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This week I read W, or the memory of a childhood. This novel was different from others we had read in previous weeks, and unlike anything I had really read before. When I was starting this novel, the double story writing style was confusing at times. The fact that it was differentiated by font did help for sure.I was struggling to find the correlation between the two stories and felt like I was jumping from one book to another each time it switched over. Also, it often felt like we were given a lot of additional background details that perhaps helped visualize something like a picture, but the descriptions seemed to drag on longer than necessary. It was definitely easier for me to engage in the story based on the child growing up during the time of war and the complexity of his life. He lost his parents at a young age, and bounced around different living arrangements a lot of the time. From what he recalls, and the memories that he does have, it seemed like a very rough time to grow up. 

His memories are oddly specific, and it seems as though from what he does remember, he remembers those instances in great detail. It stood out to me that he described a memory from when he was only three about his family gathered in a circle “the family circle surrounds me wholly, but the sensation of encirclement does not cause me any fear of feeling of being smothered; on the contrary it is warm, protective, loving”. At first I thought there was no way a memory could be recalled at the age of only three, however after some research, apparently you can begin to recall memories as early as the age of two. Still, I question the validity of some of his memory recall simply due to the circumstances in which he was living as well as his use of imagination. 

Starting part two, I was a bit confused with the Olympic islands. I was not sure how that related at all to anything that had been discussed leading up to that, but eventually began to realize its true significance. I think this is one of the most important ways in which the stories somehow merge together. My question to the class is what is the significance of the … on page 61? What do you think Perec intended to convey?

Also Perrier is the best drink ever. Enjoyed one while writing this.

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This week, the book that I chose to read was W, or the Memory of Childhood by author Georges Perec. I found this story to be quite emotional. The main themes of this story are kind of obvious (seeing as they are in the title), but I will list them regardless: childhood, memory, life and the struggles of those who were affected by the horrors of the Second World War. 

I currently can’t think of anything super brilliant to say, so I’ll just discuss a quote that I really liked. Right at the beginning of the story, there was one sentence in particular that caught my eye.  

“Even if I have the help only of yellowing snapshots, a handful of eyewitness accounts and a few paltry documents to prop up my implausible memories, I have no alternative but to conjure up what for too many years I called the irrevocable: the things that were, the things that stopped, the things that were closed off things that surely were and today are no longer, but things that also were so that I may still be.”

This quote was said while the narrator was describing how, despite having a blurry, blank memory of their childhood, the things that happened and the experiences that were had were fundamental in the person that they grew up to become. I thought that the way this sentence was written was beautiful, especially the end. It is relatable in the sense that while there are certain moments and events that took place during my early life, I don’t remember most of it and I am only aware of their occurrence thanks to the stories that are told back to me by my parents and other people. Even if we don’t recall something, it doesn’t mean that it’s impact on our lives and on our growth were insignificant. Reading this reminded me of Proust and the way in which he placed lots of emphasis on doing his best to reminisce and savour every detail of his memories. By definition, things that are ephemeral (like the brief moments of our childhood) come and go in quick succession, but it doesn’t lessen their importance. 

One other thought about this book: the way in which it was written was different from the books I typically read, but I enjoyed the different style. In a way, the storytelling created depth on two levels and I believe that it was one of the qualities that stood out from the novels we’ve been reading thus far in our class. 

Here is my question for this week: How did you find the structure of this narrative? For you personally, was the fashion in which the two stories interweaved result in an impactful and powerful piece of writing?

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This week, the book that I chose to read was W, or the Memory of Childhood by author Georges Perec. I found this story to be quite emotional. The main themes of this story are kind of obvious (seeing as they are in the title), but I will list them regardless: childhood, memory, life and the struggles of those who were affected by the horrors of the Second World War. 

I currently can’t think of anything super brilliant to say, so I’ll just discuss a quote that I really liked. Right at the beginning of the story, there was one sentence in particular that caught my eye.  

“Even if I have the help only of yellowing snapshots, a handful of eyewitness accounts and a few paltry documents to prop up my implausible memories, I have no alternative but to conjure up what for too many years I called the irrevocable: the things that were, the things that stopped, the things that were closed off things that surely were and today are no longer, but things that also were so that I may still be.”

This quote was said while the narrator was describing how, despite having a blurry, blank memory of their childhood, the things that happened and the experiences that were had were fundamental in the person that they grew up to become. I thought that the way this sentence was written was beautiful, especially the end. It is relatable in the sense that while there are certain moments and events that took place during my early life, I don’t remember most of it and I am only aware of their occurrence thanks to the stories that are told back to me by my parents and other people. Even if we don’t recall something, it doesn’t mean that it’s impact on our lives and on our growth were insignificant. Reading this reminded me of Proust and the way in which he placed lots of emphasis on doing his best to reminisce and savour every detail of his memories. By definition, things that are ephemeral (like the brief moments of our childhood) come and go in quick succession, but it doesn’t lessen their importance. 

One other thought about this book: the way in which it was written was different from the books I typically read, but I enjoyed the different style. In a way, the storytelling created depth on two levels and I believe that it was one of the qualities that stood out from the novels we’ve been reading thus far in our class. 

Here is my question for this week: How did you find the structure of this narrative? For you personally, was the fashion in which the two stories interweaved result in an impactful and powerful piece of writing?

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The W or Memory of Childhood is a book with two stories, the first being W, and the second being The Memory of Childhood. W was a fantastic story of a man who was on the search for a boy but came across a mysterious island (W) and quickly emerged into their society. W is not the pretty island we think, however. Their morals and sins are based on a game like the "Olympics," and people must survive, but only the fittest do. This shocked me, and the details in the story made the island come to life. The second story is a memoir of Perec's past childhood. He is confused because he has many gaps in his memory and cannot remember his childhood clearly. This fogginess is something that I believe definitely is from PTSD from the war and violence when he was a child. I learned in my psychology class that the brain would adapt and forget specific memories if they are too painful and cause a blockage in your memory. This is apparent in Perec's story as he continuously mentions how he forgets and doesn't remember his childhood exactly. He believes he has a vague idea of his childhood but cannot put the pieces together. It's like looking through foggy glasses, and most things are blurry, but no matter what you do, they never clear up. I tried to figure out how the two stories were connected while reading, and it was so confusing. Until I came across this quote, "when I was thirteen I made up a story … [It] was called W and it was, in a way, if not the story of my childhood, then at least a story of my childhood." After that, I realized that the story of W is not complete but like a symbolic story of his childhood. These ideals were what he had to do as a child to survive and be the fittest. This W voyage is a story of his childhood, and his brain is using what he can to remember his childhood by creating the memories into "fictional" stories that aren't really fiction at all. The way it jumped back from story to story made it harder to follow along, but it made them feel more connected. If we simply just read the W story and then his memoir, I feel that the effect of the two stories forming and creating each other would not be as apparent. My question for this text is, do you think the author decided to include alternating chapters to connect the stories more in the text? And How do you think this helped shape the story's themes/similarities to be more connected? 

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The W or Memory of Childhood is a book with two stories, the first being W, and the second being The Memory of Childhood. W was a fantastic story of a man who was on the search for a boy but came across a mysterious island (W) and quickly emerged into their society. W is not the pretty island we think, however. Their morals and sins are based on a game like the "Olympics," and people must survive, but only the fittest do. This shocked me, and the details in the story made the island come to life. The second story is a memoir of Perec's past childhood. He is confused because he has many gaps in his memory and cannot remember his childhood clearly. This fogginess is something that I believe definitely is from PTSD from the war and violence when he was a child. I learned in my psychology class that the brain would adapt and forget specific memories if they are too painful and cause a blockage in your memory. This is apparent in Perec's story as he continuously mentions how he forgets and doesn't remember his childhood exactly. He believes he has a vague idea of his childhood but cannot put the pieces together. It's like looking through foggy glasses, and most things are blurry, but no matter what you do, they never clear up. I tried to figure out how the two stories were connected while reading, and it was so confusing. Until I came across this quote, "when I was thirteen I made up a story … [It] was called W and it was, in a way, if not the story of my childhood, then at least a story of my childhood." After that, I realized that the story of W is not complete but like a symbolic story of his childhood. These ideals were what he had to do as a child to survive and be the fittest. This W voyage is a story of his childhood, and his brain is using what he can to remember his childhood by creating the memories into "fictional" stories that aren't really fiction at all. The way it jumped back from story to story made it harder to follow along, but it made them feel more connected. If we simply just read the W story and then his memoir, I feel that the effect of the two stories forming and creating each other would not be as apparent. My question for this text is, do you think the author decided to include alternating chapters to connect the stories more in the text? And How do you think this helped shape the story's themes/similarities to be more connected? 

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Georges Perec’s W or Memory of Childhood is one of the best books I’ve read so far. From recounting his personal childhood experience and the illustration of the society of the island ‘W”, elements of survival, concealment of identities and anti-utopia became the key concepts of the novel and gave me a good understanding of the […] read full post >>

This book was quite tragic though undoubtedly beautifully written. It’s hard not to feel sadness when reading Perec recount the memories he has of his childhood and the hardships that come with being an orphan. I felt especially moved when, describing his mother, he wrote “The arbitrary, schematic image that I have of her suits […] read full post >>

 I unfortunately found this weeks reading to be a bit more difficult to follow than other books we read so far. Not so much in regards to difficult language or translation discrepancies, but rather the multiple storylines that took place throughout the book. In all honesty, I found it quite confusing and found myself having to reread certain passages and pages. From what I gathered, Georges attempts to recall memories from his childhood, while intertwining stories and scenarios from the present. 

An initial thought I had after reading the first few chapters, was that it reminded me of our first reading, Swann's way. In this book, Marcel reflects on his past, specifically childhood and what his relationship was like with his mother and father at the time. I found similarities with this reading, as Georges tries to scrap together memories of his parents before they both perished due to different circumstances during the war. Though most of Georges memories didn't specifically connect with one another, I found some quite interesting while i felt others were a bit boring. I think part of the reason why I may have found some of these boring is because they seemed to lack emotional depth. In Swann's Way, for example, Marcel talks about how upset the neglect of his mother made him. With a lot of emotional detail, I truly felt for the character. However, with this reading, I felt as though i was reading descriptions of people or events without receiving much detail on the authors feelings. Which seemed odd to me considering memories are something very personal. 

I question if this lack of detail as well as his lack of memory might have something to do with the circumstances under which his parents died. As just a young boy he had to the mourn the loss of both his parents. His father died in the war, and his mother died in the holocaust. Im thinking it's possible that because of all the chaos and emotional stress he had endured, he lacks memory. 

The main thing that has me greatly confused throughout the novel is the multiple storylines and how different they were from one another. Im not too sure how Georges encounter with Otto tied in with his childhood memories, as well as the story of W.

My question for the class: do you think Georges vague memories could be trauma related?

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 I unfortunately found this weeks reading to be a bit more difficult to follow than other books we read so far. Not so much in regards to difficult language or translation discrepancies, but rather the multiple storylines that took place throughout the book. In all honesty, I found it quite confusing and found myself having to reread certain passages and pages. From what I gathered, Georges attempts to recall memories from his childhood, while intertwining stories and scenarios from the present. 

An initial thought I had after reading the first few chapters, was that it reminded me of our first reading, Swann's way. In this book, Marcel reflects on his past, specifically childhood and what his relationship was like with his mother and father at the time. I found similarities with this reading, as Georges tries to scrap together memories of his parents before they both perished due to different circumstances during the war. Though most of Georges memories didn't specifically connect with one another, I found some quite interesting while i felt others were a bit boring. I think part of the reason why I may have found some of these boring is because they seemed to lack emotional depth. In Swann's Way, for example, Marcel talks about how upset the neglect of his mother made him. With a lot of emotional detail, I truly felt for the character. However, with this reading, I felt as though i was reading descriptions of people or events without receiving much detail on the authors feelings. Which seemed odd to me considering memories are something very personal. 

I question if this lack of detail as well as his lack of memory might have something to do with the circumstances under which his parents died. As just a young boy he had to the mourn the loss of both his parents. His father died in the war, and his mother died in the holocaust. Im thinking it's possible that because of all the chaos and emotional stress he had endured, he lacks memory. 

The main thing that has me greatly confused throughout the novel is the multiple storylines and how different they were from one another. Im not too sure how Georges encounter with Otto tied in with his childhood memories, as well as the story of W.

My question for the class: do you think Georges vague memories could be trauma related?

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This work from Georges Perec was a ‘break’ from the others that we have been reading. I found his style of storytelling to be refreshing from the others with its short chapters and concise descriptions. At the beginning, with the worrying over the letter in chapter 3, I thought ‘great, another over-thinker’, but was pleasantly […] read full post >>