Basar

1. Search
2. Risk playing out in the sub-story: page 77-”The window was barred with iron…” Shows narrator’s desprite desire to get to her, no matter the cost or barriers.
Page 78- “Many times has your lord, my King…” Shows his faithfulness in rescuing her, even if it means fighting the King, her husband.
Page 78- “That you were married to someone else meant nothing to me.” Risk in adultery and persecution in pursuit of true love.
Page 79- “I saved you from the fire, but the fire I could not put out was burning at our feet.” The love the narrator pursues and is experiencing with the lover is harmful and dangerous.
Page 81- “Death will shatter me, but in love’s service I have been shattered many times.” Risk to be hurt to love.
Page 81- “There was a day I remember…” Battling danger, weariness, and the lover’s captors the narrator traveled to set her free.

I think that like the narrator of the sub-story, the writer of the story is also looking for love and risking a lot for it. He is constantly searching for something/someone, like Lancelot is searching for Guenivere. Relating to the next chapter I think that it shows how Lancelot and Guenivere’s love is a story that shouldn’t have happened.
I’m still thinking of how it relates to me as a reader.

3. In the sub-story, Search, I agree that as the writer is searching for something or someone, Lancelot too is searching for Guenivere, a risk that could result in ruin and unfulfilment.

I don’t know, I’m really bad at the preliminary stuff…I think we should throw some ideas around in groups tomorrow?? that would be good.

I think that we can make strong connections between the Powerbook and ELIC. In general, both characters, Oskar and Ali are looking for someone or something. All these things that they find on the search, whether throughout the boroughs of New York or across the internet, come up as useless; not the “buried treasure” they would have hoped (PB, 73). However, both Oskar and Ali are looking for “meaning inside the data” and as Ali says, “looking for you, looking for me, trying to see through the disguise” (PB, 74). While they are trying to look for a certain someone, they both disguise part of the journey to find themselves and their identity.
Another cool connection I made was just how alone both Oskar and Ali feel. They both feel as though nobody can relate to their struggles; that there is no one who will even listen…

It will be interesting to see if that someone comes along in the PB to fill that role… we shall see :]

I’m not sure how I feel about this book…I actually am really uncomfortable reading it so far. I mean, I guess where not in high school anymore, so it technically is “appropriate” but I just don’t like the sexual imagery.

I guess my main question is, What is Ali’s identity, male or female?

And another question is, are there other characters involved in this novel? I feel like Ali and the princess are one set of characters and then the couple in Paris are another set of characters…I guess I’m just really confused by the book in general.

I just am confused by the plot of the story and I’m 45 pages in- I feel like I should understand what’s going on…I think it is set in the future, and it know it takes place in france/Antioch? What in the world is going on with Antioch? Are they talking about history or is that where Ali lives in the timeframe of the book…

So far..I just am not really enjoying this book, sorry…however, its going by fast so thats nice.