ROCK 'N ROLL by Tom Stoppard - activism, art, and the personal side

There seemed to be more varying opinions than usual reflected in our Montrose Great Books discussion last night (April 2, 2009). The subject was a play titled ROCK 'N ROLL by Tom Stoppard. Fifteen people were in attendance at Houston Freed-Montrose Library and they didn't all agree but that was okay since there is no requirement that we all agree.

I started the discussion by asking "What is the role of music in ROCK'N ROLL?" Many ideas were voiced such as it representing anti-authoritarianism and rebellion and the younger generation and anti-tradition. It represented freedom from strict cultural laws about proper behavior and speech and sex. We went on for some time adding more and more and one participant pointed to the comment by Stoppard in the introduction that many fans didn't consider rock 'n roll as music but instead as "life itself".

We spent a fair amount of time discussing Syd Barrett, a member of the Pink Floyd band in the 60's who was known and liked (or in some cases loved) by many in our group. From what we could tell, Stoppard used Syd Barett as a symbol for the non-cerebral, non-materialist, romantic and Dyonesian side of life. He represented that which Communism felt threatened by. He was depicted in the play as an aging bicyclist who was borderline, if not completely crazy, thus prompting a lot of discussion.

What was interesting for me was that eventually we discussed rock'n roll as art and the relationship between art and politics. It was said that art is often "edgy" and in this case, since it was imported from the West, controversial and potentially having the power to effectively persuade citizens in behavior not desireable by the powers that be.

One attendee brought up the similarity between the rock 'n roll culture in this play and the barbarians in our last discussion WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS. In both cases, the groups were relatively harmless and non-agressive and also not considered to be "socially useful", a particular characteristic of art. Both groups basically wanted to just maintain their own lifestyles but were still considered a serious threat by those in power.  In the case of this play, the apathy and "don't care" attitude of the rock'n roll bands and fans who had no concern for bringing down Communism did nothing to discourage the police from arresting them at the concerts when the bands didn't follow the "ground rules". In particular, "The Plastics" was mentioned as the name of a band in the "group of a small number of musicians and artists who wouldn't compromise at all." It was noted that they could be seen as heroic in this context.

It was at a concert by the Plastics where Jan, the main protagonist, was arrested and had a major shift in his cynical and relatively apathetic attitude about Communism. He subsequently became an activist and started his own petition against the Communists, something he had criticized with Ferdinand, a close friend who collected signatures for a petition earlier in the play. Jan was no longer able to go along with his colleague and friend Max, a serious Communist who indicated he understood the flaws but it was still better than the alternatives, at least he thought this way at the beginning of the book.  By the end of the book, Max left the party and in place of his desparate allegiance to Marxist ideals, he had fallen back on biological determinism.

ROCK 'N ROLL fairly appraises the flaws of the Communist regime as well as the flaws of the western media (in the form of Nigel) but does not go so far as to praise Capitalism. Overall, participants in our discussion felt Stoppard's presentation was balanced in this regard.

Other themes or topics we discussed which I will not be including here were:

1. the Greek God, Pan
2. another Greek mythology character named Sappho
3. Max's personal dilemma in his relationship with his wife, Eleanor who had breast cancer
4. Max's daughter Esme and her hippie-like personality
5. A friend of Jan's named Stephen who was combative with Max

And themes we didn't discuss more but probably would have had there been more time were:

1. who was Ferdinand and what did he symbolize?
2. are the roles of the women in the play different than the men's?

I think most of us agreed that a major message of the play is that apathy and indifference cannot be considered as a viable lifestyle when dealing with oppressive political regimes no matter how cynical you are. That trying to live within such a regime by going your own way and trying to stay out of theirs will only lead to the necessity of having to make compromises which will ultimately go against your own humanity. That each of us must take a stand as an activist in these conditions or else risk cultural and personal values too important to lose, even if at first the danger is not obviously apparent.

The play is being performed live at the Alley Theatre here in Houston during the month of May. A group of us will be attending the play for the performance on May 3rd at 2:30pm and will be going to dinner together following the performance. For anyone who will not be attending the performance on May 3rd, but who has seen the play in one of their other performances (or not) and who would like to join us for dinner, contact me at aaman@hal-pc.org to be included in the reservation.

Looking forward to our next Montrose Great Books discussion on May 7th when we will be discussing CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES by John Kennedy Toole at the Houston Freed-Montrose Library starting at 6pm. See