CROSSINGS OF LINES, LEAPS OF FAITH AND TRIPS DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE IN PAUL LA FARGE’S THE NIGHT OCEAN
CROSSINGS OF LINES, LEAPS OF FAITH AND TRIPS DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE IN PAUL LA FARGE’S THE NIGHT OCEAN

Summary/Abstract: The paper starts out from the protagonist’s need to research what happened between horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft and the much younger Robert Barlow, with whom the artist spent some time in Florida during a summer season. This pretext slips Charlie Willett down a symbolical rabbit hole, on a journey on which he will face his worst fears on more planes than one, confronted with a rollercoaster of emotions, passing from the exhilaration of fame and success to professional and emotional ruin, ending up engulfed by depression and trauma as well as, possibly, death or, alternatively, a retreat from the world to a distant, unknown place by the ocean. This experience is interpreted as an instance of Edmund Burke’s encounter with the sublime, given the similarities raised by reclusiveness by the infinite water and the emotional baggage carried by the character, alongside his combined turmoil and gained clarity. Also, other two aspects that dominate the narrative are seen as meetings with the sublime – sexuality and reading/writing about a researched topic. The last section before the Conclusions focuses on the two photographs highlighting these themes, which are present in the novel as devices to draw our attention to them and to other facets of the overall hermeneutic of the text, analyzed in the respective part. The approach is cultural and identity studies, with hints to psychology.

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