Typography and Form as the Means of Illustrating Mental Processes in Galloways The

Trick is to Keep Breathing

In this essay an attempt will be made to try to find out what kind of connection there may be
between form and content in Janice Galloways debut novel The Trick is to Keep Breathing.
At the first place the main attributes of postmodernism will be discussed in order to find the
place of such experimental piece of literature of the second half of the 20th century. It will also
be examined whether or not older literary pieces used similar methods for the description of
the processes of the human mind, and examples will be given, and then the prevalent
techniques for the portrayal of mind processes will also be described. After this a very brief
summary of the plot of the novel will be given in order to make it clear what are the main
emotional points that are to be discussed in relation to the typographical and formal
techniques. After the summary of the plot comes the analysis of approximately 40 pages of
the text (from page 6 to page 40). Within this short part of the novel we will see how
typography works as the symbol of the message of the novel and as the symbol of the mood
and feelings of the protagonist. The unusual narration techniques and the application of
strange typographical elements will be highlighted in order to find out if they can or cannot
induce emotions that are most commonly aroused in the readers by the common application of
verbal expressions.
Galloways novel is most definitely a postmodern piece of work, the techniques of which
can be traced back perhaps until the first application of the stream of consciousness technique
by Laurence Sterne in the 18th century. For Galloway the stream of consciousness technique
and the postmodern features provided the opportunity to create this fragmented, non linear,
non unitary and non continuous narration of the disheveled soul of a Scottish young woman.
With the technique of stream of consciousness the author was able to depict the tortured soul

of a woman who has just suffered the loss of her lover, and this technique provided the
background for the proper portrayal of a life fallen into pieces. The fragmented narration is
also a postmodern feature and it doubles the efficiency of the stream of consciousness: unlike
other novels written with the stream of consciousness technique, this work is not only
fragmented from the point of the linearity of the narration, that is it is not only the storyline
that is broken up into smaller fragments of stories within the story, but Galloways first novel
is also interrupted by the emotional outbursts and reminiscences of the protagonist, by
snapshots of present and flashbacks of the past, and by different kinds of typography.
As the result of this fragmented postmodern narration the reader may receive a deep impact
on the intuitive and emotional level unlike in cases of the usual narratives in which traditional
methods are applied to express the emotional background of the characters. In such novels
like Tess of the DUrbervilles or Jane Eyre the tormented soul of the female protagonists
is portrayed literally and the feelings of Jane and Tess are converted into words and thus the
cognition of the protagonists mood is completely a question of cerebral activity and
understanding, while Galloways technique gives a challenge to the emotions and it influences
rather the sensitivity instead of sensibility. This traditional way of depicting the human
emotions is still prevalent today, though it cannot be denied that this is not exclusively
Galloway who applies such methods of fragmentation and typographical manipulation to
express the mental state of a character.
In The Trick is to Keep Breathing Galloway intended to portray the everyday life of the
protagonist, Joy, who is suffering from the loss of her lover Michael, having recently drowned
in water. The storyline of the novel follows the difficulties inflicted even by the infinitesimal
and otherwise unnoteworthy elements of the daily routine. The story is full of reminiscences
of the late Michael, the loss of whom Joy cannot get herself over, and grabbing hold of her
memories of him does not let her live her life. The permanent grief takes over Joy and she is

unable to find her own self, she cannot define her identity after the loss of her man with whom
Joy had only an out-of-wedlock relationship. Therefore, when Michael dies, the smooth
machinery of legitimised institutions springs into action and operates to negate and label Joy
Stone. Her presence must be denied. If she is not mother-wife-daughter-sister, who is she?
There is no legitimate name for her in relation to Michael, which means she must not exist.i
This identity crisis and the severe depression, and finally the recuperation of the protagonist is
portrayed in the novel in the previously mentioned fragmented postmodern way.
The powerful strategy of Galloway to induce feelings and to convey the subliminal
emotional message at the first place lies in the basic duality of the text-types: one of texts
written in italics the other written in normal font (the other font-types and typographical
techniques will be discussed later). The text written in the normal font shows the everyday life
agonies of the protagonist: how she is not able to fit into the society and the real world. These
parts of the novel are written in the present tense and the events of them take place at the time
of narration, though at some places the first-person narrator switches to past tense when Joy
thinks of memories that she can think of as past and perfect events, for example the
conversations with Marianne on page 15. By the way, the page number of this page is
missing, and this is not for the reason why it sometimes happens in other books, that is
because it is the end of the chapter. In the case of Galloways book the reason is rather in
connection with the strategy of portraying the mental state of the protagonist: this is rather a
means to illustrate the desperateness and insecure existence of Joy.
The fragmented narrative style is best perceived when the author switches to another kind of
memories, that is the memories written in italics. These memories are the remembrances of
Joys last occasion with her partner, Michael, and in these fragments of text Joy recalls her
memories of the accidental drowning of her lover. Despite the fact that the italicized parts are
supposed to be memories of the past, the narrator does not seem to accept this and visualizes

the events as if they were happening to her at that very moment. This psychological
phenomenon is quite frequent among those who were shocked by such tragedies that struck
Joy and Michael. After the frustration of such an upsetting event people are not able to
process the happenings and fall into the state of regression and memories become a kind of
constant present vision, and hence the application of the present tense by Galloway. This is
also significant that these memories are recalled mostly when Joy is at home alone and does
not have any stimulus to get her out of her depressed mental state.
That Joy is at a loss and she is severely depressed can be felt by the lack of chapter titles.
Just like the recurring lack of page numbers the triple os as the heads of certain sections of
the novel are quite perplexing, leaving the reader in a puzzling uncertainty. The real role of
these chapter title-substitutes is debated, but it may be assumed that they represent the
monotony of the days and the stationary mental illness of Joy. In an interview Galloway
herself gives a hint as for the meaning of the lack of chapters: Abrupt beginnings and
endings to chapters didn't feel natural (Ruth). And indeed, the visions of the intermingling
chapters could not suggest the distorted and schizophrenic soul if there were nicely formed
distinctive chapter titles, which though otherwise could make reading and understanding
somewhat easier.
Why make the readers task easier if the schizophrenic soul is difficult to handle by Joy
herself? At many times Joy looks at herself from a third persons perspective, sees herself
from the outside just as if she was out of her body. This symptom is also regular in case of
neurotic and psychic diseases like the one Joy suffers from. I watch myself from the corner
of the room (Galloway, 7) is the starting sentence after the introduction, and it anticipates the
forthcoming difficulties of the protagonist. The sentence the first nine words of which can be
read in the previous quotation is also typographically manipulated: the rest of the sentence,
though there would have been room for that in the previous line, is written in the next line. By

this division the author might have wanted to illustrate the uncontinuous mental processes and
the divided self of the depressed soul of Joy. Galloway also frequently uses the technique of
dramatic plays to act out conversations. One of these dialogues takes place on pages 21 and
23, between the HEALTH VISITOR and the PATIENT. This dialogue also backs up the
supposition that something is not right with Joy, for in the conversation it is herself she views
from an outside perspective, and it is herself whom she refers to as PATIENT. This application
of the dramatic scene also stands for the vagueness and perplexity of Joys personality, that
she at some points seems to try to overcome, especially when she goes out, but most of the
times she cannot handle her emotions.
Self definition is a great deal of problem for Joy, and already at the beginning of the novel
she tries to give some kind of definition of herself: This is my workplace.
It tells me what I am.
And a couple of lines below:

I am the problem (Galloway, 12). These

sentences are written separately breaking the narration and thus showing the distinctive
importance of the matter. This may also seem like a desperate attempt to regain her former
self. That she concludes herself be the problem seems to be a revolutionary revelation but
soon it turns out that she is not able to solve her problems.
She cannot control herself especially when she is home alone, and tries to do things she is
supposed to, for example reading magazines. The magazine-articles in the novel again break
the not existing unity of the text: on page 27 agony columns of magazines are inserted in the
already heterogeneous and various text- types. Already the name agony column suggests that
this is not a cheerful thing reading these articles, and as the reader proceeds with the text, it
becomes visible that the last one of the complaining letters is suddenly interrupted and the
protagonist bursts out in tear. Without any mention of the death of Michael until page 30 the
reader is now hinted by the sudden halt of the reading of the agony column that Joy is

grieving because she misses her man, as the unfinished sentence I miss (Galloway, 27)
suggests.
There are some other symbolic typographical patterns that may be relevant in understanding
the emotional background of Joy. At one place floating word occur by itself, like Hello
(Galloway, 10), at another place there is HAH (Galloway, 20) turn up as an illustration of
her mental state. On page 20 there is a speech bubble used in cartoons, and it may mean that
Joy perceives the discussion with the health visitor surrealistic and fairy-tale like. On page 11
and 31 there are signs just as they exist in reality. The reason why these signs are there in their
original form is that people suffering from nervous breakdown cannot perceive reality as it is,
but there are some fragments of which their eyes and brains take a snapshot.
According to the analysis above we may draw the conclusion that Galloways experimental
techniques concerning the typology and the fragmented narration is sufficient enough to
replace the exclusively verbal way of communicating the mental state. Galloway was thus
successful in transferring the emphasis from a purely verbal and cognitive way of expression
to a more intuitive and emotional method of writing.

Works cited:

Janice Galloway. The Trick is to Keep Breathing Minerva, 1989.

http://www.textualities.net/writers/features-a-g/gallowayj02.php

http://www.galloway.1to1.org/Makhota.html

Mahkota quotes Metzstein