De sjenner. Analyze fan de sykteskiednis fan de haadpersoan yn Trinus Riemersma syn roman Fabryk

Abstract

Fabryk (‘Factory’), Trinus Riemersma’s staggering novel published in 1964
(6th edition 1995), from the start raised interpretation problems. These
centre around the conceptual universe of the first person narrator, who sees
disquieting things not observed by other people. The article is an analysis of
the development of this person’s mental illness as well as an attempt to
identify its character. The protagonist, like an Old Testament prophet, is a
visionary, who wants to open other person’s eyes to the power of evil
wherever he sees it at work. He maintains, for one, that the factory in which
he is employed, is transforming into a monster, eating away all its
employees’ energy and making them passive. A clergyman is a ‘brooding
bee god’, bearing sway over languid believers, and invisible rays from
television-sets are depriving the viewers of their sexual identity. When it
becomes clear to him that his factory mates are heedless of his warnings, he
takes refuge in a psychotic state. His fears affect his perceptions to such an
extent that his feelings of aggression and anxiety are being projected on
other persons, and metaphors are turning into concrete experiences. The
interior monologue presented in the novel can be identified as
schizophrenic, the article argues, and so solves the interpretation problems
the novel presents.