In many instances now, when Julius is faced with a profound or traumatic moment, he abruptly disengages from the situation. While Julius portrays himself as an intellectual, he is actually afraid to cross a boundary or hold an opinion. In this conversation where Farouq is brimming with passion claiming Palestine “the central question of our time,” Julius’s thoughts are underwhelming. He lackadaisically distracts himself with a “meaningless visual”. The switch from the central question of our time to something inconsequential makes me feel less like we are seeing the random patterns of a stream of consciousness. Rather, Julius makes deliberate attempts to divert his attention from topics that have deep roots in things such as violence or trauma. Even in this trip to Belgium where he wants to find his Oma, his approach is extremely passive and he spends a majority of his time checking his email and engaging in frayed relationships. Going back to our conversations about Julius’s mental state, I don’t think we need to classify him as unwell based on his haphazard or jumbled stream of consciousness. His way of thinking feels more a reflection of the disconnect and isolation that permeates into all of his relationships.
Hey there Jane,
I definitely agree that Julius has some major disengagement issues. I think another great example is where he engaged in a sexual relation with the women from the cafe but still didn’t give her his real name or occupation. Earlier in the section, we saw he spoke to Saidu, he said he would come back but admitted that he never did. It’s almost as if he’s afraid of relationships, with most of his interactions happening with strangers.
I agree with both of you, Jane and Daniel. It seems that Julius loses focus and spirals into these rabbit-holes with his thoughts even when actively engaged. I think this is a defense mechanism for not becoming invested in relationships, as Daniel pointed out. In this case, in his conversation with Farouq, I think it was more an attempt not to become engaged with the idea, as shown in this instance and in others, where he focuses on petty mistakes, an aspect of what Farouq and Khalil have said, or other things not directly related to in an attempt to undermine his argument. All in all, he has a pretty big avoidance problem. However, I don’t see it as out of the normal, more of like a stage he’s working through, considering how attractive and easy it is to avoid our issues through means of entertainment and how prevalent it is in society.