This was a breath of fresh air. Inspiring and instructive. Engaging and thought-provoking. Thubron weaves his knowledge of China with his journey.
Thubron is an experienced travel writer, perhaps a master. He researched his destination, research which guided his journey, and he learned Mandarin beforehand, which allowed him to converse with the people and understand them - and they in turn asked questions about him and where he came from.
For example, near the end Thubron talks with an old friends who is unhappily married; he can't let go of a girl he loved in his youth. In this exotic and so-different country Thubron has found a story that we completely understand here in the West. It draws us closer yet farther away - since we realize how different his world is from ours.
There are a few people he plans to meet, but me meets many random people along the way. The one that stood out to me came near the end. An old man called Old Wang by a passer-by invites Thubron to his house and shows him a tablet for his three-months dead wife. Thubron sees the old man's grief:
"Suddenly his face was contorted by mingled sorrow and bitterness, held in by a heart-rending laughter. 'We Chinese have a saying: "All that is born must die". But that doesn't stop this...this...' - he turned his forefinger against his body, insinuating it between his torn jacket, drilling inside - '...this grief.'
"In the naked room, with the single bulb slung in its doorway, his imagined loneliness was unbearable. I wanted to touch him, but remained inert." (286)
Thubron's retelling of his time with the grieving old Wang is so moving it drove me to tears contemplating death and the afterlife. That is good writing.
Thubron wrote a beautiful account of his journey - beautiful writing - descriptions of the smoggy and overcrowded cities and of the forgotten temples and shrines, descriptions of the ugly and beautiful people (physical and character descriptions). He is so good at describing the people he meets in a few lines:
"Over this eyrie presided Hua's mother. She had been half paralyzed by a series of strokes a decade before, and she looked even older than her eighty-eight years. Her hand, when I took it, was a cold hook. Her hair was coiled in a grey pigtail, clipped to the back of her head by a huge iron paper-clip, and her nose sank so flat that its bridge completely vanished, and seemed to place her eyes on collision course...She settled watchfully on the sofa, smoking out of a box of two hundred cigarettes...[she] was suddenly, uncontrollably laughing. She rocked up and down on the sofa with short, guttural, mocking coughs. 'When I laugh I can't stop...I don't know why.' She massaged her throat. '...I just can't stop.'" (103-4)
Thubron also uses speculation well:
"Then [the man with no children] fell silent. For another hour, drifting down the canal, we went on peering into other people's lives in their kitchens: lives that seemed at once more humdrum and more mysterious than my own, and perhaps which appeared happy to him." (133)
I also enjoy that he tries to see himself as the people he meets see him. I think this inclusion shows me that he was much more than a traveler passing through, but a person trying to communicate with other people; I enjoy this personal contact (I wonder if Theroux will do the same in Africa). An example:
'Momentarily I saw myself in his eyes - taller than anyone he had ever met, uncannily pale-haired, and fattened by the mystery called England. Inexplicably I was in his rubber grove.' (222)
Then again, Thubron sometimes feels like a humorous tour guide. And his humor comes here and there, not over-done. For example, he gets himself into humorous situations - going to a public bath that is too hot for him, visiting a marriage bureau where they mistake him for a groom-to-be and meeting a doctor who shows him his wall of model tongues.
Perhaps the most humorous part was when he writes of the time his exhaustion played out in his partially-remembered conversation with an enthusiastic vet:
'Shack-es-peer is famous in our country. He wrote fifty plays...The Western languages all come from Latin, don't they?...We're new friends, aren't we?...Western history begins with Jesus...
''I relieved my fury by making faces at him in the dark.' (227-8)
As you can see, I have only good things to say about the book. I am inspired. If it was my intention to write a paper that aims to pinpoint what makes good -and bad - Peace Corps memoir, then I would surely write that writing like Thubron would make a great memoir.
I acknowledge that Thubron is an experienced travel writer and that comparing his work to that of first-time Peace Corps writers is unfair. Perhaps a first-timer can only dream of writing as well. But perhaps if this writer took note of what Thubron does well - his writing is well-researched, he seamlessly entwines history and the present, he sprinkles the book with humor and honesty, he describes the people and places well and economically and he makes sure he focuses on one-on-one, personal interactions - then s/he can produce something quite good.
I can only hope to come close.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Chapter 12: The Last Gate Under Heaven
pg 284: he is very good at describing people - he has to be, since he meets so many
his retelling of his time with the grieving old Wang is so moving it drove me insane contemplating death and the afterlife
visits a family bearing a gift - he has done this before but does explain why
surprisingly abrupt ending - no reflection, just the end as he gazes around him at the end of the Great Wall
his retelling of his time with the grieving old Wang is so moving it drove me insane contemplating death and the afterlife
visits a family bearing a gift - he has done this before but does explain why
surprisingly abrupt ending - no reflection, just the end as he gazes around him at the end of the Great Wall
Chapter 11: China's Sorrow
tries to visit old Jewish settlement - nothing left
finds a married couple - he American, she Chinese - she said no one understood and they were sure she was in danger - xonophobia - though she admits she may leave him first!
visits Shaolin monastery, birthplace of Zen and kung fu
history, myths of kung fu monks
met with a man he met on an earlier trip to China - he is now unhappily married - he does not love his wife but a girl he loved in youth (this could happen to anyone anywhere - at least in America or the West I'm sure - but it is in China where they don't talk about their feelings and follow tradition - so I understand but can't quite understand because it is in a vastly different culture)
history of Qin Shihuangdi - first emperor, China's namesake - buried with terracotta legions, model empire - much detail (I just read about them in Dillard's For the Time Being)
finds a married couple - he American, she Chinese - she said no one understood and they were sure she was in danger - xonophobia - though she admits she may leave him first!
visits Shaolin monastery, birthplace of Zen and kung fu
history, myths of kung fu monks
met with a man he met on an earlier trip to China - he is now unhappily married - he does not love his wife but a girl he loved in youth (this could happen to anyone anywhere - at least in America or the West I'm sure - but it is in China where they don't talk about their feelings and follow tradition - so I understand but can't quite understand because it is in a vastly different culture)
history of Qin Shihuangdi - first emperor, China's namesake - buried with terracotta legions, model empire - much detail (I just read about them in Dillard's For the Time Being)
Chapter 10: Through the Gorges
pg 226: 'Almost everyone who has travelled for long alone in China becomes prey to an insidious attrition.' He was wearing thin
his exhaustion plays out wonderfully in his partially-remembered conversation with an enthusiastic vet: pg 227-8:
'Shack-es-peer is famous in our country. He wrote fifty plays...The Western languages all come from Latin, don't they?...We're new friends, aren't we?...Western history begins with Jesus...'
'I relieved my fury by making faces at him in the dark.'
he met a man raised by American mother - she raised him to be kind, much kinder than his fellow Chinese, he said - he did not fully understand them and vice-versa - signals enormous gulf of understanding between the West and China
his exhaustion plays out wonderfully in his partially-remembered conversation with an enthusiastic vet: pg 227-8:
'Shack-es-peer is famous in our country. He wrote fifty plays...The Western languages all come from Latin, don't they?...We're new friends, aren't we?...Western history begins with Jesus...'
'I relieved my fury by making faces at him in the dark.'
he met a man raised by American mother - she raised him to be kind, much kinder than his fellow Chinese, he said - he did not fully understand them and vice-versa - signals enormous gulf of understanding between the West and China
Chapter 9: The Land of Peacocks
encounters Dai and other tribes of the south
a skinny and poor farmer finds Thubron and concludes that England must be a good place if it makes people as healthy-looking as he
*I think this inclusion of how Thubron imagines himself through Chinese eyes and what they admit to him shows me that he was much more than a traveler passing through, but a person trying to communicate with other people; I enjoy this personal contact (I wonder if Theroux will do the same in Africa)
*(though this is not related to the book) don't talk to me of feeling fortunate to be an American - don't go there - don't assume you have it made
pg 222: wonderful moment where he again tries to see himself in other's eyes: 'Momentarily I saw myself in his eyes - taller than anyone he had ever met, uncannily pale-haired, and fattened by the mystery called England. Inexplicably I was in his rubber grove.'
pg 225: observant, aware - 'To the south, beyond a profile of hills, the moon was rising over Burma, with a wheeling mass of unfamiliar stars.'
a skinny and poor farmer finds Thubron and concludes that England must be a good place if it makes people as healthy-looking as he
*I think this inclusion of how Thubron imagines himself through Chinese eyes and what they admit to him shows me that he was much more than a traveler passing through, but a person trying to communicate with other people; I enjoy this personal contact (I wonder if Theroux will do the same in Africa)
*(though this is not related to the book) don't talk to me of feeling fortunate to be an American - don't go there - don't assume you have it made
pg 222: wonderful moment where he again tries to see himself in other's eyes: 'Momentarily I saw myself in his eyes - taller than anyone he had ever met, uncannily pale-haired, and fattened by the mystery called England. Inexplicably I was in his rubber grove.'
pg 225: observant, aware - 'To the south, beyond a profile of hills, the moon was rising over Burma, with a wheeling mass of unfamiliar stars.'
Friday, June 27, 2008
Chapter 8: Mao Slept Here
he is seen releasing the owl - cultural faux pax
pg 195: no one knows where England is; when he describes the animals there a man says 'Cows and sheep. That's why he looks like that. So big.'
pg 197: gets to sleep in Mao's hotel room; he is extra-conscious; the hotel, as an unpopular tourist site, was nearly empty; later he feels staying in Mao's room was 'sacrilege' and a 'too-big sarcophagus'
he visits Mao's childhood home; I find that, even though I know very little Chinese history, I am engaged, awed by Mao; though I'm unclear on some things, like the Great Leap Forward (I later looked it up)
*engaging, thought-provoking - that, more than mere lyricality or exotic topics, is what makes reading pleasurable - Yes, art poses questions rather than answers them
compares scenes to scenes in his other travels (Stalin's home in Russia to Mao's home), reflects on the Chinese need to label - Three Antis, Five Tests, Four Pests
pg 204: in another shoddy hotel: '...the elaborate patterns on the curtains turned out to be whorls of grime.' Funny
pg 207: talks to young woman about misnomers: West=demons, China=too many small people
pg 209: brave camper: 'The endless shrilling of the cicadas became the sound of the stars turning across the sky.' Beautiful
pg 195: no one knows where England is; when he describes the animals there a man says 'Cows and sheep. That's why he looks like that. So big.'
pg 197: gets to sleep in Mao's hotel room; he is extra-conscious; the hotel, as an unpopular tourist site, was nearly empty; later he feels staying in Mao's room was 'sacrilege' and a 'too-big sarcophagus'
he visits Mao's childhood home; I find that, even though I know very little Chinese history, I am engaged, awed by Mao; though I'm unclear on some things, like the Great Leap Forward (I later looked it up)
*engaging, thought-provoking - that, more than mere lyricality or exotic topics, is what makes reading pleasurable - Yes, art poses questions rather than answers them
compares scenes to scenes in his other travels (Stalin's home in Russia to Mao's home), reflects on the Chinese need to label - Three Antis, Five Tests, Four Pests
pg 204: in another shoddy hotel: '...the elaborate patterns on the curtains turned out to be whorls of grime.' Funny
pg 207: talks to young woman about misnomers: West=demons, China=too many small people
pg 209: brave camper: 'The endless shrilling of the cicadas became the sound of the stars turning across the sky.' Beautiful
Chapter 7: Canton
pg 177: the different languages he heard - "I became restless with feelings of exlusion.'
I realize that Thubron answers all the questions I would have asked before I even thought to ask them
Thubron sees his expectations are wrong in Canton, pg 179
self-deprecating humor, pg 181-2
can't eat the cat or snake soups - funny - reminds me of Bill Bryson
book store, storyteller in the park
at 'fresh' market he buys a beautiful owl meant to be eaten and takes it to his hotel room for the night
I realize that Thubron answers all the questions I would have asked before I even thought to ask them
Thubron sees his expectations are wrong in Canton, pg 179
self-deprecating humor, pg 181-2
can't eat the cat or snake soups - funny - reminds me of Bill Bryson
book store, storyteller in the park
at 'fresh' market he buys a beautiful owl meant to be eaten and takes it to his hotel room for the night
Chapter 6: To the South
* important: an occupied people (Portuguese in Timor, Dutch, English in SE Asia) and new independence (Angola, Indo, India, Macao...)
pg 171: humor - 'I told myself that the dirt on my chopsticks was a discoloration of the wood, or so ingrained as to be harmlessly immovable.'
pg 174-5 a little seasickness
*I am realizing how much I like Thubron' style, choices - lyrical and historical - Annie Dillard-esque?
pg 171: humor - 'I told myself that the dirt on my chopsticks was a discoloration of the wood, or so ingrained as to be harmlessly immovable.'
pg 174-5 a little seasickness
*I am realizing how much I like Thubron' style, choices - lyrical and historical - Annie Dillard-esque?
Chapter 5: Shanghai
*tell history of Timor and parallel events in America, Africa, Europe, China, etc...'while the Portuguese were (blank), the Pilgrims were (blank).
Thubron met a vicar who says the past will never repeat - this has become a story of hope?
visited a prison - the prisoners were happy there
another difference from PCVs is a job - they have one - the traveler writer's is only to write
mental institution - Chinese 'internalize' everything
pg 158-161: Thubron saw something in paintings by those inside - things the doctors seemed to look over - a naked woman indifferently holding a tiny man in her hand
Thubron met a vicar who says the past will never repeat - this has become a story of hope?
visited a prison - the prisoners were happy there
another difference from PCVs is a job - they have one - the traveler writer's is only to write
mental institution - Chinese 'internalize' everything
pg 158-161: Thubron saw something in paintings by those inside - things the doctors seemed to look over - a naked woman indifferently holding a tiny man in her hand
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Chapter 4: To the Nine Flower Mountain
begins with a quest to visit the grave of his favorite Chinese poet, Li Bai
He meets Jianming, who follows him everywhere; when Thubron tries to tell him to leave: pg 114: "I told him that I needed to be alone, that I was of a sad and solitary disposition. I stared at the ceiling like an anchorite. He said: 'I'll cheer you up!'
pg 115: tries to see himself through the gawker's eyes
pg 177: 'I felt the traveller's guilt at collecting incompatible friends, companions of circumstance. Remorsefully I sought for ways of giving him money...'
pg 121: Thubron talks to a young monk; he uses much detail, dialogue and even facial expressions and clothing - which I am sure he noted within a few hours of the event for the purpose of writing this book - PVCs must rely on memory to fill the wide gaps in their journals (as all memoirs must)
witnesses mass for the dead
pg 130: he talks to a man on a boat; the man does not have any children: "With us the greatest crime is to leave no children behind you." - just like in Africa
pg 131: (before the break) Thubron likes to speculate - that's the best we can do, isn't it?
compares history of places to now
Thubron hates that the once serene gardens are now tourist spots - he whines
He meets Jianming, who follows him everywhere; when Thubron tries to tell him to leave: pg 114: "I told him that I needed to be alone, that I was of a sad and solitary disposition. I stared at the ceiling like an anchorite. He said: 'I'll cheer you up!'
pg 115: tries to see himself through the gawker's eyes
pg 177: 'I felt the traveller's guilt at collecting incompatible friends, companions of circumstance. Remorsefully I sought for ways of giving him money...'
pg 121: Thubron talks to a young monk; he uses much detail, dialogue and even facial expressions and clothing - which I am sure he noted within a few hours of the event for the purpose of writing this book - PVCs must rely on memory to fill the wide gaps in their journals (as all memoirs must)
witnesses mass for the dead
pg 130: he talks to a man on a boat; the man does not have any children: "With us the greatest crime is to leave no children behind you." - just like in Africa
pg 131: (before the break) Thubron likes to speculate - that's the best we can do, isn't it?
compares history of places to now
Thubron hates that the once serene gardens are now tourist spots - he whines
Chapter 3: Over the Yangtze
train ride - history of trains in China and of the cities he passes
on a bus a 'conductress' gave Thubron her seat so he had to operate the door
pg 74: he runs across a young girl who wishes to study Early Medieval Sculpture in the US - he reflects on how he took for granted the places she'll never see and ends by noting a youth chasing a lizard to eat
present at unveiling of Confucius' new statue
dispelling myths at Confucius' tomb - pg 84-5
*Men go to war to prove themselves to themselves." -ATC story
at another mausoleum talking to a random guy about the West
at a hospital? acupuncture?
briefly meets a metaparanoid Frenchman
on a school tour he is not impressed with the machine-like presentations but connects with a young girl who accompanies him
visits a Protestant Church and talks with a priest, they talk about religion and 'The Gang of Four'
*these writings are meant to take the reader where they've never been (or to help them see in a different way something they have seen) - the point is to make it worth the reader's while
at a friend's family's - already I feel I know the characters - the 'sexual predator' in a white gown, the beautiful woman with the hyperactive child she pushes away - he uses action and physical description (it ends with the boy tugging on his penis and Hua - the predator - laughs)
pg 103-4: great description of Hua's frail old mother
on a bus a 'conductress' gave Thubron her seat so he had to operate the door
pg 74: he runs across a young girl who wishes to study Early Medieval Sculpture in the US - he reflects on how he took for granted the places she'll never see and ends by noting a youth chasing a lizard to eat
present at unveiling of Confucius' new statue
dispelling myths at Confucius' tomb - pg 84-5
*Men go to war to prove themselves to themselves." -ATC story
at another mausoleum talking to a random guy about the West
at a hospital? acupuncture?
briefly meets a metaparanoid Frenchman
on a school tour he is not impressed with the machine-like presentations but connects with a young girl who accompanies him
visits a Protestant Church and talks with a priest, they talk about religion and 'The Gang of Four'
*these writings are meant to take the reader where they've never been (or to help them see in a different way something they have seen) - the point is to make it worth the reader's while
at a friend's family's - already I feel I know the characters - the 'sexual predator' in a white gown, the beautiful woman with the hyperactive child she pushes away - he uses action and physical description (it ends with the boy tugging on his penis and Hua - the predator - laughs)
pg 103-4: great description of Hua's frail old mother
Chapter 2: The Power Circles
Thubron tours shrines with a cynical man who says that religion is no more in China - he is a good guide for both Thubron and the reader
he ends up at a 'marriage introduction bureau' out of curiosity - humorous
I'm starting to like Thubron - he's curious and goofy (marriage bureau, public bath)
*How about a spoof on this book? While Thubron goes to China because everyone wants to know about it, we go to Timor writing as if everyone wants to know (in a desperate tone)
pg 51: "Sounds like England."
he doesn't tell us every move he makes or even how he gets from place to place sometimes - he is all of a sudden in a hotel atrium or palace talking to a new Chinese
*I imagine it is the goal of academic (read ethnographic) writing to come to some new, insightful conclusion by putting together facts and ideas that have not been before (they also include new finds)
Thubron goes into great detail when describing shrines, etc.
uses humour again pg 54
he battles with how he feels about this old/new city
wanders into a traditional medicine college and gets a tour of tongues (pg 57-8)
pg 61: (before break #2) poetic descriptions - I feel I was there
photograph - alone? pg 63
Thubron sometimes feels like a humorous tour guide
he ends up at a 'marriage introduction bureau' out of curiosity - humorous
I'm starting to like Thubron - he's curious and goofy (marriage bureau, public bath)
*How about a spoof on this book? While Thubron goes to China because everyone wants to know about it, we go to Timor writing as if everyone wants to know (in a desperate tone)
pg 51: "Sounds like England."
he doesn't tell us every move he makes or even how he gets from place to place sometimes - he is all of a sudden in a hotel atrium or palace talking to a new Chinese
*I imagine it is the goal of academic (read ethnographic) writing to come to some new, insightful conclusion by putting together facts and ideas that have not been before (they also include new finds)
Thubron goes into great detail when describing shrines, etc.
uses humour again pg 54
he battles with how he feels about this old/new city
wanders into a traditional medicine college and gets a tour of tongues (pg 57-8)
pg 61: (before break #2) poetic descriptions - I feel I was there
photograph - alone? pg 63
Thubron sometimes feels like a humorous tour guide
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Thubron, Chapter 1: The Capital
This is my first of two travel writing reads
publisher labeled it "travel"
ok, pg 1 and I already see I'm in the presence of a master - the PC books were child's play, workshop submissions
opens by saying he's in China out of curiosity - pg 1: "It was like discovering a new room in a house in which you'd lived your whole life."
in his youth the country puzzled him
is Thubron's mission to meet the people and discover who they are?
amused but unimpressed by Beijing
alludes to Marco Polo
seems to be bashing the city, calling it "motley" and "decrepit improvisations" pg 5
pg 6, smelly - he is describing the surroundings clearly, as he sees them, though they are unfavorable
Thubron is giving us his first impressions here - they are negative but I expect them to change - perhaps it is easier for travel writers to write this way than it is for a PCV - since PCVs become attached and dependent on the people they are writing about
he learned Mandarin! - uses research often - pg 6 - "Old-Hundred-Names", I imagine much more than PC memoir but just a fraction less than ethnography
history of Tienanmen Square
uses dialogue, scenes to propel the story
style and language reminds me of George Plimpton
hires bikes as he goes
goes into underground tunnels/shelters, explains history, then he says he is "struck into numbed credulity" when he thinks of this and other monumental tasks of the people
analyzes nude men in showers
Thubron tells a man the West sees China as a country of worker ants - pg 19 - man says no
discovers couples work apart, only child at boarding school at 2 yo
uses anthropological terms - pg 28 - "guilt cultures" and "shame cultures"
publisher labeled it "travel"
ok, pg 1 and I already see I'm in the presence of a master - the PC books were child's play, workshop submissions
opens by saying he's in China out of curiosity - pg 1: "It was like discovering a new room in a house in which you'd lived your whole life."
in his youth the country puzzled him
is Thubron's mission to meet the people and discover who they are?
amused but unimpressed by Beijing
alludes to Marco Polo
seems to be bashing the city, calling it "motley" and "decrepit improvisations" pg 5
pg 6, smelly - he is describing the surroundings clearly, as he sees them, though they are unfavorable
Thubron is giving us his first impressions here - they are negative but I expect them to change - perhaps it is easier for travel writers to write this way than it is for a PCV - since PCVs become attached and dependent on the people they are writing about
he learned Mandarin! - uses research often - pg 6 - "Old-Hundred-Names", I imagine much more than PC memoir but just a fraction less than ethnography
history of Tienanmen Square
uses dialogue, scenes to propel the story
style and language reminds me of George Plimpton
hires bikes as he goes
goes into underground tunnels/shelters, explains history, then he says he is "struck into numbed credulity" when he thinks of this and other monumental tasks of the people
analyzes nude men in showers
Thubron tells a man the West sees China as a country of worker ants - pg 19 - man says no
discovers couples work apart, only child at boarding school at 2 yo
uses anthropological terms - pg 28 - "guilt cultures" and "shame cultures"
Monday, June 16, 2008
Erdman: Flawless super woman?
This was my third Peace Corps Memoir. Though all three were similar in that they were all written by Peace Corps Volunteers stationed on the African continent, this book stood out because the writer, a female, seemed to write in a gentler tone. While Packer was the most introspective of the trio, Erdman and Tidwell were less so, writing more about what happened than how they felt or interpreted events.
Erdman chooses, like Packer, to begin her book with a scene from her service that she thinks symbolizes her experience. It is an engaging story of her first time witnessing a live birth in her village. At the end of the telling, she writes that she has written this book to answer the question many have asked her since she returned: "What was Africa like?" This is different from Packer, who said no one wanted to hear his stories, and he wrote his book to put to rest his struggle with his decision to leave early.
But Erdman's telling, like Tidwell's, lost my interest as I read on, finally grabbing me near the end. Erdman more recounted her stay in exposition than in scenes or dialogue. I found this choice tiresome, even though her successful projects and interesting encounters filled these pages.
In the second chapter, Erdman recounts her time in her training village, where she focuses on her host family and how famously she got along with them. The chapter frustrated me because Erdman chose to elude to things never mentioned before, a choice that left me wanting more.
Erdman chose to divide the third chapter, in which she focused on her site, into 22 sub-chapters (I became frustrated that Erdman only wrote about her village and nothing else - nothing about her friends and family at home or her fellow volunteers). To her credit, I thought Erdman made a good choice to introduce the villagers who she spent most of her time with and then to continue using the characters until the end. This stood out from Tidwell's choice to mention many people only a few times. Erdman's choice gave me the opportunity to feel for the characters and attempt to understand them.
As we read on there is another treat. Erdman gets to go where the male Peace Corps writers could not - where the women go. Erdman sat in on many births, helped some, sat and worked with the women, witnessed a wedding ceremony "behind the scenes" and even got to drink with the women behind closed doors. She could have stressed how unique her experience was, but did not.
Also, though Erdman doesn't dwell on it, she spends time trying to understand the villagers' animistic beliefs in order to work within these belief to introduce Western medicines and health practices.
Perhaps Erdman is most successful when she focuses on certain events and the people involved. For example, in the chapter "Grasp," Erdman begins an informal French-language class with a few of the village boys. It is when Erdman writes about her interactions with these boys, about their desire to learn even when others do not, and about how she adores them that I became more drawn in. She also does this later with her maternity clinic project and the young men she works with, though to a lesser degree. Yet Erdman raises the bar again when she recounts the AIDS party and the play her young men put together.
About halfway through my read I flipped over to the back cover of the book and read the reviews. One struck me:
"Calling all Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict worshippers: Nine Hills is the lyrical diary of a Peace Corps wonder woman."
And that's when I began to understand. I began to call the book chic lit and feminist. It seemed Erdman was tooting her own horn as not only a successful Peace Corps volunteer but as a successful American woman making it on her own (I would have hated her if I served with her - because I would have looked so bad in comparison). So, I venture to propose that Erdman is not trying to answer the question "What was Africa like?" rather "How awesome am I?" Which goes back to Tidwell and Packer, who may not have wanted to write about themselves but did anyway - you can't help it.
Like Packer, Erdman took advantage and flexed her artistic muscle, a few times, when she described that natural world around her. An example in the chapter "Deluge":
"So infants are tied under their mother's arm, and older babies swing under there themselves to grab a nipple. Mothers can breast-feed with no hands, while washing dishes, grinding peanuts, or hanging up the laundry." (pg 187)
And when she describes the oncoming rain:
"There is that one climactic moment when the air is electric and the leaves turn eerie and neon against dark sky and women scream out to bring in the last cooking pot and Baba's chair! Children's voices ripple on the wind and birds shriek and [my dog's] hair stands up straight and goose bumps prickle on my arms and the whole world just teeters on the brink of the storm." (pg 187)
But these are very few and very far between (I have started Thubron's Behind the Wall and immediately picked up on the superior skill level - he writes this way the whole time). It was a good choice to use them, though a poor choice to use them so little.
As Erdman nears the end of her book and experience, it seems she is finally comfortable with her writing and the quality improves. On pages 294-5, for example, Erdman strikes gold: a good friend and fellow PCV died, and Erdman reacted physically as Angelique reacts to her brother's death in hospital. I finally felt a real, deep emotion as I grieved with the two women.
In Erdman's last "Village" chapter, she says goodbye to her friends. It is quite moving - she receives many gifts though she can not believe she deserves them, a child asks to go with her, the people ask when she will return. Erdman asks herself, "Will I ever be this good again?" as self-doubt creeps in - it works that she is showing her flaws here - I see she is real (I also felt this when she still stressed about getting everything done on time). Maybe that is what's missing from the formula: to engage the reader, a writer must tell the whole truth, meaning s/he must confess the good, the bad and the ugly truth about themselves. This introspection, this confession is key. Erdman dwells mostly on the good.
Erdman could have ended with a great scene where she is writing by candle light and the light blows out. But she adds another chapter updating the reader on the political situation in Cote d'Ivoire. While interesting, I think this choice harmed more then helped by breaking up a great ending and giving us nothing more than a "news update."
Erdman chooses, like Packer, to begin her book with a scene from her service that she thinks symbolizes her experience. It is an engaging story of her first time witnessing a live birth in her village. At the end of the telling, she writes that she has written this book to answer the question many have asked her since she returned: "What was Africa like?" This is different from Packer, who said no one wanted to hear his stories, and he wrote his book to put to rest his struggle with his decision to leave early.
But Erdman's telling, like Tidwell's, lost my interest as I read on, finally grabbing me near the end. Erdman more recounted her stay in exposition than in scenes or dialogue. I found this choice tiresome, even though her successful projects and interesting encounters filled these pages.
In the second chapter, Erdman recounts her time in her training village, where she focuses on her host family and how famously she got along with them. The chapter frustrated me because Erdman chose to elude to things never mentioned before, a choice that left me wanting more.
Erdman chose to divide the third chapter, in which she focused on her site, into 22 sub-chapters (I became frustrated that Erdman only wrote about her village and nothing else - nothing about her friends and family at home or her fellow volunteers). To her credit, I thought Erdman made a good choice to introduce the villagers who she spent most of her time with and then to continue using the characters until the end. This stood out from Tidwell's choice to mention many people only a few times. Erdman's choice gave me the opportunity to feel for the characters and attempt to understand them.
As we read on there is another treat. Erdman gets to go where the male Peace Corps writers could not - where the women go. Erdman sat in on many births, helped some, sat and worked with the women, witnessed a wedding ceremony "behind the scenes" and even got to drink with the women behind closed doors. She could have stressed how unique her experience was, but did not.
Also, though Erdman doesn't dwell on it, she spends time trying to understand the villagers' animistic beliefs in order to work within these belief to introduce Western medicines and health practices.
Perhaps Erdman is most successful when she focuses on certain events and the people involved. For example, in the chapter "Grasp," Erdman begins an informal French-language class with a few of the village boys. It is when Erdman writes about her interactions with these boys, about their desire to learn even when others do not, and about how she adores them that I became more drawn in. She also does this later with her maternity clinic project and the young men she works with, though to a lesser degree. Yet Erdman raises the bar again when she recounts the AIDS party and the play her young men put together.
About halfway through my read I flipped over to the back cover of the book and read the reviews. One struck me:
"Calling all Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict worshippers: Nine Hills is the lyrical diary of a Peace Corps wonder woman."
And that's when I began to understand. I began to call the book chic lit and feminist. It seemed Erdman was tooting her own horn as not only a successful Peace Corps volunteer but as a successful American woman making it on her own (I would have hated her if I served with her - because I would have looked so bad in comparison). So, I venture to propose that Erdman is not trying to answer the question "What was Africa like?" rather "How awesome am I?" Which goes back to Tidwell and Packer, who may not have wanted to write about themselves but did anyway - you can't help it.
Like Packer, Erdman took advantage and flexed her artistic muscle, a few times, when she described that natural world around her. An example in the chapter "Deluge":
"So infants are tied under their mother's arm, and older babies swing under there themselves to grab a nipple. Mothers can breast-feed with no hands, while washing dishes, grinding peanuts, or hanging up the laundry." (pg 187)
And when she describes the oncoming rain:
"There is that one climactic moment when the air is electric and the leaves turn eerie and neon against dark sky and women scream out to bring in the last cooking pot and Baba's chair! Children's voices ripple on the wind and birds shriek and [my dog's] hair stands up straight and goose bumps prickle on my arms and the whole world just teeters on the brink of the storm." (pg 187)
But these are very few and very far between (I have started Thubron's Behind the Wall and immediately picked up on the superior skill level - he writes this way the whole time). It was a good choice to use them, though a poor choice to use them so little.
As Erdman nears the end of her book and experience, it seems she is finally comfortable with her writing and the quality improves. On pages 294-5, for example, Erdman strikes gold: a good friend and fellow PCV died, and Erdman reacted physically as Angelique reacts to her brother's death in hospital. I finally felt a real, deep emotion as I grieved with the two women.
In Erdman's last "Village" chapter, she says goodbye to her friends. It is quite moving - she receives many gifts though she can not believe she deserves them, a child asks to go with her, the people ask when she will return. Erdman asks herself, "Will I ever be this good again?" as self-doubt creeps in - it works that she is showing her flaws here - I see she is real (I also felt this when she still stressed about getting everything done on time). Maybe that is what's missing from the formula: to engage the reader, a writer must tell the whole truth, meaning s/he must confess the good, the bad and the ugly truth about themselves. This introspection, this confession is key. Erdman dwells mostly on the good.
Erdman could have ended with a great scene where she is writing by candle light and the light blows out. But she adds another chapter updating the reader on the political situation in Cote d'Ivoire. While interesting, I think this choice harmed more then helped by breaking up a great ending and giving us nothing more than a "news update."
Sunday, June 15, 2008
A War
a recap of political tension after Erdman left
but does this take away from the beautiful ending she already wrote? I think so
according to the book jacket, she still works for PC - she had a great PC experience and would want to - same with Teresa from Timor
* who decides these projects and where are their stories? include that? interview Gene?
Tidwell ended better than he began, too
P and T have trouble coping, Erdman fits right in
but does this take away from the beautiful ending she already wrote? I think so
according to the book jacket, she still works for PC - she had a great PC experience and would want to - same with Teresa from Timor
* who decides these projects and where are their stories? include that? interview Gene?
Tidwell ended better than he began, too
P and T have trouble coping, Erdman fits right in
A Village: Mereban
she gives things away for them to remember her
Pg 305: more gold - "If only they can wrap up the tok tok of pestles, girls singing in the moonlight, Moussa humming balafon songs, their laughing eyes."
pg 306: "Maybe I'll never be this good again."
last dance - very sad
good last image - flame goes out
Pg 305: more gold - "If only they can wrap up the tok tok of pestles, girls singing in the moonlight, Moussa humming balafon songs, their laughing eyes."
pg 306: "Maybe I'll never be this good again."
last dance - very sad
good last image - flame goes out
A Village: Tournee
well-told tale of Massieta taken to hospital - Erdman seems to be finally comfortable writing
pg 294-5: ah, gold: a good friend and fellow PCV died, and Erdman reacted physically as Angelique reacts to her brother's death in hospital (strange how she chose not to talk about her friend or his-her death at all - or her family and friends outside the village - as if they aren't part of the story - I want to disagree, but this was Erdman's conscious choice - to focus on the village?)
beautiful - death binds us all
she poses that condom use could have been accepted if presented as a fetish
( I know she is leaving soon) and she tells death story, Oumar's move story, sorcerer's airplane, saying bye to Oumar, misses darkness when lights come, stars
pg 294-5: ah, gold: a good friend and fellow PCV died, and Erdman reacted physically as Angelique reacts to her brother's death in hospital (strange how she chose not to talk about her friend or his-her death at all - or her family and friends outside the village - as if they aren't part of the story - I want to disagree, but this was Erdman's conscious choice - to focus on the village?)
beautiful - death binds us all
she poses that condom use could have been accepted if presented as a fetish
( I know she is leaving soon) and she tells death story, Oumar's move story, sorcerer's airplane, saying bye to Oumar, misses darkness when lights come, stars
A Village: Rising
a peaceful coup while she is on vacation with family
pg 274: "Along this road, nothing changes but the seasons."
pg 274: "Along this road, nothing changes but the seasons."
A Village: Tonic
family planning group comes to village - Erdman, like a typical American, is still having a heart attack over timing - funny
good retelling of group's talk, exciting
good retelling of group's talk, exciting
A Village: Boutons
a touching story - a woman comes and lives with her nephew then her husband dies - her child then dies and Erdman realizes it's AIDS - she fears for the family, the community
Erdman gives us the background of AIDS in Cote d'Ivoire, how it spreads, the stigma
the people blame it on sorcery
Erdman questions the effectiveness and unused potential of the Baptist doctors
she tells stories of African s dying of AIDS, from Sibide's mouth and her own
Sidibe is the voice of concerned young Africans - and he says only a vaccine will help
the chief applauds her work and gives her free reign
the story of the AIDS play is living and real
NGO show
Erdman gives us the background of AIDS in Cote d'Ivoire, how it spreads, the stigma
the people blame it on sorcery
Erdman questions the effectiveness and unused potential of the Baptist doctors
she tells stories of African s dying of AIDS, from Sibide's mouth and her own
Sidibe is the voice of concerned young Africans - and he says only a vaccine will help
the chief applauds her work and gives her free reign
the story of the AIDS play is living and real
NGO show
A Village: Trophy
super woman - she paints pictures and billboards and makes papier mache puppets
but did she ever hang out with any fellow PCVS? she mentions later that she had good PC friends, but she chose not to elaborate
but did she ever hang out with any fellow PCVS? she mentions later that she had good PC friends, but she chose not to elaborate
A Village: Rite
death in landlord's family
pg 191: "I can sit still for ages these days. But I still can't quiet all the questions."
5 year old circumcised - Erdman sees no good in this
engagements
pg 200: the story of Nambon - she acts like we know it
new vs old
pg 201: "I'm a development worker who's not completely sold on development."
pg 191: "I can sit still for ages these days. But I still can't quiet all the questions."
5 year old circumcised - Erdman sees no good in this
engagements
pg 200: the story of Nambon - she acts like we know it
new vs old
pg 201: "I'm a development worker who's not completely sold on development."
A Village: Deluge
wedding; what a bride goes through (no food, no sleep, recovering from circumcision, taken from family)
cross dressing at wedding brings up homosexuality and gender roles
she can't keep up, stay up
*we couldn't either
"colostrum...like a free vaccination" she tells them
pg 187: good descriptions of breastfeeding and oncoming rain - Packer did that 'natural' description well, too
cross dressing at wedding brings up homosexuality and gender roles
she can't keep up, stay up
*we couldn't either
"colostrum...like a free vaccination" she tells them
pg 187: good descriptions of breastfeeding and oncoming rain - Packer did that 'natural' description well, too
A Village: Apprentis
maternity clinic succeeding and growing
contest
a mother with her very malnourished child signs up
Erdman feels lucky to be first PCV in her village
*us, too
the new scale that hangs from a tree is a hit
contest
a mother with her very malnourished child signs up
Erdman feels lucky to be first PCV in her village
*us, too
the new scale that hangs from a tree is a hit
Friday, June 13, 2008
A Village: Source
girl troubles - Erdman questions how 'real' her friend Abi is - how girly
pg 168 - again, realizing how rich she is
pg 169: the apparent stupidity of buying what you don't need (a TV) when you eat poorly, are unhealthy
the people watch a Mexican soap opera
*like in Same, Indo soaps
is this feminist writing?
African addiction to technology
Abi is judged by her own relatives
Erdman proposes to understand Abi, that she's "just a little girl who wants her momma." Interesting, Western-idea driven, and presumptuous
starting to feel like chic lit - I'm guessing a love interest will show up soon
pg 168 - again, realizing how rich she is
pg 169: the apparent stupidity of buying what you don't need (a TV) when you eat poorly, are unhealthy
the people watch a Mexican soap opera
*like in Same, Indo soaps
is this feminist writing?
African addiction to technology
Abi is judged by her own relatives
Erdman proposes to understand Abi, that she's "just a little girl who wants her momma." Interesting, Western-idea driven, and presumptuous
starting to feel like chic lit - I'm guessing a love interest will show up soon
A Village: Harmattan
pg 149: Ramadan - "Holding out for the month is really impractical."
*we were told we all wear 'rose-colored glasses' that we can never take off - we can never really understand another culture that we didn't grow up in
pg 151: religion - "they cover their bets by honoring both entities."
pg 158: story of a gendarme courtier; she made up boyfriends; she was threatened, "grossed out"
*we were told we all wear 'rose-colored glasses' that we can never take off - we can never really understand another culture that we didn't grow up in
pg 151: religion - "they cover their bets by honoring both entities."
pg 158: story of a gendarme courtier; she made up boyfriends; she was threatened, "grossed out"
Thursday, June 12, 2008
A Village: Verdict
female circumcision a modern-day practice
still-born baby blamed on curse (she wasn't circumcised)
it is a Muslim tradition that the dead must be buried within 24 hours
post-mortem seances reveal if that person was a witch
pg 141: she does ask questions, though directly to the reader
pg 143: the babies fight her when she weighs them; Erdman attributes it to her appearance: green eyes, white skin, "as if they've seen a sorcerer."
pg 144: Erdman imagines what the mothers think of her maternity clinic
a focus on the exotic, the Wodaabe' from Niger
still-born baby blamed on curse (she wasn't circumcised)
it is a Muslim tradition that the dead must be buried within 24 hours
post-mortem seances reveal if that person was a witch
pg 141: she does ask questions, though directly to the reader
pg 143: the babies fight her when she weighs them; Erdman attributes it to her appearance: green eyes, white skin, "as if they've seen a sorcerer."
pg 144: Erdman imagines what the mothers think of her maternity clinic
a focus on the exotic, the Wodaabe' from Niger
A Village: Recolte
*so, I should research the first PC books, capture that spirit of JFK, and compare it to us
Erdman flips out at the pesticide in the river
she pulls the placenta out of the womb! and all we get is "It seems quite possible that I'm about to yank out some major piece of Mendjeta." What? That's it?
Ferke market with Abi
pg 124: she uses few scenes but instead generalizes, glosses over
* flipped carcasses of cars along road
given a dog - rejected it
*kuku!
grunts of approval
*Juliaun Matteus
anti-migrant president/government
Erdman accepts dog
(she is all over the place...)
so she obviously does not believe in scenes or dialogue, action even - interesting. I guess that's a reminder that there are many ways to tell a story (though I just get frustrated with this one)
Ah, is this a more scientific-minded writer, like a expect the ethnographers to be?
super woman chick lit?
pg 133: cries when one of her little friends returns - chic lit
mill arrives, pestles stop, mill breaks, pestles return
Erdman flips out at the pesticide in the river
she pulls the placenta out of the womb! and all we get is "It seems quite possible that I'm about to yank out some major piece of Mendjeta." What? That's it?
Ferke market with Abi
pg 124: she uses few scenes but instead generalizes, glosses over
* flipped carcasses of cars along road
given a dog - rejected it
*kuku!
grunts of approval
*Juliaun Matteus
anti-migrant president/government
Erdman accepts dog
(she is all over the place...)
so she obviously does not believe in scenes or dialogue, action even - interesting. I guess that's a reminder that there are many ways to tell a story (though I just get frustrated with this one)
Ah, is this a more scientific-minded writer, like a expect the ethnographers to be?
super woman chick lit?
pg 133: cries when one of her little friends returns - chic lit
mill arrives, pestles stop, mill breaks, pestles return
A Village: Edifice
electricity
prefet singles her out of crowd to greet
bouffer = corruption
hierarchy, brown nosing; bureaucracy + corruption = stagnation
uniformed hordes of school kids on the road
soccer
pg 107: graduation - "they look down so as not to be too proud or presumptuous."
rote learning, no understanding
they blame witches
prefet singles her out of crowd to greet
bouffer = corruption
hierarchy, brown nosing; bureaucracy + corruption = stagnation
uniformed hordes of school kids on the road
soccer
pg 107: graduation - "they look down so as not to be too proud or presumptuous."
rote learning, no understanding
they blame witches
A Village: Grasp
teaching Daouda to read and write; Oumar "whispering the letters to himself."
maternity clinic?
*this was her big project, mine was frisbee
*is my goal to open minds? to clear up misconceptions? (and if so, is it brought on by my loathing of the close-mindedness in my home town and region?) How would that play into my PC book? What PC life is like? (we're not heroes by any stretch) What the third-world is really like? (beautiful and terrible) What little-known Timor is like?
maternity clinic?
*this was her big project, mine was frisbee
*is my goal to open minds? to clear up misconceptions? (and if so, is it brought on by my loathing of the close-mindedness in my home town and region?) How would that play into my PC book? What PC life is like? (we're not heroes by any stretch) What the third-world is really like? (beautiful and terrible) What little-known Timor is like?
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
A Village: Ali
sick child; Erdman tried to give it porridge
talks about childbirth
Erdman tells this pregnancy story in a removed tone - like she's a pro
touching, depressing ending; though told in a removed tone
talks about childbirth
Erdman tells this pregnancy story in a removed tone - like she's a pro
touching, depressing ending; though told in a removed tone
A Village: Mba'a
*we felt they didn't know how to respect things - Jenn wouldn't let the kids take her magazines out of the house because they tore them up
sacrifices to river gods
she tries to understand their animistic beliefs so she can work with them
time (*island time)
*Niarofolo language - chang is sun and day; in Tetun loron is sun and day
market, language errors (hat, hat)
tractor - *Elvis' tractor, he rented out services
pg 75: "One would have to be blind to assume that a man becomes faithful just because he has two wives waiting for him at home instead of one." - that doesn't make sense...blind?
sacrifices to river gods
she tries to understand their animistic beliefs so she can work with them
time (*island time)
*Niarofolo language - chang is sun and day; in Tetun loron is sun and day
market, language errors (hat, hat)
tractor - *Elvis' tractor, he rented out services
pg 75: "One would have to be blind to assume that a man becomes faithful just because he has two wives waiting for him at home instead of one." - that doesn't make sense...blind?
A Village: Stranger
*Imagine all the stuff we left - I can imagine the family walking in, seeing the bed mattress, mosquito net, armoire, tables, propane stove, buckets, half-made clothesline, boxes of supermei and deho
Erdman uses present tense, pg 45 for example, "She sucks her teeth."
pg 48: Erdman questions her task
pg 49: "All my training has convinced me that no development is worthwhile unless the idea comes from the community." - that's modern thinking
Erdman touched on guilt when the village men arrive - could be more played out
*we know that feeling
donation saves her because she overspent on decorating her place - that's new PC
she likes the cassava
*Bek likes the leaves
Erdman mentions she grew up Christian but no longer practices (all three PC writers shared this)
p 58: did anyone edit this? She jumps all over in space and time
wow, this is unique - Erdman gets to drink behind closed doors with the women (she also gets to attend births)
Erdman uses present tense, pg 45 for example, "She sucks her teeth."
pg 48: Erdman questions her task
pg 49: "All my training has convinced me that no development is worthwhile unless the idea comes from the community." - that's modern thinking
Erdman touched on guilt when the village men arrive - could be more played out
*we know that feeling
donation saves her because she overspent on decorating her place - that's new PC
she likes the cassava
*Bek likes the leaves
Erdman mentions she grew up Christian but no longer practices (all three PC writers shared this)
p 58: did anyone edit this? She jumps all over in space and time
wow, this is unique - Erdman gets to drink behind closed doors with the women (she also gets to attend births)
A Village: Savanna
Erdman chose to divide this third chapter into 22 subchapters
the villagers don't seem to know why Erdman, the first white to live there for many years, is there
*we had the same problem - but we didn't know why we were there either
she's given a local name
not sure of quality of writing...
funny scene (of few) where her friend eats bushrat brains
Sidibe and Abi are progressive, eat together, talk together, etc., yet he still supports his extended family
the villagers don't seem to know why Erdman, the first white to live there for many years, is there
*we had the same problem - but we didn't know why we were there either
she's given a local name
not sure of quality of writing...
funny scene (of few) where her friend eats bushrat brains
Sidibe and Abi are progressive, eat together, talk together, etc., yet he still supports his extended family
A Beginning
brushes over training day, focuses on first meal and then on her host-family
5th food group - Packer and Tidwell (P and T) ignore this
admits she was unprepared
unlike the boys of the 80's, this girl wants to do things on her own (cooking, washing)
dressed up, loved by the young girls, so much unlike P and T, more like me and B
village not as impoverished
very easy prose, simple
AIDS here (not so much in 80's)
pg 16: speculation about what a girl is thinking about death, about AIDS
comparison to people of Abidjan (the capital) - but Erdman doesn't say how she knows about Abidjan (as I mentioned before, she says little of anything outside the village, though I know the outside world plays into the experience)
stereos have replaced drums - sad
again, how does she know about the cassette jackets from the capital?
she writes in First Person Omniscient, present tense
same with description of funeral on pg 17 - she describes it before she actually goes to one (this choice is obviously bothering me, though that's because I am not used to it)
interesting, she jumps around, shoots forward in time; pg 20: she has been sick...?
I'm only now aware this is her training village - not clear
pg 23: vague ideas
*I should write about my expectations - I had few - no real ideas about PC life, never read any books, only blogs of current PCVs - I feel I had nothing buy my imagination to go on - no history of PC, no pride or honor in it - just idealist vagaries - no JFK, Sgt. Shriver - am I a disgrace?
pg 25: sappy ending, "So sweet this night."
5th food group - Packer and Tidwell (P and T) ignore this
admits she was unprepared
unlike the boys of the 80's, this girl wants to do things on her own (cooking, washing)
dressed up, loved by the young girls, so much unlike P and T, more like me and B
village not as impoverished
very easy prose, simple
AIDS here (not so much in 80's)
pg 16: speculation about what a girl is thinking about death, about AIDS
comparison to people of Abidjan (the capital) - but Erdman doesn't say how she knows about Abidjan (as I mentioned before, she says little of anything outside the village, though I know the outside world plays into the experience)
stereos have replaced drums - sad
again, how does she know about the cassette jackets from the capital?
she writes in First Person Omniscient, present tense
same with description of funeral on pg 17 - she describes it before she actually goes to one (this choice is obviously bothering me, though that's because I am not used to it)
interesting, she jumps around, shoots forward in time; pg 20: she has been sick...?
I'm only now aware this is her training village - not clear
pg 23: vague ideas
*I should write about my expectations - I had few - no real ideas about PC life, never read any books, only blogs of current PCVs - I feel I had nothing buy my imagination to go on - no history of PC, no pride or honor in it - just idealist vagaries - no JFK, Sgt. Shriver - am I a disgrace?
pg 25: sappy ending, "So sweet this night."
A Memory
(I had this book at home -a gift from my wife - and grabbed it when I realized the book From the Center of the Earth is a collection of mostly fiction stories)
two months into her service, Erdman is rushed to a woman in labor
wow, she sees the baby through its mothers skin
sees a naked woman who is circumcised
I'm glad to be reading a female PC account; different POV, different access
culture - they bury the placenta, they ignore the colostrum
she ends the chapter by claiming she will use this book to answer the question, "What was Africa like?"
I notice she does not include her training - by the end I see that she excludes many details not directly related to her village
two months into her service, Erdman is rushed to a woman in labor
wow, she sees the baby through its mothers skin
sees a naked woman who is circumcised
I'm glad to be reading a female PC account; different POV, different access
culture - they bury the placenta, they ignore the colostrum
she ends the chapter by claiming she will use this book to answer the question, "What was Africa like?"
I notice she does not include her training - by the end I see that she excludes many details not directly related to her village
Monday, June 2, 2008
Packer: An Emotional Tone
Packer is another Peace Corps writer. Yet I found he told his story a bit differently than Tidwell. Just a bit differently. They both used each chapter to focus on a topic or two, freely moving back and forth in time within the chapter. Both begin with the authors leaving and training in country and we get their first impressions. Both end their books with their final days. They talk about their projects, their interactions with people both on and off the job (though in Africa the line is blurred). They both end up having a hard time coping, as open and cool as they try to make themselves: Tidwell turns to drinking and stealing and Packer suffers a nervous breakdown and does not finish his term of service (facts which, he adds in the afterword written decades later, were the reasons he wrote the book, for closure).
But Packer’s style is more advanced and more introspective: his style is clearer and I felt I knew the author from the beginning. While a clear style makes the book more enjoyable, I am not discussing style but choices. For example, Packer’s choice to include introspection was a choice, as was Tidwell’s to leave it out.
An early example of what kinds of introspection and what it adds to the book is when Packer talks about a common experience of PCVs: culture shock, the shock you feel of being in a culture different from anything you’ve encountered (there is also reverse culture shock, where it is hard to re-enter your own culture after being away so long – Packer only briefly mentions it in the Afterword). This is something anyone can relate to, any reader who has been somewhere they didn’t understand. Because Packer tells us how this shock affected him, we as readers feel more deeply drawn to the character – he is admitting that he is human and has feelings, in this case feelings of shock, of being out of his element.
Packer also uses more outside research than Tidwell, though he only uses it here and there. The first example is when he looks up the meaning of yovo, the word the Togolese used for whites. It meant “cunning dog,” though the people wouldn’t admit that. This extra information adds to the reading experience and adds more credibility to the author, who we see has done research to back up his story.
Packer is an insightful and imaginative writer. He examines the world around him. For example, on page 75 he reflects on the education system that seems to go nowhere. Packer does this often, and this makes the reading more interesting. Packer is clear on what he thinks; even if I, the reader, do not agree, I respect his ideas.
Packer also speculates, imagines things happening. On page 73 he imagines two of his students in America: “If Kpatcha would have been an engineering student on a scholarship, the American Kodjo would have edited the irreverent school newspaper.” This speculation opens up the story by giving the reader something close to home to compare it to. This happens again on page 171, where Packer imagines what his friend in Paris would do with a letter from a strange African asking for help – Packer imagines his friend will throw it out, which may or nay not be true, but it shows the reader how pessimistic Packer is.
Both Packer and Tidwell admitted, by different degrees, their faults. I think this draws us in because we feel they are being truthful and we want to both be in on the gossip and sympathize. Packer seems to do this more, though. He shows us how in his anger he grabs a boy and drags him to his mother to apologize. He also admits he wants to quit, even says so to his neighbor. In what I think is the heart of the book, the chapter called “Hypochondria,” he tells the story where he fears his is having a stroke only to find out from a German doctor that he has the classic symptoms of a nervous breakdown. In the end, he actually quits without telling anyone, on a whim, it seems. Packer probably had a more compelling confessional tone because, as he said in the Afterword, the writing of the book was an act of closure. This choice to use an emotional tone drew me in to the story.
Two more thoughts. I felt a wanting to see both Tidwell and Packer as writers. Their choices to withhold that fact bothered me, rather than passed by unnoticed. Since their books read much like memoir, I felt they should have revealed that much to us. Second, I realized that these two PC books were written four years after service ended, meaning the writers were still young, inexperienced writers writing their first books. They may not have even known they were going to write about their experiences until after the fact (which Packer suggests in the Afterword, though the fact that he recorded conversations suggested he had some intent). I wonder if the fact that the other books on the list, the travel writing and autoethnography, are written by more experienced, professional writers should be taken into account when comparing them to the PC books.
But Packer’s style is more advanced and more introspective: his style is clearer and I felt I knew the author from the beginning. While a clear style makes the book more enjoyable, I am not discussing style but choices. For example, Packer’s choice to include introspection was a choice, as was Tidwell’s to leave it out.
An early example of what kinds of introspection and what it adds to the book is when Packer talks about a common experience of PCVs: culture shock, the shock you feel of being in a culture different from anything you’ve encountered (there is also reverse culture shock, where it is hard to re-enter your own culture after being away so long – Packer only briefly mentions it in the Afterword). This is something anyone can relate to, any reader who has been somewhere they didn’t understand. Because Packer tells us how this shock affected him, we as readers feel more deeply drawn to the character – he is admitting that he is human and has feelings, in this case feelings of shock, of being out of his element.
Packer also uses more outside research than Tidwell, though he only uses it here and there. The first example is when he looks up the meaning of yovo, the word the Togolese used for whites. It meant “cunning dog,” though the people wouldn’t admit that. This extra information adds to the reading experience and adds more credibility to the author, who we see has done research to back up his story.
Packer is an insightful and imaginative writer. He examines the world around him. For example, on page 75 he reflects on the education system that seems to go nowhere. Packer does this often, and this makes the reading more interesting. Packer is clear on what he thinks; even if I, the reader, do not agree, I respect his ideas.
Packer also speculates, imagines things happening. On page 73 he imagines two of his students in America: “If Kpatcha would have been an engineering student on a scholarship, the American Kodjo would have edited the irreverent school newspaper.” This speculation opens up the story by giving the reader something close to home to compare it to. This happens again on page 171, where Packer imagines what his friend in Paris would do with a letter from a strange African asking for help – Packer imagines his friend will throw it out, which may or nay not be true, but it shows the reader how pessimistic Packer is.
Both Packer and Tidwell admitted, by different degrees, their faults. I think this draws us in because we feel they are being truthful and we want to both be in on the gossip and sympathize. Packer seems to do this more, though. He shows us how in his anger he grabs a boy and drags him to his mother to apologize. He also admits he wants to quit, even says so to his neighbor. In what I think is the heart of the book, the chapter called “Hypochondria,” he tells the story where he fears his is having a stroke only to find out from a German doctor that he has the classic symptoms of a nervous breakdown. In the end, he actually quits without telling anyone, on a whim, it seems. Packer probably had a more compelling confessional tone because, as he said in the Afterword, the writing of the book was an act of closure. This choice to use an emotional tone drew me in to the story.
Two more thoughts. I felt a wanting to see both Tidwell and Packer as writers. Their choices to withhold that fact bothered me, rather than passed by unnoticed. Since their books read much like memoir, I felt they should have revealed that much to us. Second, I realized that these two PC books were written four years after service ended, meaning the writers were still young, inexperienced writers writing their first books. They may not have even known they were going to write about their experiences until after the fact (which Packer suggests in the Afterword, though the fact that he recorded conversations suggested he had some intent). I wonder if the fact that the other books on the list, the travel writing and autoethnography, are written by more experienced, professional writers should be taken into account when comparing them to the PC books.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Afterword
touching story of his return years later, the state of his friends
as much as he wanted this to be not about him but about the village, it is very much about him (and the surrounding circumstances (development, govt.)
writing has matured
as much as he wanted this to be not about him but about the village, it is very much about him (and the surrounding circumstances (development, govt.)
writing has matured
Barcelona
he is happy
*kore metan
pg 311: compares Euro train to African transport
strange ending, surprising
*kore metan
pg 311: compares Euro train to African transport
strange ending, surprising
Cicada Philosophy
This is another of the strongest chapters
end of book seems to focus on government
* our PC story is a story of not getting what you expected but something else
pg 301: cicada philosophy: "to live happy, live hidden"
these three stories are great examples
end of book seems to focus on government
* our PC story is a story of not getting what you expected but something else
pg 301: cicada philosophy: "to live happy, live hidden"
these three stories are great examples
The New Chief
I wasn't clear that this new chief was the President
ah! a framed story! a VIP arrives and then Packer steps back in time, nice
* PC writers are not professional writers - they may or may not have gone with the intention of writing, but certainly with out the experience. In contrast, travel writers and autoethnographers are more experienced and go with the intention of writing. But the question remains: how do their choice affect the reader?
ah! a framed story! a VIP arrives and then Packer steps back in time, nice
* PC writers are not professional writers - they may or may not have gone with the intention of writing, but certainly with out the experience. In contrast, travel writers and autoethnographers are more experienced and go with the intention of writing. But the question remains: how do their choice affect the reader?
Wait a Little More
no history records in the village
chief's story! Nestor comparison
beautifully told, I am jealous, I don't have anything quite like it
but i wish he had told is why he brought the tape recorder - did he plan to write all this time?
pg 256: magic potion, bonding with chief, affection
day vs night, magic vs development - the new generation is in the middle
chief's story! Nestor comparison
beautifully told, I am jealous, I don't have anything quite like it
but i wish he had told is why he brought the tape recorder - did he plan to write all this time?
pg 256: magic potion, bonding with chief, affection
day vs night, magic vs development - the new generation is in the middle
The Kiss is European
new Principal, quite cosmo
africa vs western love
kissing dancing
sex with Yvette, loneliness; Tidwell wanted it too
*Timor, Jay flirting, Bangkok
africa vs western love
kissing dancing
sex with Yvette, loneliness; Tidwell wanted it too
*Timor, Jay flirting, Bangkok
Hypochondria
this could be the heart of the book
sickness
*Bekah's rash, the hospital; do I have a story here?
pg 206: nervous breakdown!
"I suppose not too many Africans come in with this problem."
"On de contrary..."
"Only educated Togolese?"
"Of course. Never de peasants. Deir lifes haf not yet been torn in two."
pg 208: traditional medicine
facts and figures
strong story of the witnessing of a child's death
funeral in the village
*aren't all PC book by definition written by Young people - their first books?
sickness
*Bekah's rash, the hospital; do I have a story here?
pg 206: nervous breakdown!
"I suppose not too many Africans come in with this problem."
"On de contrary..."
"Only educated Togolese?"
"Of course. Never de peasants. Deir lifes haf not yet been torn in two."
pg 208: traditional medicine
facts and figures
strong story of the witnessing of a child's death
funeral in the village
*aren't all PC book by definition written by Young people - their first books?
Three Africas
travel
first, Ougadougou, Burkina Faso
the market
Westerner's ghetto
pg 171: good use of speculation - what he imagines his friend will do with a letter from a strange African asking for help
Lagos; bribes, Frenchmen, haggling
pg 178: throws in history of illegals
Marcel and Papa
danger of Lagos
pg 180: insightful
I like how Packer drags out the story of his dinner; he uses exposition, dialogue; good stuff
* I like the dinner scene. Makes me want to do the same. His trailer would be our Same house - story is there - always going back to it
pg 185: ideas changing
pg 187: ends with a powerful letter from a student
On Safari
Cairo, the Nairobi
family visits
malaria meds
seems to mock family friends and safaris
pg 193: "hardly human", his mom says of an African woman
*reminds me of "eco-tourism" ideas for Timor - would creating another Kenya be a good idea?
pg 194: strong feelings (though I don't agree with them)
*interview my parents, fam for what they thought of us
first, Ougadougou, Burkina Faso
the market
Westerner's ghetto
pg 171: good use of speculation - what he imagines his friend will do with a letter from a strange African asking for help
Lagos; bribes, Frenchmen, haggling
pg 178: throws in history of illegals
Marcel and Papa
danger of Lagos
pg 180: insightful
I like how Packer drags out the story of his dinner; he uses exposition, dialogue; good stuff
* I like the dinner scene. Makes me want to do the same. His trailer would be our Same house - story is there - always going back to it
pg 185: ideas changing
pg 187: ends with a powerful letter from a student
On Safari
Cairo, the Nairobi
family visits
malaria meds
seems to mock family friends and safaris
pg 193: "hardly human", his mom says of an African woman
*reminds me of "eco-tourism" ideas for Timor - would creating another Kenya be a good idea?
pg 194: strong feelings (though I don't agree with them)
*interview my parents, fam for what they thought of us
You Get Up, You Work, You Sleep
drought; village survival, behavior
* mosquito coils
fires
rain dancing
NBC reports on Ethiopian famine in the states
pg 149: too much? over-dramatic?
the men played kala (mankala?)
pg 150: reflections on writing about Africa; quotes David Lamb; gives the book more credibility
pg 151: "Given the choice everyone I knew in the village would opt for neurotic hedonism if that meant irrigation and an end to malaria. But of course, the choice wasn't given."
pg 152: failure, reasons
his inability to adjust
he includes a list from his journal - personal improvement projects
BBC radio
pg 161-2: rain comes; brilliant description
pg 163: good physical description of the men
*compare Packer's description of farming to my attempts to garden
*begin book with the story's end, create suspense (none here)
he helps plant!
*Jenn planted rice, the women would come behind and fix her mistakes; my trip with Chuck to the rice farmers who gave us cow's milk
* mosquito coils
fires
rain dancing
NBC reports on Ethiopian famine in the states
pg 149: too much? over-dramatic?
the men played kala (mankala?)
pg 150: reflections on writing about Africa; quotes David Lamb; gives the book more credibility
pg 151: "Given the choice everyone I knew in the village would opt for neurotic hedonism if that meant irrigation and an end to malaria. But of course, the choice wasn't given."
pg 152: failure, reasons
his inability to adjust
he includes a list from his journal - personal improvement projects
BBC radio
pg 161-2: rain comes; brilliant description
pg 163: good physical description of the men
*compare Packer's description of farming to my attempts to garden
*begin book with the story's end, create suspense (none here)
he helps plant!
*Jenn planted rice, the women would come behind and fix her mistakes; my trip with Chuck to the rice farmers who gave us cow's milk
Footprints
his home broken into; humiliation, vulnerability, blames a neighbor, awkward, conspiracy theory, sleeping poorly
footprints; Sakapate (the spirit)
clues, discovery, feelings of betrayal, threatening to leave
pg 128: "sick at heart, as if the idea of coming here had been a mistake from the start."
traditional trail!; denial, guilt, beating, IOU; "pour l'african, il fault le baton", (for the African, it is the beating)
Packer confronted Lucien, the thief, abused him
depressed by corruption
public vs private - no distinction; good insight
pg 136: good points; the ties that bind, while he is "an ill-cut patch sewn temporarily on to the tight fabric of relations in the village."
murder of fellow volunteer (after he left, but a result of a mishandling of a theft)
pg 139: corruption to us is reciprocity to them; "indignation gave way to envy."
development foiled but personal relationships did not
pg 140: "These thoughts came later." He needed reflection
footprints; Sakapate (the spirit)
clues, discovery, feelings of betrayal, threatening to leave
pg 128: "sick at heart, as if the idea of coming here had been a mistake from the start."
traditional trail!; denial, guilt, beating, IOU; "pour l'african, il fault le baton", (for the African, it is the beating)
Packer confronted Lucien, the thief, abused him
depressed by corruption
public vs private - no distinction; good insight
pg 136: good points; the ties that bind, while he is "an ill-cut patch sewn temporarily on to the tight fabric of relations in the village."
murder of fellow volunteer (after he left, but a result of a mishandling of a theft)
pg 139: corruption to us is reciprocity to them; "indignation gave way to envy."
development foiled but personal relationships did not
pg 140: "These thoughts came later." He needed reflection
Authenticity
holidays, history
Authenticity - new and old together; corrupted Msr. Dadjo
pg 120: chief's idea of development quite insightful, telling
it seems the chapter could stand alone; already titled; since it's not quite chronological that's probably what he did
Authenticity - new and old together; corrupted Msr. Dadjo
pg 120: chief's idea of development quite insightful, telling
it seems the chapter could stand alone; already titled; since it's not quite chronological that's probably what he did
Yovos and Other Fous
mention of friend John (the Luxurious)
*Like my Jay, I hope he's quite the character (like the time he was denied four times at the wedding)
* contrast Jay (single) and us (married) - he had more friends but smoked and drank to survive
Christmas
*we have a good Christmas story
his travel in a baches (same as our mikrolets)
travel, his whiteness gives him different treatment
*for some reason I am reminded of Phil's comb-over, and Jay saying, "I couldn't understand a word he said so I just stared at his hair."
pg 90: he critiques a book written about Togo; good
Pg 93: a creation myth
pg 96: "Life more serious and dramatic." - futility
pg 97: ambassador's house; tennis court
*Like my Jay, I hope he's quite the character (like the time he was denied four times at the wedding)
* contrast Jay (single) and us (married) - he had more friends but smoked and drank to survive
Christmas
*we have a good Christmas story
his travel in a baches (same as our mikrolets)
travel, his whiteness gives him different treatment
*for some reason I am reminded of Phil's comb-over, and Jay saying, "I couldn't understand a word he said so I just stared at his hair."
pg 90: he critiques a book written about Togo; good
Pg 93: a creation myth
pg 96: "Life more serious and dramatic." - futility
pg 97: ambassador's house; tennis court
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