I did, at one point, fancy myself as a fan of Radiohead; having been introduced to them through a theory that OK Computer and In Rainbows, two albuns released nearly a decade apart from each other, could be combined into a single "super-album". Whether this was intentional and/or the canonical way to listen to these two albums, the world will never know.
Mark Z Danielewski's Only Revolutions is in essence this same concept transported to the bindings of a single book. One can mix and match Sam and Hailey's accounts of their long strange trip across time in any way they'd like. The sidebars of real world events serve as the more literal definition of a road's "milestones", indicating exactly where the reader (and the protagonists) are in history.
I ultimately settled on going through all of Sam's narrative first, followed by all of Hailey's. As one might surmise, time only moves forward. Reading the palindrome of a book this way shows the long march of history proceeding as it does, Sam and Hailey doing their damnedest to avoid getting crushed by its weight.
There is a method to the history that Danielewski chooses to highlight. Many things in history are defined by their winners and losers, whether in a stadium, at the polls, or on a battlefield. Accumulation and allocation of resources, such as masses of people, arms, and wealth, are also driving forces. The forging and fracturing of alliances between individuals and between nations are landmarks of how the winds change. Excerpts of quotes are mementos of the people who said them and define the zeitgeists they lived in. There are grave wrongs, societal injustices, that must be righted for progress to march and liberty to be obtained.
Most enlightening about this long trek through history is the euphemism used for death: those that die are said to go. It is elegant and evocative, used both in history's advance and in the twin narratives our forever 16 protagonists tell. What makes life valuable is its transience; that it will eventually be one's time to "go". There are recollections of individuals passing, whether it be at their natural expiration date or cut short by others. The use of this euphemism to describe mass casualty events, whether natural or manmade, is especially poignant; numbers of lives are simply wiped away.
When our history (at the time of publication) ends, and we are forced to look on into the future, there are only blank spaces. Rather than try and predict the great unknown, leaving it empty accentuates the fact that the future, all futures, are uncharted territory. Fitting in with the music metaphor, this is a locked groove; a technique that allows a song at the end of a record to have a practically infinite length. Having future dates in the first place also serves the purpose of pointing out that time always moves forward at the same rate, even if it feels like there are more "things happening" the closer we get to the present or years representing smaller fractions of our lives as we get older.
Sam and Hailey's jaunt throughout time and place forces us to engage with aspects of Americana and the concept of travel itself. Crucial to their whole deal is chasing "the Dream", understood to be the "American Dream". While the particulars of the goals of following the "American Dream" vary wildly based on socioeconomic status, the fundamentals of striving to be in a better position than where you started remain the same. "Survival" leads to "independence", which itself leads to "prosperity". Sam and Hailey are racing to ensure all three of those boxes remain checked at all times. They face barriers to the realization of the Dream, such as debt relief officers, hospital stays, soul-sucking service jobs, and courthouses that would deny them the most tangible memento of their love. There are also cynics who have no reason to believe in the Dream and/or actively oppose the dream, such as the Creep.
Nevertheless, they persist, the only way out being through. Their motivation? One another and themselves, stressed in the text through constant use of US. There is an emphasis on "Hope"; throughout the narratives, this takes the form of "New Hope", "Sweet Hope", "Changing Hope", "Last Hope", and ultimately "Dead Hope". Long before Barack Obama's campaign slogan and posters heavily revolved around "Hope", Americans of all stripes were obsessed with the concept. "New Hope" is perhaps the most common in a genre of place names across the United States, also including standouts such as "Friendship", "Love", and "(New) Harmony", that put optimism front and center. These places themselves have a wide variety of origins behind their names: some religious in origin, others a general sense of optimism. The one name source I would like to shine on is utopian socialist communities such as the Owenist New Harmony, Indiana. The promise of Owenism is that there would be an Age of Hope, a New Moral World, at the end of the long march of history.
Every time the car Sam and Hailey drive comes up, it is a different make and model. Everyone who has ever driven an automobile, whether it was for business or pleasure, and regardless of build quality, has driven a car that was either namedropped in this book or developed a similar reputation to one that has. If one were to map out the locations they stop at on this long and winding road, it would not resemble travels on existing real road networks, but instead lines painted in avant-garde. I appreciated the sheer diversity of locales mentioned in this story, from the world-famous to the mires of obscurity. Every place mentioned is geven equal reverence, a victory for my believe that even "nowhere" can become "somewhere".
Sam and Hailey's accounts of the story carry with them strong rhythm and lyricism. They stand alone as individual poetry and have strong interplay with each other as a celebration of US. The plots as described by Sam and Hailey slightly differ from each other, befitting Sam as the literal driving force and Hailey as the sails lifting the air up. The emotions they feel for each other are very sweet; this sweetness, this tenderness for each other exemplified by the elevated role honey plays. At first, they have a jar, and then they end up foraging for individual combs.
The typesetting of each side of the book further develops the concept of this book being like a record. The start of each side is very large, loud, dynamic, much as a lead single is there to grab your attention. The tracks then shrink further and further, with the conclusion being akin to a closing track fading out into oblivion. THe story fading out mirrors how when someone passes away, they depart from the "now" and become part of "eternity", a feeling captured by the story's final moments.
Ultimately, the biggest thing selling me on this book are the moments where everything is tied together; two lives becoming one. A strong recurring theme in the book is the wonders of nature: Sam is obsessed with animals, and Hailey is in turn quite fond of plants. Flora and fauna alike are personified; they feel the emotions and have the same life cycles as we do. In the denouement, Sam and Hailey become each others' "eternity", a feeling captured by Sam giving plants their due, reciprocated by Hailey expressing love for animals.
The exact midpoint of the book by page count is especially poignant, as it shows the unity of US in the truest sense. At all other moments in the book, the two authors serve as individual recording tracks, where the reader has the choice of interpreting the lead and backing vocals however they please. When all converges, there is a true duet, the two disparate voices becoming the harmony of US.
Fitting in with Only Revolutions being an album being produced and printed en masse, one could analyze the book itself as music in its most base yet also technical form: the sound wave(s). Each crest and trought of these waves represent the emotional torque of the book. Having this fundamental truth in my mind makes this revolutionary experiment compelling.
Renko and Maribel fumos with the Sam and Hailey covers, respectively. Relationship dynamics and narrative arcs have been assigned.
