140 Materiality and the Modern Cosmopolitan Novel
to those with whom he is closest. What is more, the social problems
that drove him to change his identity have (in the days of affirma-
tive action) been greatly reduced, a fact that makes his secrecy all the
more poignant, absurd, and, indeed, tragic.
In this sense, the larger sociopolitical narrative of American soci-
ety has overtaken Silk and his secret in such a way as to render obso-
lete the righteous indignation that initially prompted his deception.
The highly subversive act has therefore lost its heroic charge, and all
that remains is the somewhat humiliating residue of a repressive lie
and a choking, tragic silence. Indeed, for Eagleton, this manner of
silence is one of the key traits that defines the tragic “hero,” causing
him to slip “through the net of discourse into sheer brute ineffabil-
ity. It is that which is cut off from language, about which there is
absolutely nothing to be said.”^42 Eagleton’s words also resonate with
Silk’s subversive act because, although his “deception” may have ini-
tially permitted him access to greater cosmopolitan agency, it even-
tually leads to his becoming disconnected from the modern America
in which he now lives. Significantly, the full extent of this tragic
inner torment, and the degree to which it is largely sociohistorically
determined, is not positively explained but is instead evoked through
lacunae and narrative silence. This brings us back once again to the
overlooked connections Roth adumbrates, through tragic silence,
between sociohistorical circumstances and the individual’s psycho-
logical processes and characteristics.
Perhaps the most memorable introduction to Silk’s silent indig-
nation is exhibited during the venomous argument he has with his
lawyer, which ends with the bitter words: “I never again want to hear
that self-admiring voice of yours or see your smug fucking lily-white
face” (p. 72). The incongruous outburst intrigues Zuckerman when
he first hears of the conversation, but we later begin to develop an
understanding of just why the somewhat trivial “spooks” incident
that precipitated his resignation from Athena College provoked such
acrimony.
The incident, for which he is suspended from his duties as senior
lecturer in the Athena College Classics Department (hence the call
to his lawyer), occurs when Silk reads out the names of two persis-
tently absent students from the class register and jokingly asks when