In 'Present Tense Machine,' the allegory of The Fall becomes a linguistic accident
In Gunnhild Øyehaug's novel, a mother and daughter are separated and forgotten to each other, yet continue to exist as thinkers and artists in their respective worlds, each missing something unknown.
by Thúy Đinh
Jan 14, 2022
3 minutes
At the start of Gunnhild Øyehaug's Present Tense Machine, a mother misreads the word trädgård — Norwegian for garden — as tärdgård, a nonsensical word, as her young daughter plays nearby. The mistake triggers the expulsion of the child from her life.
Thus the allegory of The Fall becomes a linguistic accident, rather than a hubristic quest for knowledge. From this irrevocable error, the mother's world is spliced into two parallel universes — rendering her invisible and forgotten to her daughter and vice-versa.
Anna and Laura,
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