Integral to Colson Whitehead’s Zone One is the idea of the “American Phoenix”; the hope that the United States will emerge from the ashes of catastrophe and return to its former state of “glory”. The survivors’ attempts at rebuilding start with the transformation of Manhattan into an inhabitable area (Zone One; the first to come […]
Read More →Archive for November, 2014
Surviving Adolescence 101
According to the Urban Dictionary definition, adolescence is: “The most supreme torture in a form that most humans can understand.” Indeed, Charles Burns seems to agree with this definition, as he uses the disease in Black Hole as a metaphor for adolescence. The novel focuses predominantly on teenage characters who all deal with different symptoms of […]
Read More →Androgyny in the 70s
Our discussion in class today lead to the topic of gender and sexuality in Black Hole. From the very beginning, in ‘Biology 101’, we are exposed to the gender roles in society. Being called ‘pussy’ and other female derogatory terms reminds us of the common notion of females being inferior. Furthermore, Keith feels as though […]
Read More →Fear of the Dark
In today’s class we had a long discussions on how certain patterns, images and metaphors are continuously repeated throughout the pages of Black Hole (e.g.: the interchangeability of gender due to the similar features of characters, the appearance of scars that look alike, water symbolism.) I thought that it would be good to expand this […]
Read More →Black Hole
In Black Hole, the central characters are on the cusp of adulthood, prone to emotional turmoil and indecision. They make mistakes, and the consequences of those mistakes often seem gravely inescapable, like ‘the end of the world’. Chris makes the mistake of having unprotected sex with Rob, and once Chris realizes she has “the bug”, […]
Read More →War on Three Fronts
Searching for information on the government’s reaction to polio during war time, I stumbled upon Jacob Bryant’s thesis on the subject, named The Invisible Enemy: The Effects of Polio on the American War Effort during World War II, 1941-1945. Its second chapter, titled “The Home Front”, gives a helpful description of the ways of transmission, […]
Read More →Fact or Fiction?
Philip Roth, the author of Nemesis, is a native of Weequahic, Newark. Presumably, Roth based the description of the playground on his own experiences as a child in Weequahic. The fact that the author is extremely familiar with the setting of the novel invites us to question the truth behind the events of the novel. […]
Read More →Middle Class isn’t sexy. Is it?
Middle Class. Soy Milk Macchiato. Mortgages. PTA. Mumsnet. Reserve Pension Funds. White. Prim. Proper. Dull. In Black Hole, middle class teenagers take risks whilst exploring their sexuality. We might immediately class this as typical: private schools are awash with those who wish to experiment at parties, in the full knowledge that they have their hockey team […]
Read More →I say Nemesis, you say retribution. I say Polio, you say…
One of the augmenter’s posts have already touched upon the question of the title and how we should interpret it in the context of the novel. Just to reiterate: In Greek mythology, Nemesis … was the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris(arrogance before the deities). Another name was Adrasteia, meaning “the inescapable.” The Greeks personified vengeful fate as a remorseless goddess: […]
Read More →Polio: The Nemesis
So far in Philip Roth’s Nemesis we encounter Bucky Cantor – a primary school PE teacher – who is the playground director in the summer, the season of Polio infestation. Cantor has been denied membership in the army due to his poor eyesight, which as left him feeling inadequate and ashamed – he feels he is […]
Read More →