Student Blogs

This week I read W, or the Memory of Childhood. The article unfolds in two lines, one describing the author's childhood memories and the other telling the story of W the Olympic Island. In the article, the main character, an orphan, takes the eponymous Winkler's place by forging documents to escape military service. The real Winckler is a deaf and autistic child whose mother died in a mysterious shipwreck. Curious about the whereabouts of the real Winckler in the wreck, the investigators find the impostor and analyze the accident with him. Investigators finally analyze shipwreck logs and the harrowing scenes of Winckler's death and speculate that Winckler may have escaped or been abandoned. We don't know what the truth is, and the horrific scenes of the accident are an acceptable way to bring out the senses of the accident. After a brief opening description of the accident that seems to be the introduction, the author unfolds two threads: the story of W Island and his childhood memories.

The two storylines seem to operate independently but vaguely reveal an interconnection. While reading the book, the interchange of the two scenes often gave me a sense of surprise, and while I was still amazed at the system on W Island, the next page became the author's seemingly uneventful childhood memories. Much of the article feels fragmented, whether it is the author's recollections with the help of a few photos, the fragmented memories of relatives, the paragraph structure of the article, or the distribution of chapters interspersed with the story of W Island and the author's memories. One can experience a sense of fragmentation of memory. These fragmented memories seem to be submerged in the general history without elaboration, making one feel that these fleeting childhood memories are only an insignificant part of the times. When the author shares his experiences with relatives and friends, he often gets their doubts and disbeliefs, as if these memories never happened. This independent and uncertain recollection leads the author to mention in the text, "I have no childhood memories. " 

In another line, on W, an island with a harsh system but full of uncertainty about the fate of people, the author allows us to glimpse a corner of the concentration camp madness in the author's imagination by describing the slave-like future of the athletes and the various absurd competition systems. In the initial reading of this part of W, we can see the gap between the athletes who win the championship and the "newcomers" who only see the difference in their lives on the island. Those who win get food, flowers and wine to maintain their nutrition, while those who lose get weaker and weaker because they don't get the nutrients they need, making it harder and harder to win. This sounds like the winner will keep winning the game, while the loser will only be fixed in a specific opportunity after one chance. However, through a more profound understanding of the game system, we can find that the situation between people is rapidly changing and full of uncertainty. That strength is not the decisive factor in this game, but luck is the more critical element for the athletes, so they indulge in today's victory because they do not know what awaits them tomorrow. They seem to be fighting for the Olympic spirit, but in the end, it is the officials who are not involved in the struggle that control their fate. And the athletes can never become officials and win their true victory.

My question in this essay is: How do the author's childhood memories relate to the story of W Island?

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The Passion according to G.H by Clarice Lispector was disturbing yet intriguing. The way the novel is written allows the reader to experience what the narrator is experiencing. I found this novel very interesting because there were no other characters besides the protagonist and also because its entirety consists of internal dialogue. This is what … read full post >>

I felt uneasy when reading through all the thoughts that spiraled in Natalia’s head, all indicating the pent-up and unprocessed... read full post >>

 Although I found this book difficult to read, it was a novel that I had enjoyed very much. One thing that I found very interesting in the novel "The Time of the Doves" by Mercè Rodereda was that the way it is written seems to be very descriptive. I am not sure if this is just because of the way that I had read or personally perceived the novel, but it had seemed like the language had described a lot more than just the situation or plot or context at hand. The novel seemed to deeply describe feelings as well as emotions that I could not have pictured being described in that way or at all prior to reading this text. It seems as though this novel dives subconsciously into details about the character as well as her emotions or feelings and it leads to a more comfortable and a genuine as a reader. It helps me to better understand both the novel and the main character, Natalia, as well as develop a perception of the character and understand her thoughts within this novel. This leads me to my question which is, does the high description in the novel have any correlation with it being translated from its original language?

Another point in the novel that surprised me was a certain quote, "Quimet has said we'd meet at three-thirty and he didn't show up till four-thirty; but I didn't say anything because I thought maybe I hadn't heard him right and it was me who'd made a mistake and since he didn't even say half a word of apology ... I was afraid to tell him my feet hurt from standing up so long because I was wearing very hot patent leather shoes and how a young man had taken liberties with me." (20)

This surprised me because I never really associated the concept of overthinking, or to be more specific, the concept of overthinking as being something that is generally normalized or romanticized in society, as something that would be consistent with the time frame that this text was written. Something that I think is normalized in today's society is overthinking in relationships, friendships, etc. and although it is a normal and natural human trait that is timeless, I did not expect to see an emphasis on it aside from the one that is currently used on overthinking in the society of today. By this I mean when Natalia assumes that she had not heard Quimet right and that she had been the one that had made a mistake, therefore excusing Quimet's lateness and ultimately blaming it on herself. I just pictured this as something that is so relevant in today's society that for some reason I didn't put two and two together and see that this is something that has happened throughout time. Overall, this was a great novel and a beautiful read.

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 Although I found this book difficult to read, it was a novel that I had enjoyed very much. One thing that I found very interesting in the novel "The Time of the Doves" by Mercè Rodereda was that the way it is written seems to be very descriptive. I am not sure if this is just because of the way that I had read or personally perceived the novel, but it had seemed like the language had described a lot more than just the situation or plot or context at hand. The novel seemed to deeply describe feelings as well as emotions that I could not have pictured being described in that way or at all prior to reading this text. It seems as though this novel dives subconsciously into details about the character as well as her emotions or feelings and it leads to a more comfortable and a genuine as a reader. It helps me to better understand both the novel and the main character, Natalia, as well as develop a perception of the character and understand her thoughts within this novel. This leads me to my question which is, does the high description in the novel have any correlation with it being translated from its original language?

Another point in the novel that surprised me was a certain quote, "Quimet has said we'd meet at three-thirty and he didn't show up till four-thirty; but I didn't say anything because I thought maybe I hadn't heard him right and it was me who'd made a mistake and since he didn't even say half a word of apology ... I was afraid to tell him my feet hurt from standing up so long because I was wearing very hot patent leather shoes and how a young man had taken liberties with me." (20)

This surprised me because I never really associated the concept of overthinking, or to be more specific, the concept of overthinking as being something that is generally normalized or romanticized in society, as something that would be consistent with the time frame that this text was written. Something that I think is normalized in today's society is overthinking in relationships, friendships, etc. and although it is a normal and natural human trait that is timeless, I did not expect to see an emphasis on it aside from the one that is currently used on overthinking in the society of today. By this I mean when Natalia assumes that she had not heard Quimet right and that she had been the one that had made a mistake, therefore excusing Quimet's lateness and ultimately blaming it on herself. I just pictured this as something that is so relevant in today's society that for some reason I didn't put two and two together and see that this is something that has happened throughout time. Overall, this was a great novel and a beautiful read.

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Starting off, The Time of the Doves by Rodoreda, I was immediately intrigued with the dancing scene. Call me cheesy but I enjoy a little bit of drama. It was entertaining to read how the man was ready to make her his wife and his queen. Along with that, him calling her “colometa” or little […] read full post >>

Hi everyone! This week I will be reflecting on Clarice Lispector’s novel The Passion According to G.H. Initially, I chose... read full post >>

Although Mercè Rodoreda’s The Time of Doves was a fairly easy read with its short chapters and simple narrative style, I found myself getting frustrated with a particular character. In particular, my frustration wasn’t caused by the actions of the narrator, Natalia, but instead revolves around her love interest, Quimet. Quimet displayed a few red flags […] read full post >>

I found this novel to be very metaphysically intense. The preface of the novel addressing the reader that “this is a book like any other book. But I would be happy if it were only read by people whose souls are already formed” reminded me of my beloved Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. Muslims […] read full post >>

Hey everyone! The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda was quite a peculiar read. The story was a bit... read full post >>

Lispector’s novel The Passion According to G. H. was a peculiar, eerie, and illuminating read. The plots of the novels we have read in this class have been rich with events, details, characters, and so on. I enjoyed Lispector’s story … Continue reading → read full post >>

I enjoyed this week’s reading as the novel portrayed many lifelike details from Natalia’s life that illustrate the love story took place in early 20th century Catalonia. At the beginning of the book, “Placa del Diamont” is repeatedly brought up, as it is not only the place where Natalia cut off her connection with Pere, […] read full post >>

Clarice Lispector’s The Passion According to G.H. was not at all what I expected it to be. Given the position of the protagonist and certain details about her way of life, I read through more than a little of the novel assuming that there would be some kind of message relating to intersections between gender […] read full post >>

 In Diamond Square (aka The Time of The Doves, The Pigeon Girl, and The First Half Was A Drag But We Got Going In The Second Half) was surprisingly difficult for me to get through. I really expected to zoom through this relatively short book because I'm interested in the Spanish Civil War and subsequent dictatorship, and because my copy has an endorsement from Gabriel Garcia Marquez on the front cover. In hindsight, I should've known to not pay too much attention to that praise though, because I'm not even a big fan of his novels either. Oh well.

It was only towards the end of the novel when I started to connect some dots about why it was a difficult read. Throughout the book, Rodoreda uses a combination of short, simple sentences, and some very long ones like "Another father was carrying a young boy round his neck and he was clutching a small white front with a blue silk bow and twinkling diamond star, and the crowd was pushing the two fathers, and without noticing, they got closer and closer until the boy started snatching cherries from Matthew's daughter's front and by the time we cottoned on half the frond was missing its cherries." (p22). That is a very long sentence. By the way, the translation I read has different names for the characters than the Time of the Doves translation, in case you were wondering about who Matthew is.

Rodoreda also has some "paragraphs" that I only call paragraphs for lack of a better word because they literally go on for pages. Not a single indentation. My English teachers are screaming, and all the old prescriptivist linguists are rolling in their graves. Chapter 35 has an example of a 3-page-long paragraph. And on top of that, she has an awful lot of sentences that start with 'and' (see what I did there?) I was going to make another comment on the traditional grammarians being upset again but I'll give benefit of the doubt that the language 'rules' are different in Catalan. Though I frequently got frustrated with the long paragraphs and the abundance of ands, having to reread parts multiple times because my eyes were just skipping across the page, I finally realised that maybe this was all just another reflection into Natalia's mind. 

If that's the case, then Rodoreda certainly pulled it off effectively because how can a narrator who's on the way to insanity narrate all of her story in a comfortable, easily-digestible way? After finishing the book I felt a little silly at my assumption that I should find the narrative easy to comprehend. Why should I have to expect clarity and coherence from a narrator who herself is having difficulty with those things?

Truthfully, this novel was quite humbling for me to read, and definitely tempered my expectations of a book; sometimes you're not meant to find reading easy - though some writers make everyone's life difficult just to show off their grandiose lexicon, sometimes there's a legitimate reason for making your reader labour through your writing.

I was going to talk more about certain themes in the novel but instead I got on my soapbox about sentence length and paragraphs-that-really-shouldn't-be-considered-paragraphs. I guess I'll pass that on to you all. My question is: What is the significance of the pigeons? What do they represent? Are they even a symbol at all? Am I just overthinking things?

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 In Diamond Square (aka The Time of The Doves, The Pigeon Girl, and The First Half Was A Drag But We Got Going In The Second Half) was surprisingly difficult for me to get through. I really expected to zoom through this relatively short book because I'm interested in the Spanish Civil War and subsequent dictatorship, and because my copy has an endorsement from Gabriel Garcia Marquez on the front cover. In hindsight, I should've known to not pay too much attention to that praise though, because I'm not even a big fan of his novels either. Oh well.

It was only towards the end of the novel when I started to connect some dots about why it was a difficult read. Throughout the book, Rodoreda uses a combination of short, simple sentences, and some very long ones like "Another father was carrying a young boy round his neck and he was clutching a small white front with a blue silk bow and twinkling diamond star, and the crowd was pushing the two fathers, and without noticing, they got closer and closer until the boy started snatching cherries from Matthew's daughter's front and by the time we cottoned on half the frond was missing its cherries." (p22). That is a very long sentence. By the way, the translation I read has different names for the characters than the Time of the Doves translation, in case you were wondering about who Matthew is.

Rodoreda also has some "paragraphs" that I only call paragraphs for lack of a better word because they literally go on for pages. Not a single indentation. My English teachers are screaming, and all the old prescriptivist linguists are rolling in their graves. Chapter 35 has an example of a 3-page-long paragraph. And on top of that, she has an awful lot of sentences that start with 'and' (see what I did there?) I was going to make another comment on the traditional grammarians being upset again but I'll give benefit of the doubt that the language 'rules' are different in Catalan. Though I frequently got frustrated with the long paragraphs and the abundance of ands, having to reread parts multiple times because my eyes were just skipping across the page, I finally realised that maybe this was all just another reflection into Natalia's mind. 

If that's the case, then Rodoreda certainly pulled it off effectively because how can a narrator who's on the way to insanity narrate all of her story in a comfortable, easily-digestible way? After finishing the book I felt a little silly at my assumption that I should find the narrative easy to comprehend. Why should I have to expect clarity and coherence from a narrator who herself is having difficulty with those things?

Truthfully, this novel was quite humbling for me to read, and definitely tempered my expectations of a book; sometimes you're not meant to find reading easy - though some writers make everyone's life difficult just to show off their grandiose lexicon, sometimes there's a legitimate reason for making your reader labour through your writing.

I was going to talk more about certain themes in the novel but instead I got on my soapbox about sentence length and paragraphs-that-really-shouldn't-be-considered-paragraphs. I guess I'll pass that on to you all. My question is: What is the significance of the pigeons? What do they represent? Are they even a symbol at all? Am I just overthinking things?

read full post >>