My first impressions of the novel “S.” by Slavenka Drakulic seem to be that of immense interest. I find the book extremely interesting and one quote from the book kept my interest and my respect for the author when describing pregnancy as a tumor. “When this being, the fruit of their seed, started growing inside her it was like a tumor. S. fought this alien body, the sick cells that multiplied inside her against her will.” (Page 6)
As the story goes on it goes back to the idea of how innocent S. once was and seeing how at the beginning of the story before her flash back how much war has changed her ways of thinking, even with child birth.
A tumor rather than a gift from God as most women see their babies just shows and describes how war can change a natural motherly emotion and attachment to one’s child into a tumor bearing an alien inside.
I find the author, unlike any other war novelists I have read so far in this course, has brought up so many new images of war in this novel and how drastically war can change people even with such a “miracle” as child birth.
So, up until reading this, I had the impression that Drakulic was a woman. I’m more impressed with the book now that I know that he is a man. But disappointed in myself for assigning him a gender in the first place–all because Dr. Sorin inadvertently, I hate to admit, influenced me to think an “S” implies a woman. But I digress.
Simple and straightforward, Draculic’s article is so very telling and captivating. I wish there was more. I wonder why Milosevic’s arrest took so long and where his wife might be. I wonder about the articles written back then, since she compares his persona now to his former self, highlighting his diminishing fame. I hope to read into all this soon enough. It’s fascinating.
But so is this quote:
As far as I know, Milosevic never killed anybody himself. But he is not on trial because he is a murderer. He is on trial because even though he may never have lifted a finger in violence, his decade-long murderous nationalist politics created the conditions that produced hatred and killings and threw Yugoslavia into a whirlpool of death and chaos. It is those murderous politics (which ultimately led to the deaths of more than 200,000 people), not only his personal acts, that are standing trial in The Hague.
The first line in particular is what grabs me. Because S perceives the captain in much the same way. So I feel Draculic may have used the captain to portray the fallen leader, someone alluring and charming but nevertheless a criminal.
“The person who is the commander of this camp cannot be anything but a criminal, even he personally has never killed anyone…”
November 3rd, 2010 at 6:47 pm
My first impressions of the novel “S.” by Slavenka Drakulic seem to be that of immense interest. I find the book extremely interesting and one quote from the book kept my interest and my respect for the author when describing pregnancy as a tumor. “When this being, the fruit of their seed, started growing inside her it was like a tumor. S. fought this alien body, the sick cells that multiplied inside her against her will.” (Page 6)
As the story goes on it goes back to the idea of how innocent S. once was and seeing how at the beginning of the story before her flash back how much war has changed her ways of thinking, even with child birth.
A tumor rather than a gift from God as most women see their babies just shows and describes how war can change a natural motherly emotion and attachment to one’s child into a tumor bearing an alien inside.
I find the author, unlike any other war novelists I have read so far in this course, has brought up so many new images of war in this novel and how drastically war can change people even with such a “miracle” as child birth.
November 9th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
So, up until reading this, I had the impression that Drakulic was a woman. I’m more impressed with the book now that I know that he is a man. But disappointed in myself for assigning him a gender in the first place–all because Dr. Sorin inadvertently, I hate to admit, influenced me to think an “S” implies a woman. But I digress.
Simple and straightforward, Draculic’s article is so very telling and captivating. I wish there was more. I wonder why Milosevic’s arrest took so long and where his wife might be. I wonder about the articles written back then, since she compares his persona now to his former self, highlighting his diminishing fame. I hope to read into all this soon enough. It’s fascinating.
But so is this quote:
As far as I know, Milosevic never killed anybody himself. But he is not on trial because he is a murderer. He is on trial because even though he may never have lifted a finger in violence, his decade-long murderous nationalist politics created the conditions that produced hatred and killings and threw Yugoslavia into a whirlpool of death and chaos. It is those murderous politics (which ultimately led to the deaths of more than 200,000 people), not only his personal acts, that are standing trial in The Hague.
The first line in particular is what grabs me. Because S perceives the captain in much the same way. So I feel Draculic may have used the captain to portray the fallen leader, someone alluring and charming but nevertheless a criminal.
“The person who is the commander of this camp cannot be anything but a criminal, even he personally has never killed anyone…”