As Eiji Miyake sets off to find his father, he may just inevitably find himself in the process.
Monday, January 27, 2014
AP OPEN QUESTION PROMPT I | “Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.” ― Anaïs Nin, Incest: From a Journal of Love
I loved your presentation, and just wanted to ask some questions and add some commentary. I'll start with your open question #1, that you referenced in class today. You mentioned that the fate of Eiji in his quest to find his father eventually results in deep dissatisfaction. However, even the grayest cloud has a silver lining, as we see with Eiji ending the journey not with disappointment, but rather by truly finding himself. I was just wondering, as this is a powerful theme that transcends ages and genres of literature, what are some of the language and strategies that actually result in creating both dissatisfaction, but then also a satisfying sense of finality to this bildungsroman?
Also, just wondering about the title - the avante-garde lowercase style, with a 9 in the middle, what do you believe is the significance of that? Is it to match the techno culture and hyper-reality found in the novel?
Thanks so much, I really enjoyed the presentation!
I like that you bring up the bildungsroman in your essay here. Seeing as how it's such a critical part of many great works of literature. You say that your character Eiji doesn't have a "normal coming-age-story", which I bring up because my own author subverts the coming of age story as well. My author, Erich Maria Remarque, uses his subverted coming of age as one of the major elements of meaning and characterization in his novel similarly to yours. And I think that your analysis of this major story arc is very interesting, and it ties in well with your main point that the novel does not need a conclusion.
I do want to ask though, what do you think the significance of the number nine is in this novel. Not only is this a part of the title, but the structure as well since there are nine chapters. I know you said it came from John Lennon's song, but what does the nine symbolize and why did John use it?
Hey there, Sri-bear. This prompt was a perfect choice for your novel, and one that allowed you to explore the distinctiveness of your novel’s ending; its absence makes its presence that much more obvious. I think the organization of your response was extremely well done, with enough background provided in the introduction to gain an understanding of the novel and the references to temporal distortion in the beginning, to show the narrative structure of the rest of the novel. The analysis of John Lennon’s quote was extremely well crafted. Your strongest argument, that of each chapter containing one of Eiji’s fantasies but the final chapter left blank to emphasize that Eiji’s fantasies are a thing of the past, was concise, to the point, and tied to the prompt perfectly. Your analysis was, in short, phenomenal. The only complaint I really have is that I wish, in your open question response, you would have made it clear that the “number9dream” referenced so frequently in the novel was, in fact, Eiji’s coming of age. I think this is something you did excellently in your presentation, weaving your theme throughout every slide, and I think it would’ve made your response even stronger. All in all, however, your response was thorough, comprehensive, and followed a logical order. Very impressive work!
Eiji seems to have a very strange life, and I was quite fascinated by your depiction of his story. He has very odd experiences, and the fact that Eiji had such an odd life is quite possibly what makes the book so interesting. I agree with what you said about Mitchell’s idea that the number 9 dream is actually our future, but I think you were to absolute in your essay, it needed a little more qualification. You mentioned several times that having the last chapter blank was the perfect ending, the best ending to the book, the only ending, but your prompt mentions that ending should be ambiguous, which means that there is no perfect ending. I think that leaving the last chapter blank is captivating, but it is not the best ending. What the ‘best ending’ really is depends on the reader, and everyone gets something different from reading a book. Some people probably read the book and hated the ending, wanting a better form of closure. I think it was a good ending, and clearly you do as well, but that does not mean it is the best ending. I enjoyed your essay, and Mitchell clearly made a bold move by having a blank chapter, but be careful not to speak in absolutes when discussing literature.
Sri, I think your presentation was one of the most interesting because it was very strange yet I think a very interesting point. I like when books have little connections to other pieces of writing or any pop culture. I had never heard number 9 dream so I liked how you included the videos of it. I thought it was very clever how you had 9 different chapters in your powerpoint just like your author's book. This ap prompt was interesting because I think you qualified really well how you do think it concluded the book perfectly even though some people don't think it concluded the bildungsroman. I thought it was clever how you finished your presentation without a conclusion to follow the theme of your book but I still feel like you planted a seed in all of our minds about Eiji .
Hey Sri,
ReplyDeleteI loved your presentation, and just wanted to ask some questions and add some commentary. I'll start with your open question #1, that you referenced in class today. You mentioned that the fate of Eiji in his quest to find his father eventually results in deep dissatisfaction. However, even the grayest cloud has a silver lining, as we see with Eiji ending the journey not with disappointment, but rather by truly finding himself. I was just wondering, as this is a powerful theme that transcends ages and genres of literature, what are some of the language and strategies that actually result in creating both dissatisfaction, but then also a satisfying sense of finality to this bildungsroman?
Also, just wondering about the title - the avante-garde lowercase style, with a 9 in the middle, what do you believe is the significance of that? Is it to match the techno culture and hyper-reality found in the novel?
Thanks so much, I really enjoyed the presentation!
Harsha
I like that you bring up the bildungsroman in your essay here. Seeing as how it's such a critical part of many great works of literature. You say that your character Eiji doesn't have a "normal coming-age-story", which I bring up because my own author subverts the coming of age story as well. My author, Erich Maria Remarque, uses his subverted coming of age as one of the major elements of meaning and characterization in his novel similarly to yours. And I think that your analysis of this major story arc is very interesting, and it ties in well with your main point that the novel does not need a conclusion.
ReplyDeleteI do want to ask though, what do you think the significance of the number nine is in this novel. Not only is this a part of the title, but the structure as well since there are nine chapters. I know you said it came from John Lennon's song, but what does the nine symbolize and why did John use it?
Hey there, Sri-bear.
ReplyDeleteThis prompt was a perfect choice for your novel, and one that allowed you to explore the distinctiveness of your novel’s ending; its absence makes its presence that much more obvious. I think the organization of your response was extremely well done, with enough background provided in the introduction to gain an understanding of the novel and the references to temporal distortion in the beginning, to show the narrative structure of the rest of the novel. The analysis of John Lennon’s quote was extremely well crafted. Your strongest argument, that of each chapter containing one of Eiji’s fantasies but the final chapter left blank to emphasize that Eiji’s fantasies are a thing of the past, was concise, to the point, and tied to the prompt perfectly. Your analysis was, in short, phenomenal.
The only complaint I really have is that I wish, in your open question response, you would have made it clear that the “number9dream” referenced so frequently in the novel was, in fact, Eiji’s coming of age. I think this is something you did excellently in your presentation, weaving your theme throughout every slide, and I think it would’ve made your response even stronger. All in all, however, your response was thorough, comprehensive, and followed a logical order. Very impressive work!
Eiji seems to have a very strange life, and I was quite fascinated by your depiction of his story. He has very odd experiences, and the fact that Eiji had such an odd life is quite possibly what makes the book so interesting. I agree with what you said about Mitchell’s idea that the number 9 dream is actually our future, but I think you were to absolute in your essay, it needed a little more qualification. You mentioned several times that having the last chapter blank was the perfect ending, the best ending to the book, the only ending, but your prompt mentions that ending should be ambiguous, which means that there is no perfect ending.
ReplyDeleteI think that leaving the last chapter blank is captivating, but it is not the best ending. What the ‘best ending’ really is depends on the reader, and everyone gets something different from reading a book. Some people probably read the book and hated the ending, wanting a better form of closure. I think it was a good ending, and clearly you do as well, but that does not mean it is the best ending. I enjoyed your essay, and Mitchell clearly made a bold move by having a blank chapter, but be careful not to speak in absolutes when discussing literature.
Sri, I think your presentation was one of the most interesting because it was very strange yet I think a very interesting point. I like when books have little connections to other pieces of writing or any pop culture. I had never heard number 9 dream so I liked how you included the videos of it. I thought it was very clever how you had 9 different chapters in your powerpoint just like your author's book. This ap prompt was interesting because I think you qualified really well how you do think it concluded the book perfectly even though some people don't think it concluded the bildungsroman. I thought it was clever how you finished your presentation without a conclusion to follow the theme of your book but I still feel like you planted a seed in all of our minds about Eiji .
ReplyDelete