21st Century Literature discussion
12/23 Frontier
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Frontier - Chapters 6 thru 10
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Marc
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Dec 01, 2023 06:21AM
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I'm with you Marc . Just finished Ch 6 and beginning to get into the rhythm . Once I've let go of comprehension I seem to see connections that make sense to me , if to no one else ..
Hester wrote: "Once I've let go of comprehension I seem to see connections that make sense to me , if to no one else .. .."Likewise! You've described my experience exactly.
I agree, too, Lark and Hester. It's not quite a story, more of an exploration of a web or network of characters in a very weird setting with a nonlinear notion of time. But I'm pretty darn confused by the chapter on the Gobi desert. What the heck happened there? And where is Roy? I'm hoping he turns up again before the end.
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Catherine, I was asking myself What is Roy? He's given himself the job of looking into the eyes of pedestrians at night to check if they see him (which they don't), he sort of roars the train into existence/arrival, and says he's seen the tropical gardens inside himself.
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A few things that stood out for me (trying here to be a little more concise... not my strong suit):
- Pebble Town as a kind of liminal state, maybe even a type of bardo
- The importance of birds (wagtails and the long-life bird; "This is a wagtail; a wagtail is the bird of destiny. It shows up when people are paying no attention, and it goes into hiding when someone notices it.")
- I keep reading Liujin as almost talismanic (like some sort of key to this place)
Questions
- Is the Director a force for good or bad? She sometimes is viewed by the other characters as a "protector" and sometimes not so much.
- Did it feel like visual art begins to play a bigger role in the story in this section (thinking of the paintings and the watch)?
Marc wrote: "Hester, chapter 7 threw me for a loop, but around 8 or 9, things sort of "opened up." It might be that I was just tired when I was reading 7, but for whatever reason, the whole Lee and Grace chapte..."Marc . I don't really have any answers to your very valid questions. I cant help trying to make the story fit into the history, or at least my limited understanding of it and I keep thinking of the lack of agency of these characters. None of them seem to be able to grasp any degree of agency or control unless they comply with the needs of the Institute , itself a decaying ruin . Pebble Town appears to be a place hovering between world , both physical and temporal , where the normal is subverted , behaviors and unpredictable and personalities inconsistent . No one seems to understand what is going on , even the director offers no clarity but has a vaguely sinister air , probably due to her power . Some people seem more comfortable with the norms of Pebble Town and can adapt more readily . As for the birds and animals ( how I loved the pangolin ) I remain confused . Do they represent a denuded nature? Past spirits ? I have no idea . If the point of the work is to recreate the sense of bafflement and confusion that migrants to this remote region feel in the reader then its certainly doing that for me ...and the writing style in translation adds to this in its rigorously bare tone , like reportage .
Through chapter 8 now. Thinking a lot about the trope of the frontier as the place of quest and discovery. And how it isn’t working for these characters. Despite a certain exuberance (especially as Marc noted in the women like Grace and Nancy) coming to Pebble town for a new start, the stories are feeling more and more lonely to me. Nancy finding that motherhood is a trap waiting for her anywhere. Grace and Lee constantly balancing his health. Even Jose, who had satisfaction in fathering for so many years, now has insomnia, talks to strangers and dreams of the Gobi desert and gold in Africa. The surrounding images of the birds and the director of the institute and the floating tropical garden that all seemed inviting and exciting when we first arrived have started to turn sinister, enclosing and containing.I am curious whether some of these images would have more direct interpretations for Chinese readers, the way we would get references to ravens or hemlock. Often feel like I am missing layers of interpretation, but I can’t tell if that is her obtuseness or my cultural ignorance.
Chapter 9 - this the pebble town metaphor finally I think. Each pebble a little human heart. I love the image of them carefully planted in the wilderness, a mystery to Little Leaf when she digs up two and studies them, then the sense of the butterfly effect - everything slightly different - when she gets back. Marco searching for his own secret heart, utterly transformed by confronting himself. That this takes place on the edge of the edge, guided by characters that might be dead pushes the space where we can find knowledge even further away from the real world.
After reading several chapters with an approach to finding clarity and cohesion in the novel by 1), observing and comparing emotional trends in each chapter or by 2) trying to compare levels of heightened and relaxed tension, I have found neither method is helping yield a better understanding for me. For that reason, I am going to discontinue reading this now. This leaves me a little frustrated because this was a reread for me and my main problem from my first read was echoed in the second. In reading Xue's prose, I find myself quickly becoming bored and because of being bored, I find I retain little of what I have read and what I do retain does not remain long in my mind. I was hoping using the approaches I tried might help but after the first chapter I found my self less oriented and mostly going through the motions. So for now, I will move on. IMO, for Xue to gain an expanded appreciation among Western audiences, there needs to be a Cleanth Brooks type critic who can explicate in simple terms what values that there and set a course for general readers. There may already exist such an individual but I have not see their criticism. Until I see that, Xue remains an enigma, where I can't tell if she is worthy of the exaggerated academic praise or wearing the emperor's clothes.
Marc, thanks for hosting this discussion. I'm afraid I'm one of the DNF'ers, but I am glad to have read as much as I did, as well as being able to "listen in" on the discussion. As a writing tutor in my past life, I've learned to be very suspicious of someone who says that she never revises her first drafts. My wife claimed to be able to spot the point where Stephen King stopped having to listen to editors' advice.
I've haven't read further in this book in a week... maybe two? Or more? So, I've also decided to abandon it. I like abstract art. I like surreal books. But, rather than feeling invigorated by the challenge of reading it, this felt like it was dulling my senses. The ennui in the book itself was just overwhelmingly strong (imo) & that reflected the ennui I had myself, as a reader.
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Marc, yes, there's often a lag at the beginning of a book before I "grok" the author's language. Often, I re-tune my reading to the author's style and increase my enjoyment of the work. Ali Smith is one such author.
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