Ben Lerner’s 10:04, Term Paper Example

Ben Learner is a son to two psychologists. His mother is the author of “The Dance of Anger”. Perhaps this is what influences Lerner to venture into art. Having grown in Topeka, his hometown, Lerner saw the town scarred by violence (Gabber 1). His writings have some sort of violence; perhaps being influenced by the hometown conditions.

After my reading of Ben’s novel I developed a feeling that the book tells much of corruption in the community we have. I strongly feel that the book does not end with two storms, Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Irene, for no reason as noted by Kellogg (1). Although these are early warnings of large climate change catastrophes, I feel that they are indicators of the results of waywardness in the society.  Corruption is not only about embezzlement of money from the public coffers by leaders. Corruption also means moral degeneracy in the society. One instance that I view corruption perpetrated by the narrator is in the fact that Ben goes for dates with women. The narrator, who is Lerner, has become a kind of spoilt character in the society. Just how loose has he become that he goes for dates with many women. An upright man should go for dates with one woman. I feel that the influence of the city, Topeka, life has had some strong influence on the writer’s work in the novel.

I notice that the novel has so much of the present unfolding events in the society we live. One of these present intensities involves diseases that are terminal. Ben himself has been diagnosed of a serious problem with his aorta (Menzies-Pike 63). Connecting this to my feeling about the corruption I have mentioned, one can see how the society is suffering. Lerner is himself a symbol of the suffering society, an impending catastrophe is approaching with the piling waywardness in the society. I also take note of Lerner’s action to impregnate Alex, his best friend, through artificial insemination. In this case, Lerner has to ejaculate his sperm into a cup at a laboratory (Ibid). Surely, this sounds absurd. Why not have sex with her the natural way and impregnate Alex? Is it ethical to practice human artificial insemination? This is another excerpt I that makes me feel that the novel expresses the degree of moral corruption in the present society. Although the novel’s account could be fictional, Lerner shows how some personalities have gone aboard in treating the sacredness of human life. The society is slowly drifting to oblivion, and should we not take adequate precautions a storm or crisis is raging ahead.

In addition to human artificial insemination, Ben also dates Alena, a conceptual painter. According to Kellogg (1),Lerner also tutors Roberto, an eight-year-old boy, who although a well-drawn character, is his surrogate son. These accounts reinforce my feeling that moral corruption is ruining the society so much. It shows that Lerner has been doing so much of immoral acts. He has a surrogate son, Roberto (Ibid). It, therefore, means that he has donated his sperm to be used for artificial insemination before. The author uses himself, an admirable, writer to express to us how moral decay has influenced all including the elites of the present community. The storms are indeed significant symbols or the raging moral catastrophes about to hit the society.

Part Four of the novel gives another account that seems like a summarized Leaving the Atocha Station (Gabber 1). The narrator, after staying alone avoiding meeting other humans for two weeks, he goes to town to find friends of friends where he received an invitation for dinner involving viewing of arts. At the dinner, the author too much and befriended a young intern who unintentionally overdosed ketamine, thinking it was cocaine (Ibid). The excerpt tells a lot about drug abuse in the society, another corruption that is engulfing the youth. The account shows that the young intern is used to cocaine. It also boils down to morality in the society. The society views drinking not something evil; some societies have accepted use of drugs with regulations to control them. However, these practices harm the society greatly because they help breed crime in the society. I feel that the society should look into these issues and help antisocial youths to develop a sense of belonging in the society and avoid engaging in harmful drinking and misuse of drugs.

The author says, “A poison is coming to the society from a million points” (Gabber 1). The quote shows that there is impending bad occurrence ahead of the human society. I feel that this is a further reinforcement of the results of moral corruption in the society. The end of the novel sees the author or narrator with Alex forced to walk more than seven miles during the time of Hurricane Sandy. The city is in darkness; the subways remain shut and buses were full. Although the account could describe true conditions at the wake of the hurricane, it symbolizes the results of the corruption that has engulfed the society.

Works Cited

Gabber, Elisa. The Very Edge of Fiction. Faber and Faber, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/the-very-edge-of-fiction/

Kellogg, Carolyn. ’10:04′ by Ben Lerner is an artful look at Ben Lerner. Los Angeles Times, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-ben-lerner-20140914-story.html

Menzies-Pike, Catriona. “Lerner’s beacon [Book Review].” (2014): 63.