First blog for me! Bad Isade :-\

Alright, so I've just finished the section (which I thought was for the 25th, but let's not get into that -_-) and I can't say that I was too surprised with the way Kip just ran off. Throughout the whole book, he's reluctant to feel any emotions for anyone that may turn into anything deeper. The news of the dropping of the nuclear bomb was like a wake up call that HELLO, THERE'S STILL AN ENTIRE WORLD OUTSIDE OF YOUR VILLA! and I think that Kip realized that he needed to break away from these people if he wanted to keep living a semi-normal life. I was kind of surprised at the whole wife-and-kids kind of life for Kip, though.

Going backwards here, I thought the intertwining of that Gyges story with the English Patient and Katharine's story was well done and really appropriate. It kind of added to the forbidden nature of their affair and made it -- dare I say it? -- kind of sexy. Am I allowed to say that? Well, it's said. The way it was written with the narrator's input, in this case the English Patient (or Almasy), on Geoffrey Clifton and the way Katharine and Almasy fell in love, then Katharine reading the story... it was just all happening simultaneously and I think it really captured how, when you fall in love, it just happens. Before you know it, you're there and wondering 'when and how did I get here?'

The only other thing I can think of commenting on right now is how this book is chock-full of religious references: "Hipbones of Christ" (3), "war in heaven" (5), "He was anointed" (6), "The figure... drawings of archangels... such wings." (9) The emphasis on dying in a holy place. Oh, and I don't know if I'm pulling things out of the air here, but there were three people that were supposed to die (Almasy, Geoffrey, and Katharine) and Katharine was in the cave for three years. Three is a big number in the bible; conclude what you may from that. What do you think Ondaatje is trying to get at with this?

Finished... A Little Dumbfounded

Okay, so I finished the book and no one died like I had originally predicted. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT!? I had a feeling that the Englishman was really Almasy, and that Kip would leave Hana, but the twist with him becoming frustrated at the dropping of the two nuclear bombs was a surprise to me, but it gave the character an out from the other three. I really can't piece the ending together, however, if anyone would like to help me out. Let me take a stab at it, though: Hana, Caravaggio, and Almasy stayed in the Villa, right? However, in the last paragraph, it seems as if Kip comes back for her. I've just confused myself even more, so please help me. GIT R DONE

Nothing Much To Say

Okay I really don't have much to say about the second section of our reading, but I do have one question: Who is the boy in the room when Caravaggio is sneaking in to see Hana? I think it's Kip but I wasn't sure. GIT R DONE

Okay, so I'm almost done with the second part of the reading. I find that all four of the characters depend on somebody for comfort, survival, and safety. Each one finds something in another to hold on to I guess. I believe Hana falls for the English Patient because he is the only person who needs her, who she could look after and who she knows will never leave her (like for a war) like her dad and her husband, who both died because of it. I do agree with Huy that all of them are directly changed from the war, physcially and emotionally. Hana seems to cut herself from emotions because she constantly sees her patients dying, witnessing their last moments on Earth. She also retells an instance where she closes her patients eyes, thinking that he is dead, but instead he wakes up saying "You can't wait until I die can you?!" I guess she is just looking for someone who can be with her intellectually, like the English Patient, and physically, like Kip. She wants to feel affectionate towards someone, she wants to feel human again. War does have that sort of effect on people because you have to get use to seeing people die around you every day. I'm still a bit confused on why Caravaggio even bothers to stay in the hospital to convince Hana that she should leave.

There was the time where Kip's teacher, Lord Suffolk died from disassembling a bomb and killed his secretary, and his students ( Kip was not there at the time). And from then on, I think disassembling a bomb helps him "leave" society for a time, because all he is thinking about is disassembling it, and he doesn't want anybody near him because he is afraid of being responsible for their death. So when Hana didn't leave when he was disassembling the bomb, I think that sort of made him realize that there's a lot at risk doing what he does for a living. Um..I can't really explain the importance of this event but I think it's sort of a turning point.

Ms. Clapp told us to look for the descriptions on the setting, but I think I missed all the beautiful descriptions!

hmm..So didn't Hana say she LOVED the English Patient? I'm almost done with the reading and I got to the part where Caravaggio seems almost jealous because Hana wants to waste her life loving a man like the English Patient. I thought it was kind of funny because Caravaggio is like what 40? and it seems like he "likes" Hana. AND THEN...I got to the part where Hana and Kip are intimate and I got a bit confused because didn't Hana love the English Patient? I don't know...it seems like their intimacy only came out of the incident where Kip was trying to disassemble the bomb. I would NEVER have expected them to be together..but I guess they are? Also the whole relationship issues with all four of the characters are so tangled up. The English Patient seems to know that Hana love or loved him because he asks " How old were you when you first loved?" and it seems like he knew. I don't know maybe I'm just thinking too much about it but yeah!

My notes

My first note is on page 14, and at this point I started to feel like the description of the state that the Villa is in represents the state of the characters, Hana and the English patient, themselves, where they are broken down, with no real structure. The English patient has no recollection of who he is but lives on memories, so he is constantly searching for himself, and I get the feeling that Hana isn't staying behind just to be a good nurse. I think she's trying to figure out herself also, which leads me into my next note on page 15, when Hana draws on the floor, playing hopscotch I believe it was called. It was a nice scene to see her reflect on her inner child and let that come out for a little bit but it also leads me to think that maybe, she grew up way too fast in life and is lost as an adult, so she does these things tryin to trace back through her roots as a child to possibly see where she is going in her future. On page 41 I have a note that mentions once again how Hana will not leave the English patient. I am beginning to think that she has suffered great loss throughout her life, whether it was personal or professional, and she is more determined than ever to not lose the English patient, or to make any sort of change in his life. All of this reflects that she hasn't done this in her past and feels like it is a necessity to do so now. Now on page 45, the question I post is Who is the ghost in the Villa? They mentioned a ghost a couple of times and if anyone can clarify that for me it would be sweet. On page 91 I mentioned how Hana might be substituting her father and his death with the English patient and she is trying to make up for something that she didn't do with him before he died. Okay, well you can comment and ask questions and such to my post. Thank you. GIT R DONE

HERE WE GO

Wow, I seriously thought there would be like 9376543867 blogs on here since I've been working a ton of hours all week, but I guess not. Okay, I guess I'll get the ball rolling. I've finished our reading and I took notes, so I'm going to go through some of the questions and comments I have: Well first of all I really like the story right now but the intimate relationships that form were a little predictable to me. I also don't mind the flashbacks to the past experiences each character has because it makes me feel like I am the English patient living in all these memories and flashbacks, trying to find out just who I am. I will make more posts with my notes on specific pages after this one. Can I just write GIT R DONE as my sign off????? GIT R DONE

Here's a link to a site that basically gives a small overview on Michael Ondaatje's life and career. The page starts off with a little biography on him and then an analysis of the theme of his writings. After those sections, there is a list of all his works, including poetry, novels, and even films. At the end there are a couple links to other sites. So yeah, in short, this site give a lot.

Here's a link to the literary encyclopedia info. This site includes a short summary of the book with a biographical link on Ondaatje along with a link to other works by Ondaatje.

Also this link gives background information on the war along with other links to plot, introduction, games, etc.

Due Dates

January 2 - Pg 1- 177; up to section VII
January 11 - Pg 179 - 225; sections VII - IX
January 25 - THE REST!