Free Write

In concluding the blog portion of the class and upon writing the final paper there are just some things I’ve been thinking about in relation to the class. One, is that I think the blog posts are really helpful and useful to the class. I know for myself personally there are alot of times when I forget something I want to say in class yet there is still a place for me to put those thoughts where everyone can see and comment on it. I’m not very tech savvy but I think blogging is a good tool to use for thought outside of the classroom.  The ability to comment on classmates blogs has given me many new perspectives to readings that I hadn’t thought about when reading it alone.  Another thing that I think has been helpful with the blogging is that its given me my own notes as a tool to look back to while writing the paper and remember things that I may have otherwise forgotten.  When choosing what to do for the topic of my paper I noticed that what interested me the most throughout the blogs was character relationships and form within the novel which I hope to ultimately make my paper argue that the author’s intentionality through form is deliberate in a way that the form and content are supposed to make a reader feel a certain emotion or atleast provide various ways to evoke certain reader responses.  Hopefully the thoughts I have in my head will make sense on paper!

End of The Keep

I guess I’ll start by saying that I totally didn’t see that ending coming! It’s funny to think that something I thought was so poorly written when first beginning this novel to thinking how brilliantly written it actually was when reflecting back on it. 

One of the things I was most fascinated with throughout this novel was the play on the imaginary vs. real concept.  When Howard commented on the purpose of the hotel was the shed the real/unreal binary I thought that certainly had a bigger meaning than just within the contents of the hotel itself (198).  As we had talked about in class the role of confinement throughout the novel, I think this was one of those instances where confining the real/unreal binary to just the purpose of the hotel itself would be impossible considering there was so much commentary on the binary through relationships outside of the so called imaginative story written by Ray. 

I thought this novel used so many conventional aspects of tradional novels such as gender construction for example, but used them in a totally untraditional sort of way. There was something about this novel that intriqued me and made me question what was going to happen next and what I as a literary reader and what I as a casual reader wanted to get out of it.  I think Egan wrote this novel in such an interesting way because it could be read and enjoyed but so many different spectrum of readers.  In example, those who were reading just for pure enjoyment and plot, and those more literary readers who picked about characterization, structure, form, etc.  I know this isn’t a question that can have a definitive answer, but possibly the wide spectrum of readership is what makes a novel a good novel…

Continuing The Keep

I think for this blog post I’d like to try to put into writing the thoughts my group had on the theme of Imagination vs. Reality within the novel.  I’m sure that what I was trying to say was a bit hard to understand so I’m hoping it comes across better in writing.

In referring to imagination within the novel, Ray and Davis seem to have competely different viewpoints, although Davis finally feels for once that someone seems to understand him.  We came to the conclusion that between writing the novel and Davis’ box that communicates with the dead shows a play on imagination.  To Ray, if you use imagination to create fictional characters than that is acceptable, but he thinks Davis is crazy because he’s using an imaginatory communication device to try to connect with the actual dead.  Apparently, Ray thinks the line was crossed through imagination because Davis is no longer using imagination for fictious reasons only (as Ray is with writing a novel based on characters), rather he is using his imagination to connect with a real thing, the dead. 

Ray expresses his feelings toward Davis and his imagination when saying, “I’ve been calling Davis crazy from day one, but in all that time I missed out on the fact that he’s actually crazy, as in nuts.  A genuine bug.  A bug who thinks he’s built a machine that can talk to ghosts” (104).  This shows the difference that Ray feels between his use of imagination and Davis’ use of imagination, and how Davis’ seems to be completely inapropriate to Ray. 

Overall, I feel as though I’m really getting into this novel.  I’m wondering how Egan is going to tie everything together from the story within the story. I’m looking forward to the ending!

Beginning of The Keep

From the very beginning of this novel, I’d have to say that it’s so unusually done that it has certainly sparked an interest in me.  I’m not usually one who goes for novels about castles or imaginatory games like Terminal Zeus, however, there is something about The Keep that keeps me intrigued.

I’d also admit that through the first twenty pages or so I was wondering how in the world this novel got published with such poor structure and grammar, but upon learning that Ray, a prisoner in an English class, was writing this novel I thought it all made sense.  This novel seems to comment alot on how we as a society view writing and the structure process shown and just how difficult it could be to write a novel or how hard it is to sometimes get your point across.  For example, this was shown in the text through the lines, “He was heading into memory number two, I might as well tell you that straight up, because how I’m supposed to get him in and out of all these memories in a smooth way so nobody notices all the coming and going I don’t know” (12).  If this were writing done from the perspective of Egan we would think this was awful writing, however coming from Ray’s point of view we see the struggle that a person is going through in trying to get across to the reader the difficulties in explaining his character’s thoughts.

I think the biggest challange with this novel is going to be trying to keep all of the characters and which layer of the novel they are associated with correct.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this will all develop, hopefully getting more of Ray’s personal story.

Conclusion of Native Speaker

I have to admit, the ending wasn’t quite what I thought it might be.  For Henry’s sake, I’m happy he and Lelia got back together and seemed much happier pursuing his life as a “Speech Monster.”  I think this attachment and the fulfillment he felt with this job was solely based on Mitt and being around children who remindind him of his son.  The line, “WHen I embrace them, half pick them up, they are just that size I will forever know, that very weight so wondrous to me, and awful” has such a significant meaning but is so hard to imagine feeling that emotion (349).  I think it’s amazing for Henry’s character to be able to even move on with his life with some type of normalacy after losing a child, let alone for both parents to be surrounded by children that are just like the one they lost. 

Culture seemed to play a major role throughout this novel.  One of the most interesting lines I thought on commenting aboutAmericans was, “They are every shape and color but they still share this talk, and this is hte other tongue they have learned, this must be the special language” (340).  I think this signifies how racially and culturally different Americans may be, yet we are all united under the English language and united in the same country. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and its many complexities with things that were understood on the surface and things I had to dig a little bit deeper for. This is one of those novels I wish there was a sequel to because I want to know what comes of the relationship with Henry and Lelia, do they stay together, do they have another child?  Maybe I missed something within the text, but I just wish I had some more answers..

Continuing Native Speaker

In reading this novel I feel as though I’ve read so many different important elements and themes that I’m certain I’ve missed so much with just one read through. There are so many layers to this novel where race and culture seem only to be the major umbrella themes. 

One part of the novel that really stuck out to me was the description of the Korean Family.  When describing John Kwang, Henry says, “I want to say that he is a family man, that being Korean and old-fashioned made him cherish and honor the institution, that his family was the basic unit of wealth in his life, everthing paling and tarnished before it” (146).  This description of the Korean family seemed imperative to the novel because it possibly was used as a distinguisher between the Korean and American ideals where it seems as though America as a whole is becoming so invested in wealth and work and family is possibly coming secondary.  I’m sure I’m stretching that idea but it just seemed really interesting to consider what role family plays in our lives now and where we place it on a priority scale. 

When considering Henry and family he seemed to certainly have a sort of rollercoaster journey.  With the death of his mother at such a young age and the working relationship he had with his father, followed by his child dying in such a bizarre way and his wife leaving him at one point my heart really went out to Henry when thinking of his family life.   I think that Chang-Rae Lee has done an outstanding job with presenting overall themes and underlying ones as well.

Beginning of Native Speaker

For starters, I just have to put out there that I think Native Speaker is my favorite novel so far this semester.  Chang-Rae Lee writes in a more modern way than the long drawn out language and description of Madame Bovary but not so crazy as Myra Breckinridge.  I think there’s a level of intrigue that interests me from the opening of the novel with the introduction of the “list” and how his wife has left him.  Although I say it isn’t as crazy as Myra Breckinridge, it certainly has its elements that seem really bizzarre, such as the way in which their child Mitt dies.

One thing that is confusing to me that I hope to get a better grasp on is Henry’s job.  The idea one of the core ideas in the groups discription is that they use manipulation is certainly an intriguing characteristic that leads me to want to unconver more.  The way in which Lee writes about so many topics within such a short number of pages, such as the relationship between Lelia and Henry, Mitt’s death, Henry’s parents, the housemaid, Dr. Luzan, Henry’s job, etc, shows how jumpy the novel is but the wide range of events it covers.  This is something that can be very frustrating while reading because just when I feel like I’m starting to understand something, the subject area changes again.

Overall, I’m very interested in the novel thus far.  I look forward to reading the rest to see how things tie together and most importantly how the list plays out if/when Lelia comes back.

Conclusion of Myra Breckinridge..

In concluding this novel for the second time, I can say I was a little bit more prepared for what was going to happen, but still shocked nonetheless.  Before reading Myra for the first time and after finishing it for the second time, I can still say no other novel comes close to this in terms of absurdity, vulgarity, and total opposition of what is usually found in novels.

In going along with Myra’s whole scheme to rearrange the gender roles, I found this statement she uses from Tyler’s, “Magic and the Myth of the Movies” extremely relative to her ideals where she quotes, “that by imitating the female the male believes that he becomes the female, thus automatically and unconsciously practicing the imitative variety of sympathetic magic” (254-255).  This just shows that regardless of who is male or female the actions that we sterotypically classify as masculine or feminine are the overrulers, meaning that if a man is sympathetic they automatically have a feminine trait.

The ending of this novel is definitely something that even after reading two times I can’t fully grasp.  Who would have thought that Myra/Myron would be married since she claimed so often that no MAN shall ever possess her, but she never said anything about a woman.  And who would have thought that perfect, masculine Rusty would be homosexual? I would imagine that his interaction with Myra would cause him to be messed up, but he acted in a similar way violating someone else as Myra did violating him.  Overall, I can’t say that I love this novel because of its content but it’s certainly one of those novels you can’t stop reading because it’s so bizarre.

The Use of Gender Roles in Myra..

In not saying too much yet because I don’t want to spoil the book for others, but I have to say that reading this novel for a second time makes me realize even more the constant explanation of what seems normal for traditional gender roles.  As we talked about in class the other day, sex and gender roles are a major theme throughout the novel, obviously enough because almost every sentence has something sexual about it.  Most of the statements are definitely over the top but kind of express in a broad sense how most Americans would stereotype the perfect people, the very sexual female and the very macho man.  I’m not necessarily agreeing with the way that the genders are expressed in this novel, and although they are way off on a tangent they are based on true stereotypical physical ideals.

Although the man and woman physical ideas are expressed in a more traditional way, the gender roles are completely reversed.  This role reversal is explained in great detail through the orgy scene.  The idea that “no man shall ever possess Myra Breckinridge” is certainly explained through her statement, “I need one man to break down, not twenty to serve” (112).  The concept of female dominance and her mission to change the gender roles is imperative in understanding why Myra acts the way she does.

Overall, I think I’m understanding this novel way better this time.  There are so many clues and foreshadowings that I missed the first time.  Brace yourself for the ending!

Beginning of Myra…

Although I have already read Gore Vidal’s, Myra Breckinridge, I have to admit it never gets old.  When reading the second time I found myself seeing new hints and foreshadows of what was to come, as well as major plot points I didn’t understand when reading the first time through.  In looking this time at Myra through the form of the novel, it seems to break or atleast alter so many traditional elements that I’m used to, although maybe it’s the content alone that is throwing me off.  The opening of the second chapter alone with the statement, “The novel being dead, there is no point to writing made-up stories” sets a tone for the rest of the novel (2).  Time in the form of the novel is expressed through the statement, “I shall not begin at the beginning since there is no beginning, only a middle into which you, fortunate reader, have just strayed, still uncertain as to what will be done to you in the course of our common voyage to the interior” (4).  The use of detail is also very important in this novel, although at times it seems way too graphic or explanatory, it is a signigicant part in understanding the over-the-top “New Woman” of Myra Breckinridge.  The Buck Loner reports with no type of proper punctuation is another strange element to the novel, but the further into the novel, the more important they become.  Overall, I’m looking forward to reading this novel again because it was so complex the first time, hopefully I’ll gain new meanings with another read.