Class discussion of Fugitive Pieces and key passages.
Look over the chapter notes for "Vertical Time" and the Reader's Guide questions 1-5 below. With a partner, discuss the questions and post a comment to them.
1. Why is the first section of the novel entitled "The Drowned City?" Why is the title repeated for a later section?
2. Jakob says that Athos's fascination with Antarctica "was to become
our azimuth. It was to direct the course of our lives" [33]. Why do you
think Antarctica obsessed Athos? How does the story of the Scott
expedition relate to that of Athos and Jakob? Do you agree with Jakob
that Athos's fascination directed their lives?
3. "When the prisoners were forced to dig up the mass graves, the dead
entered them through their pores and were carried through their
bloodstreams to their brains and hearts. And through their blood into
another generation" [52], Jakob writes, and later, "It's no metaphor to
feel the influence of the dead in the world" [53]. How does the theme of
the dead's influence on the living work itself out in the course of the
novel?
4. The communist partisans in Greece, who had valiantly resisted the
occupying Nazis, themselves committed terrible atrocities after the war,
as Kostas and Daphne relate. Do you agree with their theory that
violence is like an illness that can be caught, and that the Greeks
caught it from the Germans [72]? What other explanations can be offered?
5. "I already knew the power of language to destroy, to omit, to
obliterate," says Jakob. "But poetry, the power of language to restore:
this was what both Athos and Kostas were trying to teach me" [79]. What
instances does the novel give of the destructive power of language? In
what ways does writing--both the writing of poetry and of
translations--help to heal and restore Jakob? Does silence--the
cessation of language--have its own function, and if so, what might it
be?
Continue to work on your short story and vocabulary notes page.
Hannah and Yulyia:
ReplyDelete1. The first section of the novel is called “The Drowned City” because Biskupin, the city where Jakob Beer lived as a child, often flooded leaving marshy bogs. Later in the novel, Jakob moves to Toronto, a city that also floods, drawing parallels between his past and his present.
2. Jakob and Athos probably felt some kinship to the explorers in the Scott expedition. The explorers in the Scott Expedition died climbing down a mountain with a lot of fossils. In the book, Jakob and Athos are carrying their own fossils in the form of the memories of the atrocities and loss they have experienced in life.
3. Jakob is haunted throughout his entire life by the memory of his dead sister, Bella. Because he cannot shake her memory, he ends up destroying every relationship he has with women for the rest of his life.
4. The Germans are by no means the only people in history who have had the capacity to be horrible. When a group of people is given power, like the Germans had during the war and like the communist Greek partisans had after the war, the have the potential to abuse it. This is not necessarily a learned behavior, but it is definitely one that can be easily replicated by people in positions of authority.
5. As Jakob becomes a poet, language and writing gives him a way to escape the memories of Bella and his parents. By writing about the horrible experiences that he has had, he is able to begin to find peace with his memory.
Caleb / Tibbs
ReplyDelete1. The first section is title "The Drowned City" because it's literally about a drowned and buried settlement, but it also metaphorically refers to the drowning of Jakob's life up to that point.
2. I think Antarctica obsessed Athos so much because he really, really liked studying the earth, and there is no other place like Antarctica. Also, from his description it seems he was remotely lonely before meeting Jakob, and the Antarctic landscape was a place of loneliness. Furthermore, Athos relates the expedition with his dead wife since he had an opportunity to go while his wife was still alive. The story of the Scott expedition relates to the lives of Jakob and Athos because like the expedition, Jakob and Athos are essentially traveling through a barren landscape after the Germans came through and started attacking, and the only ones they can completely rely on are each other. I agree with Jakob that Athos's fascination directed their lives, since there are multiple occasions where the story goes on and on about the Scott expedition, each time relating it to the current situation of Athos and Jakob.
3. Throughout the entirety of the novel, the influence of the dead resurfaces. When Jakob first leaves his village, he feels the spirit of his dead family. Later, Jakob starts to feel that his family is still protecting him whenever Daphne embraces him. Also, Athos has a connection to both his dead brother and wife, with him revisiting memories of his brother a few times. We haven't reached too many tales of his dead wife Helen yet, but from the memories we've gotten we can understand why he is so obsessed with the Scott expedition.
4. Yes, because it's well known that people's personalities are influenced by the people that they interact with, so it's logical that the Greeks would "catch" the illness of violence. There are other explanations such as revenge, but they don't necessarily disprove the illness idea.
5. One example of the destructive power of language is when the man bought the "lamb" and it turned out to be a dead dog. The man that sold it used his words to make it seem like lamb, causing the man to buy what was really a dead dog for all the money he had on him. Writing helps to heal Jakob by giving him a way to record his stories, which help to get his memories out there and not pent in. Silence does hold a function, which would be the reflecting on past experiences and bringing together your memories, which could be both helpful and harmful and could possibly lead to writing.
1. The first chapter is set in Biskupin, a town that used to be a settlement for ancient people until the water table rose and they were forced out of a drowning city. the title also refers to the events that Jakob goes through in this chapter, how his past is 'drowned' by the Nazis and their attack on his family.
ReplyDelete2. The Scott story is all about people who cared so much for science that they eventually gave their lives for it. It also is about finding beauty in the most dangerous and terrible conditions. Wilson shows the beauty in of science with his water colors which is something Athos does by explaining everything to Jakob. Jakob makes beautiful observations during his time at Athos's house, creating beauty during chaos.
3. Jakob's dead, his mother, father, and sister, are with him throughout the novel. He never really lets go of them, especially Bella; "I hesitated in the doorway, that I was letting Bella enter ahead of me, making sure she was not left behind," (31). His remembering her later becomes a problem when he tries to have a relationship but can't fully let someone else in because of the deaths that happened around him so early in life.
4. I think that when you are around a certain thing, like violence, for a long time it starts to wear off on you. If you are beaten down for everything you do, you are going to start beating others down the first chance you get. Constantly being surrounded by violence can make someone who was already on the brink of insanity tip over the edge and make them just as terrible as the people who were tormenting them.
5. In the novel, language is used as a destructive force when Kostas shows him the harsh letters of rebellion: "V" and "M", little bursts of resistance against the Nazi occupation. There are many instances where language is shown as a healing power. The book of poems from Kostas and the stories told by Athos have a healing effect. The learning of new languages help Jakob to sew together his wounds, make him feel safe again. As he says on page 48, he had imagined him and Athos "sharing secret languages", but he discovered that it was everywhere. Language helped Jakob to bond more deeply with Athos and start to form new relationships just as strong as he had had with his family.
From Amelia and Clara
Neriah & Jack
ReplyDelete1. The title alone is like a metaphor for all the pain that swept over the city. I think it's because it's where his life began to change completely. In the chapter Jakob is running through the river. He was all alone. When someone's drowning the pain lasts the longer they try to fight it, but once they stop fighting the pain stops. Jakob's main issue throughout the course of the book is letting go, it's like drowning he's fighting and hurting himself the more he holds onto his past.
2. I think that Jakob and Athos were able to feel a connection to the Scott Expedition because these explorers froze to death, they died carrying fossils, history. Both Athos and Jakob are carrying the heavy burdens of their own past, their painful histories. Athos being a geologist he understands earth's ability to preserve history, he has this spiritual approach to everything and comparing their live's to Earth's, Earth is constantly changing. But it does still has some ties to its history.
3. One of the prime examples of the effect of the dead on the living is Jakob himself. Over the course of the novel he is struggling with the memory of his sister, and how to let go. For a long time it over complicates his life by preventing him to have a strong relationship with a women.
4. I think that violence can be caught. People begin to see it as "the norm" and lose sight of any voice of conscience. Germans of course aren't the only people that have been cruel in history, when people get power or feel superior they can begin to treat others horribly to heighten their level of authority.
5. Through writing Jakob is able to release his emotions and slowly begin to get over the loss of his sister. Language is strong, words have the power to hurt and the power to heal.