Compared to “Rita Hayworth and Shawsank Redemption”, “The Body” was more energetic and bright because it is about the boyhood memories. The humorous tone of Stephen King seemed harmonize with the boyhood story, as well. In the first 30 pages, things to note were the introductory paragraphs, introduction of main characters, and metafiction.
“The Body” starts with narrative about memories. I liked the first paragraph because of some sentences that touch my mind. For instance, the author says that the most important things are too valuable that the attempt to express them into spoken words only limits their value. I felt the same way when I tried to tell my beautiful memories with my old friends to others. I clearly remember the sense, and feelings that I had, but I cannot recall things that are visible, such as what I did, or what I said. I felt disappointed that my wonderful memory turned into plain and meaningless. However, it is hard to imagine why the author introduced this way. I think it will be clearer at the end of the novel, but right now I think the narrator wants to say that the following story has influenced him a lot.
“Stud City”, which is an example of metafiction – was a big part of the story. Why should the author suddenly go to the grownup story before even the adventure started? At first, I thought this interruption is not so clever because the story within the story was too massive that I could almost lost the flow of the main story, and the mood of the novel has shifted from entertaining and hilarious into gloomy and dark. To figure out what was the purpose of the metafiction, I read a little more than the assignment and stopped at chapter 8. First of all, the story, written by the grownup Gordon, suggests that Gordon is affected by memory of his dead brother even when he grows up. For example, the imagination that the brother may come out of the closet appears again in the story. Although, the young Gordon does not feel resentful about his parents or his brother, Chico and Gordon are both affected by the dead older brother. Then, why did the author have to suppress mood of the young boys, just about to go adventure, into heavy and sad mood? I think the explanation about the novel by Gordon has the clue in it. At the end of the chapter 8, Gordon says, “A Gordon Lanchance halfway along in the process of losing the shrine”. From this sentence, readers can anticipate that the journey is not simply boys’ roman for hero, but passing the threshold of the childhood. In that sense, it is reasonable to press the excited mood before the start of the journey that is both adventurous and melancholic. Also, I expect that the following chapters will bridge the gap between the start of the journey and the final outcome as an adult. In other words, the following chapters will serve as the panorama pictures that show how a little boy moves away from the naïve and ingenuous view point.
Up to the chapter 8, the boys have not yet set out for journey. From the next chapter, I will focus on what the four main characters do and how they reflect their personalities. I also want to collect more clues about the similarity between Stephen King and Gordon.
Excellent post. The metafiction is kind of hard to swallow at first, but I'm glad our class could see a real example of it since we've been studying it.
답글삭제Many students seem to think this story is "gloomy" compared to Shawshank, but I agree with you. It's actually kind of upbeat. And indeed, there is a lot of Stephen King in this story. In fact, Stud City was a real story he wrote and reused here.
Good work! You can read and comment on as much as you want. No need to wait for a page requirement.