Respond to the following prompts in complete sentences.
1. How has the language changed in this chapter. Use a quote as support.
2. What time period are we in? Where are we? How do we know?
3. What does JFK say about NY? Explain. What is Sapporo? Why?
4. We see several combating portions of American society. Can you define / label them? Does Japan have these same parts of society?
5. Why does Sixsmith fear for his life?
1. How has the language changed in this chapter. Use a quote as support.
2. What time period are we in? Where are we? How do we know?
3. What does JFK say about NY? Explain. What is Sapporo? Why?
4. We see several combating portions of American society. Can you define / label them? Does Japan have these same parts of society?
5. Why does Sixsmith fear for his life?
1. The language becomes more narrative than colloquial. For the first time in the story, the story is told at the third person point of view: "Rufus Sixsmith sits propped in a corner sixty minutes later" (Mitchell 92). This chapter also uses 'train of thought,' like The Thief and the Dog: "Well, at least I'm not confined with a psychopath, a claustrophobe, or Richard Ganga" (Mitchell 92).
ReplyDelete2. The time period is around the late 20th century, perhaps after the Chernobyl incident, because there are "a hundred strong demonstration lines" in Swannekke Island (Mitchell 101). The main setting is in Buenas Yerbas, California. We know this because we are told so.
3. JFK refers to New York as "most cities are nouns, but New York is a verb" (Mitchell 95). JFK expresses the busy-ness of New York by calling it a verb, which are words that describe actions. Sapporo probably is an abstract noun, because of its uniqueness. Sapporo is neither a big city or a legitimate country side, but has its own 'chill', laid back atmosphere that is unique to its place.
5. Sixsmith knows something about the nuclear power plants in Swannekke Island. He tries to tell Luisa Rey about the "whitewashing at Seaboard, the blackmailing, the corruption," however, before he gets an opportunity to inform Luisa, the elevator spurs back to life, which gets his mind off the topic.
4. In the section, there are the intelligentsias who belong in big corporations. They have reputation, money, fame, and power. Then, there are people like Sixsmith who are very intelligent and wealthy, however, are not motivated by money like the corporates, but go after the truth. They are sometimes considered as outcasts. People like Luisa Rey are what is considered normalcy. They work normally, are paid normally, and live normal lives. Then there are the hippies who are motivated by who knows what, supporting something only they understand.
ReplyDeleteJapan also has social diversity, though the clash is not so distinct. There are social elites, 'normal' people, and the 'otaku'.
1. In this chapter, the perspective of the narration changes and for each of those sections, the thoughts in the character's mind that they don't express are written in italic which attracts the reader's attention. "Luisa thinks, He looks like he's been given a week to live" (91 Mitchell). Also, the language is casual than the two precedent chapters, more modern. Personally, I think it moves a lot more than the first two stories. In this chapter, it often refers to actual famous and real events and names as well.
ReplyDelete2. It happens in the late 20th century because it is a few years after the World War II in 1945. When Luisa was quite young, her dad went to war and the actual story happens when she is 26 which means that many years passed by. The place is in Buenos Yerbas in California; this was written very often in the chapter.
3. Kennedy commented that New York was a verb because of its many movements compared to other cities. Sapporo would be a noun that people only knows the name but most never fully understand its meaning because it is a city rather small but you still have many interesting things that you cannot see unless you live there for a long time. I don't think it would have a concrete definition but you get to discover it a little by little.
4. The incident in which Lester Rey lost his eye, was described in a totally different way than the actual truth. The incident was whitewashed by the mayor which rejected a wider investigation about the shootings. Yet, because the paper writes the twisted fact, the actual readers will believe what it is written therefore, only the people who experienced or directly heard the story knows the real truth. I am pretty sure that the same things often happen in Japan though we cannot tell whether it is true or not.
5. The absence of Sixmith is probably caused because of him knowing something very important about the nuclear powers. Personally, I think he tries to deny the existence of nuclear powers due to its dangers. For this, he runs away from the people who are trying to have a nice business out of this power station.
The language in this chapter is more modern and contains a fair amount of slang. Unlike the other two chapters, the story is not written by the character. Because the setting is more modern, all the laces on the writing have been eliminated and what we have now is writing really straight to the point. “No reply. Just vague submarine noises” (Mitchell 92). Somehow we seem very far from the respectable society we saw in the previous chapter.
ReplyDeleteSince the story talks of the man Rufus Sixsmith, who is Frobisher’s lover back in the 1930s, it can easily be assumed that the time period is briefly around the 1970s or 1980s. The story takes place in Buenas Yerbas in California. As well as the book mentioning this, the first paragraph describes a thorough description of the setting. “Buenos Yerbas’s billion lights simmer. West, the Pacific eternity. East, out denuded, heroic, pernicious, enshrined, thirsty, berserking American continent” (Mitchell 89). Even if we may not know exactly where Buenos Yerbas is located, we could guess it’s whereabouts by reading the first paragraph carefully.
John F Kennedy says that usually cities are nouns, but New York is a verb. This is probably because when thinking of New York people think of a busy, noisy, crowded, flashy city. In this way, New York seems more of a being busy thing than a thing. I think Sapporo is an adjective. Sapporo means cold, peaceful and normal all put together in my opinion. (Kind of fancy saying “Sapporo is so sapporo today!!”)
We can start from the bottom with Richard Ganga, who is the minor league rock musician who believes in the Maharaj Aja. He comes from a very wild and strange society. Next comes Luisa Rey who is a commoner. She works to earn her living and is not rich or too poor. Sixsmith comes next. So far what we know is that he has more money than some people. However, Sixsmith does not seem too much involved with moneymaking and running major companies. Lastly come the people in one of the highest rank in the society of America back then. The company owners and huge business owners. They have a lot of power and money, however, there seems to be corrupted.
Japan does have a slight social ranking, starting from the big company owners and major governmental people to the people who are unemployed etc. Though this difference is not so different, it still does exist.
The nuclear power plant has a secret and Sixsmith knows something about it. He tries to tell Luisa in the elevator, but he misses his chance. In the end of our reading, he receives a mysterious message from someone who warns him to run away or else he would die. We do not know who this person is, but Sixsmith obeys him and books a flight to England.
I felt like the language of the chapter changed a lot. In this chapter the story is in third person view. The previous chapters were either a diary or a letter told from one persons perspective but this time we can hear many of the peoples voices. At the same time there are many italics used in this section like, “No, you old fool, it wasn`t a gunshot” which is a follow up of the passage before that talks about how Sixsmith is in fear because of the slam on the balcony door (Mitchell 89). While reading the section you get to hear the inner voices of characters that make it really interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe time period that we are in is in the late 20th century. We can know this because in the beginning of the book it refers to the loud disco music. Disco music was popular around this time and therefore we can assume that the time period is around the 20th century. The story takes place in California and we can find this out through the first part of the text which talks about how “smog obscures the stars, but north and south along the coastal strip, Buenas Yerbas`s billion light summer. Wes , the pacific eternity. East, our denuded, heroic, pernicious, enshrined, thirsty, berserking American continent “ (Mitchell 89).
John F. Kennedy talks about how “most cities are nouns, but New York is a verb” (Mitchell 95). I was not really sure what he meant by this but my prediction is this. A verb describes an action and therefore, I thought that a place like New York which has a lot of movement and is really chaotic fits this description. For the part that says most cities are nouns.. I had to pause and think a while. Noun describes a person, place, thing. Most cities have people, buildings,etc but I believe that they are not that huge or busy like the one we see in New York. There are not many movements compared to NewYork and its more on the calm side. I think that Sapporo is in the middle of a verb and a noun. It is not that chaotic, and busy compared to New York. But if I was going to choose either one of them I think I would choose the noun side. If New York was a verb I really think that sapporo is more of the milder and calm side.
Their were many people who came out in this portion of the story and I think they really showed the “People” of the American society. Sixsmith is one of the characters who represent the people who seek for real answers and the truth. He does not base his life on money and just tries to go the way he believes is right. Still, he is not poor and in fact is quite wealthy.Secondly, in the book there are people who work in big corporations. Their goal is to maintain their good reputations and gain money.The other character who comes up is Luisa Ray. I think she represents the normal people. She works for the magazine and lives a normal life. She works and she gets paid for the work she does, just like we do. Yes I think Japan has these same kind of society. At some point their are people who are more on the elite side, the normal, and the lower side.
I think that Sixsmith fears for his life because of the truth he knows about the New HYDRA nuclear reactor of Swannekke. He tries to tell Luisa about “the whitewashing at Seaboard, the blackmailing, the corruption” but in the end misses his timing. His fear can be seen when he gets a phone call from an unknown man. The man tells him to board the airplane and run away and he then gets a ticket to board the plane to England. I personally felt that he was anxious to leave and I kind of eel like hes scared of facing the truth that he has found out.
1. I think the language itself did not change much but how they wrote is different. I can read and feel that in this chapter writers wrote most of the contents indirectly " West, the Pacific eternity. East, our denuded, heroic, pernicious, enshrined, thirsty, berserking American continent" (Mitchell 89).
ReplyDelete2. The time period would be around 1970 because when Frobisher(Sixsmith's friend) was writing a letter to Sixsmith. It was around 1930s. But then now it says ' Sixsmith feels older than his sixty-six years' (Mitchell 89). Which made me think the time period in this chapter would be around 1960-1970. Also I did not realize but as we discussed in class from the first paragraph of this chapter, it explains where the location is, which is California.
3. John F. Kennedy said most cities are nouns but New York is a verb. I would take verb is more special than noun because... Well, obviously all the cities are noun but John F . Kennedy said New York as a verb because it is different or more special than others but I really do not get why is it.
5. Sixsmith is the one who knows what is going on at Seaboard and he did try to tell Luisa about it. But he did not have chance to tell her about it and I think that is his fear.