I was having some serious trouble in class and at home about understanding postmodernism and irony. We talked about it in our last class and I got it some but I still feel confused (yessss I know the midterm is tomorrowwwww). I feel like if something or a story isn’t “postmodern” or does not have an unexpected twist or a different view or perspective I find it… boring. I guess it is because we come from the postmodern generation, but I could just be confused. lol However, I think recognizing symbolism and theme and postmodern aspects of these stories really will come with experience. The more you read with the expectation for those aspects, the easier it will be recognized. Or at least I hope so. Ps. Good luck on the midtermmm!
The question of whether Oskar has autism has been brought up a few times in class during our discussions of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and the disorder sparked my interest. I had done some reading about autism when a friend and I were questioning if his adopted little brother had it. So far he hasn’t been diagnosed with it, but reading about the disorder was still interesting. I found this link for a site that we had researched and found that it had a pretty good description of autistic characteristics. I think that Oskar was supposed to be slightly autistic and I think that his father saw this when we was younger and tried to work with him by making him have conversations with strangers and keeping him all around busy inventing and such to not exactly ‘cure’ Oskar but just to make dealing with the disorder a bit easier.
I am no psycologist and definetially don’t have the knowledge to diagnose anyone with autism, but in my opinion from what I know about autism, I think that Oskar may have it. I first learned about autism last semester in my Human Diversity Education course. Oskar seems to have some of the signs of autism. He seems to be unable to talk to children his own age very well. He is very socially awkward. Austistic children usually have hard time interacting and making friends, but are a lot of the time very bright. Also, not being able to know how Oskar was a few years before makes it very hard to determine if the things that his Dad did with him actually helped. I also think that Oskar may have some form of OCD, ADD, or ADHD. But like I said I am not qualified to determine that. Ha ha.
When we began talking in class about this possibility, it struck my interest. I babysit a 5 year old girl that was diagnosed with autism at 18 months old. While she is nothing like Oskar, (she is extremely low functioning) I have learned a lot about autism through her family. One type of autism is known as aspergers. I believe that Oskar’s character would have this diagnosis. Aspergers victims are very smart and can give you an answer for just about anything, however they are social akward. They do not associate well with people their own age and seem as though they don’t fit in. I think that Oskar suffers from this and I also agree that he may suffer from some form of ADD.
I once read a book about a boy who grew up with with aspergers from his point of view and found him quite different than Oskar, but that might just be because (duh) he’s a different person with a different personality. Not doubting that Oskar may have it but one of the things that he pointed out in the book was that, as a child, someone would ask him a question while he was playing with his firetruck about the weather or something and he would respond with something like, “Did you know there are 500 fires a year in the US alone?” He couldn’t communicate with the person very well when it came to comprehending or wanting to comprehend what the person was saying, but the social interaction gave the boy a chance to say what was really on his mind. I felt Oskar was not like as much which is why I kind of strayed away, but then again I haven’t met or interacted with anyone with aspergers in real life so I can’t say much. I thought from page 1 that Oskar had ADHD only because he sounded so much like me and my train of thoughts and I’ve been on medicine since a kid because of it. It’s the nonstop thinking and inventing and learning and talk talk talking… but you do make a good point when you said it could be ADD, ADHD or OCD because they are commonly misdiagnosed with each other.
This photo made me think of Anna from Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. She seemed from the somewhat limited description to be a loner type. A girl, who liked to think and keep to herself, but a girl that was full of love and though quiet, still paid attention to her surroundings. Throughout reading this book I keep going back in my mind and making up stories of how her life might have gone if the attacks in Dresden had never happened. Yes I know that it would, in the ‘this-story-really-happened’ mindset, mean that Oskar never exists, he never goes on the journey to find the key and he’d never work out everything from “the worst day” and the events that follow, but it’s still something that keeps drawing my interest. This photo though taken from the back of the head shows what I pictured Anna to look like, a relatively plain-Jane but sweet looking young woman. The red bow to me is a representation of the love that she has for Thomas Schell Sr. and her unborn child and the grey overcast seems to foreshadow that something bad is coming, in this case the bombings and loss of her and her unborn child’s lives.
This picture is really amazing. Even more amazing that you picked up on it as being like Anna. I had not really thought much about Anna until the end and I was reflecting on the book because I felt she was one of the only characters that had not necessarily lost anything. It was as if she was the beginning of the lost loves. I love her hair and how it curls because it makes me think she was carefree and I can literally just see her running head straight into Thomas Schell Sr. when they realized they had been noth been waiting at each others house for them to come home. You do pose an interesting perspective… What if there were no air raids. Would they have lived happily ever after? Would all of the grandfathers strange behaviors, ticks, quarks, all be alleviated? I want to think so, but that wouldn’t make a very good story now would it?
In class we discussed how, no matter his intentions, Foer DID capitalize in part off of this mans death. What if that was your family member? 9/11 is a touchy subject , and when you really dig up the gruesome things about that day, people begin to wonder your motives. Is it for shock value? I had…
I agree with you that Foer’s usage of 9/11 made his point better. Honestly, I don’t think that Foer’s message or intenstions would have been presented as well if 9/11 would not have played the part it did. I think that his intenstions were not to capitalize on the tragedy but rather to write a story with meaning and in the mean time, show use the affects of 9/11. I know that for me, this book has truely changed my view point of that day. While I knew before, I was never forced to recognize as well as feel the emotional loss of the individuals until this book. I don’t think that a line was crossed; I think that if anything this book should be praised for the honesty of that day.
The falling man was definitely… bittersweet I guess you could say. I thought the picture made a huge effect on the reader on the reality of the tragedy and not just the fictional story. I loved that the only “real” picture out of all the photos was the falling man and the intensity of that fact. However, it did make my stomach churn and my face get a little hot when I realized that it was a REAL human being that jumped from the building during the tragedy. It’s the difference between watching CSI and actually watching a real video of a murder or a suicide. The feeling you get is more intense and tangible… but maybe that’s exactly what the author was going for. Either way, it was definitely a huge risk.
OK so although we find out that the key has nothing to do with Oskar’s dad Thomas.it was a way to hold onto him for a while,I’m taking a look at it in a whole different view.The journey he took in finding the key was almost like the journey he took looking for things and clues when him and his dad…
I agree with you. I felt like the key was sentimental to Oskar. Even though in the end it turned out to not even be his fathers. I was surprised that Oskar did not want to see what was in the lock box because he had searched for so long. Like you said it was like a reconnaissance mission that his dad always had sent him on. But at the end of this one unlike the other reconnaissance missions there was an answer to the purpose of the key.
I like the idea that the journey was destination and the destination wasn’t the lock box. Very postmodern I guess you could say. But it was kind of interesting that the idea of “unlocking” the past stories and letters played very well into the symbolism of the key and yet the key itself and what it opened in the story didn’t help Oskar unlock what he was ACTUALLY looking for. But then again, what he was looking for couldn’t really be found… (yes I just argued both sides there lol) I was kind of put off as well that Oskar didn’t even really ask to see what was in the lock box as curious as he was. I thought for sure he would have wanted to see what was in it even if it didn’t give him any more closure just to be SURE he covered all his basis. Wouldn’t he have been curious later in life about what was in it? Did he really trust Mr. William Black enough to know that nothing in the lock box pertained to Oskar or his father?? This was just something I put into question when reading.
After finishing Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I’m left confused about why Oskar keeps wondering how exactly his father died. Whether he died saving someone else or was one of the people who decided to jump etc. When it’s clear how he died because at the end of the last message when it…
I was also very confused! I was very disappointed with the ending and how anticlimactic the key was. It all put together like a puzzle with meeting Mrs. Black’s husband and his story, and then it fizzled to nothing. It also still bugs me that we never found out exactly how he died as well. We talked about it in class, but I, the, reader request a fake epilogue and the actual way Oskars father died. lol
I really like this picture in relation to the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The bird reminds me of how Oskar felt thorought this book and also how I felt as a reader. I felt like there was a big deal right behind me but that there was a communication problem… like I couldn’t hear it because Oskar’s world was on mute. There was so much in Oskar’s previous generations that he had no idea about, he was… like a pigeon with an air horn behind it. Even when I found out about his grandfather was the renter I was like OMG there’s an airhorn behind me! But this book was really good to me, it was literally like I was trying to figure out the story myself and go through all the mixed up ways of getting it.
It took me until the very end of the first reading of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to realize that the letters were from other people from another time. Even though they clearly stated dates, I was oblivious and so confused I almost stopped reading. I thought this was about a little boy whose father died in 9/11 so how is he older and now living in Germany where he’s always grown up??
“OHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
That’s when I got it.
And also when I started to really like the book even more. I can’t wait to read more and find out what happened or will happen to the characters. It also makes me more excited to see what the other books we will be reading are about.
Even still I’ll remember something about Oskar’s grandmother and think, “Oh yeahhhh, anna’s sisterrrr” or something along those lines. Even though I’m this far in I’m still getting mindblown. Like whoa.
When I started reading the first few pages of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I could not stop laughing. I was reading it aloud to a friend and could barely make it through a few lines before busting out laughing. The friend did not find it as funny lol. However, one of the reasons why it made me laugh so much is because of how much the main character reminded me of my ADHD self at that age. The distracted talking, noticing small details, rapidly changing subjects… it was quite fun for me to read.
One thing I liked about the main character the most was how inventive and imaginative he was during that first chapter. I used to find that kind of inventiveness in myself at that age but it no longer exists because I ”grew up.” Realism took it’s place just like what happened in the comic we read. I really enjoyed the dark reality of the “comic’s” because I’ve felt that happen to me before. I used to want to create big inventive projects but those plans were squashed by others’ view of what should be and what shouldn’t. What is possible and what isn’t. But to create great things, aren’t we supposed to look out of the box and to believe in what is seemingly impossible? Maybe I understand why most legends that came up with a groundbreaking success were shunned by all the other scholars or others around them.
I guess I’m just talking to myself about what went on in class and my take on it… but hey it makes a post.
Heavy In Your Arms - Florence and The Machines
When we were talking about the beginning of The Things They Carried and we mentioned how O’Brien lists and weights everything that they carry with them in the start of the book, I thought of this song because it does much the same thing. I’d never seen the video before but I think it adds to the feeling of the song and the feeling of the passage in the book that I’m referring too. In this song the repetition of the chorus gives you this feeling of being heavy which I think the passage does as well.
Wow, this song relates really well! I loved when the bass came in and it actually sounded heavier. The video played in perfectly and even the black and white played into it really well. I am kind of a visual person and, as the song was playing, I could see the battle field and the silent fire and the bright red blood that stuck out from the rest of the black and white canvas. Every wound and dead body splashed with bright red. I found myself seeing the troops more than the video itself. However, the video of her lying and singing and being dragged fit so well I was amazed. lol All in all a very post worthy video with a song that will soon be on my ipod.
