Week 13.1 - Fever Dream, Samanta Schweblin - Nicholas Latimer - On Titles, Familiarity, and Worms
My final reading of this class, despite the confusion and blurriness that defines this nightmare of a story, would have been my favorite reading of the semester. Perhaps not because of its amazing complexity or influence on the field, which we have seen consistently throughout the course, but because of its uniqueness. Our first psychological thriller of the year comes and goes just like the title suggests, as a fever dream, that we wake up from wondering what the heck just happened. I actually went into the reading completely blind to the genre or back story of Scheblin’s work - so was more than shocked when met with the intense and vivid imagery that supplemented each character's experiences (from watching David burry dead animals to the way Nina would sit legs crossed always grasping her precious stuffed mole.
More about the title though, was something I found interesting, noticing the very different meanings the Spanish vs. English version seemed to offer. For example, reflecting on the “mysterious and fearful” tone of the text - “Fever Dream” appears much more fitting to the context of the book - which we later learn has a degree of truth and activism behind it. But the title “Rescue Distance” I believe primes a reader to see this text more as a reflection of motherhood, than of the eerie danger of poison that is ultimately being exposed. Of course, motherhood is definitely prominent in the story beyond the title. We learn that the concept of Amanda’s rescue distance obsession has been inherited by her mother - and when first presented - it is used as a way to prove how protective she was over Nina, implying that she would never let anything ‘like that’ happen to her daughter. This could be referring to her listening to Carla’s story of young David, or even when seeing the dis-figured child in the home goods store.
Leading me to what confused me most however, was despite all this effort to protect her child, in some cases from other children (like David), Amanda is constantly in dialogue with him, playing his “hot and cold” game, engaging with him as if he had the “true” answers to whatever it was she was looking for.
At the same time though, there is frequent repetition throughout the story that offered some comfort (or perhaps just attachment) to the family. Schwblin makes a point of re-mentioning specific details as they would re-occur as if this story were actually happening in front of us. For example: Amanda mentions in the beginning how happy she is to drive comfortably and safely, dodging potholes, and that her husband is too reckless. Then in the end, we read as her husband drives towards Omar’s home, bumping and running over every hole. We hear the dogs bark and chase the car (as they do) every time someone is driving by that house. We are constantly reminded of Nina’s innocent and cheerful chants in the plural. Last, mate is everywhere in the book. Being sipped, dumped, packed, offered out, drank, so many times I was surprised that it wasn’t the drink of the week.
Perhaps this familiarity contributed to how scary the story became as we were so close to understanding the mystery, waiting for something horrible to happen with every one of David’s comments. In fact, one thing I had hoped to learn, was the importance of the worms. Not only was the opening so disturbing that I expected a fair explanation, but they were referenced many times as if symbolic of the poison or something.
What do you think the emphasis on worms had to do with the story? Why were they so important? Do you like worms?
The game with the titles of the books seems more and more interesting to me, with the differences that arise when translating them from Spanish to English. A title works as a reading key, and we tend to give it more importance, especially in novels where not everything is absolutely clear. It is like the titles of abstract paintings: we hope that they give us an orientation among all the possibilities of interpretation. I really liked your observation: we cannot be sure that we have the "truth" of what happened, but we can only approach it, as in the "hot and cold" game. But by now an expert reader like you has managed to understand the game and figure out the rules.
ReplyDeleteHi Nicholas,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy your conversation about Rescue Distance in the story, and the role of motherhood. For Amanda, she inherited this need to be close and monitor Nina from her own mother, which hints at intergenerational traits passed down from person to person. I found it quite interesting that in the story, Amanda would be highly focused on the Rescue Distance, and would feel great pressure and strain if she could not physically as close to Nina as she would have liked.
Mothers, parents in general, or anyone who has a close caring relationship with someone can empathize with this Rescue Distance to varying degrees. Yet in the final analysis, at the end of one's days or relationship with that person, that Rescue Distance rope must snap, as did Amanda's.
Take care,
Curtis HR
"Mysterious and fearful" is also how I would describe this book. Just like an invisible killer like toxic pesticides, anxiety looms in the foreground and leads to the trauma of the characters. It is aided through being written like a Victorian tragedy in the form of murder mystery without the established literary rules of the English novel. In these ways I found it quite intriguing for our last text!
ReplyDeleteHello Nicholas, I enjoyed reading your post and reflections on the book. I agree with your thoughts about the title, and about having a more focused tone about motherhood with the title in Spanish due to the meaning of the "Rescue Distance". However, I think that I prefer the title in english better because reading the book seems like a confusing,m but engaging "dream". In the novel, worms play a significant role in the story, which serve to represent disease, infection, death, and human contamination. Amanda becomes obsesed with the image of this worm and what it does, what it means, and serves as her explanation to justify her and her daughter's infection. And answering your last question, no, I hate worms!
ReplyDeleteHi Nick!
ReplyDeleteI really liked reading your post this week! You made some really interesting points and noted some cool things you had noticed while reading. To answer your question about worms, I too wondered about this. I think that my original thought while reading was that the these worms reminded me of parasites. I think I made this connection as it was something I familiar with from other novels, and the idea that these worms were like parasite entering into the human body and symbolic of the illness from the pesticides. I also think that the author chose to use worms for a physical link to the soil below the soybeans and the agricultural setting of the novel.
Thank you!
Elisabeth
Hi Nicholas! Great post. I really liked your point on how the different titles across translation greatly impact the text’s meaning. I gravitated towards this book only because George RR Martin (the author of game of thrones) also wrote a book called Fevre Dream and it’s one of my favourites by him. Learning that the original title of the book isn’t even Fever Dream in the original Spanish is definitely interesting and might have meant that I chose a different book this week if it wasn’t translated that way. Also yeah, great point that Jon definitely should have been drinking Yerba mate during the lecture video. As for your question, I am really not sure about the worms. I feel like we talked around the poison a lot in our discussion but never specifically about why David believes so fervently that worms are the cause of his problems. And no, I do not like worms so maybe it’s good we didn’t think too hard about them.
ReplyDelete