Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Guten Tag Post
In the section Guten Tag, the narrator quotes an acquaintance, saying, "Rilke once said that the story of a shattered life can only be told in bits and pieces." I think that this adequately sums up Ugresic's style of writing. By writing in fragmented bits and pieces, Ugresic is demonstrating the chaos and dysfunction of living the life of an exile. The pieces of the story are often hard to follow at first, but gets easier as the novel progresses. A pattern that I found in at least three of the short pieces included in this section is the narrator's interaction with other displaced people. She describes Sissel, the map-obsessed artist; Jane, the American who knows everything about Europeans; and her Chinese neighbor who is never content with where he is at, to name a few. I think that Ugresic uses these interactions to show the different examples of displaced people, and how they are coping with the arrangement.
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I would agree that the pattern of the other few displaced people and their interaction with the narrator is one of the most prominent patterns. I like the idea that perhaps Ugresic is showing how people are coping with a feeling of displacement or exile. I do find it interesting that most of them seem to take up some form of artistic expression in order to find that outlet of relief from the feeling of being lost or alone.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed that there were many characters that the speaker encountered who were also artists in exile. It could be her way of trying to find a place to fit in.
ReplyDeleteI like the way the story is told in "bits and pieces". I feel like it gives a very personal account of her feelings. The other examples of displaced people are another way to portray her feeligns as clearly as possible.
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