Architecture and Memory
Yo guys, hopefully last post of all wooohooooo!! I have to say that this book dedicates particularly long passages to architecture and the description of buildings for a book that is seemingly about the holocaust. Evidently, the book’s context and deeper content reveal that Austerlitz is more than a heartfelt post-holocaust story, one of […]
Sebald the Illusionist
Hi all! Sorry my blog post is late! But nonetheless, here it is! How does the use of images affect the reader? Does it augment/heighten or decrease/contract from the imagination (of having no pictures)? Austerlitz is a work of fiction but does the use of images create a set image that did not exist before? […]
Austerlitz & Adorno & Cabaret
Last seminar we discussed a lot of interesting things, but one of the things I found most interesting was our many varied responses to the quote from Theodor Adorno, “to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbarism”. As a class we … Continue reading →
Tongue Twisters: The Spoken Langauge in Austerlitz
As hard as I tried, I could not make myself like W.G. Sebald’s novel Austerlitz. It was predominately the long, descriptive, and digressive style that contributed to my distaste for the book, as, by writing in this manner, Sebald effectively confused me and, as a Austerlitz’s story gradually became more complicated, made me want to finish the novel less … Continue reading “Tongue Twisters: The Spoken Langauge in Austerlitz”
End of year reflection on writing
Here is the end-of-year reflection on writing I’m asking you to do. I sent this out over email, and it will also be given on paper during the last week of class, but here is another copy in case you can’t find yours. End-of-year-Reflection-Assignment (April 2016) (PDF)
Austerlitz by W.G Sebald
While reading the book Austerlitz by W.G Sebald one of the things that stood out to me the most was the style and the structure of the novel. The novel had extremely long and intricate sentences that would go on for pages and pages. When Austerlitz was describing Theresienstadt the sentence was almost nine pages […]
Humpty Dumpty and the Great Fall
For some reason, I found the Humpty Dumpty/egg motif in City of Glass really interesting. At first I thought it was just a humorous idea put in to make Peter Stillman Sr sound even crazier, but the egg motif continues … Continue reading →
City of Glass
Strangely enough, Auster’s City of Glass was quite possibly my favourite novel this entire year. It was weird, confusing, at times disturbing – but surprisingly relatable. Quinn, a writer without any goals, wandering aimlessly, finding himself everywhere yet nowhere. He finds himself in reality, yet at the same time, does not see himself as real. Despite the […]
Falling For Auster’s Trap
“What he liked about these books was there was nothing wasted, no sentence, no word that is is not significant. And even if it is not significant, it has the potential to be so – which amounts to the same thing….Even the slightest, most trivial thing can bear a connection to the outcome of […]
Mystery and identity in City of Glass
In Arts One this week we discussed City of Glass in two versions: the original novel by Paul Auster, and a graphic novel adaptation by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli. We only had one seminar discussion on these two works rather than the usual two we have in a week, due to the Easter holiday. […]