Illogical Logic

So I am now about halfway through Abani's "Graceland" and I am really enjoying it. There is a lot in this book that deals with issues of US imperialism, and the imposition of Eurocentric culture in Nigeria, which I touched on earlier. But something else has been striking me as fascinating, and that is the "illogical logic" used by many of the townspeople in Abani's book. I know this is a confusing term, and a strange paradox. What I mean by "illogical logic" is that there seems to be a running theme of characters justifying actions and behaviors with a sort of skewed logic, yet they are able to make sense of the logic so that it suits them.

Let me give an example. Earlier on in the novel Elvis is on the bus when a car in front of him hits a person. Instead of stopping, however, the bus just rolls over the body. Apparently there are many of these bodies strewn about as pedestrians travel across the town of Lagos by dodging cars and trying to traverse the busy roads, often to their own fatality. Elvis turns to the man next to him and has the following conversation:

Elvis: Why can't we cross with the brdiges? Why do we gamble with our lives?"
Man: My friend, life in Lagos is a gamble, crossing or no crossing.
...
Elvis: If you cross the road without using the overhead bridges, you increase the chances of being hit with a car. Simple logic, really.
Man: So what is your point, my friend? We all have to die sometimes, you know. If it is your time, it is your time. You can be in your bed and die. If it is not your time, you can't die even if you cross de busiest road. After all, you can fall from de bridge into de road, and die. Now isn't dat double foolishness?

With this conversation, perhaps you or I might tend to agree with Elvis' viewpoint of logic. Cross at the bridge, and you have less chances of getting hurt. But the man from Lagos insists on a logic based more on a concept of fate and fatalism than we often embrace in Western cultures. At first it seemed to me like a resignation of sorts. Was this man saying people should resgin themselves to almost certain death? That there is no point in taking care of one's safety? That one should just "give in"? But looking at it from another angle, I can see that to ghim, this is a logical way of thinking. When it is your time, it is your time. And if it is your time, even if you take the "safe" bridge, you will fall to your death. This varies greatly from what we are taught in American culture, which teaches us to "defend personal freedom", and basically to look out for yourself above all else. To me it is a culture centered on the "cult of the individual", whereas here the man is setting faith in a larger picture, where each man is just one part of a greater fate-based scheme. I find this "illogical logic" very interesting, and can also see the truth in what the man is telling Elvis.

Later on, Elivs befriends a man who calls himself the King of the Beggars. Elvis seems to help out many who are less fortunate than him, and they all promise him that they will meet again. The King of Beggars ends up coming into some money, and repaying Elvis for his kind deedof providing him with food one day. One day the King of the Beggars warns Elvis that the cigarettes he is smoking will kill him. However a few minutes later he asks for a cigarette.

Elvis: I thought you didn't smoke.
King: Why? Because I say it is bad? I tink de money you give me is bad, but I take it. You see, Elvis, life is funny thing. Now give me de cigarette.

Again, there is a sort of "illogical logic" here, a paradox where someone says one thing and does another thing contrary to what they have said. Despite that this may not make sense, I can relate to this feeling of claiming to believe one thing but acting in a contrary way. Through such "logic", Abani makes us feel for his characters, and makes their world relatable despite the fact that we may live worlds away, and may never have experienced the Lagos of Elvis' world.

This concept of "illogical logic" reminds me of when I was used to teach in South Central Los Angeles. I taught in a very economically poor area, and yet many of my students would come to school dressed in designer clothing or with the latest cell phones or other technology. Yet their parents often did not have enough money to properly feed them or house them. One may think that such use of money is crazy or completely illogical, yet if you put yourself in their place, you may see it from a different view. In a place where you do not have money and the idea of long term saving seems completely irrelevant, what are you going to spend money on? The culture of now. You live in the present. Maybe you never think you will have a house, or a fancy car. But you can buy the "little things" now. You can have a status symbol. And as strange as that may seem to some, it is another type of "illogical logic" that I can somewhat relate to.

On another note, there are a lot of colloquial sayings in the book that the characters throw back and forth between themselves. A few of my favorites:
Be careful. When a car hits a dog, its puppy is never far behind.
It is better we are all blind, because in de land of de blind, de one-eyed man is mad.
Only a dead man tells everything, only a fool asks.

And I will leave you with one of my favorite conversations between Elvis and his powerful yet dangerous friend Redemption.
Redemption: Dis is why I like Lagos.
Elivs: Why?
Redemption: Because though dey hate us, de rich still have to look at us. Try as dey might, we don't go away.

Until next time...