This week, I read ‘W, or the memory of childhood’ by Perec Georges.
I was confused at first. In part one, the narrator mentioned how his father died when he was 6 and got adopted by his father’s neighbours. However, in part two his father died when he was 4 and was adopted by his father’s sister and her husband. Then I re-read it and found out that they have mentioned this story will be alternating between two texts. The narrator switched from one story to another. I found this kind of transition distracting as I couldn’t figure if the texts had switched to the other or not. However, it got better as the story progressed because I realized that we are able to tell the story has been switched by the font. One text is in Italic font and the other is not.
Despite the narrator mentioning how he has no memories of his childhood, he kept trying to recall the memories of when he was a kid. His parents passed away when he was young and he barely has any memories with them, yet he still talks about them. On page 12, he mentioned “like everyone else, or almost everyone, I had a father and a mother, a potty, a cat, a rattle, and, later on, a bicycle…Like everyone else, I have forgotten everything about the earliest years of my existence”. I found that texts give off the feelings of loneliness. He may just be expressing that he is like others and has what everyone needs at first. To me, it feels more like he has lost his sense of identity and is sarcastic at the fact that he ‘started’ just like ‘everyone else’. I feel sorry for him as it seems to me that he is trying to connect himself to his parents by the memories of others and the stuff he possesses (ex: photograph of his parents). As the narrator does not have many memories with them, most of the information he knows about them is being told by others (his aunts). He even saved up the money his aunt had given him for the bus just to buy a soldier toy. I believe the reason he got it is due to his father. He wanted to feel more connected to him.
The question I have for the class is: Do you think one is able to find a sense of belonging from their memories?
This week, I read ‘W, or the memory of childhood’ by Perec Georges.
I was confused at first. In part one, the narrator mentioned how his father died when he was 6 and got adopted by his father’s neighbours. However, in part two his father died when he was 4 and was adopted by his father’s sister and her husband. Then I re-read it and found out that they have mentioned this story will be alternating between two texts. The narrator switched from one story to another. I found this kind of transition distracting as I couldn’t figure if the texts had switched to the other or not. However, it got better as the story progressed because I realized that we are able to tell the story has been switched by the font. One text is in Italic font and the other is not.
Despite the narrator mentioning how he has no memories of his childhood, he kept trying to recall the memories of when he was a kid. His parents passed away when he was young and he barely has any memories with them, yet he still talks about them. On page 12, he mentioned “like everyone else, or almost everyone, I had a father and a mother, a potty, a cat, a rattle, and, later on, a bicycle…Like everyone else, I have forgotten everything about the earliest years of my existence”. I found that texts give off the feelings of loneliness. He may just be expressing that he is like others and has what everyone needs at first. To me, it feels more like he has lost his sense of identity and is sarcastic at the fact that he ‘started’ just like ‘everyone else’. I feel sorry for him as it seems to me that he is trying to connect himself to his parents by the memories of others and the stuff he possesses (ex: photograph of his parents). As the narrator does not have many memories with them, most of the information he knows about them is being told by others (his aunts). He even saved up the money his aunt had given him for the bus just to buy a soldier toy. I believe the reason he got it is due to his father. He wanted to feel more connected to him.
The question I have for the class is: Do you think one is able to find a sense of belonging from their memories?
I admittedly found this novel fairly hard to follow; the switching back and forth between different narratives was initially confusing. However, on the theme of memories that have been fractured in some way, perhaps the fragmented writing style of the author is appropriate. The autobiographical portions of the novel take a somber tone as the […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with autobiography, childhood, fiction, memories, trauma
This week’s novel, W, or the Memory of Childhood by Georges Perec, contains two alternating texts. The author claims these two texts merge together into one to tell a story that can’t be told without the other. At first, I thought it was an interesting idea, especially since one of the texts is an autobiography, […]
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with blog, memories, repression, trauma
I have to start by saying this book is nothing like any book I have read before in the fact that there aren’t just two stories going on, but one being an autobiography and the other being fiction. In saying this, I did not enjoy the stories as much as I was hoping to, as …
Continue reading “Georges Perec “W, or the Memory of Childhood””
The very first emotion when I finished this reading was enjoyment and a little excitement. Because the book takes readers through fluctuational stories along with emotional up and down. The book consists of two storylines; a fictional story about an island called “W” and a story based on the narrator’s own childhood memory. The contrast […]
This week I read W, or the Memory of Childhood. The structure of this novel was very unique, two books in one. As readers, we were challenged to see how the two fit together and decide if they did at … Continue reading →
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with memory, personal history, trauma
Georges Perec’s W or the Memory of Childhood is a work of postmodern literature. From my personal viewpoint, the style and the experience of reading it is comparable to reading the use of surrealism in Louis Aragon’s Paris Peasant. Both are works that need more time for reflection on the abstract concepts about life that are […]
Perec gave us “W or The Memory of Childhood” to share his illustrative vision of the Holocaust, both in a personal and figurative aspect. Throughout the book, we see the contrast of these two parallel stories, one being autobiographical and the other (seemingly) being on a fictional (based on real events) premise. His autobiography emerges […]
Georges Perec’s W, or the Memory of Childhood reveals the irreparable experience of trauma in rather mysterious ways. When reading it, I feel that the entire novel is associated with a special technique frequently used in filmmaking, named montage. Perec used different locations, perspectives, and narrative methods to enhance the willingness of the readers’ deep […]
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with childhood, memory, politics, power
