarious but also appropriate to the level of emotional significance he places on this moment. His emotions aren't coherent and they're not actually about anything around him, but they're strong and they're making themselves known and so he fucking imprints on "Gerstmann" like a duckling. And so it becomes a great betrayal of a dear friend that he fails to convince this random Centre operative, one of a long line of many, to defect.
Second, the start of darkness: George still seems to carry around some nostalgia for "Gerstmann," a character he invented for himself to soothe his desperate loneliness and used Karla's face for. Even when he speaks about how much he hates "Karla," "Gerstmann" remains someone to be longed for. George essentially splits Karla into two people, and I intuit, though I don't necessarily have evidence for this idea, that somewhere in George's brain is the idea that by "betraying" "Gerstmann" he created "Karla." Even though that's stupid and nonsensical and George knows in his mind it isn't true. This is supported by the whole situation with Ann and the lighter: anyone could have told Karla that George's weakness was Ann, that isn't exactly a big fucking secret. But the way it's emphasized suggests that George's behavior on that day made Karla the (homewrecking) monster he is today implies that George thinks of Delhi as the point where Karla went bad, in the same way as when Axel became a spy.
Third, and final, the manipulative revenge: Ann. Ann Ann Ann Ann Ann. The fact that Karla had Bill fuck Ann to mess with George's emotions is, well, obviously it's manipulation, and extremely successful manipulation at that. But George seems to think of it as revenge, as well; note how he kind of paints himself as deserving it because he spilled his guts in Delhi.
This is the missing link I've been looking for wrt. how George thinks about Delhi, and why Karla even counts as The Man. George didn't just have a mental breakdown at and fall a little in love with a blank slate because of desperate loneliness, he also blames himself for the ensuing... everything... in a very specific way.
I would consider Axel H. in A Perfect Spy to be the most accurate depiction of the archetype of The Man, and I generally consider him to be the basic template which all other iterations deviate from. He was written later than most other iterations, true, but the combination of 1) the fact that he carries the most "The Man" archetypal traits of any of them, 2) the fact that his arc seems to kind of be what the others were portraying with the details changed, and 3) most importantly, the heavy autobiographicality of A Perfect Spy, cause me to still consider him to be the template.
Among other things, taking Axel as the template helps to explain Smiley's relationship with Karla.
First, I'm going to give a short summary of the relevant aspects of Axel H. and Magnus Pym (the protagonist of APS)'s relationship. This post assumes you have read TTSS; it does not assume you have read A Perfect Spy.
Axel and Magnus begin as friends. Their relationship has something of a mentor/mentee tone, certainly, and Magnus is definitely looking for a father in Axel, but then, Magnus looks for a father in everyone. And of course there is a strong, practically explicit erotic undercurrent: "Magnus was even less sure of Axel's sexuality than his own, except that whatever it was Axel was at peace with it," Magnus's jealousy over Axel's harem of girls taking Axel's attention away from himself, etc. But they are not significantly more complex than friends at this point. They're just a couple of runaway, parentless young men who happen to be lodging in the same house in Switzerland.
However, Magnus is a naive, pliable idiot, desperate for the approval of any father figure he can find; when British intelligence scoops him up, he cheerfully recounts Axel's entire biography to them without even realizing what he might be doing, and the police come for Axel, an illegal immigrant and a socialist, in the night. Axel is deported back to Czecho and Magnus believes he will never see him again.
But they do see each other again. Nearly a decade later, when Magnus is an up and coming young spy, someone gets in contact with his network, claiming to have information. That someone turns out to be Axel H., now an officer of Soviet intelligence after years of imprisonment, torture, and starvation at their hands and, by extension, Magnus's. Axel suggests that since, you know, neither of us really believe in our countries' overarching causes, but we do care about each other, we could advance each other's careers by swapping information. Magnus, naive, stupid, desperate for Axel's approval, overjoyed that Axel is alive, and carrying years of crushing guilt over Axel's supposed fate, agrees instantaneously. And so begins Magnus's tenure as the greatest traitor fictional British Intelligence ever harbored in its ranks.
The Axel who runs Magnus is a different, harder, darker Axel than the one who was Magnus's cool older friend in college. He has suffered a lot, and he has done terrible things. It's left up in the air whether turning Magnus into a traitor is an intentional act of revenge on Axel's part, but the possibility is highlighted, and running Magnus certainly involves a lot of vicious manipulation and control. Axel still loves Magnus, yes, but he is very very angry at how Magnus betrayed him, and he is also a good officer, he knows how to run an agent. At the end, Axel cares for Magnus, but he is also Magnus's enemy, because Magnus hurt him.
What does this have to do with Smiley and Karla?
Karla, too, is an instance of The Man. The interesting thing is that he is an instance of The Man who exists essentially entirely inside George's mind. Of course, there is a real person using the codename Karla, running moles, keeping George's lighter in his pocket. But the person George formed a relationship with in that Delhi jail cell - and the person he blames for ruining his marriage and his life - are a construct. A projection. And what's interesting is that he projects Axel's exact emotional arc onto Karla.
First, the betrayal: George fails to convince "Gerstmann" to defect. This is tantamount to leaving him to die, in George's estimation; an unforgivable sin. Gerstmann's fate is sealed, or so he thinks. And this is George's fault. Now, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense from an outside perspective, but remember: George has just finished having an entire mental breakdown in Gerstmann's general direction out of loneliness and exhaustion. Later, he calls it a "communion between damaged souls," which I would call hilarious but also appropriate to the level of emotional significance he places on this moment. His emotions aren't coherent and they're not actually about anything around him, but they're strong and they're making themselves known and so he fucking imprints on "Gerstmann" like a duckling. And so it becomes a great betrayal of a dear friend that he fails to convince this random Centre operative, one of a long line of many, to defect.
Second, the start of darkness: George still seems to carry around some nostalgia for "Gerstmann," a character he invented for himself to soothe his desperate loneliness and used Karla's face for. Even when he speaks about how much he hates "Karla," "Gerstmann" remains someone to be longed for. George essentially splits Karla into two people, and I intuit, though I don't necessarily have evidence for this idea, that somewhere in George's brain is the idea that by "betraying" "Gerstmann" he created "Karla." Even though that's stupid and nonsensical and George knows in his mind it isn't true. This is supported by the whole situation with Ann and the lighter: anyone could have told Karla that George's weakness was Ann, that isn't exactly a big fucking secret. But the way it's emphasized suggests that George's behavior on that day made Karla the (homewrecking) monster he is today implies that George thinks of Delhi as the point where Karla went bad, in the same way as when Axel became a spy.
Third, and final, the manipulative revenge: Ann. Ann Ann Ann Ann Ann. The fact that Karla had Bill fuck Ann to mess with George's emotions is, well, obviously it's manipulation, and extremely successful manipulation at that. But George seems to think of it as revenge, as well; note how he kind of paints himself as deserving it because he spilled his guts in Delhi.
This is the missing link I've been looking for wrt. how George thinks about Delhi, and why Karla even counts as The Man. George didn't just have a mental breakdown at and fall a little in love with a blank slate because of desperate loneliness, he also blames himself for the ensuing... everything... in a very specific way.
