10 times Ben Learner’s “10:04” was Totally Relatable
*Amidst a bunch of very unrelatable life experiences that may or may not have occurred in the very confusing timeline of 10:04 – appearing in order of appearance*
- When Ben Lerner hated Alex’s boyfriend and a petty Ben did his part to expose his obnoxious personality.
“Whenever I was around, I made certain his glass was full, hastening the relationship’s demise.” (Lerner 13)
Haven’t we all hated a best friend significant other at one point or another
- When Roberto had a bad dream conglomerating very real-world problems into one scary moment.
“Roberto, like me, tended to figure the global apocalyptically.” (20)
Honestly though, what child has nightmares about global warming causing murderers and African war lords like Joseph Kony to be let loose and come after him with no foreseeable form of escape. Roberto’s subconscious is really doing the most.
- When Ben low-key falls in love with Alex for a moment when she’s sleeping and is also low-key creepy in doing so.
Lol! Don’t you love those moments when you fall in love with your BFF for a brief moment but you don’t actually, and it was just situational so you bush past it and act like nothing happened in the name of best friendship… and then later you platonically try to have a kid together. (lol huh???)
- When Ben reflects on getting big (good and bad) news among the normalcy and mundanity of the city and its places, people, and things.
“So much of the most important personal news I’d received in the last several years had come to me by smartphone while I was abroad in the city that I could plot on a map, could represent spatially, the major events, such as they were, of my early thirties.” (43)
Thanks universe.
- When Ben deals with is social mishaps in the coffee shop.
It does suck when a social interaction does not go exactly as you planned it in your head.
“… having ruined everything. ” (74)
Felt that ben. Felt that.
- When Ben is having an imagined conversation with his future child and gives a nice response to some REAL end of the world anxiety
“Why reproduce if you believe the world is ending?”
“Because the world is always ending for each of us and if one begins to withdraw from the possibilities of experience, then no one would take any of the risks involved with love. And love has to be harnessed by the political. Ultimately what’s ending is a mode.” (109)
Ooof Ben, thanks for that. No really! I’ve contemplated that question a lot and I like that answer more than most I’ve heard. Props to you.
- When Ben feels judged for his placement in life by Roberto at The Museum of Natural History.
“Then I told him, probably sounding as if I were giving orders for a suicide mission, that if we somehow did lose each other, we should meet at the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. He smiled, but didn’t say anything; I wondered if he was embarrassed for me.” (174)
Kids really can be so judgmental at times, can’t they. Leave me alone child and stop looking at me like that. You don’t know my life! You silly kid go play with your dinosaurs and stop judging my life choices, damn.
- When Ben was “socially disoriented” (204) because he ran into someone who remembered him, and addressed him by name but he didn’t remember his name or much about him at all for that matter and then had to navigate how to respond to their ill-fitting invite to hang out.
*anxiety increases*
- When these increasingly frequent “once-in-a-generation” weather events keep happening and give people communal talking points in public.
“Here we go again” (244)
*Nervous laughter and joking about the environmental decline of our world*
- When Ben recounts his walk home, and many other experiences in the third person to try and synthesize a sense of self and experience among all the other lives around him.
“I will begin to remember our walk in the third person, as if I’d seen it from the Manhattan Bridge, but, at the time of writing, as I lean against the chain-link fence intended to stop jumpers, I am looking back at the totaled city in the second person plural. I know it’s hard to understand / I am with you, and I know how it is.” (277)
Meta way to go about ending the book, ben. Super on brand.
***
When I was reading Ben Lerner’s 10:04 I was confused most of the time about in what realm of his life the current story line was happening, however throughout all of that there were a lot of fun relatable moments that would shine through and be totally understandable to me. The postmodern, frame narrative, auto fiction, that 10:04 presents allows for an interesting synthesis of our world in a largely confusing way. So, reason being for choosing this format of creative rendition of Ben Lerner’s work was to highlight that amids that confusing structure there are ledgable moments of funny, truthful, and clear relatability. The work is littered with human moments and I think a ludicrous Buzzfeed-espue article has a simple and satirical way of calling that to attention. It was funny to me to use the same nonchalant and conversational tone and language that you would find in an article like this because it contrasts the intelligence and eloquence of Learners writing. Additionally, I think it is interesting to point out the familiar and relatable experiences that Ben Lerner has because there is quite a lot in the plotline that is completely not relatable to the general reader. i.e. giving your sperm to your best friend so she can have a baby, or being an author that publishers want solely for critical acclaim or making 6 figures from a book deal off of a Ney Yorker story, turned novel that isn’t even written yet.
* I was using an online version of the book so the pagination may be slightly off.
Here is an absolutely ridiculous Buzzfeed article to stick with the theme: https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexnaidus/cats-do-what-they-want?origin=nofil
Ellie- This response to Ben Lerner’s 10:04 was exactly what I needed to see this book as less of a jumble of anxieties and complexities of life and more like a meme depicting life as a little simpler than it actually is. That’s what art is supposed to do, right? It’s supposed to give order to the chaos of our actual lives and allow us to step back and look at our problems as collective problems. Like Donne says, “no man is an island,” and you did a good job of pointing that out in Lerner’s adventures in 10:04. I, too, found some hilarious moments of being an average person in Lerner’s book, despite his world being without structure of time or promise of the future.
It’s actually kind of funny to see you did this as your creative post because I think Lerner’s relatability throughout the novel is what kept me engaged in the story. If we’re looking at this novel from a different perspective, it’s not quite interesting just to listen to a over the top intelligent writer drone on and on about their everyday life experiences, but I think it is those times where we relate to Lerner that keeps us turning the page time and time again. He is almost like a stand up comedian in the way he tells his stories because they become so outrageous so quickly like the scene in the sperm bank. Great creative post!
I absolutely loved this response! I don’t remember who mentioned it in class, but they talked about how often writers will mask what they actually mean with hard to understand metaphors or big words. I too was confused for 90% of this book but completely agree that those relatable moments are what got me through. This feels very much like an Odyssey online post that I would actually enjoy reading (though that means I would be succumbing to clickbait, but for this post I’m in!). I like how you included some deeper moments with more simple moments, like trying to figure out our sense of self with Ben Lerner just not liking Alex’s boyfriend, because it shows the complexity and range of this book. Love it!
You might have added that “number 6 will shock you”–just to keep the reader engaged. I agree with those above that this is an awesome entrypoint into Lerner’s novel, especially as it has a way of generically de-centering the extreme literary and cerebral qualities of the novel and bringing them into a surprisingly lively and funny engagement with the text. I love the attention to genre here, which controls both the kinds of things you highlight and the language you use to relate them. #10 was my favorite!