The Time In Between was a "good read" for me. Somehow I connected with the character of Charles and I felt I could relate to his frustration with not being able to pinpoint what it was he was looking for. The image at the left was taken during the Vietnam war and perhaps it was similair to the images that haunted Charles and drove him to seek answers after all those years. Again, as in some of the other novels we have read in this class, this book causes the reader to ask himself what the point of war is and it also shows how normal people can do horrific acts during war. Another area that is explored is the idea that the effects of war can carry on through generations. In reading Anne's response, I have to say I differ on her analysis of Charles committing suicide. I think that a man who has sought for answers to his personal living hell that he cant escape, may choose suicide as an answer when he feels he has failed to find those answers and I believe this is the point Charles had reached when he chose to drown himself. This was made more clear to me when he left the note for Ada and Jon telling them of his pain and this to me was an admission to his inability to find answers , and an apology to them. I also found it interesting that Ada seemed to start to follow in the footsteps of her father in looking for him, but her answers were easier to find at least partial questions to and that is why she did not kill herself. This novel was sad but interesting and it helped to answer some questions I have had as to why my grandfather would not talk about his war memories; after all, who knows what attrocities he may have committed? War is hell. It doesnt make sense and I hope none of my family and/or descendants have to partake in it.

Final Essays

Hi class!
I was wondering if anyone knows if theres a list of possible essay topics that is going to be posted. Thanks!

Anne's response to The Time in Between

I have to say that I am neutral on this book.  I didn't find the plot, characters, or narrative overly interesting.  As far as Charles is concerned, I read him as a weak character of himself.  I didn't like that he killed himself -- there seemed to be very little driving him to that decision.  Yes, he saw horrors in Vietnam but I was expecting there to be more attempts on his part to reconcile his actions with the remaining villagers, not just the one try and then killing himself.  

I honestly did not see the point of the characters, Jack and Elaine Gouds.  At first it seemed like there was going to be more than a superficial relationship with Elaine and Charles but then he just turned himself off.  I would much rather have seen him bond with Elaine and perhaps achieve some healing through a relationship her.  It would have been more dramatic and appealing (to me) if Charles had become attached to her and then, despite attempts to reconcile his past with her help, he killed himself.  Also, his ghosts could have been more awful.  I found Kiet had more ghosts than Charles did and I felt more compassion towards Kiet.  But maybe the author wasnt' tryin to make us feel sorry for Charles.....

I thought Jon was a useless wimp who needed a huge reality check.  Ada should have dragged him back to the morgue and made him face his father's corpse.  I come from 'old school' stock that says if the father's gone, then the son needs to step up and be a man and support his family.  Jon did the opposite in Vietnam with Ada - he hid behind his fears and wasn't around when Ada needed him most.  Then he gets angry with her when she almost dies and doesn't have a chance to tell him that their father killed himself.  

Ada was an interesting character but I don't think she was fascinating.   I wasn't sure where she was coming from and I still don't know.  She was vague and closed off.  She maybe opened up a bit with Hoang Vu.  She was the reliable, sensible sibling so maybe that has something to do with it.  I would have like to have seen her get really angry with Jon and put him in his place instead of being passive with him.

Rachelle's Response to The English Patient

As a war novel, the English Patient deals with the post-war effects on both humans, and the landscape. This book did an excellent job of creating images of the landscape and of the villa which was turned into a make-shift hospital. All of the characters of this novel were fascinating and unique. I would have to agree with Holly that the novel is much better than the movie. But perhaps this is because, with the novel we were able to create the characters and the settings in our own minds, and when watching the movie they didn't meet up to our own individual expectations.

One distinct difference between the movie and the novel was Kip's reasoning for leaving. I felt as though his reasoning was understandable in the novel. He needed to get away from that place, and return home. He felt as though he had been supporting the wrong side, and as though he was almost responsible for the bombings. In the movie after his friend dies he just packs up and leaves, and you're left waiting for the rest of the story.

Hannah is an interesting character, she is clearly emotionally wounded at the loss of her father, friends, and the things she has witnessed. However, by taking care of the English Patient, it is as though she is healing herself, and regaining the aspects of who she is.

This book was a good read, however, I would argue that at points it was a bit flat, and I was waiting for something to happen, like a mine to go off inside the villa. I wasn't pleased with the ending either. Anne had warned me that she herself wasn't happy with it, and once I read it I understood why. If Kip was still longing for Hannah, why wouldn't he just go and find her? Instead of constantly being reminded of her and thinking about her even though he had married moved on and married another women, this was a frustrating element of the novel for me.

Jim's Respons to "The English Patient"

Two images: one horrific and one beautiful. How could anyone like the image on the left, yet what innocence and beauty portrayed by the image on the right. War is the image on the left and love the imge in the photo on the right. What a horrible way to die; in war , what a waste.

What a pointless endeavor.

This is one of the themes that I get from The English Patient. Kip realized the pointlessness of war starting on page 282. I find it hard to imagine what it would have been like risking your life every day defusing bombs to save lives and then finding out that two massive bombs had killed thousands of people instantly and they were dropped by those who he was disarming bombs for. To Kip a life was a life and it did not matter if you were Britsh, German, Italian, American, or Japanese; a life was a life.

The other theme that jumped out at me was one of an overall dislike of ownership and boundaries, or borders. On p.261, It states, "We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience. All I desired was to walk upon an earth that had no maps." This is a very important passage in the novel and I believe it to be one of the main themes. It caused me to realize that most wars are fought over ownership of lands or possession of people an/or resources, and if we did not have boundaries and ownership as much a lot of war would be avoided.

This novel was beautifully written and time after time in the reading of it I came upon passages such as, " ...a tarpaulin to hold the rain of real life away from him."(p194) that added a beauty to the book just from the reading of it. This novel touched on many aspects of love and war and went deep into eexploring many of them. It is now one of my favorite reads, but I will have to soak it up at least a couple of more times to get more of what it yearns to give me.

Hollys Response to the English Patient

For starters...I had seen the movie before I read the book, and found it slow.
THE BOOK WAS BETTER!!
In saying that, The English Patient is still not one of my favorite books that we have covered in this class.
Probably my favorite aspect of the book is that which is also probably the most confusing. I really liked how the story line jumps from the different characters. I feel that this provides greater depth and personality to the characters and their backgrounds. I am conciously trying to compare the movie to the book at this point, since some of you have not seen it yet, so I will be omitting that from my response until next week!
I am not sure if I find the imagery so spectacular because i have seen the movie and already have images in my mind as I read the story, or if Ondaatje provided these images for me as i read. I am interested to watch the movie again and see how close the images in my mind came to the actually film.

As i read the book, I found myself curious about the way sexuality is brought up in the characters lives. The abrupt terminology used to describe either sexual body parts or sexual acts does not seem to fit with the rest of Ondaatje's writing. I am curiuos about why its portrayed in this way. For example, Hanna says "dont touch me if your going to try and fuck me," and the very first page of the book describes the naked English Patient's "penis sleeping like a seahorse." ok, so is there anyone else who LITERALLY laughed out loud when they read that? I did, and i will not forget it anytime soon. i think that Ondaatje's could have chosen to illuminate sex in the story because of the time period- but for me, it feels as if some other writer slipped sex into the story in order to make it more hollywood. There are times where the writing is smooth and well fitted with Ondaatje's writing style in the rest of the novel, so my question is, why so abrupt in other parts?

re: anne's response to english patient

hi - don't know what happened to the line spacing.  it looked all good on the preview and then i hit 'publish post' and it looks like it does - argh!  sorry that it's all shmushed together :-(

Anne's response to The English Patient

Yet another novel that made me want to throw it across the room at the end!! :-)  I wanted to know what happened to Hana and Caravaggio.  At least we got to know that Kip survived his flight into the river.  I would have like to see Kip and Hana make a go of it but I know now that their relationship would have never worked out - it's just the romantic in me wanting to have its way with everything!

As far as the actual structure of the novel goes, I have to say that it was confusing and frustrating at times.  As I got into the storyline, I sort of became used to the jumping around.  It kept me on my toes and I had to stay sharp while reading.  The same applies to the omission of some quotation marks when there was dialogue.  It made for an interesting aesthetic while looking at the page and it required your full attention.

The story itself was interesting.  Amnesia, love, lust, exotic settings, life, and death.  Not to mention drugs!  Morphine, again, is the vehicle used to get the story out into the open.  But is it the true story?  I would have to take the position that, even though he never says the words, the English patient is Count Almasy.  There  are enough veiled references and pieces of dialogue that convince me of the matter.  

The relationship between Almasy and Katharine Clifton was a violent, sexually-charged one.  They met in 1936 and she died in 1939.  These pre-war years that they had together were very tumultuous and foreshadowed the war years to come in Europe.  Similarily, Kip and Hana's relationship was not a simple, lovey-dovey one.  In contrast to Almasy and Katharine, I don't think Kip and Hana consumated their love, although there was sexual tension there.  Hana was initially very much taken with the colour of Kip's skin as seen on pages 123, 125, and 127.  I think it was a subconcious reaction to reading Kim with the English patient.  I don't believe that Hana saw Kip as a conquest, like a colonizer.  She really did love him but it was not meant to be . . . at that time . . . in that place . . . ever.

I really like that fact that Kip returns to India and becomes a doctor.  As a sapper, he was defusing bombs, saving lives in the process.  But he was working for the British, the white man.  After the bombs were dropped on Japan, Kip could no longer keep working for a government that represented what he was fighting against.  The British didn't drop the bombs -- "white humanity" dropped the bombs on "dark humanity" and at that moment, anyone who was white-skinned was the enemy, in Kip's eyes.  Interestingly, Hana, Caravaggio, and the English patient come into his mind at the end of the novel, particularly Hana.  I think that he came to realize that the three white people who shared the villa with him that summer were also victims and that he would only be feeding a tumour of anger if he continued to hold them responsible as well.  For him to heal and move forward, he needed to let his anger against them disappear. 

Overall, I enjoyed the novel - can't wait to see the movie!!!

Rachelle's Response to Fugitive Pieces

The novel Fugitive Pieces, by author Anne Michael's is both poetic and descriptive in style. I loved the amount of description within this novels pages. Upon reading the first section of the novel I was excited and enthused to read further. However, further is where I found an incoherent storyline, filled with faltered male characters.

The images that Fugitive Pieces created were at one moment unforgettable and then at another moment completely forgotten. I found the images of Fugitive Pieces to be unforgettable due to the immense amount of detail used to produce them. However, they became forgettable due to the incoherence in the storyline, and the switch mid-way from Jacob to Ben's narration.

For myself, I loved the characters of Athos, Jacob, and Ben. This was because they were real people, they had faults and failures, and had been strongly affected by death. As I said before they were slightly faltered, but because of this, I loved them.

Micheal's decision to switch from Jacob to Ben in the midst of her storyline created a great deal of confusion for myself. This was due to the fact that the switch was unannounced, I was readying along peacefully and then found myself confused and backtracking to figure out what had happened. This switch I would argue caused three main problems, for myself, and I am guessing for others. First of all, there was no explanation for the switch and the reader is left wondering, what happened to Jacob? The second problem was, who is this Ben character? and why is he important? Lastly, I found myself waiting for Jacob and Ben to connect with one another in the end, which obviously never happens.

Finally, Jacobs odd obsession with his sister Bella still bothers me even now. On one hand, I was waiting for them to meet up in the end, almost as though Michael's had made her so predominant in the storyline because one day they would reconnect with one another, and perhaps she did not die after all. On the other hand however, it was strange how Jacob compared his wife and then his lover, to his sister.

Change of Plans

Well folks, it's happened again - a change of plans. My apologies - this has been one of the most fluid, changeable courses that I have taught. How post-modern of us!

My staff retreat on April 8th and 9th has been cancelled. We will, therefore, have our last wrap-up class on that day. Yippee! I will bring lunch for all.

Holly's ACTUAL response to "Fugitive Pieces"

In class when we talked about "Fugitive Pieces," we discussed how it appeared to contain 2 books. I would like to argue that it was not 2 books, but rather three.

Book 1: Life with Athos
Book 2: Life after Athos
Book 3: Ben and Jakob's effect/legacy

I found that these three points in the novel as very transitional. Obvious growing up with Athos set up Jakob's future, and made him into the man he was after Athos' death. But the essence left behind by Athos was something unique and special, only obvious to Jakob. Jakob unintentionally repeated the mistakes of Athos at different points in the story. He eventually found happiness, though, while Athos chose not to remarry.

In a way, both Athos and Jakob were committed to the dead: Athos and his wife who passed away, and Jakob and his dedication to Athos and Bella. Their commitment to the departed stifles their lives; as if they are unable to breathe without the breath of those they have loved and lost.

The way Jakob holds onto the memory of Bella is so unique to me. I found it odd that it is her he misses the most passionately, even though he did not even realize he didn't see her body with her parents. She was an afterthought, in this respect. I wonder if maybe it was the guilt of not wanting to protect/find/know the fate of his sister immediately that caused Jakob to crave her presence so badly. The curiosity of Bella's fate was consuming.

The Writing :
I truly loved the style in which this story was written . the poetic emphasis was seen throughout the entire story, in while describing horrific events, the writing came through as stunningly beautiful. While this is not my favourite of stories, the writing is something unforgettable. the use of imagery and elegant language is unforgettable. Michaels is a truly talented writer.

as an aspiring author, Michaels stands out incredibly. The eloquence of the story even as it expressed times of turmoil and bitter sadness radiates a brilliance that is unique to Michaels. Her poetic background is what made this novel so powerful and moving.

Holly's response to"Fugitive Pieces"

In class when we talked about "Fugitive Peices," we discussed how it appeared to contain 2 books. I would like to argue that it was not 2 books, but rather three.

book 1: Life with Athos
book 2: Life after Athos
book 3: Ben and Jakob's effect/legacy

I found that these three points in the novel as very transitional. Obvious growing up with Athos set up Jakob's future, and made him into the man he was after Athos' death. but the essence left behind by Athos was something unique and special, only obvious to Jakob. Jakob unintentionally repeated the mistakes of Athos at different points in the story. He eventually found happiness, though, while Athos chose not to remarry.

In a way, both Athos and Jakob were commited to the dead: Athos and his wife who passed away, and Jakob and his dedication to Athos and Bella. their commitment to the departed stiffles their lives, as if they are unable to breathe without the breath of those they have loved and lost.

The way Jakob holds onto the memory of Bella is so unique to me. I found it odd that its her he misses the most passionately, even though he did not even realize he didn't see her body with her parents. She was an after thought, in this respect. i wonder if maybe it was the guilt of not wanting to protect/find/know the fate of his sister immediately that caused Jakob to crave her presence so badly. the curiousity of Bella's fate was consuming.

The Writing:
I truly loved the style in which this story was written . the poetic emphasis was seen throughout the entire story, in while describing horrific events, the writing came th rough as stunningly beautiful. While this is not my favorite of stories, the writing is something unforgetable. the use of imagery and elegent language is unforgetable. Michaels is a truly talented writer.

as an aspiring author, Michaels stands out incredibly. the eloquence of the story even as it expressed times of turmoil and bitter sadness radiats a brillance unique to Michaels. Her poetic background is what made this novel so powerful and moving.

Admin Issues

Last post for today - I promise! Just a reminder to everyone that there is no class next week. I will be away at a conference all week and will not be checking my email regularly. We will reconvene on Tuesday, March 25th, when we will watch the film of the EP and spend some time in our discussion comparing book and text.

There will also be no class on April 8th. Instead, I am expecting each one of you to schedule a slightly longer appointment with me to discuss your papers, topics and ideas, etc. This can be during that week, or earlier. I will be out of town Aptril 8th and 9th, however.

The process for the final papers has changed. We discussed this in class yesterday, but I have had more information about dealines and so on, and so can now formalize the dates and process. We changed the due date for the final paper to Monday, April 14th. I will mark these ASAP and return them to you on Thursday, April 17th (you can pick them up at the office). You will be given an opportunity to revise your papers after this date, based on my comments, and hand them in again on Monday, April 21st. There will be no extensions after this time, so this is an opportunity that you can avail yourselves of, or not - if I haven't received a revised draft on the Monday, I will submit the original mark from the 17th.

I hope that this works for everyone!

Transgenerational War Trauma - Children

So, here are some thoughts on that other essay topic that we discussed in class. You could start with a discussion of Fugitive Pieces and how that novel shows that war, or the effects of war, don't stop with those who have been directly involved in it. The character of Ben, in particular, reveals how the legacy of war continues on into future generations. It is especially through his recounting of childhood memories that we see this, as he is the child of Holocaust survivors. There are certain characteristics that he shares with his (or as a result of) his parents' experiences, as well as Jakob's experiences during the war. And Jakob's memories, of course, are also childhood memories. For example, usually childhood memories are tinged with nostalgia for the past. But this isn't the case with either of these characters. There are a few, isolated, memories that Jakob can resurrect that might be described as nostalgic (memories of Bella playing the paino, for instance) but there are not many. It's as if the music has stopped with her death.

But it's not just the children of Holocaust survivors that are impacted by war history. While the children of Holocaust survivors may have specific legacies, children, in general, whose parents have been damaged by the war also suffer. We see this in Matt Pearson's son, who rejects his father, runs away from home, and so on - and Matt can't really cope with his family in the ways that he perhaps should. In fact, it is interesting that, in some ways he is closer to Charlie than his own son. What is that all about? And what are the effects of this on the children? We get much of the story of Broken Ground through a young person's eyes - and it seems that the war isn't over for any of them.

One of the questions that you could ask yourself is when you think that the effects of war end, and how it constructs history through the generations. Think about the specificity of Ben's experiences - can they be generalized to Charlie and Tanner, or are they quite different? How? Can we generalize to some extent, and then we have to focus on the differences? Or - ?

You could approach this partly in terms of beginnings, middles, and endings. When does a war really begin? End?

Just some thoughts that you can feel free to use in your writing.

The role of Morphine in EP and Three Day Road

So, I was thinking about some of the ways that one couold develop a topic ddiscussing the role of morphine in the novels (The English Patient and Three Day Road). It seems to me that these books complicate or problematize the way that we, as readers, might think about the use of drugs in the context of war. In both instances, the drug is used as a way of staving off (physical) pain - in the case of the EP as a way of soothing his final days - death from burns is very painful. In the case of Xavier, after his amputation. However, it also seems that the morphine has another (at least one other) role - it brings out the stories of these characters through flashback memories.

In the case of Xavier, he doesn't seem to have much control over which memories are resurrected; in the case of the EP, Almasy seems to stay on track, but the drug brings him to telling his story in more detail than he has thus far in the novel. So, in a sense, this narcotic also eases psychic pain. Ironically, in the case of Xavier, while the memories are painful, it seems as though he needs to resurrect them so that he can make sense of the past. In the case of the EP, it is not Almasy that needs the story (he does remember, it seems) but the other characters in the novel. Carravaggio, for instance, seems to restore pieces of himself once he is able to let go of trying to "convict" Almasy in his mind.

And then there are the ways that the drug works for Elijah, in particular, and to a lesser extent, Caravaggio. It's unclear from the narration whether Elijah's descent into hell is assisted by his chronic use of the morphine, or whether the morphine acts to deaden his humanity. This could be explored a little - have a look at some of the references in the text. Caravaggio, it seems, doesn't "need" the morphine in the same way - but then again, perhaps he does. I wonder if the significance of his sharing morphine with the EP in that one section of of the novel is important? The characters do seem to bond over this; it takes this experience for Caravaggio to find some sense of peace since he has lost his thumbs...

All in all, both novels present a view of morphine use in the context of both physical and pyschic trauma, and doesn't seem to make a value judgement on these. Xavier, however, does seem aware that it is not a good thing, and that he must kick the drug once he is home. Interestingly, the drug which has released his memories (stories) must now be kicked through more stories (Niska's).

So, these are some thoughts. Do feel free to use them in any essay that you are writing.

Anne's Response to Fugitive Pieces

READER RESPONSE FOR FUGITIVE PIECES

I loved the emotions that Anne Michaels got stirred up in me. I cried and I laughed. I was angry and shocked. From the third page of the story, I was absolutely gripped: “I wanted to go to my parents, to touch them. But I couldn’t, unless I stepped on their blood” (7). I wanted to cry (and did) for this little boy, for all the kids and their families affected by this tragedy.

I love the way Michaels wove together her words – very poetic and striking. For me, this style worked incredibly well because as a female, it struck my emotional and romantic side. For example, when I compare the love-making scenes from Three Day Road to Fugitive Pieces, the latter wins, no contest. Michaels wrote in a more sensual style that appealed to me more. “Then I realize she’s entirely concentrated, pinioned under my tongue, that she’d giving me the most extravagant permission to roam the surface of her” (180). If only my Colin talked like that!
While the basic point of the this story is survival, I also believe it is about love. Michaela’s love for Jakob opens a whole new compartment in him that Alex was not able to open. I also think that it is Michaela’s love that allows Jakob to experience a degree of healing. We talked about this in class and I think it was Holly who said “but does anyone ever really heal from that?” I agree. A person never forgets traumatic events that happen to them. Those events shape and mold you as time goes on. But I do think there can be healing with the aid of the right devices. For Jakob, the devices are writing and Michaela’s love.

Regarding the end section of the novel: at first, it bothered me that new characters were being introduced to tell the rest of the story. As I’ve skimmed through the end part again, and after Tuesday’s class, I am beginning to feel less hostile towards it. I’m not sure who said it but something to the effect of “war touched generations” was said. I agree wholly with that and Ben portrays this. All his life, any discomfort, shame, or anguish that he felt has come from his parents and their experiences. They did not talk about anything with him yet his life was shaped by the trauma they felt. Ben finally achieved freedom/healing form his parent’s past: “in my hotel room the before I leave Greece, I know the elation of ordinary sorrow. At last my unhappiness is my own” (292). He may not be fully healed as he still had to work through that unhappiness as well as his relationship with Naomi, but there is partial healing. Contradictorily, some of it is due to his affair with Petra.

One a last note, I need to add that despite the fact that Ben’s parents did not verbalize their feelings or experiences, they did communicate to Ben. He was just not able to identify it until his ‘healing.’ The quote is on page 294 and he sees his parent’s drawing strength from each other. All along, Ben’s parents had been each other’s source of strength. They had survived together and even though they loved Ben, what they had was for them. Ben only saw the outer surface of the picture that his parents represented. Thankfully, he was able to go beyond the superficial exterior and see his parents for who and what they truly were. We would all be better off if we could live by the last sentence of the novel: I see that I must give what I need most.

Hollys response to Three Day Road

I have taken a long time to post this, because I have been thinking about it a lot. What I keep thinking about is, who is really Windigo, Elijah or Xavier?
While we know that Elijah has a love for killing and takes great pride in killing other men, it is Xavier who loses touch with reality.
if you look back to page 44, where Niska's father is preparing to kill the female Windigo, it says "she begged and pleaded in a childs voice, first for Micah to help her, then for her child to be brought to her." The woman had killed Micah, and was wel aware of it. Her reaction to ask Micah for help reminds me of Xavier always thinking about Elijah and where he was while he was on his canoe ride home. Xavier defiantely knew that he had killed his friend. Was this denial, or was it madness?
Xavier even says a few times that he wonders where Elijah is, and i seriously question the fact that this is just blocked from his memory.

xaviers loss of hearing during the war forced him to live within himself, because he could not hear or understand what was going on around him. This put him in a sort of solitary confinement, and Elijah was his communicative device. i sometimes wonder if when Xavier lost touch with reality and viewed Eljah as his enemey since he was the reason Xavier was at war. Also, Elijah is what kept Xavier involved with the troops because otherwise, Xavier likely would have left and returned home.

When I switch the context of who is truly Windigo, I also think of the situation where Elijah is awareded medals and recieves praise, and Xavier is always wondering "what about me." At some point in the story he wonders to himself what was different about him, and up until this point I thought that it was because Elijah was such a good killer and such an outspoken person. But what if it was that the others could see Xaviers decent into madness? No one in the troops wanted to get to know Xavier, but Elijah was Xaviers link to the world outside of his deaf ears.

The biggest problem with this theory is that at no point does Xavier appear to enjoy killing people, and as far as we know he does not eat anyone. So from here, I wonder, was there a Windigo, or was there just pure insantiy?
In the scene where Xavier is killing Elijah, I felt that there was a degree of self defence in Elijah. Xavier was paranoid about Elijah for along time, and maybe his paranoya came from his own madness. Elijah asks "why?" when xavier started to strangle him, and sometimes I wonder if Elijah had been trying to help Xavier and that is why he had tried to get time alone with him.

I realise that there are alot of holes in this theory, but can you imagine the difference it would make if it was just Xaviers insanity that caused him to believe that Elijah was a windigo? what if the story was told from the perspective of Elijah?

All in all, i really liked the story. I thought it was great and very well written. I also really enjoyed everyone elses post on it!

Jim's Response to "Fugitive Pieces"

The image above is Idhra, Greece, and to the right is a photo of the reconstructed site of Biskupin, Poland: similar to our Barkerville.

Having read Fugitive Pieces, I am rather dissappointed with the last third of the book concerning the way it was structured. I was moving right along until page 201 when I had to ask myself; " Who is this and where am I?" Reflecting back, I now see the rest of the book from p.201 on, as a separate novel that refers back to the first section before page 201. Even though I believe I now understand why the author did this, I also at the same time believe it could have been done in such a way that the reader did not feel so lost at this point in the book. Of course, the author could have and probably did want the reader to feel lost at this point to emphasize how it must have felt for Jacob or Ben or one the other characters to feel, but for me the feeling of not knowing what was going on totally blinded any insights I might have had as to having felt as the characters did.

Having said that, I realize that in our society we have been raised to expect our stories (in whatever form) to end in certain ways and usually with happy and positive or "resolved" endings, and in real life, stories do not always end that way. Fugitive Pieces does not end this way, so one could argue that it portrays more of a realistic look at what effects war can have on people - even penetrating through different generations. Though the character Jacob does appear to reach some acceptable (to himself) level of healing with help from Michaela, the character of Ben, whose parents were directly involved in the war, does not. Ben seems to be confused about the women in his life and Jacobs life as he leaves Naomi and then is not faithful to her when he sleeps with Petra, who interestingly enough reminded me of the description of Jacob's sister Bella. It also looked as though Ben thought he needed to find love in Greece in order to help him find Jacob's books, and it was because of Petra that he did find the journals - what was the author trying to say with that? I felt I was diving too deep and I had to come up for air.

Fugitive Pieces was an interesting read and for an overall theme I felt the author was trying to express her belief that war doesn't just mess up the lies of those involved, but also can mess up the lives of future generations. I believe the "entering of the fog" beginning on page 201 was done on purpose as the author believed the story was following too much of a path towards a traditional ending and she wanted to steer away from that. By sending the reader into "the fog" and then not revealing how Jacob and Michaela never made it back to the house, and ending with Ben's issues not resolved; forces the reader to focus on the message of the novel: the evil resulting from war can persevere for generations.

Behind the Times

Well, the title of this post speaks to where I am - sorry for the delay in adding comments to your posts/reader responses. I will make some comments over the weekend, I promise. This is a reminder that next week is Reading Week. I will be here, in the office, most days with the likely exception of Thursday. Do come and see me if you want some assistance with your papers.

For those of you who weren't at this week's class, we decided to return to weekly meetings (not during Reading Week of course). We will also continue blogging, and no one who cannot come to the classes during the weeks scheduled as Web Weeks will be penalized. But you will miss some lively discussion!

This is Chorley Park - what a beautiful building.  It is talked about in Fugitive Pieces on pages 106-108.  

I love histories of buildings so I thought I'd add this picture and a link to a brief history of Chorley Park.

http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/exhibits/architecture/record_chorley.htm

Aldea Three Day Road

Some themes that I have pondered on, that had also been mentioned by Jim and Rachelle are: Binary oppositions - Native/Caucasion, Male/Female, Good/Bad, Right/Wrong & Alive/Dead

Racism - Fritz, Germans, Canadians, Huns, Natives & French

Traditions - Hunting, Death/Burial, Celebration, Appreciation, Mourning & Stories

Roles - Female, Male, Church, Town, War > Heirarchy vs. Linear

Life and Death.

What a novel! I read this novel wondering the whole time who is the hero? Is this a novel about heroism? and if so, who is the hero? Niska, Elijah, Xavier or Fat. I am overwhelmed by the characters because they are potentially real for someone and they had a role in the first world war that was to change how wars have been fought previously.

Elijah, did he go crazy or was he the normal one, was it Xavier who went crazy because he couldn't understand the dynamics of this war the way that Elijah had. Who went Wendigo???

Niska, was she a real person, or a spirit that many people incommon encountered during different periods of their lives? Was she just the spirit of their past, of the old ways that would bring those back home who were willing to right their wrongs, and was she the angel of death to send someone to their maker if they were unwilling to admit to their wrongs?

Who was right, and who was wrong to do what they had to do? The novel Three Day Road is a story about the war from the perspective of Niska and Xavier, Cre from Moose Factory, but yet there was so much more.

Blanca - you sure know how to make a student think for days on end, and still find no definate conclusion, but yet in being inconclusive, been given a conclusion in that.

Jim's Response to Three Day Road

(photo is Francis Pegahmagabow: Ojibwa World War l hero and inspiration for "Three Day Road" - for his story, go to: http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/other/native/peaceful )

Everyone must someday take the journey on the "three day road" - this was a prevailing thought when I had finished reading Three Day Road. It was an excellent novel, though I could not always call it enjoyable. To me this story explored in depth the issues of life and death, and contrasted these two issues within the native and caucasian cultures of that time, and how they all related to World War l.

I found the two sex scenes in book interesting in that both of them involved a coming together of the two races and both of them ended in dissapointment for Niska and Xavier, but not necessarily for the trapper or Lisette. I believe Boyden was making a statement here referring to how First Nations people have always been treated poorly by non-native Canadians traditionally. It could also be surmised that a warning is being issued with the relating of how the trapper died because of Niska. This warning could be applied to either men who choose to treat first nation women in a demeaning manner, or the poor treatment of/or towards first nation people in general. The incident caused me to ponder the idea of curses and how many curses have been put on non native people over the years. Do you beleive in curses?

Similair to Broken Ground, I recieved even more insight into the horrors and senseless loss of human life that is war and I gained an even larger understanding of why veterans that I have talked to did not wish to share their experiences. With incidents such as the killing of innocent civilians, as depicted in the scene where Elijah kills them thinking he is protecting Xavier, these incidents, whether or not they are intentional, are not something one would want to talk of later on. Other attrocities include the scalping, the methods of warfare (nerve gas), the treatment of prisoners, and of course racism.

I feel I have gained much insight from reading Three Day Road I am glad that the issues talked about in it are finally being addressed today.

Jim's Response to Broken Ground

Here are the pictures I wanted to share with everyone. They are both taken near Sechelt, which is across the Strait of Georgia and south a bit from Merville; the area that the story is based upon, so the geography should be similar. In the first photo there is a stump pile and this along with the debris that is everywhere really gives a sense ( at least to me )of the amount of work needed to clear this type of land. The second picture shows the size and amount of stumps present and I have just now noticed that they are both in the same location (note church in background) and the first photo shows work done after the second photo was taken.

In Broken Ground, I found that there were a lot themes being addressed and I was not really getting a feel for what the main theme of the book was as a whole, if there was one. This led to me pondering the title of the book: 'broken ground'. As I thought about this title, I came to the conclusion that perhaps a theme (or one of the main themes) of this book is upheaval, destruction and change. Looking at the photo on the front cover and having not yet read the book, one might just see a man plowing a field; as I did. After reading the book, however, I think that this picture says " Wow, look at what I have accomplished!" The man in the photo could be reflecting on what the land looked like when he first viewed it (pics above) and how impossible it had seemed that he would be able to persevere and survive the task of clearing the land. Because the book also looks at the parallel theme of the men surviving and dealing with the war, this photo could also represent how the characters (especially Matt) survive and learn to live with the upheaval and destruction, or broken ground in their lives that is caused from the war. The man in the picture on the cover, who represents the surviving characters in the book, is proudly showing the world that he conquered the hell that is: 1) clearing the land, and 2) dealing with the war.

Rachelle's Three Day Road Response

The novel "Three Day Road," by author Joseph Boyden, was an enthralling and seductive read. It was one of those rare novels where I found myself not only wanting to know what would come next, but needing to know. The three main protagonists: Xavier, Niska, and Elijah were all emotionally charged characters, each with many levels and layers of emotion. This novel was incredibly magnetizing from start to finish, due to the structure, consisting of a series of flashbacks intertwined with the present. These flashbacks from Niska and Xavier revealed how the both Xavier and Elijah came to live with Niska, how the boys became such great hunters , and how Niska came to accept her destiny as a Windigo killer.

One of the most interesting links in this novel is the link made between Elijah and Xavier's hunting abilities. The boys learned how to hunt animals with one another at home in Canada and then later use those skills to hunt humans in the war. This link made by Boyden, was absolutely brillant and revealed the true gruesomeness to the acts that were committed in the war.

I enjoyed the Canadian perspective on the war in this novel and furthermore, the Native perspectives presented. I felt that it was an important element to the novel that Boyden made it clear to his readers, the important role that Canada's Native played in the war.

In addition to all of these factors, was the different reactions to the war that Elijah and Xavier experienced. For Xavier, he was reasonable about his actions, killed because he was in a posistion where he had to or he would lose his own life and felt remorse for his actions. Elijah however, was unreasonable, killed for personal glory, and felt no remorse for his actions.

Lastly, Niska's stories told to her Nephew Xavier on their journey home about her past familiarized the reader to her. It was interesting to learn how the events of the novel came to be through Niska's memories. Not to mentiont those risking sections where she recalls her sexual past and decision to become a Windigo character.

Essay Topics

Well, your first essays are due on February 26th. These should be short essays of around 4-5 pages, clear, concise, and coherent...

Use the discussion questions from the post on Joseph Boyden to generate your essays. These can be developed to include discussion of Broken Ground. You may write a comparative essay if you like, or focus on one of the two novels. Your reader responses can lead you to some solid essay topics. The questions are quite general - you will need to narrow them down to create a strong sense of your topic. You will also want to think about meaning as you write... Go beyond what the book is about; think about what it means, in larger abstract terms. What are the issues that these novels address? I think about the challenge of representation here, for instance.

Let's get some discussion on topics going here! Note that I will be away for the weekend, and back on Tuesday, so you may not hear much from me until then.

Remember, the idea of using this Blog instead of classtime is for you to develop your own skills in terms of research direction and reading!

Hollys thoughts on Broken Ground

Holly Durocher
January 31 2008
Reader Response: Broken Ground by Jack Hodgins

Like many of you, this is the second time I have read Broken Ground. The second read was a quick one, and this time I mostly applied the novels context to regionalism, and how the community was a representative of the war.
The novel is centered in a small community of ex-soldiers and their families who end up in strange circumstances after the war.
-The soldiers are put in the position where they are to save, protect and care for their families at high stakes. This fact is reminiscent of the war, and the men are the captains trying to protect and keep their troops alive.
-The wives tried to “keep things together” with the home and family, managing the best they could in a difficult situation.
-Fathers were emotionally absent instead of physically absent.
- The community was composed of many different kinds of people from different geographical backgrounds. (Just like the troops who lived together in the barracks).
I could go on forever about all these factors that support my statement that the community represents the war... but now I want to talk about the changing point of view in the story. I believe some of you may not have liked this, but I think it is an effective way for Hodgins to create a “3-D” view of the people’s lives in Portuguese Creek. Readers get a more intimate look at the workings of the families and the way the society is run. Most of us have some sort of a history background and have a mild understanding of the way the troops lived and worked together, and the actions/thoughts/feelings of several different characters makes the story more well rounded, in my opinion.

Meanings

Hey everyone.
I am thinking about the scenes in the story where the windigo's (did i spell that right?) were being killed.

Strangulation is the key. Why. It is up close and personal, and in the case of Xavier he looks right in the eyes of the man, or Windigo, that he is kiling. They had other ways of "hunting" and killing prey, so why strangulation.

Any thoughts?

Link to Quill & Quire

OK - one more link, for interest sake.  It's an author profile of Joseph Boyden.

http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/profile.cfm?article_id=6573

Anne's response to Three Day Road

Here a couple of maps: the first is of Hudson's Bay and the second shows that Moose Factory is the end of the "handle" of the bay.

This was such an interesting book – I really enjoyed it.  The style that Boyden wrote with really caught me as a reader.  I couldn’t put my finger on it until class today when we talked about the novel being similar to oral storytelling; the short sentences, not always ‘correct’ grammatically – it was as if I was living/hearing the story, not just reading it.  I was there in the trenches, in the craters.  I could feel the spirits as they came to Niska in her shaking tent.  Joseph Boyden never allowed me to be bored – I was engaged from start to finish.

With that said, I was a bit disappointed in the end scene when Niska and Xavier come out of the sweat lodge.  I guess I wanted to know with absolute certainty that Xavier recuperates and goes on to live a full life.  I did not get that feeling.  It was vague and open ended – anything could happen.  Is it really Xavier that Niska sees guarding the two boys?  She doesn’t even confirm it but simply says, “I know who he is, and who those boys are too” (381).   Like I said, I like things to end my way, but then again, I’m not the author!

The war scenes were very brutal but I again have to say that reading about it did not affect me, as it would have if I had seen this as a movie.  I was moved with compassion for many of the characters and situations but I wasn’t disturbed by it, even when Elijah starts scalping his ‘kills’.  After thinking about this some more, I realized that my imagination, as vivid as it can be sometimes, sees in black and white, not colour.  My mind’s eye sees blood and guts in black, white, and grey – this is not as powerful as seeing it in full colour (like on a movie screen).

There is so much to this book that I think it’s an impossibility to cover it all in just two weeks.  I will leave you with a link to the Macleans article that I mentioned in class today - Windigo in the First World War:

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20050527_180400_6736

Discussion Questions

Here are some discussion questions for Three Day Road from the Penguin website. Some of these could lead to good essays. But don't worry, I'll post an "offical list" to keep you all happy!


DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Why does Joseph Boyden use two narrators to tell the story of Three Day Road? What effects does he create by interweaving Niska's and Xavier's narratives?

Niska tells Xavier about the stories her father told her family. “Sometimes his stories were all that we had to keep us alive” (p. 33). What role do stories play within the novel?

Why does Niska spend so much time telling Xavier stories of the past? Why does she say that she “feeds” him stories? What effect do her stories have on him?

Early in the novel, Thompson asks Elijah if he likes combat and killing, to which Elijah responds: “It's in my blood.” But Thompson doesn't ask Xavier, who thinks: “Does he sense something? How am I different?” (p. 69). How is Xavier different from Elijah? How do they each feel about combat and killing? In what ways are they alike?

Elijah has a dream in which three of his dead fellow soldiers tell him: “Do what you can. There is nothing sacred any more in a place such as this. Don't fight it. Do what you can” (p. 261). How does Elijah interpret this? Are these spirits right in suggesting that in war nothing is sacred and that a soldier should do whatever he can—even if it involves killing innocent people—to survive and win?

In what ways is it significant that Xavier and Elijah are Cree Indians? How do the Canadian soldiers perceive them? What aspects of their traditional ways of life affect how they perform during the war?

How does Niska begin to cure Xavier of his despair and morphine dependence? What does this cure suggest about the difference between Native American and Western views of medicine and healing?

Niska has the gift of receiving visions. What do her visions reveal to her? How do they guide her?
What does the novel as a whole say about war and what it can do to those who must kill in war? How are Elijah and Xavier changed, physically and spiritually, by their experiences in war?
In what ways is Three Day Road relevant to our own time and circumstance?







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Aldea's Response

Greetings Everyone!!!

The first time I had read Broken Ground I was fascinated by the reworkings of a new life for these people on Vancouver Island. I liked the roles that the women took and how their roles were not controlled by the social norms that would have been expected of them from the main land. I also enjoyed the raw nature of Vancouver Island and how it shaped them into a strong group that learned to work together and become a part of each other's lives, dependent of each other.

The second time reading this novel my thoughts were a little darker. The land they are fighting to reshape has metaphorically represented the land that some had fought for, a dark memory of conquoring their homes once again.

One of my favorite imageries was the image of the boys in the pond watching the forest burn down all around them. This imagery must conjure up dark memories of the battles fought, how buildings were burned down and everything that they had once relied upon soon crashed to the ground into a pile of rubble.

Broken Ground recreates a war and metaphorically symbolises the rise and fall of nations, the rebuilding of societies, the different effects of older and younger generations, and the alliances made through sheer desperation.

I wonder now, what my third impression of this novel will be.

Aldea

Anne's reader response

Okay - if this works, I've found how to do a post without having to bug Blanca :-)

Here it is:

Reading this a second time around was an interesting experience.  I didn’t have the “who the heck is speaking now?” confusion that I did the first time.  I think that made it easier for me to focus on the story (stories) itself.  I still had to re-read the parts about Elizabeth and the fire – is it truly possible that she was untouched by the flames or is it that Matt could only see her in the ‘perfect angel status’ to which she had been elevated?  I believe the latter; to Matt, Elizabeth represented the only piece of goodness that he could find in the whole War (303).   To loose that connection with Elizabeth would allow the horror of France to be foremost in his mind, and at that time, he was not ready to let that happen.  Only in going to France and facing his demons was he able to come to a place of strange healing, oddly enough admitting that he remembered Elizabeth as untouched by flames (272), yet still holding on to the impossible prospect of her “lying in a secret room of the hospital where nuns and doctors looked in on her, poured nourishment down her throat, [speaking] to her in the hope that she might hear and awake. . . . He smiled, allowing himself to believe that it might be true” (272-3). 

 

I suppose it could be said that Matt Pearson was delusional; I think that is too easy of an answer.  No one in Broken Ground escaped the War with easy answers and I think Hodgins did an excellent job of showing us that with his kaleidoscope of characters.

Pics reprise

Okay, I'm trying to post some pictures that Jim sent me, but I am not sure whether this worked or not... So, this is a test.

History and Broken Ground

I thought I'd post a little more food for thought... I think it's hard to find historical truth in texts like Broken Ground because the book keeps insisting on pulling the rug out from underneath our feet whenever we think we have figured out what the novel is "all about." It suggests, instead, to me, what Hutcheon said, that historical knowledge is always provisional and indeterminate. This isn't, of course, the same as denying historical knowledge, but it does cause us to constantly question what we know and how we know it. And it addresses the problem of representation.

The story is a way of making sense of the past, but one can always tell what is ostensibly the same story in different ways. The way that Hodgins has structured this novel, with its multiple narrative voices and its disjointed timelines, suggests a refusal of any history that is totalizing. There is also a refusal of nostalgia, and of sentimentality.

The characters in the novel are reporting as particpants in the stories that are expressed. They are not outside the story as a neutral observer (or an omniscient narrator) might be. They are very aware that they are (re)constructing their own history, and the novel itself becomes a self-refelxive commentary on its own constructin as a literary text. As Hutcheon has noted and asked, "The past really did exist. The question is: how can we know that past today - and what can we know of it?" In some ways Hodgins' novel doesn't allow us to ask the question in terms of distinguishing between historical fact and fiction: it suggests, instead, that both history and fiction are discourse. They are signifying systems that gesture towards how we use language to construct meaning.

Rachelle's Response to Broken Ground

Broken Ground Rachelle Ekeli
The emotional scaring and aftermath of the First World War is played out in the community of Portuguese Creek, in “Broken Ground.” The men of the community have returned home from the war in Europe and are attempting to move on with their lives and forget about the horrors that they witnessed or they themselves committed. However, it soon becomes evident that all of their attempts to forget the war is less than successful and that the war is still very much alive in memory to them.
I really enjoyed all the different elements that this story brought forth. The love triangle was an interesting element intertwined between the daily activities of the community and the graphic memories of the war. The amount of dedication and description committed to the war in the novel was great. Author Jack Hodgins, was not only able to write about a war he himself had never seen, but he was able to recreate it in my mind as well.
Another part of this novel that was fascinating was the little bits and pieces of information that was gradually given to the reader throughout the novel about Elizabeth. At first I assumed she was Maude and Mathew Pearson’s child. Then you are almost lead to believe that she was adopted by Matthew while he was in Europe fighting in the war. However, later it becomes clear that Elizabeth is Matthew’s biological daughter and that Maude is not her mother and in fact had to not only open her heart to the little girl, but forgive her own husband.
The paternity of Elizabeth lead me to wonder how often that sort of thing would have happened during the war. How many children there may be in Europe with American, Australian or Canadian fathers they have never met.
Lastly, this novel lead me to a question which I have attempted to answer by searching for documents on the internet. How many men couldn’t live with or deal with the memories of war and resorted to suicide? In my search I found that it was actually a rather high rate. Below, I have provided some links to the web sites I found with information about Soldier suicide rates after serving in a war.
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/september172007/oregon_suicide_rates_091707.php
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/08/16/AR2007081600266.html
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/6/167
Rachelle

Broken Ground

Well, we're all here now, so let's get started. I'm not sure how big these posts can or should be, but I'll start by bringing up some general thoughts regarding the representation of war/trauma. I wanted to bring your attnetion to a book by Dagmar Novak who wrote Dubious Glory. She argues that the early works of World War I were often romance, where pure and virtuous heroes descend into the hell of war and then ultimately emerge, perhaps dead, perhaps wounded, but not tainted, psychologically or emotionally. She says that later, in the 1920s and 30s, this mode was followed by a kind of brutal realism, and then, when works about World War II started coming out, the mode shifted again to a kind of sharp irony. One reviewer of Novak's book, however, has noted that one thing she overlooks are some of the rhetorical problems inherent in representing the horrors of war.

Another scholar, Dominick LaCapra, has written a book called Writing History, Writing Trauma. Some of the questions that his book raises are: what does the writing of history have to do with writing trauma? Are certain forms of representation better suited to the transmission of trauma than others? How can a historical writing of trauma speak to the specificity of a past event while paying attention to its connections with the present?

I think that these are all important questions that we can ask ourselves in connection to Broken Ground as well as many of the other novels that we will be reading in this course. The problem of language is a big problem. Language is never neutral, never sufficient, never accurate in its representations of reality. The idea that we can get at the "neutral" facts of the war is something that, I think, Hodgins questions throughout his novel.

The relationship of history to memory is also important, as we discussed last week. Some critics have said that it is memory - our ability to remember - that makes us persevere, as well as our ability to forget. It is important, therefore, to choose our memories carefully. But, in some of the experiences that Matt and the other characters in Broken Ground describe, I wonder if it is possible to choose memories. None of the characters in the book really want to talk about their war experiences, but those experiences continually haunt them and are, in fact, played out in the present through their battle with the land. The war against nature that these characters are fighting on Vancouver Island is a replication of the WWI experience, right down to the importance of the explosives expert who blows up the stumps. History - an old history from the old world - intrudes on a place that is most often associated with no history, a clean slate.

Well, these are some first thoughts. As you comment, I will add more. If we seem to be moving onto a very different topic, I'll just create a new post.

Map of Portuguese Creek

Anne supplied us with a link to a map of Portuguese Creek. Check it out: http://www.jackhodgins.ca/portuguesecreek.htm

Beginnings

Hi Everyone - I've sent an email to all of you to invite you to this blog. Can all of you respond just so that I know things have worked to this stage? Blanca