Lyndsey Prince, Molly Byrne, Darby Nagpaul, Emma Mandella, Daina Almonte, Chaim Green
Franz Anton Mesmer was a German-born Viennese scholar with many different educational backgrounds. He studied philosophy, law, theology, and eventually medicine. After practicing medicine for ten or so years, Mesmer realized in his forties that he did not like the concept of medicine in his day, and thought that it’s solutions to health problems were too painful and unnecessary. Using all of his previous knowledge and experience, Mesmer created a new study of hypnosis and hypnotherapy. Hypnosis is a state of consciousness in which someone voluntarily gives up control, and becomes more prone to suggestion and direction. Growing from this idea, Mesmer began practicing new therapeutic techniques such as hypnotherapy or animal magnetism as ways to cure illnesses. He altered modern medical practices, such as draining blood from the body. Mesmer was able to cure one patient, Fraulein Oesterline, by creating that same sensation with animal magnetism and taking the illness away without the intrusiveness of the physical procedure. Additionally, to cure one of his patients, Mesmer used a magnet to disrupt the gravitational tides that he believed were affecting her. In his novel I am Not Sidney Poitier, Percival Everett introduces a new concept similar to this called “Fesmerization.”
The term “Fesmerization” is first mentioned in I Am Not Sidney Poitier when Not Sidney is in the midst of getting bullied at school. He goes to the library and discovers the book Passive Carriage Manipulation written by an Austrian psychiatrist, Anton Franz Fesmer. Not Sidney describes Fesmerization as “…a method of gaining control of a subject without the subject’s awareness”(Everett, 16). After investigating the concept more, Not Sidney realized that fesmerization could be the perfect chance to defend himself when confronted by bullies. Although fesmerization had some limitations, such as having to stare at the subject for minutes on end, Not Sidney decided to test the concept on the playground the next day. Fesmerization allowed him not only to successfully avoid getting beat up, but, in fact, to attack the bully. Not Sidney explains, “I beat him up fairly well that day, and he went home sore without any inkling why”(Everett, 17). By simply staring and studying a person, he’s able to control those who had once controlled him. However, Not Sidney quickly learns that fesmerization does not work on everyone. Not Sidney explains “[t]he problem with the method was and would be the fact that not all people can be Fesmerized, and when they are impervious to it, they are not, sadly, oblivious to the person staring at them like some sort of maniac” (Everett, 18). Throughout the novel, Not Sidney continues to attempt Fesmerization on other characters who assert negative control over him. For instance, he successfully Fesmerizes his teacher, Beatrice Hancock and his roomate Morris Chesney. Not Sidney uses Fesmerizaton to curb the physical pain of his teachers sexual assault, and is also able to Fesmerize his popular and ignorant roommate into starting a recycling program. Fesmerization persists throughout the novel and is one of Not Sidney’s main tools.
Fesmerism may be Not Sidney’s attempt to gain a degree of control in his life. On the flip side, it’s almost as if Fesmerism is the illusion of control. Throughout I am Not Sidney Poitier, Not Sidney is constantly at a disadvantage for reasons he’s unable to control (e.g. his name, his race, his appearance). When Not Sidney discovers Fesmerism, he thinks he’s found a way to regain an amount of control in his life, when in reality, he doesn’t even have control over that power. Fesmerization is an unpredictable process; there’s no way to tell who will be susceptible and who won’t. As quoted earlier, Fesmerism does not work on anyone; there is no reliable way to tell who is susceptible and who isn’t. Although Not Sidney thought he had discovered a way to reclaim power in his life, the reality was that he had no control over his ability due to its arbitrary effectiveness.
There are other examples of this same idea. Not Sidney thinks he gains power with his money, but that same money can bring about unforeseen and uncontrollable consequences. For instance, his money brings him in continuous contact with Gladys Feet, who’s then able to take control of the situation through her sexual advances toward Not Sidney. During his second meeting with her, as she begins to make her intentions clear, Not Sidney thinks “[w]hereas at one point in our relationship, back when everything was about money, I had felt, if not in control then on equal footing, I was now lost, confused, in over my head” (Everett, 122). He had used his money to gain control, but now he’s quickly lost that. As Gladys Feet makes the encounter sexual (an area that is foreign to Not Sidney), he loses all power to her. Fesmerism makes same idea clear. Even when Not Sidney thinks he’s found avenues to gain power or control, the reality is that truly has no real control over his life and what happens to him.
Fesmerization taps into an important recurring theme in the novel. This theme of control and power plays a very large role in the novel. There are unfair power dynamics in society, and some things are outside of your control. Even if you try to gain control, as Not Sidney does with Fesmerization and his wealth, reality is still unpredictable. He uses Fesmerization to try and take back control in situations where he’s at a disadvantage. The novel is much more meaningful when the reader is able to understand the balance between things that can be controlled and things that cannot. As mentioned, Not Sidney feels as though his ability to Fesmerize others is a way to control them, but he is never really sure who it will work on and who it will not. Not Sidney’s inability to control these things is interestingly ironic, because while he uses Fersmerization as a means of control, he still cannot truly control it.