This is an engaging narrative staged within an educational setting where the focus is on stand-up comedy – a field known for its daring commentary. The backdrop of a US college serves as an interesting canvas given its “woke” culture. The author, by drawing attention to ‘white noise’, alludes to the work of Don DeLillo, an analyst of American popular culture.
While DeLillo excelled in chronicling America’s unseen cultural undercurrents, sometimes his characters felt like mere conduits, vehicles for his ideas. However, Bordas takes a different route by crafting an intricate web of diverse characters – students, instructors, siblings, parent offspring pairs and couples. These characters paint a broad landscape of time. In his book ‘White Noise’, DeLillo emphasised the growing difficulty in distinguishing ‘words from things’, suggesting a pervasive postmodern angst that’s considered central to understanding the modern cultural conflict regions.
The narrative’s contemporary cultural investigation is prompted by an occurrence of toxic masculinity. The plot centres around an accomplished comedian who’s due to instruct a course, and his impending judgement – whether he will face cancellation. His experienced peers understand his predicament, but younger comedians appear more fascinated by his successful comedic career. The introductory section offers a sort of a prologue centred around ‘Manny’ and delves into the nuances of stand-up comedy.
In its course, the novel ‘The Material’ by Camille Bordas provides an incisive and often humorous glimpse into the lives of campus comedians. The bulwark of the narrative lies in its middle section. The story gradually intensifies, culminating in a humourous depiction of a college shooting incident that quintessentially represents the modern American narrative.
Following this, one of the educators, ‘Kruger’, pays a visit to his father at an elderly care facility, presenting a completely different sort of shooting scene. The core pain driving Kruger’s life resides in this father-son dynamic. It reveals the universal emotional wound that fuels human existence, propelling the trajectory of adults’ lives.
Kruger evaluates the potential for humour even amidst life’s hardships – an intriguing and impactful theme. The comedian’s ability to convert life’s happenings into a source of laughter is proficiently portrayed, yet it is suggested that it’s merely a strategy to sidestep the dread of living, whilst giving an impression of dealing with it. In this process, writers play a significant role.
The narrative further unfolds eloquently when a man, upon recognising Manny, recalls an anecdote from his childhood of writing fan letters to a popular comedian. He speaks of how his father had wanted him to write to a different comedian, and now as his father nears death, he contemplates on seeking Manny’s help to achieve a response should he write to the said comedian again. While such a response might provide comfort or relief, it also symbolises a shield against death; it is like a covert message of love for his own father.
Manny’s recollections provide another poignant perspective. He remembers the time when, as a child, his son was seriously ill in hospital. He recalls avoiding eye contact with other child patients, fearing he might catch their ill fate. The angle provides an exceptional understanding of how people perceive fame, how fan letters are essentially an attempt to connect with celebrities, hoping to catch their success or good luck as a shield against life’s hardships.
Most importantly, the narrative is a contemplation of life’s sorrow and challenges and how we attempt to reconcile with them. We devise ways to handle life’s rugged reality to ensure we keep surviving, intentionally diverting attention from the unstoppable progression of time.
Drawing towards a close, the story frames the central theme around a poignant phone image questioning the meaning of life, art, writing, performance and even copulation. Isn’t it all just to make time vanish? The story speeds up towards the end, leaving us with a glimpse of the comedians briefly casting aside their icy comic ethos and ushering in a fleeting wave of optimism, tainted by the sudden mention of ‘The Plague’. Despite its ever-present threat, death remains a source of jest.
The Material is remarkably perceptive, often filled with humour. Definitely worth a read
Commentary by comedian Kevin Gildea.