Tag Archives: France

W, or The Memory of Childhood by Georges Perec

Perec, Romance text, Weekly Response, , , , , , , , View all 3 comments

This novel confronts the theme of memory quite differently than the others we’ve previously read. Most of the texts I’d read before this speak from a point of memory, past-tense, and experience, whereas Perec approached memories that weren’t there. It brought an alternate perspective of how some have the privilege of accessing and reflecting on such memories, and others not so much – for various reasons. An assumption I made based on the lack of childhood memories was that it was due to trauma, mainly because of the war. Many can dissociate from a time in their life when it’s tied to some sort of trauma, war being a likely trigger.

Although I haven’t necessarily lost my sense of childhood memories, I do relate to how the past can become twisted or jumbled up in one’s mind. Thinking about certain times in my life prove to be either recounted as differently than they were or just completely missing from my mind. However, I can’t seem to pinpoint when I lost the clarity or how it was lost. Having this self-reflection period made me connect with the novel more, it’s nice when a text can make you think.

Something that I question though, is the title. Maybe it’s a play into the whole loss-of-memory theme, but it seems like Perec is unsure of it. Just the presence of “or” being there, like it’s up for debate or something. Then again, it could be to do with the double story. Where one is intertwining with the other, so there’s two titles combined. It would be interesting to know whether it was purposeful or out of hesitance.

A connection that was though-provoking between the two stories was the island and the Holocaust. The fact that the narrator could make this connection, unless it was unintentional, shows me that there is some recollection there. With the violent games and the concentration camps. Though it could be that it just happens to correlate, it seems more like it was thought out.

Having that the narrator appears to have lost some parts of their childhood, assuming it’s due to trauma from the Holocaust, I wonder how common it is for for others who survived it as well. I may have to do some research on that. In that I will ask, do you feel like you know your childhood well, and why? Even more so, for the parts you may not remember, is it due to trauma or why do you think those parts are missing?

Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan

Laforet, Romance text, Sagan, Weekly Response, , , , , , , , View all 5 comments

I decided to look up the author, as I do with most of what I read, and was surprised to find that Françoise Sagan was only 18 years old when she published Bonjour Tristesse. Also that it was her first novel and is her most popular novel ever published. This was inspiring to find. That one could have such a lasting effect with their writing, even if it was their first and only at the age of 18. Here we are in 2022, 68 years after Bonjour Tristesse‘s publication, and continuing to derive meaning from it.

Now, although I bring up the fact that memory appears to be a theme of Romantic writing, at least based off of the reading list we have access to, I have just recently discovered that it is not coincidental. It was gently calculated (haha) by Jon, our professor. It just so happens by chance that we have encountered many texts in reference to memory or reminiscing or past experience. However, this will not prevent me from making these types of connections from text to text.

Specifically, the main character being a young woman and the idea of moving, introduced early on in the novel, reminded me of Nada by Carmen Laforet, which I read last week. Laforet’s novel also followed a similar theme of memory. These texts were also similar in the modern aspect of them, for which they confronted concepts that teenagers should not, but often do, have to deal with. For example, in Nada the chaos inside of her house and problems from her family intertwining with her life and in Bonjour Tristesse, Raymond’s personal life with his mistress, Elsa, intertwining with Cécile’s thoughts and uncertainty of her and whether she was threatening to their father-daughter relationship. Additionally, Laforet’s novel involved sexual themes like Sagan’s, exploring language that can be seen as support for sexual liberation – something that may have been looked down upon in that day and age, of when Bonjour Tristesse and Nada were published. These novels are great at exploring modernity and push to dive into themes like sexuality, teenage thoughts, empowerment of women, and more – so much like what we see today.

With this I would like to ask, could you personally see yourself expressing these intense themes with the public eye watching over you? The first thing that comes to mind is age, the fact that Sagan was only 18 when she published this novel shows the true confidence and comfortability she had within herself. I feel as if I already express intense themes as such, with my music – through lyrics – figurative speech – explicit language. Just not caring about what an outsider would have to say, but that’s just me.

Paris Peasant by Louis Aragon

Aragon, Romance text, Weekly Response, , , , , View all 2 comments

When I began reading this book I felt as if I was keeping up with understanding what Aragon was describing, but soon after, maybe 15 pages in, I realized I actually wasn’t. Many times throughout my reading, I found myself retracing over previous pages or trying to make sense of it for minutes at a time before continuing. Then it hit me, that it was more of a description – like a recollection of experience. In that aspect it was admirable, even when it seemed like some ideas were too strung out and overly specific.

This intense description reminded me of the beginning of Combray by Marcel Proust, which I wrote about last week. Similarly, Paris Peasant and Combray had sections where entire backstories and contextual pieces would draw me out of the actual story, or lack thereof, causing me to evaluate if it was me or the text. These works were also similar in their recollective elements, ensuring readers understood how the current situation of the stories came to be.

Though, this text was unique when it comes to narrating and tying in characters. There wasn’t any obvious voice speaking, it just came out as thoughts. Speaking to speak, is the impression it gave me, but with a faint agenda.

Certain parts of Aragon’s writing appeared to be confrontational or pessimistic, or like the speaker was very aware and planted in their ideas. Or in today’s jargon, one could say the speaker was woke. I assume this tracks though, as I took it as the speaker was talking from experience. Examples of this are on page 13, where there is talk of “human fantasies,” “plaiting thick tresses of darkness,” and how one “false step” can “reveal a man’s thoughts.” Here is where I caught my first glimpse of modernity in this text. When I think of modern, I think of how society is today. So in relation to the examples I referred to, one that stands out is of revealing one’s true thoughts and how that comes as a false step. It reminded me of “cancel culture” and how one seemingly wrong move can put society against you. Especially with how the internet is today, it seems that every other day someone is being exposed for something and having their lives diminish because of it – no matter how miniscule it may look.

I now ask, what aspects of the world today do you feel are depicted by Aragon’s descriptions and why that is?