Georges Perec, W, or the Memory of Childhood --------week8

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This week I read W, or the Memory of Childhood. The article unfolds in two lines, one describing the author's childhood memories and the other telling the story of W the Olympic Island. In the article, the main character, an orphan, takes the eponymous Winkler's place by forging documents to escape military service. The real Winckler is a deaf and autistic child whose mother died in a mysterious shipwreck. Curious about the whereabouts of the real Winckler in the wreck, the investigators find the impostor and analyze the accident with him. Investigators finally analyze shipwreck logs and the harrowing scenes of Winckler's death and speculate that Winckler may have escaped or been abandoned. We don't know what the truth is, and the horrific scenes of the accident are an acceptable way to bring out the senses of the accident. After a brief opening description of the accident that seems to be the introduction, the author unfolds two threads: the story of W Island and his childhood memories.

The two storylines seem to operate independently but vaguely reveal an interconnection. While reading the book, the interchange of the two scenes often gave me a sense of surprise, and while I was still amazed at the system on W Island, the next page became the author's seemingly uneventful childhood memories. Much of the article feels fragmented, whether it is the author's recollections with the help of a few photos, the fragmented memories of relatives, the paragraph structure of the article, or the distribution of chapters interspersed with the story of W Island and the author's memories. One can experience a sense of fragmentation of memory. These fragmented memories seem to be submerged in the general history without elaboration, making one feel that these fleeting childhood memories are only an insignificant part of the times. When the author shares his experiences with relatives and friends, he often gets their doubts and disbeliefs, as if these memories never happened. This independent and uncertain recollection leads the author to mention in the text, "I have no childhood memories. " 


In another line, on W, an island with a harsh system but full of uncertainty about the fate of people, the author allows us to glimpse a corner of the concentration camp madness in the author's imagination by describing the slave-like future of the athletes and the various absurd competition systems. In the initial reading of this part of W, we can see the gap between the athletes who win the championship and the "newcomers" who only see the difference in their lives on the island. Those who win get food, flowers and wine to maintain their nutrition, while those who lose get weaker and weaker because they don't get the nutrients they need, making it harder and harder to win. This sounds like the winner will keep winning the game, while the loser will only be fixed in a specific opportunity after one chance. However, through a more profound understanding of the game system, we can find that the situation between people is rapidly changing and full of uncertainty. That strength is not the decisive factor in this game, but luck is the more critical element for the athletes, so they indulge in today's victory because they do not know what awaits them tomorrow. They seem to be fighting for the Olympic spirit, but in the end, it is the officials who are not involved in the struggle that control their fate. And the athletes can never become officials and win their true victory.


My question in this essay is: How do the author's childhood memories relate to the story of W Island?

地点: 加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省温哥华邮政编码: V6T 1Z4

评论

  1. Tamara Vukota2022年3月6日 12:43

    Hi Xiang! Great blog post! To answer your question, I'm not sure that Perec's childhood necessarily is meant to relate to W. From my interpretation, I think the island of W may have been a tribute in a sense to the other traumatizing events that other victims endured in the time of Nazi Germany. Perhaps he wanted to show how although everyone shared the experience of trauma, each person has their own individualized tragedies they endured, making everyones stories from the time so unique. Thanks for your question!
    -Tamara Vukota

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  2. Jon2022年3月6日 13:07

    Xiang, just quickly... Who is "Manclair"? And Hainan? Are these typos? Where are you getting these names?

    Also, this is not an "article," it's a novel!

    --Jon

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