Week 13: Fever Dream - Samantha Schweblin

    Hi there! I hope that everyone has enjoyed their easter weekend! For my last week, I choose to read Fever Dream. Although I wish I could've said that I loved this book and that it was the perfect way to wrap this class up…It wasn't my favourite, unfortunately. Not to say that it was my least favourite because there were definitely some interesting/thought-provoking concepts throughout the novel. However, I definitely felt myself getting lost throughout and having a hard time keeping track of what was going on… The narration between Amanda and David was hard to follow at times. As the title of the book implies, sometimes these memories being described were dreams and sometimes real life. Which in some ways added an interesting perspective and uniqueness to the overall structure, but at the same was a little confusing. 

    In regards to the lecture, I think the lack of providing context about the scientific elements and the genetically modified soybeans in Argentina and South America is very intentional. It feels as though the author does not want anything to get in the way of our persecution of what is occurring in the story. From the beginning, we are thrown right into the novel, given no context really about what we are seeing or supposed to be imagining. I think that if the author provided us with some more information about the horrors of genetically modified soybeans and the herbicides, and how it was affecting people that feeling would take over. Having all of the information presented to you is not always the best thing for creativity. The author wants you to experience the story as the characters experience them. Which in some sense added to those feelings of anxiety I was having throughout. If we were provided with all the contextual elements that we needed to understand the novel and the disease that the people are dealing with, we would not have been left in a state of confusion just like I feel Amanda is throughout the majority of the novel. Uncertainty and fear go hand in hand. I think that this is what the novel is trying to provoke from its readers. It doesn't want you to be scared of the disease and the sickness itself, it wants you to fear what you do not know about it. The fear of it infecting you because we are not told what it was, is what the author I think is feeding off of. The uncertainty of anything leads to anxiety about everything.

    My question for this book is how did the structure/dialogue between Amanda and David impact your experience reading this book? Did you find that it added a unique perspective or more confusion? 

Comments

  1. Daniel OrizagaApril 10, 2023 at 11:26 PM

    We all feel confused reading this novel. "It feels as though the author does not want anything to get in the way of our persecution of what is occurring in the story." It is true, and the complicated thing is knowing what the story is about, and where. We are "infected" or "intoxicated" with that feeling. What would have been helpful for you not to feel this way? It is true that the novel gives us very little contextual data. If the plot is based on real events, how much should it be based on a realistic narrative form, in your opinion? Why break those formats of past centuries? What motivates the author?

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  2. Owen ChernikhowskyApril 12, 2023 at 5:58 PM

    For basically the entire book I was awaiting an explanation or at least some clues to the dialogue structure, but, unless I missed it, not much is revealed beyond what we're given in the first couple pages. I was expecting this to follow the course of a more standard mystery - where hints are dropped along the way before being tied together near the end - but instead it turned out to be one of those stories where everything is left to the reader's interpretation. This element of anticipation helps us get into the mindset of Amanda, who also seems to expect a resolution that is never given.

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  3. AshleyApril 12, 2023 at 11:57 PM

    Hi Daisy, I also agree that this book was confusing, and it definitely wasn't my favourite, but I still enjoyed it! I think the open-ended ending was intentional, but also sort of like you mentioned, we aren't given a whole lot of information in the first place--much of it was up to our own perception. To answer your question, I think the dialogue between David and Amanda made me a bit more confused than normal because it was very fragmented , but I think it was supposed to help us envision the confusion and fragmentation that Amanda was experiencing.

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