The Twofold Vibration

by Raymond Federman

Book Overview

A reprinting of the important novel by Raymond Federman.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253189896
• ISBN13: 9780253189899
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 175 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Twofold Vibration: Looking for the Past in the Future

The Twofold Vibration is a book that has yet to find an audience. It situates itself somewhere between a few different genres; between fact and fiction, history and futuricity, autobiograpy and science ficiton, pastiche and kitsch. Most importantly, i t situates itself inbetween the Holocaust and a departure from the planet which is a hybrid of science fiction and biblical messianism. The focus of the novel, the "old man" is investigated by two narrators (Namredef and Moinous: translated as Federman spelled backwards and "my mind" respectively) and one writer who makes an assemblage out of their information/ficitonal information (and perhaps misinformation) about the old man. The major task of these three is to find out why the old man is being deported to another planet. But with all the information we get about him we still don't get an answer. What we do get is a rich collage that includes both a missed encounter and a quasi-real encounter with the Nazis, as well as a narrative about how the old man returns to the camps later in his life (albeit accidentally). The accidentlal return to the camps begins when he meets a Jane Fonda type of woman of the 60s, a woman who is a film star slash political activist. The narrative itself is entirely borrowed from film which brings out its kitcshiness and a scence of non-reality. His involvement with this woman leads to taking risk after risk, and eventually gets him onto a plane for Europe where they go to gamble have sex etc. At some point, we are not sure, this "story" ends and another begins, this time with the two narrators. In this new plot line, in which we learn about the friendship and travels of these three, ther is another mad flight from caisno to casino. Eventually this leads them into Germany. One of the highlights of the journey is a Wagner opera out of which the old man attempts to make some obesrvations about the German people and Nazis, this proves futile. At some point, after this opera, he disspaears from his friends for a reason that is seemingly arbitrary: He had to "think" so he left. In the meantime they don't know if he is dead. After he departs from them, he accidentally meets other people whom bring out how, in the aftermath of the holocast (in a an age of media and mass efficiency) fiction and reality overlap. He meets a Jewish film producer from Holloywood who wants to make a film about the Holocast (though he never went through it) and his non-Jewish Grilfriend who is more a reflex than a person. She exerts a mechanical pity and has a likewise mechincal form of sex with the old man. At some point he leaves the couple and this branches off into another story of how he loses all his money and ends up in Paris, where they meet up with him again. At this point, the narrative takes a turn toward sci-fi and the detective novel. The narrators and the writer realize that the old man will depart very soon, therefore they make it their task to find out what he