What is the point of Vlepo and why is Not Sidney only the shadow of his namesake? Every writer has their style, and nothing is quite as interesting as reading several works from the same author to truly understand their way of thinking. For instance, by reading several works by Charles Dickens, one can understand his plight to mend labour and living conditions for the lower classes, or by reading multiple works from George Orwell or Ayn Rand, one may be able to understand their fear and hatred of Communism. Each of these authors wrote with a specific goal in mind throughout their careers, one to provoke social reform in nineteenth-century England, the other two to admonish the spread of Communism. Based on the works of Everett that we’ve read in class, I believe that he writes with his own mission, more subtle than the three authors I’ve mentioned, but one that offers just as great of a statement.
To begin my argument, I’ll discuss Vlepo. Vlepo, being the tethered companion of Dionysus, both friend and tool of the fledgling god in Everett’s adaptation of The Bacchae. Throughout Everett’s Frenzy, there is constant inquiry into the nature of Vlepo’s being, from both other characters, and from Vlepo himself who develops a greater sense of self throughout his many ventures into the minds of others. At one point, he is asked by Tiresias what he does for Dionysus, to which Vlepo explains to the seer ‘I observe. I report.’ prompting Tiresias’ disbelief as he asks whether a god truly needs him for that, and, rather than answering, Vlepo tells him that he feels things for his Bakkos (Frenzy, 79). Later in the story, it is revealed that there is no true purpose to Vlepo’s reports other than to kill time for the god. In this sense, Vlepo exists for no other reason than entertainment for the being that he cannot escape, or exist without.
This is much in the way that Not Sidney is tethered to the existence of Sidney Poitier. Throughout the novel I Am Not Sidney Poitier, Not Sidney grows up experiencing everyone he comes associating him with Sidney Poitier, as well as his actual appearance developing an uncanny resemblance to Sidney Poitier, and his life constantly careening in the direction of each of Sidney Poitier’s films. Sidney Poitier, of course, went through each of his roles as an actor, working for the entertainment industry. Not Sidney, however, has no such luxury, he is sent into each scenario with real consequences upon his life, such as actually being incarcerated in the sequence of The Defiant Ones. As the novel progresses, the experiences he is sent through take very real tolls on him as he learns to be cautiously afraid of the South after learning the extent to which they are free to discriminate, as well as the many other ways in which he encounters racism, such as the blatant discomfort of the Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner sequence. These experiences had no affect on Sidney Poitier, despite him being the unknowing cause of all of them occurring for Not Sidney, much in the way that Dionysus sends Vlepo wherever he pleases, into any scenario with no consequence to himself, while Vlepo is consumed each time with greater feeling.
At one point in Frenzy, Vlepo is asked what he feels for Dionysus, and his reply is ‘Many things. I often feel lost and empty, wanting more. I often feel inadequate and small. And though I feel these things for him, they are not his feelings, and though he lays claim to them, he does not own them, or feed them, or even hold them close to his breast.’ (Frenzy, 81). In this explanation of Vlepo’s, he describes what he goes through as something Dionysus never can. Really, he is going through the experiences decided by the greater force that he cannot escape, making him largely similar to Not Sidney in that sense that the universe, the writer, bound them to another source and they are left with no choice but to follow in the path laid out for them. Both of them feel the cage around them, they both feel ‘inadequate and small’ compared to the more renowned person they are bound to. They might want for more, but Not Sidney ends up losing the battle of not becoming Sidney Poitier, and Vlepo cannot leave his Bakkos for prolonged periods of time. So why write them like this? Authors like Orwell and Rand wrote of characters tethered so closely to society that they did as they were told, they did not think for themselves, but their thoughts originated from the source they were bound to, with stories that began when those characters began to have their own thoughts. With characters like Vlepo and Not Sidney, Everett takes these models of dystopian fiction and spins them on their heads. His characters are free-thinking from the start, and the experiences that are forced upon them by the invisible thread that keeps them bound only helps them learn more about themselves, and helps them grow. That is, until the end of each story. In Frenzy, Vlepo decides that his only means to ever be free is through the killing of Dionysus, and thus himself as well, while I Am Not Sidney Poitier ends with the blurring of the line between what is Sidney, and what is Not Sidney. While most dystopias ending with the protagonist finding freedom after breaking the link between them and their origin, Everett’s works are less hopeful, tending to conclude with the sense, for me at least, that escape can only come, for these two characters, with the ending of their own selves.