Tag Archives: Memory

Word of the day: phantasmagoria (Faces in the Crowd)

Hello everybody- the book this week was Luiselli’s “Faces in a crowd”, which I don’t even really know how to describe the plot…think ghosts but not really, a wife with a husband and 2 children but not really, and a girl working in a publishing firm as a translator that’s a bit obsessed with this dead author.

Im not exactly sure how this came to be but for every week I can sort of mentally imagine the story, and it was always tinged in yellow a, bid faded and fuzzy like how old TV was. But this weeks reading was finally in colour, and also above 840p resolution wise. Maybe it has to do with the electronic copy of the book being a super crisp white, but I think it mostly has to do with the tone of the writing now, as we are at the last book of the semester, meaning it’s a lot more recent. But even then, with the choppiness of the book and jumps between first person narration, none of the mental images I have count as “coherent” either.

The husband and wife of this book is quite interesting to me because I find that building a house (architect-ing it, like designing it) feels quite similar to writing a book in some ways- to design the foundation of the story, its progression, overarching themes and writing styles; each of it is an element to build a coherent story just like you would build a house with its foundations, walls, stairs etc. But at one point, the narrator compared her work to her husbands (an architect) and says “I can’t make spaces from nothing. I can’t invent. I only manage to emulate my ghosts, write the way they used to speak, not make noise, narrate out phantasmagoria” (to save you the Google, it means a constant shifting complex succession of things seen or imagined- which also applies to faces you would see in a crowd wink wink). I would think that any sort of writing is invention in a way, but given the shifting perspectives and stories with this book I sort of get where the author is coming from as stories seem as if they are from ghosts both real and not real at once. 

This book is one of the few books from this class that I would’ve picked up for myself to read (the other is probably The Lover) and I actually quite enjoyed it- both the book itself and the experience reading it. Also as a complete side note, from the GLIMPSES into the wife’s familial life, I finally realized that I really just want to read a normal book in this class for once ???????????? I forgot how much I missed reading a book where the ordinary things happen (although this book is only 1/3 that; normal and not normal at the same time).

my question for all this week is: if you were to write your own book somewhat based on yourself and somewhat fictionalize it, what would you choose to write about?

The Shrouded Woman – The Feminine Perspective

The Shrouded Woman by Bombal was this weeks required reading, which is sort like a series of vignettes inspired one by one by different people who have come to visit this dead woman at her funeral, and is then told from her perspective. I think just the premise of this kind of novel seems to be a pretty popular choice somewhat by writers, as popular books even nowadays seem to feature that sort of exploration, such as The Midnight Library. One thing that is different though is that the intention behind recounting your life and I guess the overarching message as different authorial intents kind of leads the readers to different conclusions. For examples, a lot of the times authors sort of loom the question of “what would you have done differently?” or “What are your regrets?” or “What are the final lessons you actually learn looking at your life to gain peace?” over our heads as the main character sort of gets this revelation in the face of death. However, for this book, I sort of feel like this books focus was about honesty. I think in many ways it works to capture the authenticity in Ana Maria’s thoughts, beliefs, and most importantly emotions, even though at time they may be immature, immoral or whatever that might be. Point is that I don’t think she is trying to curate this image of herself, or what she “means” to be to prove a point. I think the portrayal of her authentic experience sort of utilizes this structure in a different way, sort of like an answer to the question: what was a woman’s life like during this time and place? What could she possibly be thinking about? How would she feel about this topic? It sort of works to answer this question about identity more.

One thing that particularly stood out to me is that the construction of the novel is about delving into moments of her life again, but the centre of the narrative is very very concentrated on this sort of nuclear family and their family business. I think a lot of times it is true that female authors put a much heavier emphasis on the relationships of those around them and I found this book to be the same way. I imagine that if I were to write down my own life story or recount what recall at the time of my death, I probably would do the same too. But I guess I also recognize that in the time and place of where Ana Maria lived, women likely were conditioned to primarily focus on their family and manage the family etc. so in some sense, they are primed to place much more significance on this topic. By just considering the focus of her recalling the events of her life, it sort of gives rise to a broader conversation about the positions and roles of women at that time and place.

Question: Which character in the novel stood out to you the most and why was it Maria Griselda? Just kidding please let me know who it is and why.