Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Passage to India Discussion - SPOILER ALERT
A Passage to India was a great way to start this project. It is beautifully written and contains incredible insight into human interactions and our relationships with each other and the world. Within this post we can discuss the novel in a detailed fashion, full of spoiled info. Once you've finished the book, join this thread to share your thoughts.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I sat for a good hour after finishing this novel trying to process the whole thing and sort out in my mind what it is all about. What's going to follow here is a (probably incoherent) pouring out of things that struck me.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that the trial ends with a third of the book still to come. I have not seen the movie, but I imagine that Adela's recanting of her accusation will be close to the climax, leaving only a brief denouement. My first thought was that that whole thing resolved too easily, but then that led me to believe that the real crisis was something other than Marabar caves.
The book is about connecting with each other, about humans living with other humans. At some point Fielding reflects that perhaps we only exist in relation to each other, and through this interconnectedness, perhaps trying to find the true heart of this novel is like trying to find the heart of a cloud, as Forster describes the Hindu festival at the end of the novel.
And what a strange third section, eh? I felt like the book was itself a transition from Victorian literature to modern literature. The opening sequences could very well have been something from Jane Austen, strangers meeting, and a general focus on behaviors and manners. But then Nawab Bahadur's car strikes the "ghost," which Mrs. Moore (or the saintlike Esmiss Esmoor) somehow detects and things get wonky. Adela has her "echo." And then comes the third section where god is, was not, is not, was and all things get tumbled up like two overturned boats and a clay representation of a city and letters all spread out in the water with people either riotously upset or incredibly joyous. Perception is so limited and any individual's single view seems so inadequate to piece together the mysteries of life.
But wait there's more. How much do you love the passage in the caves when Mrs. Moore breaks down due to the "boum" of the cave, a "boum" that exists outside morality and seems to give a glimpse of the universe as an uncaring place, where everything from the significant to the insignificant, from the fluttering of Angels' wings to the screeching of demons is returned to us with the same meaningless sound,"boum." And what do you make of Adela's echos? Did the spirit of Esmiss Esmoor exorcise Adela from her echo and illusions?
ReplyDeleteHow did Godbole connect Mrs. Moore to the wasp since he wasn't there when she first remarked upon the sleeping wasp? Is Mrs. Moore really more?
Why is Adela's last name "Quested"? She searched out "India" and "Indians" but was there no real process? Was it always already in the past tense?
Is "India" a microcosm of the world. Can "India" be unified and bring together all it's factions through understanding, or are things already together and separate, is and is not, was and was not?
This book and Mr. Forster are much smarter than I am, and I feel like he handled all these huge questions expertly, with clear and insightful sentences. I found myself quoting many lines to Ann as I read. "There are different ways of evil, and I prefer mine to yours."
ReplyDeleteTwo last questions: what do you make of the naked god-like men, the one who turns the fan in the courtroom and the one with the city tray in the final scene where the boats collide?
Is Patience, the card game, like solitaire? How fitting is it, if so, that Mrs. Moore wants to play a game that exists within itself, where you can play with no relationship to any other players and the colors intermix so easily (playing a red nine on a black ten)?
I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more blogging! Actually, I just had two more thoughts and wanted to float them. First, I believe the women get a very raw deal here, obviously. Adela is delusional or hysterical. The Anglo-Indian women are blamed for the real hardships by the men, just as it is acknowledged that they treat the native men the worst. But intriguingly, Aziz wants to put an end to purdah. Hmmm. And Mrs. Moore is turned into a saint even though she's not exactly saintly.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I'm intrigued by the "passage" in the title. "Passage" is used to describe Mrs. Moore's and Adela's travels to India, but it is also used in the final section to describe the birth of Krishna, or the moving from one state of existence to another. How do these two meaning meet in Forster's story about India? Write a five paragraph essay. :p