Silence (Is Not) Golden

TODAY IN CLASS
Ah, well, we did the best we could.  For those who were gone, I'm not going to double back to the "Miss Brill' efforts--we'll just pick that up on Friday when we continue with that story.  And on the blog, I'm not going to recreate what went on in your small groups when I asked you to think through what you found in the passages noted in yesterday's post.  And I'm not going to try to repeat what all we said about betrayal, though I urge those who were gone to give serious thought to WHO ALL (and we weren't necessarily through in class) is guilty of some form of betrayal--other than, of course, Briony. However, let me throw out one very different thought about her:  what, according to the twins' note, seemed to be the thing that sent them packing? What is Briony's role in that? Does it matter?

Let me sort out a couple of additional elements here on the blog. 

  Let’s think about AUTHOR/Narrator.  And truth vs. fiction.

Think back to the issue of who "tricked" you if you felt that the sudden retraction of key events in the story was disappointing and/or unfair.  Was it Briony?   No.  It can’t be, if McEwan wrote the book.  So focus on the "nesting dolls" issue of authorship.  Yes, of course the fictional Briony is the author of the fictional Atonement from its early to its "final" draft.  But too many of you seem to overlook (judging from in-class comments as well as what you wrote in your initial response the "feeling gypped" question) the fact that Briony herself--and the entire plot--epilogue and all-- is the fictional creation of the actual author, Ian McEwan. 

So consider several things:

1)   The subject of what authors should/shoudn't do, which is a different question from what they can or can’t do.  The world they invent is ALWAYS fictional (although the boundaries blur in "historical fiction," and books like In Cold Blood seem to require new labeling altogether). But in general, for the genre of fiction, wherein lies “truth”?

2)   Look at details of the last chapter that show Briony talking about truth/non-truth of small details.  Can you find a couple of such places?  I was perhaps intentionally misleading when we first started talking about this, suggesting that there was no evidence that Briony-as-author gave us any hints that she was about to pull the rug out from under us.  (And insofar as parts I-III are concerned, I stand by my claim.)  But look at these comments:

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   "I worked in three hospitals in the duration . . . and I merged them in my description to concentrate all my experiences into one place. a convenient distortion, and the least of my offenses against veracity" (336)
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  After mentioning several corrections from the colonel's letter:  "Like policemen in a search team, we go on hands and knees and crawl our way toward the truth" (339)
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  And then reflects on them later in the car, "or rather, about my own pleasure in these trivial alterations. If I really cared so much about facts, I should have written a different kind of book" (340)

3)  THEME.  No, I won’t give it to you.  But for tomorrow, and not via the internet, THINK about what McEwan is saying in this book. About humanity. About sin and atonement.  About writing.  About the art of fiction.  About responsibility.

SO FOR TOMORROW
Know that knowledge of a book and its details is always your responsibility; even with books not "summer reading," our in-class mileage will vary.  You should have a pretty good idea by now of how well you know this book. 
Be sure to have blue or black ink and loose-leaf paper with you in class tomorrow.  (No need for the book.  You can't use it.)

And P.S.--after 3 or 4 years of doing the blog, I've gotten into some form of hanging indent today that I cannot get out of.  Sorry.