Dual Consciousness

“As always, both love and envy swam within him like a pair of horned narwhals. I never knew which one would surface first.” (P.69, The Wolf in the Whale)

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the concept of a “dual consciousness.” In fact, two recently read books spring to mind when I think about the idea of wrestling identities within one’s own brain: “How to Be An Anti-Racist” by Ibram X. Kendi and “The Wolf in the Whale” by Jordanna Max Brodsky. In the former, Kendi discusses how anyone could be racist one moment and anti-racist the next. It just depends how consciously and subconsciously we approach our interactions with others because we have grown up with bias informing our ideas in both flagrant and inconspicuous ways.

In Brodsky’s novel, the main character Omat is an example of a person born “two-spirited,” which means that she has both the female and male spirits in her soul, hunter and wolf. As such, her small tribe chooses her as their next shaman because her condition is rare and magical. As someone with northern native blood in her genealogy, I absolutely want to read about more two-spirited people. (Open to suggestions if you have any!)* Reminds me a bit of my mother who was born left-handed but forced into ambidexterity while being brought up in Catholic schools. 

I like that these authors can talk about the often deemed uncomfortable idea of duality but do so not in Jekyll & Hyde terms. Or perhaps, that is the point. Not talking about our inner warring natures, turmoil, clashing of ideas, and not talking about the contrasting narratives we tell ourselves can possibly evoke a manic or less than sane state. The division of the mind so solidly un-embraced, hidden from plain understanding and acceptance is a classic foundation for many mentally unstable literary characters. This is why there must always be a reckoning, even when it might seem intuitive to avoid such encounters.

Of course, the heart of the conversation always finds its way back to good v. evil. Listening to the devil or the angel on your shoulder. But just as being black is not one or the other, and being female is not one or the other, and being left-handed is not one or the other, it remains problematic as we continue to quantify too much of our world in others and opposites. 

AND on an abstractly related note, July 19th is “National Daiquiri Day.” A classic Daiquiri is often made 2:1:1 rum:sweet:sour. Variants upon variants have been born out of this. At any rate, here is darker, funkier and more bitter variant. Adjust the sour to your preference.