Paracake (paracake) wrote, @ 2007-03-21 20:18:00

THE GASTEIN JOURNAL
What stylistic devices are used in this section which are unique? What is the effect of their inclusion?

What are your theories about what is going on here?

Audimar awe_dee_mar 2007-03-22 22:04 (link)

Wow, the whole chapter (The Gastein Journal) was basically a detailed story of the events in the poem (Don Giovanni). Within the Gastein Journal, many stylistic devices are used such as metaphors, personification, basically a whole lot of figurative language. With these figurative language being included in the Gastein Journal, the journal itself was more profound. There's more to what the author has to say rather than the obvious. For example, before the fire incident of the hotel was introduced, the author had put telegrams or letters. I myself was confused when reading the letters or telegrams about the fire, but fully understood the whole concept of it later on as the story proceeds. I like how the author introduces a tragic event with something else such as the letters, rather than going straight to the both. With these letters, we get a sense of the different feelings going on with characters we don't know. Not all the events are presented in one perspective. Another style the author uses is the "narrative." We don't simple read a boring story, but hear the story for a perspective of someone else. With this being done, again, it feels as if we were exactly at the event, and inside the characters mind. We get a sense of the character's psychology. Also, the author did a good job with "details". The details also gave you a hint on the character's psychology, you feel their emotions. I know it's nasty, but the detailedness of the "sex" scene AUTOMATICALLY made you imagine all of it in your head. I'm serious, it was like "watching" every move they made HAPPEN! --->Again, from my opinion, the whole journal was basically the explanation of the poem. Once I finished reading the journal, my reaction right away was, "Oh, that's why that happened in the poem." Like the part when the orgy occurred. I wondered why a priest was involved? Then i found out the girl had "invited" him (the priest) to do so. It also seems like a tragic story. There are so much deaths and accidents going on. But overall the book is alright, but a little to mature for our age, but it's all good. (Reply to this) (Thread)

flashback after flashback after... aldenthegreat 2007-03-22 22:55 (link)

What stylistic devices are used in this section which are unique? I beleive that the plot structure is very unique in this chapter in that the writer sometimes flips through one instance in which she is making love with her boyfriend to a scene where either the visotors of the white hotel are burned in the fire, drown in the flood, get buried in the landslide or fall from the ski lift. These events are highly emotional but also very brief which leads me to belive abou the woman's psychology. The whole plot is of the women's stay in the white hotel with the ypung man and their expliots in the white hotel as well. But all throughout, their are instances in which tragic events occur but instead of the woman or the man feeling sympathy for the fallen individuals, they instead carry on with their sexual expliots. They don't go outside to console the others even when everything happened. One example of this was when the fire of th ewhite hotel was occuring when they were on the cruise on the lake. Instead of running to the front of the boat and watching to see if anybody was hurt, they instead went on with one of their sexual escapades, which is seemigly awkward in the sense that only one person saw them. What is the effect of their inclusion? The effect of the inclusion of the plot structure leads this story into a unique version never before seen by me and persumably any other student in the class. Of course there has been stories in which either the end is showed in the beginning or clips of the end are scattered throughout but in this case, the image of the whole story are so altered and perplexing that the whole story becomes changed into this new and unique story that includes death but instead of grief that would follow in any other story, the main characters instead dont nescesarilly care about anyone else but themselves and carry on with their longings. One scene has the young man and the young woman making love to each other but in the same paragraph, the woman talks about falling down and down adn how the boys fell faster and how they reached the lake and some reached the ground with a thud from the air. What are your theories about what is going on here? Because of the woman explaining everything that she experienced to Freud and with his background as a psychoanalyst, my beliefs are simple in that the woman is heavily disturbed and becuase of Frued's biography stating that some people actually say things that they have experienced in between the lines of other thoughts. This has to be the case with this woman becuase she tells things about her experiences but also has lines in which she says things that happened, very emotional things, in between her expereices with the young man that she was with at the white hotel. She probably never had that man go with her but instead was so overwhelmed with the deaths that she seemingly lost her mind from all the grief and death. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Kyle Troutman (Anonymous) 2007-03-22 23:32 (link)

ASTONISHING! This novel is pretty amazing. The first few pages of this new section are so poetic and passionate in that it flows smoother than a river; more like clouds. This basically tells the story of her occurrences in the first section in third person by her. Obviously we cannot see her true thoughts but we can see that she just rushes into things. How could you meet someone unknown on a train and give yourself mind, body and soul to them? I don't understand how anyone could do that. I think that Freud so far is in this novel to show us that this woman is not sane and that everything she may be saying may not even be true, but can be imaginative. So far this second section has explained so much with so much detail in that every little thing is discovered in this section from what people are saying to their surroundings and environment. This section sets the tone for the entire novel in that there are many things that we may learn and we are just in the beginning. We can see that so far she is not mentally awake because of the fact that she need Freud, or we think that she needs a psychoanalyst. But so far all of this passion and imagery is going to build up to what she is really thinking and what she is really seeing. She may be dreaming the entire the thing, because in the first few pages she seems to be dreaming but through her dream she wakes up and is on a train heading to her home. This entire thing can be fiction. (Reply to this) (Thread)

ryan RUeL"E"oS... (Anonymous) 2007-03-23 00:57 (link)

well, as i was reading the gastein "sex"tion, my attention started to fluctuate because of the scenes that were occuring between paragraphs or when it would have a space between paragraphs and whatnot. anyways, i noticed that at some points, the narrative would be talking about the sexual experiences happenning with the young woman and the young man, and then it would be talking about the things happening with the white hotel. in the very beginning, i noticed that it was a mirror image of the poem following this journal, and rather than being metaphorical and very vividly descriptive, it was more formal and straighfoward, lacking the emotion reflected through the poem. well, i think that the sections were arranged in a scattered type of pattern, is because of the way the thoughts and the mind works, in that it doesnt focus on one thing simultaneosly, but rather changes and continuously scatters, not focusing on one particular thing. the fact the it was written as a narrative, third person, the reader is separated from the thoughts of the characters, unlike the poem being written in first poem, which traps its reader in the mind of the character, in this case, the young woman. and because of this, there is a sense of disconnection between the reader and the characters. and also as a result of being a narrative, it changes the mood and the tone, lacking the emotional experiences experienced by the characters. there was one part that stood out from the rest of this journal, which was the part when it displayed the postcards of the several characters being descrimbed throughout this time. the narrative cleared up any confusion that arose from reading the poem. (oops i just noticed that i combined the first and second question up here so it may be confusing to read) my theories so far, hmmmm? well since this explained waht has happened with the white hotel and the several unusual incidents that have occured and leading to many deaths. i noticed in the end that the young woman said "when im not thinking about sex. im thinking about death" well i think this supports wat has been talked about in the journals, the fact that this female patient has this sexual hysteria, and cannot stop thinking about sex and whatnot. now that she sees the deaths of the people of the white hotel, and that she had "foreseen the deaths of..."(83), im thinking....the patient is retaining her sanity from her sexual hysteria for that one particular moment about the death thing. i think that the haiku "the plum who marries; an ox can anticipate; great sorrow, great joy"(82) influenced her to regain sanity or something and remembers death and the depressing things in her life that only sex can fill. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Kristine F. (Anonymous) 2007-03-23 01:09 (link)

This section wasn’t any different from the poem. Like Audi pointed it, it is a more detailed description of what she has written in the poem. When we read the Don Giovanni section, we didn’t really know what was going on. The Gastein Journal simplifies it for us, and breaks it down so we understand why something happened, and who else was involved. A good example would of when they have a three way with Madame Cottin. When we read that part in the poem, we were probably confused, but then in the second section, it explains why they all slept with each other. It is written in third person, and I don’t think that they ever mentioned his and her names, or is it just me? If they have, then I must’ve forgotten, so sorry [: This section is unique because there is a lot of imagery and figurative language. We see imagery when the guests of the White Hotel have a meeting, and they talk about what they’ve seen. When the guests are describing what they saw, the images are very well detailed and descriptive. The images that we see when they talk about the flood and the fire probably have some sort of symbolism behind them. It probably has something to do with the past history of the guests, such as the one with the embryo floating in the lake, some of the women revealed that they had an abortion that they felt badly about. The images give us a well rounded idea of the characters or other guests at the hotel. The figurative language used in this section is mainly used in the sexual encounters that the couple has, with each other, as well as other people. In the beginning, while they are having sex, there are parts when he “mysteriously disappears in her body”. Not to have my mind all on the sexual stuff, but that’s the only thing that I can single out at the moment. I’m sure that there is more figurative language, however, the sexual encounters are the ones that stand out the most. At the moment, I don’t really know what to think. The White Hotel seems like paradise, however, there are so many odd things that are happening, such as the flood, the fire and all the sex that everyone is having together. After such a disaster with the flood and the fire, we would think that everyone would leave and the hotel would close, however that’s not the case. If anything, there are more guests arriving and the hotel is fuller than ever. It is obvious that this girl is troubled because personally, I don’t find watching two men sucking on a woman’s nipple at the dinner table to be normal, or polite. Haha. They made it seem like it was nothing, and that it was an ordinary thing to do. Things may seem weirder now, but I have a feeling that it’ll get a lot more disturbing later on as we continue reading. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Andrew Johnsonw (Anonymous) 2007-03-23 01:37 (link)

The style of writing in this section reminds me of Catch 22. I'm not really sure if it can be considered in media res, maybe, kinda, sorta? well, in Catch 22 it shifts from one conversation to another, as in if two people are having a conversation, the response to a statement next is from someone totally different and jumps into another time and place, a different conversation. Thats how the Gastein Journal is, it's simultaneuos between the lovers and other events at the hotel. In a sense i think it's like in media res because it is without warning, there is no "meanwhile on the lakeside", or "suddenly on the cable car". I think it makes the story more realistic. It compliments the spontaneous flow of the story, it gives it more of a felling of unexpectance (as if some lines wouldnt have to be read twice even if it were straightfoward...). One expample of this is in the very beginning when she has the dream of running through the forest from the soldiers fidning the bloody child, than wakes up in the train car. It catches the reader off guard, i had to reread it a few times to get it. It's more realistic because in actuality, you wake up unexpectadly from dreams. Through some parts of the section, i got the idea that this whole sequence at the white hotel is just a dream. Especially during the meeting when everyone points out things they found odd, and somehow connections were being made. Reminded me of those psychic readings, when an object is seen and somehow its somebody's dead father coming through. Or instead of a dream, it could be a hallucination. Maybe a drug induced hallucination given by the nazis!!! Perhaps it may be a hallucinated perception of the Holocaust (just going by what it says on the back of the book), with all the people dieing in groups and the snowing after each wave of death (like the ashes). I also found it interesting with the relationship between the french and russian guy, i found it symbolic of the sort of mutual but tense relationship the Soviets and Nazis had, more specifically hitler and stalin. as for the sex, my guess is that in a time of war, destruction, and devastation, she is turning to the one desire that she can turn to, because at a time like that everything else is detached (family, friends, other sources of happiness). Desire is the want of something one lacks, so in a time like that, the only thing she could want and really get is sex, so that's why she turns to it so eagerly. like a balloon bulging with water and only a pinhole to get it out of. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Noel Yumul (Anonymous) 2007-03-23 01:44 (link)

what a great novel!! its like a videogame that you can't stop playing.. but in this case i cant stop reading the book.. as if you were in the novel.. the way how they show the experience of the young man and woman i mean sexual experience . the author is telling us how this couple are doing it and the fact that the young man has a 4 year old son. i noticed that there's a distinct shift language in this section as well. the narrator uses technical names for sexual organs, as well as euphemisms such as "make love". through this chapter we can see a lot of this. The language shift also reflects the change in point of view, because the vulgarities were the thoughts of the woman, and the story here is filtered through an omniscient narrator.i realize that the reappearance of the black cat in this section shows that it is and will be an important symbol throughout the book. we all know that traditionally, black cats symbolize bad luck, and this cat is certainly surrounded by luck which is ironic. While he has the good luck of being able to escape the flood, his appearance follows one horrific event and comes before several others. Basically through this section, it's all about the sexual stuff that stand out the most. it's everywhere and the White Hotel is the place where they're doing it. As we see imagery and figurative language in this section too. i assume later there will be more imagery and figurative through out the novel. My theories about this section is how they explained what's happening on the journal of how they do sexual stuff. not only the sexual stuff but also in the middle or towards end( i don't remember ) there's a disaster that occur which is flood and the fire that lead to many deaths. its crazy how they can do weird stuff just like what kristine said about two men sucking on a woman’s nipple at the dinner table and that's really crazy and kinda sick to me. i know that this is only for adults because of the sex and the experience of what they're showing. overall its a good thing that we're reading this kind of book because its really funn to read and its addicting. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Abigail Villena (Anonymous) 2007-03-23 01:47 (link)

What stylistic devices are used in this section which are unique?What is the effect of their inclusion? ---Throughout this section there is a lot of description going on. It seems as if a situation is presented, it keeps going further and further into explaining every aspect and detail there is. Flashback is used to bring up the hotel when it was burned down, what exactly happened that day and every little thing. The poem in the beginning is very descriptive as well because it was compelling and made you want to keep reading on. You didn't expect the next scene to happen and that's why you get sucked into keep on reading the book to see what's going to happen. I also discovered that when i was reading the story, one thing happened, something else the next, and then it takes you back to what happened in the beginning. It reminded me of the Catcher In the Rye book when things didn't happen in chronological order, it was out of sink, started from the middle and ended with the beginning. What are your theories about what is going on here? ---This book really points out that women are vulnerable to men. For example in the train when the young man and widowed woman were in a section of the train, the woman says that she gets easily amused and she can't control it, if she starts with the fooling around then she wouldn't stop. Everyone's having sex no matter where it is, especially doing alot of it in the public too. These people are so affectionate with each other that it's crazy and I also think that because maybe perhaps I've never been to a place where alot of sexual content is being shown all out in the open. Everyone wants some LONVIN' LOVIN' in this story and people just can't seem to get enough of one another. (Reply to this) (Thread)

vIvIaN o. (Anonymous) 2007-03-23 01:48 (link)

The Gastein Journal was basically the poems in Don Giovanni, except the Gastein Journal was more detailed and wasn't wirtten in that woman's perspective. I had a better understanding after i read The Gastein Journal. i thought pages 47-51 were unique because they had postcards from people who stayed at The White Hotel. It was cool because it allowed us as the readers, to see/get an idea how they felt about some events, to whom they were writing to, what they decided to write about, etc. i really enjoyed reading these few pages. i still don't get the beginning of The Gastein Journal though. Pages 31 and most of 32 puzzle me. i don't get how that goes or ties in with anything. Maybe i'll find out later in the book. Lots happened in The Gastein Journal. It talked about the train trip with one of Freud's son and that one widowed lady, they both go to the white hotel, every one there seemed to love sex as much as Frued's son and the widowed lady, there's a scene were Madame Cottin joined Frued's son and widowed lady in sex, there's another scene where Frued's son is sucking the widowed lady's nipple while the priest is sucking the other one, there's another seem where the japanese girl talked about her and the major dude and the nun apologizing for interrupting them, plus many more sexual scenes. It didn't come to a surprise to me what the nun said to the japanese girl and major because all that was going on was kinda bad yet others viewed everything as being okay. White is usually a color of purity. i think it's weird how although many people are happy and loving life at The White Hotel, there's still many bad and sadden accidents that occur in The White House. The flood, the fire, the mudslid, etc. are some events that happened. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Lily I. (Anonymous) 2007-03-23 04:02 (link)

I actually enjoyed this second part of the book a lot better than the first. This section was more detailed, hence a broader understanding of the things that were going on. In contrast from "Don Giovanni", this second section is told in third person. Also, "Don Giovanni" was much more brief, and this second section is told with great amount of detail. I found it very interesting how basically the same story could be told from two different perspectives. Since "Don Giovanni" was brief, it seemed kind of "harsh" to me. The woman that was telling her story was not in love with "Freud's son", but rather she was using him to obtain her needs, and the language used was much more, I guess one can call it, "agressive". On the onther hand, in "The Gastein Journal", it seems as if the lovers that are introduced really do feel love and passion towards each other; maybe in exaggeration, but the feelings are there. The events that were told seemed more realistic with the details, except, of course, when everyone at the restaurant wanted to drink milk from the woman's breasts, and how she insisted that everyone do. Some parts seemed funny to me because they go beyond one's imagination. Like the nun being okay with the lovers having sex out in the open and in front of her; I do not think something like this would have happened years ago, when more things were kept private, and certainly not taday, either. It made me dissapointed that the lovers did not care if they "shared" themselves with other people, and yet there were times when the man felt jealous of the woman's DEAD husband (this was quite funny). I clearly believe that the woman is fantasizing in "Don Giovanni", and that the narrator in "the Gastein Journal" is one of Freud's partners in experimenting the woman who is "obsessed with sex", or a "sexaholic". (Reply to this) (Thread)

Mayura C. (Anonymous) 2007-03-23 09:41 (link)

This chapter really describes what had happened in the Don Giovanni in more detail than the poem itself. It was much better because other than the fact that we have to rely somewhat on what the patient says concerning those events (in which she described most of the time in a sexual way), we see in this chapter the events that had happened and all the odd circumstances. The use of figurative language, metaphors, similes and description tells of what was going on at the time, and the use of the first person perspective on the postcards helped understand what was going through some of the people's minds when events were taking place. Including all this made the story about the Don Giovanni much easier to understand and also it cleared up the areas where you would think was unlcear and confusing. Not only that, but it also gives us insights about the characters and what they thought about what was happening and its importance. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Kauri Van Valkenburgh (Anonymous) 2007-03-27 00:38 (link)

This is the journalistic representative of the poem we read in the beginning. It is written in a descriptive narrative form which is not unique, but the author is a miracle of a human being and manages to amaze me with the beauty of the passage. It does not appear realistic; this woman seems too easy to just give herself away. it confirms my thought that the poem written by the woman uses sex as a metaphor, not only for her desire and inability to place it properly but for something that is submerged within her. Since Freud is involved, I do believe this entire journal could be for him and he will analyze it. The effect this journal has on me is great. It seems perfectly ordinary that all the disasters are occuring, and everyone is happy to be alive and simultaneously waiting to die without any concerns. There is a feeling of continuity; although supposedly she is only there for a few days, the behavior is not concerned with the future or anything outside the hotel. It is a true vacation from all reality and at the same time it is all the womans reality could ever be. She is happy to have anyone, happy to give herself because "no one is selfish at the white hotel". The imagery and diction are beautiful beyond my comprehension... I cannot believe so many great images are present in just this small book and of course the author is a man, which fascnates me how he could accomplish such sensuality through his words. I thought the postcards were particularly interesting. It seems so polite and elegant even when discussing death and sex. It is the kind of class I adore bcause it is so far from attitudes in the modern world. All of the strange things that people see and the explanations were confusing and strange; they were odd hallucinations, and it seemed like everyone was sharing a common hysteria, which leads me to the thought that just the one woman is placing her reality in each of these characters. (Reply to this) (Thread)

morgan homer (Anonymous) 2007-03-28 01:07 (link)

sorry this took my so long leibner but finally im done!! this was a great story... in parts i got kind of lost but i think that is the charm of it. this young lady never includes her name, gives everyone her own personal nickname for them and jumps from topic to topic. her ideas and "experiances" arn't fully developed in her writing and its much like a diary entry. FReading this i wasnt really clear about what was going on because she doesnt present the story very well, but on the other hand it adds to the mysterious quality of the story. im saying that its her writing and i think that wrong but whoever wrote it, wrote it vaguley with hints of specificity, particularly in the sex scenes. reading these different journals and types of writing give me a sense of perspective. everyone tells the story different, with different points of view. i dont know what all the things they see over the lake represent but in the interest of detail, they are descriptive but in the same timem dont explain much about their sightings. cant wait to see what happens next!! (Reply to this) (Thread)

Carolyn Agustin (Anonymous) 2007-03-29 23:49 (link)

I know this is very late. If this doesn't count, it's okay atleast I responded! As everyone has come to realize, The Gastein Journal section of the story is the narration of what happened at the white hotel. It is the narrative part of the Don Giovanni section and put into more descriptive details. The journal fills in the blanks that the poem creates. When reading the journal, you have the urge to flip back to the poem to see where it fits in. Although the journal still has a mysterious aura floating through the words, it answered the questions that were drawn when reading the poem. The book is probably designed like that. There is the first version of the story, which is very vague. Then comes another story that is more specific than that, but not specific enough. Each story contributes to the truth to help the reader figure out the big picture. (Reply to this) (Thread)

(Amazing) Grace! (Anonymous) 2007-03-30 03:06 (link)

~grace t. boone~ *I’m very sorry for the late response ~In this section, the difference in style appears to be a third person narrative of the previous “Don Giovanni” poem. When you flip back and forth to the Poem and the Journal; there’s a pattern in which the Poem expresses more of the sexual pleasures that the couple experienced, as the Journal is more detailed of the environment and the different people that were involved and the way they were affected by their surroundings. Even through a more detailed narrative, I was still sort of skeptical as to what everything was supposed to reveal. There still seemed to be something that this section lacked, like the sense of a complete truth. Just like the Poem this section also seemed to jump from different events, just like the way a scene is shot in a film that foreshadows an event or back flashes to another event. For example in the beginning, where the girl starts off hurriedly rushing through a forest trying to hide and run away from soldiers, sees a little boy covered in blood, tries to open a trapdoor, and while furiously tugging at the iron ring, she ends up in a train with a ticket collector nudging her, and she discovers that she simply has her hand on the iron ring of her handbag. Even from explaining exactly how and what was happening, it hasn’t truly revealed the true meanings of why these things were happening and in what sequence. Was her terrifying “daydream” an event from the past or foreshadowing the future, how could her subconscious conjure up such a frightening scene? I’m sure all this will be made more sense of throughout the chapters of the book, or at least I hope it will, because I’ve become very curios how this story will end. There is no doubt that there may be a little twist in the end that will reveal everything, yet throw off everyone. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Chantal L. (Anonymous) 2007-04-05 12:11 (link)

With the Gastein journal, I recognized the parallelism between this and Don Giovanni. I noticed that it was a similar story, but in different format or structure. The descriptions are much more elaborated in this section in comparison to Don Giovanni. There are some kind of blanks left throughout the poem, leaving us with questions that are eventually answered to some extent in the Gastein journal. It becomes much more emotional and bizarre at the same time. I don’t know what that is, but it does. Painful but rather beautiful. I was baffled about a number of parts in this section, particularly the part when the man from the train made love to the maid lady and when the major called the people in for a meeting telling them that “odd things have been happening.” The school of whales, falling stars, and such seemed to have been symbolism of something but I wasn’t sure what. I hoped to read on to learn if they were but I didn’t get much just yet. Also, the postcards from the various people staying in the white hotel confused me. They, generally, said that the weather was nice and then something about a fire or a storm. It was strange. The only theories I had about this particular story is that if we read on, to different chapters, our questions and the whole story would be revealed to us. For it had been structured in that way for the first two sections, I would immediately assume such a thing. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Chantal L. (Anonymous) 2007-04-05 12:12 (link)

With the Gastein journal, I recognized the parallelism between this and Don Giovanni. I noticed that it was a similar story, but in different format or structure. The descriptions are much more elaborated in this section in comparison to Don Giovanni. There are some kind of blanks left throughout the poem, leaving us with questions that are eventually answered to some extent in the Gastein journal. It becomes much more emotional and bizarre at the same time. I don’t know what that is, but it does. Painful but rather beautiful. I was baffled about a number of parts in this section, particularly the part when the man from the train made love to the maid lady and when the major called the people in for a meeting telling them that “odd things have been happening.” The school of whales, falling stars, and such seemed to have been symbolism of something but I wasn’t sure what. I hoped to read on to learn if they were but I didn’t get much just yet. Also, the postcards from the various people staying in the white hotel confused me. They, generally, said that the weather was nice and then something about a fire or a storm. It was strange. The only theories I had about this particular story is that if we read on, to different chapters, our questions and the whole story would be revealed to us. For it had been structured in that way for the first two sections, I would immediately assume such a thing. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Chantal L. (Anonymous) 2007-04-05 12:12 (link)

With the Gastein journal, I recognized the parallelism between this and Don Giovanni. I noticed that it was a similar story, but in different format or structure. The descriptions are much more elaborated in this section in comparison to Don Giovanni. There are some kind of blanks left throughout the poem, leaving us with questions that are eventually answered to some extent in the Gastein journal. It becomes much more emotional and bizarre at the same time. I don’t know what that is, but it does. Painful but rather beautiful. I was baffled about a number of parts in this section, particularly the part when the man from the train made love to the maid lady and when the major called the people in for a meeting telling them that “odd things have been happening.” The school of whales, falling stars, and such seemed to have been symbolism of something but I wasn’t sure what. I hoped to read on to learn if they were but I didn’t get much just yet. Also, the postcards from the various people staying in the white hotel confused me. They, generally, said that the weather was nice and then something about a fire or a storm. It was strange. The only theories I had about this particular story is that if we read on, to different chapters, our questions and the whole story would be revealed to us. For it had been structured in that way for the first two sections, I would immediately assume such a thing. (Reply to this) (Thread)