1- "My World of the Unknown"--background
- What sorts of background information might (Western) readers need to make sense of Rifaat's story?
Some helpful background information might include some scaffolding about the role of the snake in different mythologies as well as its role in the culture under study. While many cultures view the snake as a source of temptation, it is fairly clear that the snake here is a positive sign, as the sheikh calls its appearance a blessing and the snake spirit has the only fulfilling relationship with the woman that she has ever found – no wonder Aneesa didn’t want to leave!
2 - "TV People" and Westernization
The arrival of the television could be seen as a form of Westernization. Saturation in the information and stimulation that come from the television is one of the differences between Western culture and the rest of the world, and the belief that TV people could take on such importance in the West is an idea that goes back to Bradbury, if not further.
3- The small screen?
Why do you think the writer has constructed these TV people as tiny humanoids? Why do you think the protagonist later feels that he is shrinking in size?
When you look at a television screen, everyone is smaller. This is the same point that Roald Dahl made in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Wonkavision. He has to shrink Mike Teevee down to send him through the air. On a more figurative level, television shrinks everything. We have television characters who can solve any mystery, cure a disease in 44 minutes (if you factor in time for ads), and there was a time when television fathers could solve any conundrum in 22 minutes. When we slip into that easy thinking, we can feel ourselves shrinking too.
4- Murakami and Kafka
Readers and critics often call Murakami a "Kafkaesque" writer. Can such a label be applied to "TV People"? Why or why not?
Kafka takes a look at the toll that our assumptions have on us when we are not looking. He also considers how our institutions of power drain us of our life force. In those ways, I could view Murakami as a “Kafkaesque” writer, because of the effect that the TV people have on the protagonist – and on the reader.
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*Reply for this discussion that my friend wrote it on discussion board on " Murakami and Kafka " Topic since I need to reply at least one time for my classmate discussion ( it could be couple of sentence just write a comment about what he wrote)
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RE: Murakami and Kafka
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I believe so. Murakami is a Kafkaesque writer especially with "TV people". One of the learning modules we studied earlier in the semester, FranzKhafka's Metamorphosis has similar resemblance to it. TV people is not a story that is pragmatic but is quite fascinating due to the spirit of mind and that goes with it. Here, weird situations are shown where it is possible for people to imagine what is going on in the TV. Furthermore,Murakami draws upon things that are quite abnormal which makes his writing similar to Khafka.
Response: This reminded me a lot of the film “Stay Tuned” in which the main characters are sucked into the television and chase each other around programs in an attempt to beat the evil forces that apparently control the media.
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