Introduction

Transnational Identities 325
grant, like Union Station itself, is simultaneously static and mobile, inside yet outside
the city” (Stolar 132) he ought also be able to create something new.
However, the liminal space of Union station is also clearly very constrictive
because even though the immigrant in theory is both inside and outside, he is in
reality neither as a station is usually a transitional space and not a space to stay
permanently. The passage emphasizes that there are real binaries and boundaries
in the world which cannot be so easily hybridized. Accordingly, the immigrant is
caught in a no man’s land between stable points that is not hospitable at all. It
isolates the immigrant, who has no connections, no belonging and no identity that
can be attributed to him. As Stolar notes, “there is little that is known about
[him]” and he is characterized by a “lack of specificity” (132). Inhabiting such a
space can hardly be a positive experience because the immigrant is literally displaced
from the world and, in addition, seems – probably as a result from his being
in this place – rather mad, since he constantly shouts without addressing anyone:
“The man’s eyes burned through everyone who at first received his scream
personally” (SL 54). Bhabha’s notion of the third space which “gives rise to something
different, something new” (“Third Space” 211) is undermined in this passage
as the novel suggests that a permanent state of liminality is frightening and
not desirable. The immigrant seems to blend into non-existence because he cannot
be identified, cannot even identify himself and as a result is completely powerless
and helpless.
This message is also emphasized in the liminal spaces Patrick and Temelcoff
occupy. Thus, during the construction of the Bloor Street Viaduct, Temelcoff can
be seen working not only on the bridge, but mostly below it, hanging suspended
in “all that space” (SL 35) between the unfinished bridge and the river below,
“lost to that community of men on the bridge” (SL 39). While Meredith Criglington
comments that “the lyrical descriptions celebrat[e] the dignity, skill, and grace
of Nicholas Temelcoff on the bridge” (139), the horror of his job is equally
shown. One memorable description of his stepping over the edge “into the clean
air” (SL 42) is located right next to a description of silent films in which a blindfolded
Chaplin is about to step over the edge of a balcony and the narrator states,
“These comedies are nightmares. The audience emits horrified laughter” (SL 43).
The similarity of these two scenes and their close proximity to one another suggest
a deliberate connection between them, especially considering previous instances
of this ordering strategy, such as the use of cinnamon in Running in the
Family. 36 The narrator’s comment on Chaplin must accordingly also be applied to
Temelcoff. His disconnected state in the empty space under the bridge is not only
literally dangerous but also symbolic in terms of his isolation and disconnection in
the process of integrating into his new country.
36 See page 318, note 34.