Ugresic's description of Berlin is one that is approached in an unorthodox manner. Instead of telling a chronological story of her time in Berlin, she instead jumps from thought to thought. This method of story telling directly relates to the opening page of the novels description of Roland the Walrus's stomach contents. While the approach of her story seems random at first, common ideas begin to surface upon reading. The most prominent feeling Ugresic describes is one of loneliness. Her adventures in Berlin though numerous, are nearly always in solitude. This state of mind is what leads her to this random, unusual method of storytelling. Because of this loneliness the story plays out as Ugresics' thoughts appearing on paper. She is going around Berlin taking in everything, and mentally jotting down her impressions and feelings of the city. Feelings that are heightened by her detached, isolated state of mind.
-Darian
I agree with how you compared the "unorthodox manner" of telling the story and the description of Roland the Walrus. The series of random facts can definitely be compared to the random items found in the walrus and ultimately gives a deeper meaning to the narrative.
ReplyDeleteI agree with how you put her stream of consciousness, which is an interesting method of story telling. Her thoughts stream from memory to memory and are usually linked indirectly with one another, or sometimes not at all. In this way it is up to the reader to find the correlation and put the pieces of the story together.
ReplyDeleteI think by writing things in this manner she in less "detached" and more observant. It is important to describe things as you see or do things because it makes your description more accurate and life-like, I think Ugresic accomplishes this by her short points in the story.
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