ENCW 202 Spring 2020
Posted in Senses and Words on Feb 15th, 2020
The narrator immediately establishes a personal connection to the reader by referring to the reader as “you” and “Elsa,” thereby defining the reader as his wife in order to strengthen his case for silence. In addition, this establishes an intimacy and history between the reader and the narrator. The narrator struggles with two problems: […]
The domes in “The Dome” are all obvious metaphors for isolationism, but the underlying implication is that isolation is something to be feared; at one point, the phrase “hostile apartness” is even used. Solitude happens to a staple of fantastical fiction; often, there is one character or a place that is separate from the rest […]
Posted in Desperation, Disappearance, Mystery on Feb 13th, 2020
Yoko Ogawa’s Memory Police is a translated script by Stephan Snyder, this dystopian novel that takes place on this unknown and unnamed island. The residence of this island lives in a world where things are slowly disappearing. For example, at the beginning of the story roses are no longer a thing and the people on this […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 13th, 2020
The most horrific part of The Memory Police isn’t the vague totalitarian regime, or objects being disappeared: It’s living with the fact that there are gaps in your knowledge you’ll never be able to fill again. I stood at the window, where I once stood with my father looking out through binoculars, and even now the […]
Posted in dystopia on Feb 13th, 2020
The Memory Police is a novel about a dystopia on an island that is trying the reconcile the loss of memory. Throughout the novel, we see this small island living under the stern domination of the Memory Police, who barge into their homes and seize their belongings, loved ones, and more importantly, memories. On page 13, […]
Posted in Disappearance on Feb 13th, 2020
One of the first expectations I had when reading The Memory Police was that the narrator would be the one with the “special powers,” AKA not forgetting things. In most books, especially YA novels, the main character is the one who is different from the others. Honestly, it took me a little while to realize that the […]
Posted in Disappearance on Feb 13th, 2020
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa has a slower build-up to the horrors of the fantastic. While the story starts by throwing us into the fantastic circumstances of this reality, it slows down the events as they are told. In short stories, readers get to speed through a story and not get all the necessary […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 13th, 2020
In The Memory Police, things began to disappear from the unnamed island, along with the communities’ memories associated with the item. However, they do not seem to miss the items, let alone dwell upon their loss. In the beginning, the narrator describes a scene of her and her mother, when she was alive. Her mother […]
Posted in Disappearance on Feb 13th, 2020
“…things I thought were mine and mine alone can be taken away much more easily than I would have imagined.” (pg.163) The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa contains a story within a story. The stories mirror each other, seemingly without the realization of the narrator/ novelist. In the main story, the narrator, along with others […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 13th, 2020
After reading The Memory Police, I have no doubt that this is one of the most interesting novels I have read. However, there was something that confused me at first. The author chose to include pieces of the main character’s stories that she writes. For a while, I didn’t understand why the author would choose […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 12th, 2020
The Memory Police is a fine example of the difference between American and foreign writing. Yoko Ogawa does several things that starkly contrast with the intentions of American writing. Firstly, there is no character development in the protagonist. The narrator does not undergo any emotional or mental change throughout the story. She maintains her persona […]
Posted in Disappearance, Uncategorized on Feb 12th, 2020
There is something of a terrible twist to reality in Ogawa’s The Memory Police. It isn’t just that things disappear, but that almost every person disappears entirely. And in a way, that is true to life. Although, disappearance in real life is typically not so sudden. But it made me think of the movie Amadeus and the character […]
Posted in Disappearance, Loneliness on Feb 11th, 2020
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa represents an experience everyone goes through at some point in their lives. Though many may handle it differently, the idea of loss penetrates our bubbles of happiness when we least expect it. On an island, a group of people named The Memory Police will take things at random from the […]
Posted in Disappearance, Mystery on Feb 11th, 2020
The dystopian novel The Memory Police is reminiscent of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and 1984 by George Orwell, in the ways that it describes the burning of items, the government’s hand in surveillance, and the everyday lives of citizens. There are aspects, as well, of the “Disappearance of Elaine Coleman” by Steven Millhauser, the […]
Posted in Disappearance on Feb 11th, 2020
Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police has a plot that makes one wonder why they are trying to make everyone forget all of the information they’ve retained over their lifetime. One’s mind begins to wonder why the Memory Police would be doing this to the people who live on this island. Some may think that by having […]
Posted in Autonomy, Disappearance on Feb 10th, 2020
The worst thing that happens in The Memory Police isn’t the objects themselves disappearing; it’s the censorship and loss of freedom that comes with it. In the novel, Yoko Ogawa blends the horrors of reality with the fantastic. According to an article in the New York Times, Ogawa was fascinated with the Diary of Anne […]
Posted in Loneliness on Feb 6th, 2020
Generally, when it comes to the fantastic in fiction, the outlier is the main character; they possess some kind of unique ability that sets them apart from the rest, even if everyone else around them is fantastical as well. I was fully expecting to be the narrator to be the exceptional one in this story, […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 6th, 2020
In Julia Armfield’s “Stop Your Women’s Ears With Wax” challenges the fantastic genre with elements of obsession and horror. In this piece, we follow the character, Mona as she works on the crew of a popular girl band. Throughout the story, she recognizes a pattern of destructiveness, towards men specifically, in their fan base. A […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 6th, 2020
Something I noticed after I read “Stop Your Women’s Ears With Wax” was the intense factor of leaving a lot of information to the reader’s imagination. The story follows a band’s video producer, Mona, who works to capture videos for the band, but witnesses the extreme fan-girls that frequently affront the band during their tour. […]
Posted in Animals, Desire, Mystery, Obsession on Feb 6th, 2020
To have a fan base is fun in all; we can recall the time we went to our favorite concert and screamed “I LOVE YOU!” into a sea of people in hope that the band would hear you. While reading Julia Armfield’s “Plug Your Women’s Ears with Wax” in Salt Slow, I got the sense of the Fantastic […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 6th, 2020
The conflicted feelings of love is an emotion I believe most experience, as written about it in “Granite.” Maggie, who is the main character, is described as being particular about men, and so it is revealed that she is alone for a long time until she finds “the one.” Except, instead of being head over […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 6th, 2020
In “Granite” the very obvious fantastic element is the slow transformation of the main character’s boyfriend into stone. However I think the grander fantastic element is the fact that loving a man can physically harm him. Maggie talks about her friends not really having any feelings for the men they are with and everyone advising […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 6th, 2020
While reading ”Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax,” I got a specific song stuck in my head but couldn’t quite make it out. It turned out to be “Maps” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The title is an allusion to The Odyssey, in which Odysseus plugs his ears with beeswax to listen to the sirens’ songs. In […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 6th, 2020
The theme of feminism in “Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax” is prevalent from the start of the story. This is the inverse idea of girls fawning over boy bands in the same way they fangirl over this all-girl band. The main part of the story, however, is focused more on the violence the fans […]
Posted in Loneliness, Transformations on Feb 6th, 2020
There is a fragility through “Granite,” specifically in the main character, that permeates the whole story. As it moves on, the statement that men are too fragile to love creates an irony as we learn more about the main character. She has been so alone far longer than any of her friends. Her past boyfriends […]