Questions About Beatrice and Virgil

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Answered Questions (2)

We learn so little about the games at the end, but they are clearly very important. What am I missing in them? Also, the list the taxidermist makes - why is it his greatest literary acheivement? We don't learn many of the things in it - I expected we'd eventually uncover all of them.

Stefan

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[I find those questions very interesting. This book is so full of different levels, parallels, metaphors and allegories that I do not think one can fully comprehend it - at least not without neglecting possible contradictions within the story. So everything I am trying to answer is just what I personally noticed, which is surely not sufficient.
I think it is important to understand that this book is not as much about the Holocaust as about the impossibility to write about it. Many critics interpreted it as a book about the Holocaust and said Martel failed writing about it, but with the Taxidermist being an unrepentant Nazi collaborateur it becomes clear that the attempt to write about the Holocaust must necessarily fail: Through the use of animals - a mean Martel and the writer in the story use to bring the protagonists closer to the reader - the Holocaust at the same time loses its core as a dehumanizing (!) crime incomparable to any crime before. The taxidermist even uses (!) the Holocaust to write about the extinction of animals - exactly opposite of what Henry the writer wanted to do in the beginning. That both, the writer and the taxidermist, have the same name points to this problem of writing fiction about the Holocaust: you cannot write about the horrors of the holocaust in a comprehensable manner and you cannot control the interpretation of your writing. Thus, to a certain extent, you are always abusing the Holocaust. Still, as the beginning shows, Martel acknowledges that it is necessary to write about the Holocaust anyways in order not to forget. The list of the taxidermist is insofar an "archievement" as it pictures the impact of the Holocaust upon the world as well as ways to commemorate. We don't get to know all of them, which can be seen as a hint that there are thousands ways more we got affected by the Holocaust and thousands ways more to commemorate. The taxidermist, after all, seems to be proud of it and for sure, it is an impossible task to write such a list, but to me, it seems like he still does not comprehend the magnitude of the Holocaust or that he even tries to cleanse his soul from his sins during the Holocaust by writing it. But just as with his stuffed animals he tries to estheticize the cruelties of the Holocaust - and this exactly he sees as his achievement.
The games are the only item on the list not written by the taxidermist. By trying to estheticize the Holocaust he is unable to understand what it the core of commemorating it - thats why he reaches out to Henry. For never letting something like the Holocaust happen ever again, it is necessary to ask yourself questions like at the end of the book. The Holocaust constantly put deadly moral dilemmas upon its victims, in which each possible answer tears away parts of your humanity. Writing those questions is as close as one can get to making people think about the Holocaust by writing about it. (hide spoiler)]

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Kevin Lanzone Yes! It happened so fast, I could barely tell if it was real. I'm struggling to piece together why it happened. I'm also struggling with the importanc…moreYes! It happened so fast, I could barely tell if it was real. I'm struggling to piece together why it happened. I'm also struggling with the importance of the "flip book" in it. (less)

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Unanswered Questions (1)

How can the taxidermist be best defined? Why does he center all his life on the play? To be more exact, if he seeks redemption, why is he depicted as dark, gloomy and still a threat to stuffed animals (and stabs Henry)? If he is still a perpetrator in his inner world, why bother to write such a play?

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