Discussion - Week Two - The Tartar Steppe - Chapter 11 - 19

[Jim]

This discussion covers Chapter Eleven – Nineteen, pg. 86 – 180





To avoid spoilers, please limit your comments to page 1 – 180.

[Zadignose]

To keep up the discussion, I should point out that my enthusiasm was reignited. What did y'all think of the scene with the arrival of the horse and... was it Martinelli? I think the experience of the book may be a bit better the first time, when you have no idea what to anticipate, but even on the second reading I think this whole sequence plays out perfectly... from Drogo's thoughts at the new redoubt, his fantasies which disolve and turn into fear upon meeting unexpected circumstances... and the whole series events up to and including the shooting. The development of the novel up to this point sets it all up very well too... I.e., the chapter profits from its context.

[Jim]

Zadignose wrote: "To keep up the discussion, I should point out that my enthusiasm was reignited. What did y'all think of the scene with the arrival of the horse and... was it Martinelli? I think the experience of t..."

I've been sort of "processing" that scene for the past two days. Who do we blame for the death? The soldier who broke ranks to retrieve the horse? The soldier who shot him? Tronk, who could have intervened but instead stood by and essentially intimidated the soldier to shoot the other? The regulations which said to shoot anyone who doesn't know the password? The sillier regulation which only allowed officers to know the password for guard details that left the walls of the fort? And so on...

Second point of contemplation is how might all of this be related to what Buzzati was immersed in in 1938 Italy. The black horse/black shirts of Mussolini's facists? The rigidity of a fascist regime? And also so on...

Still mulling.

[Zadignose]

I share your thoughts and mulling... and I think this is where the book reveals a bit more complexity. I think there are legitimate grounds for blaming any or all of the parties and forces mentioned that contributed to the resultant shooting... and I would argue that we can also sympathize with or at least understand each of them in blaming the others and holding themselves blameless... and meanwhile, for the first time, Drogo has managed to absent himself from a very dramatic moment, whereas he too is blameworthy (the responsible commander under whom this disaster occurred).

[Voorneveld]

Jim wrote: "Who do we blame for the death?"

All answers combined, I would say. The author seems to point partly towards Tronk who "did not say a word. He looked now at the sentry, now at Lazzari because of whom he would probably be punished." But also the friendship between the soldier with the horse and his shooter is stressed. And finally, of course, the absurd adherence to rules in cases where they should not reasonably apply. This is the chapter where Buzzati most clearly "goes Kafka".

I had difficulties with the dream sequence in Ch. 11; a certain dream-blindness on my behalf, no doubt, because I almost always have a hard time understanding what dreams in literature stand for. And even though parts of the dream are repeated almost verbatim in Ch. 15, I still couldn't quite figure out the symbolism.

If other readers can help me to straighten the symbolism out, that'd be very much appreciated.