Who Is The Antagonist In 'The Whisper Man'?

For another example, let’s consider music. In the last 50 years or so, song lyrics have done more to keep this phrase in the popular consciousness than all novels combined. As I noted in an earlier post, we find this phrase in a wide array of musical genres: folk ballads, power metal songs, New Age music. The phrase has probably reached more people recently through songs like these than through reading words written by Keats or Shelley themselves. And, whereas those authors’ words were ‘whispered’ to readers in books, today the musical versions carry the phrase to audiences everywhere. In each of these genres the phrase conveys different emotions: melancholy in country songs, mystery in hard rock, freedom in New Age music. Thus today the phrase is interpreted largely by the media of popular culture, rather than by literature itself. Trying to follow the purely literary origins of this phrase would be to ignore the river in order to seek out the spring that supplies it. The river itself is where the phrase is living today.

In the novel ‘Before I Go to Sleep’ by S.J. Watson, the antagonist is Dr. Nash. Dr. Nash is a psychologist who tries to help Christine recover her memories from her previous life. However, it becomes apparent that his intentions are far worse than they initially seem and that he is manipulating her for his own gain. It is revealed that Dr. Nash is trying to control Christine and the way he does this is very disturbing. The way that Watson explores the themes of trust and betrayal in the novel are through the actions of the antagonist, Dr. Nash.

I’m about halfway through this book and, so far, I have yet to get my head around it. There’s the obvious ‘bad guy’ of the corporate-suited Voss, but there’s also something very uneasy and almost human in the deeper parts of the forest that doesn’t like either protesters or loggers. Then there’s the Sheriff of the local town who’s absolutely useless and, seemingly, of no help whatsoever. He’s against the protesters, of course. Some of the older members of the forest-dwelling communities are their own worst enemies, playing games of secrecy and old scores which prevent them from uniting against this outside threat. This feels less like a straightforward fight against a single big bad and more of a complicated web of opposing forces, some of them human, some of them possibly even ancient and natural. I shall have to see how the story develops and whether or not it manages to form a cohesive whole around a single ‘villain’. At the moment, though, the ambiguity of it all is perhaps the most compelling thing about the book so far.

The main problem with the read is that it’s been mis-sold as a high-octane, epic fantasy adventure with a seriously dark and powerful artifact in the mix for 80% of it. In the last 20% it transitions completely to a serious, dark, psychological exploration of a person’s complete and utter obsession with something and it’s been so well written that, had it been sold as that, I think a lot of people’s disappointment could have been alleviated. As it is, a lot of readers have felt ‘bailed on’ by the switch in tone and type of story.

One of the most powerful scenes in the novel is a quiet moment in a corridor where the most dangerous person in the castle is reduced to a whisper. This humanizes Celaena in a really powerful way, especially given how her actions play out afterwards. We see the cost of her strength to develop her even further as a character in that moment with Chaol. It’s a great lesson in pacing and character development in the midst of a high fantasy plot.

While some critics have termed Painted Silence a gimmick, I think they are being unfair to the author’s painstaking forethought in planting clues throughout the novel that on subsequent reading are revealed to be blatant. Theo’s extreme interest in the physical details of the scene of the murder of celebrity painter Richard Berenson and his already established knowledge of the inside of the Berenson home are but two examples. The letters of the would-be stalker seem to be of little account to either Alicia or Dr. Theo. We also learn of Theo’s obsessional past and so The Silent Patient could refer to either of them. In reality however, The Silent Patient is a two-handed play in which both participants are silent patients – hiding behind a facade of silence and performing to the best of their ability in a weird therapeutic dance. The ending is a catastrophic revelation of both characters’ secrets – and it was all there in silence all along.

Yooo, another video hole for me - this time a bunch of ‘Careless Whisper’ movie and anime covers. A bunch of them are by Tamaki, and while that one is nice and pretty, there’s also an instrumental version of it in that Korean drama I was watching, I think. The melody is really versatile. I suppose because the song is about guilt and cheating, it’s become sort of a generic ‘romantic’ tune - but I think that’s partly because the guilt isn’t expressed in the melody itself, it just sounds smooth and sad and sexy. So while the lyrics are one thing, the instrumental is another, and because of that it makes for really good visual media - the guilt/cheating part of the song isn’t always audible, so it’s up to the director to interpret it in whichever way suits their movie. The ‘Deadpool’ version is ironic violence, while in Naruto it’s used to portray unspoken love and promise. The song is basically a blank canvas with a specific color palette.

This is how a novel about haunting ends: not with any ghostly visits, but with a long, dark exploration of psychological haunting. Vann does not haunt Ferrin. The concept of Vann, or rather the idea of a human being so completely empty, so completely functional, yet with little to no firmware to govern the normal flow of human emotions, haunted Ferrin. And now Ferrin is documenting this haunting, trying to exorcise the “minus” that haunts him by defining it. But the more he tries to define it, the more real it becomes. By the end of the novel, Vann has succeeded in infecting the world with his emptiness. And Ferrin is now a permanent host to all that Vann has poured into the world. Chilling.

This song is associated with a few movies, but mostly with a very funny scene from ‘Deadpool 2’. The whole intro is used, the incredible saxophone makes the scenes of this intense movie even more insane. The movie is extremely funny and the song is used in absolute commitment. As opposed to other funny songs that are used with a wink in the movie, this one is taken very seriously. The scenes are shot in slow motion and are full of chaos, but the movie is funny and the song is used in full melodramatic sincerity.

This is a very masterful plot for a writer. High stakes for the future of human knowledge, for the reputation of science, and for the soul of one believer. Instead of threatening his life, the greatest fear for this character is that we will reject or destroy this gift to him because of our own irrational fears. This is very difficult to write in this fashion and he pulls it off magnificently.