Sunday, September 9, 2007
The Immortals
I thought that the point of view of the character was well done. He tells the story in a rambling way, switching back and forth between the past and the present; one moment he’s in Tokyo and the next he’s in classical antiquity (pg. 28). A few times he indicates how he sees the other survivors, for example, they “gather by the polluted well and talk their [nonsense]” (pg. 28). This gives the clue of who the character is, and he makes this more explicit toward the end of the story when he says that “they all believe that they are -- that they are eternal, that they are immortal” (pg. 31). The entire story has been the delusions of a nuclear bomb survivor. He is one of those who believe they are immortal, when in fact he is “a second-rate New Zealand schoolmaster who never did anything or went anywhere and is now painfully and noisily dying of solar radiation along with everybody else” (pg. 31). This explains the rambling point of view. His real life seems to him to be the delusion. Maybe “there was a woman, and a child” (pg. 31), but that’s all gone now. The author never says explicitly that the man is not immortal, he only hints at it. This makes the story a lot more interesting, because then it can be read for what it is, the thoughts of a crazy man who has survived a nuclear holocaust. If he had spelled it out, it would have seemed like an intrusion, because the story is supposed to be told from inside the man's head. The key for the story is that the clue is there. Without the clue, it’s just a pointless story about some immortal creature observing other people. Saudy makes a good point in her post that “the title specifies ‘Immortals’ meaning more then one.” I hadn’t noticed this, and it makes sense because the “Immortals” are all the survivors. The story is told through the eyes of one of those survivors who have gone mad. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to ask a question at the end of this, but if I am, is there anything unique about the way the author forms the sentences, that maybe fits the character?
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