Tag Archives: confusion

Week 13 – Fever Dream

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Huh?

This book lost me. It wasn’t as bad as Borges but I still felt lost and confused. I mean I think I understood the overall concept of the book but the little details here and there just confused me. I don’t know if I like or dislike this book, for me it’s just there, like something I don’t quite know how to feel about. I will say though, whether it was intended or not this book did a good job of making the reader feel uncomfortable and frustrated at times with the narration of the story.

Going back to how I felt reading the book, there was something about David’s character that made me feel uneasy. His interaction with Amanda was so strange and I always felt unnerved whenever he spoke. Everytime David said “that is not important”, I wanted to scream. Like why isn’t it important??? What do you know that we don’t know?? Every single time he said “that is not important” I anticipated something big to happen next because I had this uneasy feeling that there was going to be a big revelation. I don’t know what it was about David’s character that made me feel like we were playing a game, like somehow his mentions of certain details not being important, were all part of some kind of puzzle. It truly felt like David was playing a game with Amanda, like somehow he knew the end of the story but wanted Amanda to tell it. Maybe I just didn’t understand David as a character or maybe I just hated him. Either way his character was quite confusing and frustrating to me.

Moving on, the reason behind Amanda’s sickness was interesting. The idea that Amanda (and Nina) had been plagued by the poisonous water was a unique idea and wasn’t something I was expecting. Sometimes during the story I would forget that Amanda was sick, just because of the interaction between David and Amanda and how she was telling the story. I wish the importance of agriculture pesticides was explored more or mentioned more clearly during the book. Also, the symbolism behind the worms was interesting. They kind of represented the illness that was contracted from the pesticide spray in the water. Worms are tiny little things that grow and slither around you, without realizing, kind of like the illness that spread in Amanda.

Overall, this book was interesting and confusing, it truly felt like a fever dream. 

Question to think about: Why did the author chose to convey the importance of pesticide poisoning, in such a creepy and unnerving way? Did it add something more to story?

Week 5 – Labyrinths

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I didn’t like this book. We’ve read some interesting pieces for far in this course, and I have to say this one was my least favourite. I had such a hard time following along with the stories and this book started feeling like something I had to read for the sake of this class, rather then it being something I wanted to read till the end to see what happens. I can honestly and confidently say that I did not understand this book at all and I am still having a hard time making any sense of it. There were so many themes and different things going on that it frustrated me so much, that nothing connected. I have so many negative thoughts going through my mind about these short stories, but I can’t seem to put them into words. The only thing I can say clearly is that I have feelings of resentment towards the author, for creating something so confusing.

While I do have negative feelings towards the book, I will say that its title “Labyrinths” truly encompasses the book. I felt like I was trying to navigate the different stories throughout the book, in search of a deeper meaning that would tell me exactly what Borges was trying to convey to the audience. What was his main goal? What kind of answers to a deeper question did these stories answer? While I was reading I got the feeling like I was trapped in a maze, looking for the exit, that would never be found. Another thing with the stories was that some of them seemed to be somewhat connected to each other and others did not, kind of like an actual maze where some paths are connected and others lead to dead-ends.

I will however say, the story The Shape of the Sword stood out to me and was essentially the only story that made sense to me. There was a sort of raw and realness to it and it was one of the few stories that brought out some kind of emotion from me. The style of storytelling between the narrator and Englishman was interesting to read because it felt like a real dialogue between two people who just met. Which was a nice change from Borges usual writing style (in my opinion). Furthermore, the conversation between the two characters was honest and raw, that I could see myself having a conversation like that with a friend. The line “Then a sob went through his body” (99), was something I could picture clearly in my mind and understand the emotion being conveyed in that moment. Overall, even though I didn’t enjoy the reading and found myself constantly frustrated, I will say that this particular story was intriguing and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Question to think about: Do you think there was an underlying message behind these short stories? And if so what was it?