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.