ENG328Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 39: Exoticism
The Quiet American
Valorised atheist narrator with a death wish
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Love story, adventure story
Lonely and dangerous journey down a river to a place perceived as an
underworld
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Wins the hand of the heroine
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Romance skewed and deconstructed
Hero is murdered
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Thomas is flung back
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But Pyle isn't a hero and Thomas isn't a villain
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Opium smoking
Blissful forgetfulness of being
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Exoticism
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Romantic distance from Vietnam
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Romanticism of the tower
First power symbol
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War tower, bell tower
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He's inside the picture, not looking from the outside
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The canal is full of bodies
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Annihilated landscape, not full of bodies this time
I ceased for those seconds to exist
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Silence gives way to speech
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Illusion that their conversation has transformed the tower into
somewhere more comfortable
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Fowler has found his invisible enemy
Or his invisible enemy has found him
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Mr. Chou is an opium addict whose memory is debilitating
“Mr. Chou cleared his throat, but it was only for an immense
expectoration into a tin spittoon decorated with pink blooms. The baby
rolled up and down among the tea-dregs and the cat leaped from a
cardboard box on to a suitcase.”
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Sheer physical beauty of Vietnam
shift from random murder back to picturesque landscape
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Almost as if he has committed murder himself
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Ritual inevitability of the sacrifice of innocence
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No choice but to identify himself with the killers as well as the victims
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Sooner or later he must choose sides
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Themes of assent and dissent•
Own sense of guilt works against his sense of a new world being discovered•
Gone on to lead what can only be described as a charmed life
“Must I too have my foot thrust in the mess of life before I saw the
pain?”
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Fowler's consciousness as Judas shifts us away from a happy ending
Tragic brutality vs. romantic resolution
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Lecture 39
Monday, March 13, 2017
2:12 PM
Document Summary
Lonely and dangerous journey down a river to a place perceived as an underworld. But pyle isn"t a hero and thomas isn"t a villain. He"s inside the picture, not looking from the outside. Annihilated landscape, not full of bodies this time. Illusion that their conversation has transformed the tower into somewhere more comfortable. Mr. chou is an opium addict whose memory is debilitating. Chou cleared his throat, but it was only for an immense expectoration into a tin spittoon decorated with pink blooms. The baby rolled up and down among the tea-dregs and the cat leaped from a cardboard box on to a suitcase. Sheer physical beauty of vietnam shift from random murder back to picturesque landscape. Almost as if he has committed murder himself. No choice but to identify himself with the killers as well as the victims. Own sense of guilt works against his sense of a new world being discovered.