RMST 202

I initially started reading this text before watching the lecture – a mistake on my part. Prior to watching the lecture, the text didn’t make much sense to me, it was vague and ambiguous and I felt as though I was missing context. After watching the lecture and learning that Manea had written this text in a certain way to dodge the censorship, the text made a lot more sense to me. Even though I still wasn’t certain what the ex or trenchcoat was supposed to represent, knowing that Manea was working around the censorship made reading the text all the more interesting.

As we discussed at the beginning of the term in class, as readers, we have a tendency to try and make sense of what we read and find meaning in every little detail even when there may not be. In relation to that, I found myself trying to look for deeper meanings anywhere I could throughout the text, like who exactly was the unnamed one. At first glance, the text seems to use a lot of symbolism, but upon further reading, I figured that maybe some of the characters and prominent objects are merely just as they are – that perhaps they aren’t meant to symbolize anything. For example, the trenchcoat is also referred to as a raincoat or overcoat at times, so perhaps it really just is a coat. On the other hand, would the author really name his text after something truly meaningless? Moreover, the repetitive presence of the coat throughout the text also hints that it must be significant in some way to the text. Overall, the text felt vague and ambiguous, but on purpose. I think that Manea was trying to demonstrate the uncertainty and paranoia during the time through his writing, and he did so successfully.

What did the trenchcoat represent to you? Do you think it has a different meaning than the term raincoat or overcoat?

I’m really looking forward to hearing Manea’s thoughts on his text after so much time has passed by. Perhaps he can help make more sense of it and clarify the ambiguous text. I’d also like to know what it was like to write such a story during that state and time of Romania, the pressure must have been immense. My question for Manea is, how did you feel while writing this text, considering the censorship? If you could, would you have changed anything about this text?