Melissa's Blog Responses

Response to Erika's Blog:

First off, great presentation! I think you girls explained each section with relation to the book very well! I personally think that Jason shouldn't be in the heaven position. After the masacre he slowly falls away from God. It seemed like if Cheryl wasn't by his side then God wouldn't be either. Maybe this could be because he had so mcuh anger towards God he lost faith in him or he was just to miserable to even care. God is said to be forgiving and loving but the second half of the novel showed the opposite of these qualities in Jason. Coupland never wrote about Jason repenting or showing love to his family once he let his life slide. For a person who is in the heaben category of this ontology those two key ideas should be very evident but they were not there in Jason. - melissa

Response to Ken's Blog:

My favorite part of the preface was the last line.."for the trumpet will sound, and the dead shall be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed." I think that the concept that Jason, in a way, changed Reg towards the end of the novel illustrates this line very well. In a sense Reg was dead to the world and others throughout the novel because he was closed minded. But towards the end he was changed by Heather and Jason's actions through reflection. This caused Reg to be changed and raised from the dead...hopefully into eternal life. I really thought this preface fit the book perfectly. After reading the book it made a lot more sense and it is a unique way to present a preface. - melissa


Response to Sunshine's Blog:

I found the part where you made the comment about how the image on the cover is kneeling and that represents Jason's act of surrender in his life. It seems like his life isn't going the way he planned it and he has no more goals or aspirations anymore. He is just going through life without hope that things may get better. He has lost his faith in God which could've been his biggest mistake because now he has nothing to live for. Since Jason totally gave up he never feels like he is good enough and has isolated himself from the people that love him the most. I think it would be interesting to think what if Jason stayed connected with God? Would his life after the massacre be different? Would he not have surrenderd his life the way he did?- Melissa

Response to Clayton's Blog:

So i am definitely not finished this book yet. I just can't seem to read more than 5 pages then I have to go do something else. This book does not interest me at all. From going to Hey Nostradamus, which i read in 2 days and couldn't put down, to this confusing and uninteresting novel I am upset that this is the last book we are reading. I think that Gibson's want for the story to be fragmented is what throws the readers off. Not only is his writing style and language confusing, like the sentence fragments, but the way he jumps back and forth from charcters has me lost. I think that you brought up a topic that 3/4 of our whole lecture hall is thinking. What were Ogden's reasons for picking this book anyway? Without a doubt, he is the only one that can answer. Unfortunatly we have no choice but to suck it up and read it. - melissa

Blog Responses

Response to the D109 tutorial group presentation by Sunshine:

Looking at the cover of Hey Nostradamus! I agree that it can represent different aspects of Jason before and after the massacre. What I found particularly interesting was that you were able to find an explanation for the head to be detached from the body. While I would not have picked up on the idea on my own, I completely agree with you that the body could represent Jason in the real world with his head representing his as a person.



Response to the D109 tutorial group presentation by Clayton Ng:

Reading through your blog entry I have to agree with you completely in that I find All Tomorrow’s Parties to be a challenging book to read. When the story shifts between characters I have to hardest time trying to figure out what is supposed to be going on now. Initially looking at the book I thought it would be a relatively easy read however I found myself agreeing with you that is was definitely a challenging novel that was hard to get into.



Response to the D109 tutorial group presentation by Ken S:

Watching your presentation I have to admit that I was intrigued especially that you seeing that you looked into the preface. While we did discuss its value quite frequently during class I would have never though to try to understand the passage in its original context. Also, I felt that comparing the characters to this passage was interesting. I do agree with you that Jason does change a great deal while Reg seems to struggle back and forth with the events that take place throughout his life.

The Truth About Blogging

Although the world of blogging is a fairly new concept, remaining relatively unexplored by the Baby Boomer generation, the majority of Generation Y are not only familiar with this idea but participate daily in this world. While blogging first started in 1994 as a form of personal webpage, it had grown to become the “weblog” in 1997 and is now a popularized concept that can in many ways be relevant to the world of literature. Today, books, novels and any other printed texts are only one small part in the world of words as technology has opened up the possibility for online information which includes blogs. Comparing this world of blogging with the literary works that have been appreciated for generations, it is evident that the two have more in common than first expected. In order to fully realize the similarities between the two, one must have a clear grasp on the concept of blogging. Once it is understood that a blog is just a collection of writings based around the inner thoughts of an individual, a clear connection between literature and blogging can be noted. It is evident that any form of literature is writings based upon a topic, story or event, which show the initial connection to blogging. This initial similarity shows that both capture that inner most thoughts of the writer, more specifically, short stories as well as poems seem to capture the blogging concept of a collection of seemingly random thoughts and ideas. While a novel such as Ethel Wilson’s The Innocent Traveller portrays events that are compiled in no particular order, this stream of consciousness found in blogging is not seen in the majority of novels. Switching focus to the main differences between literature and blogs, we are able to find a number of minor differences. Besides the ridiculously obvious fact that a blog is posted online and literary works are printed in paper, novels are not generally composed of the genuine, raw emotion that is seen in blogs, with a few exceptions such as Douglas Coupland’s Hey Nostradamus!. This novel, especially the section narrated by Jason, allows us to experience the raw, unedited emotional burdens the characters carry around with them, although most novels are not like this. A genuine blogger often includes stories, songs, pictures and descriptions about the different emotions they are experiencing at that time. Because a blog can be updated at any point in time, it is an ongoing journal showing exact emotional responses to any number of events. On the other hand, a novel or short story is likely to be written looking back on the events therefore providing a different perspective on the situation. While I am by no means suggesting that a current perspective is better than a reflective one, I am merely pointing out that the two provide different versions of an event. In the end, blogs and literature have unique qualities that are both similar and different from each other yet each provides us with a valid interpretation on either past, present or future events.

Howell, Landon. "The History of Blogs". 1995. Juicee News Daily. 16 March 2007.
< http://www.juiceenewsdaily.com/0505/news/history_blogs.html >

Time = Importance?

Following along with the concept of time that is found in each piece of literature, I notice one commonality. It seems that each novel tells a story that has taken place over a significant amount of time, it does not show that time is important to the characters or the novel itself for that matter. While this is true, I also found that the literature extends from early Vancouver, shown in In Vancouver, to a date that is ‘tomorrow’s tomorrow’ in All Tomorrow’s Parties. Through a close examination of each text, we are able to not only see where we came from, but who we are now and who we may become. Even though this is the case, I still found it quite interesting that time seemed almost irrelevant amount the texts.

Constant Eternity

Looking at the text The Innocent Traveller by Ethel Wilson, we again can see the concept of time though it seems not to have an impact on the characters, events or overall plot of the story. As the characters live “neither in the present nor the past nor the future, not in Time at all but in a constant moment of Eternity” (Wilson, 87), it is evident that they remain largely unaffected by time, let alone the concept that perhaps it is slipping away from them.

Wilson, Ethel. The Innocent Traveller. Toronto: McClelland & Steward, 1990.

Impact?

Throughout the time spending analyzing Coupland’s Hey Nostradamus!, I found myself wondering about the character of Jason and his concept of time as he is constantly referring to it and how it seems to be slipping from his grip. For example, at the very start of the section, he mentions that it has now been over 10 years since Cheryl’s murder at the massacre yet he has not felt the time go by. What really captured my attention with regards to the character of Jason and his references to time was when he found himself in a foreign place a number of days following his last memory. Although I am not certain that this particular series of events has any certain importance to the story, it does allow the reader to see the impact, or lack thereof, of time on Jason following the massacre.

Poetry = Fiction???

Before taking this class I never knew that poetry was included in the category of fiction. I found it really interesting to look at poems written by Margaret Avison and see how they related to the course material. Her poetry was about real life which enabled her to be a metaphysical realist. Since there isn’t usually a plot in poetry, I never considered it to be a form of fiction. After we analyzed it in class I found that the language is what’s focused on for maximum effect. I also understood some of the terms we were learning after focusing on poetry. For example Avison has so many examples of aesthetics throughout her writing so it was easy to understand this concept. I really enjoyed the short study we did on poetry because it has always been something I’ve never really been that interested in but after learning more about the background and idea’s behind some poetry it is starting to grow on me.

ultimate confusion

I’d like to know the reason behind Prof. Ogden’s decision to choose All Tomorrow’s Parties. I find that he gets really excited about the book in lecture because it seems like he has so many ideas in his head and just spits them out in any order and I find it hard to follow along. Also, the confusion of the book itself doesn’t really help the situation. Like the way the novel shifts from character to character sometimes will leave me thinking..what did I just read!? Not to mention some of the language used. I guess there is some reason behind us reading it. I just haven’t figured out what that is yet.

F-R-A-G-M-E-N-T-S

Fragmentation in Hey Nostradamus! is one of the most important themes throughout the book. If I head that this was a core aspect to the book before I had even read it I might not have been as interested in it. Who really wants to read a book that doesn’t necessarily fit together? The book is noticeably split into four different sections: Cheryl, Jason, Heather and Reg. Each of these four fragments bestows thoughts and views about the plot that connect the story together. I found it very interesting how Prof. Ogden related these four fragments with the first four chapters in the New Testament. He shows that Coupland does this because all four of these people are reflecting on one event. Each of these characters are fragments because there is no unity with one another. There is no unity due to a loss of a unifying idea and in this story, the unifying idea is religion. Coupland sees there is fragmentation in the world and he uses it to create this novel. His concept of fragmentation is put into alienation which is acted out in the novel through the young gun boys. Another key fragmentation in this novel is the four part structure of the universe that is related to each of the characters. I found this to be really helpful in understanding where each character stood religiously and their actions that related with their position. For example Cheryl was in purgatory because she purged her sins to get to heaven. This illustration develops the ontological truth throughout the novel. It wasn’t until after reading the novel and hearing about this important concept in lecture that everything made sense. I found that fragmentation in this novel almost does the opposite of its meaning. In a sense it does tie the story line together because you obtain the knowledge of the position of each character which shows their relationship to one another. This central idea in Hey Nostradamus! sets the novel apart from other novels and is an intriguing concept that only helps you understand the book more. I also found it interesting how Prof. Ogden tied the fragments with Coupland into Gibson’s novel, All Tomorrow’s Parties. I found his explanation of the fragments in Gibson’s novel hard to follow at first. Both authors use the individuals as fragments that eventually tie into the same story at the end. Gibson’s fragments are both macro and micro where I found in Coupland’s novel, they seemed to be more general. In Gibson’s novel the macro fragments could be the idea that the there is no longer a country but a nation-state. The bridge is an example because it is alienated from the actual land yet people live on this bridge. An example of a micro fragment could be the differences in the individuals, like Coupland’s characters. I also found it really interesting how Prof. Ogden illustrated that the sentence fragments were reinforcing the idea of fragmentation throughout the novel. Now I do not really know if Gibson intended on this but I thought it was an interesting concept. This idea of fragmentation seems to be an important theme of the two novels but I found the fragmentation in Hey Nostradamus a lot easier to follow compared to All Tomorrow’s Parties. I think the author’s chose to write the story in fragments because it makes the reader more interested in the story because all of a sudden he’ll switch to a different story and you’ll want to keep reading to find out more. After learning about this in lecture I found this to be one of the reasons I keep reading and now I know some reasons behind this concept.

Good & Bad

The short story that I didn’t enjoy was In Vancouver by Martin Allerdale Grainger. I never got into this story like I did with the other ones. There wasn’t an interesting part of the story that grabbed me. I found it to be more of a documentary about loggers rather than a story. The story didn’t have a climax which would’ve help me to remember this story. The story that I found the most interesting was A Cup of Coffee by Dorothy Livesay. I enjoyed this story more because I could actually picture this event happening and I could place myself seeing this situation take place. Even though A Cup of Coffee is a short story it still manages to have a conflict, climax and resolution. You automatically think that all the problems will be solved and young Tommy will be able to go live with Jan and have a happy life. But since Hilda wants to keep her son Nick isn’t satisfied and he still wishes he could be part of his son’s life. I also enjoyed this story because it is such a real event that is happening everyday.