Perec's 'W'

 Perec's W is a fascinating read for a multitude of reasons. The book starts with a disclaimer warning readers about the dual nature of the upcoming story - an unusual thing to begin a story with! 

I found the idea of calling the book 'W' because of the double 'V' incredibly smart. I came across another interpretation of how the choice of the double 'V' was creative because of how 'vie' in French translates to life in English. This is pertinent to the book because of the two parallel stories and how they influence each other. 

Perec's description of pictures in the somewhat autobiographical portion of the book is what stood out to me the most. I would like to think that he went the extra mile with his descriptions of the images because of how desperately he wanted to remember his childhood and his parents. The idea of placing importance in memory is a very interesting concept for many reasons. The desperation to cling to one's childhood is unfortunately very common, especially as we age and desire to cling on to the "good old days." Moreover, given that the author lost his parents at a young age, he is more inclined to preserve any memory.

One of the moments in the book that highlighted this idea of broken memory is when the author describes the three memories that he recalls from his school days. They progress from blurry to gradually more coherent and eventually lead to a fourth memory. The following quote stood out to me the most when he was describing his memories:

"...remains so deeply imprinted on my body that I wonder this memory does not, in fact, conceal its precise opposite: not the memory of a medal torn off, but the memory of a star pinned on."

This particular quote reminds me of flashbulb memories and how the emotions associated with these memories are often triggered because of the intensity of the event. This moment would have definitely stood out to a child because of the intensity of the injustice that they would have felt. 

Perec's parallel adventure story provided us with a story of a young boy whose name was taken by a soldier for safety. I feel like this particular choice of events is especially relevant because of how it depicts a man taking on the identity of a child, while in the other half, he tries to recall his childhood. 

Lastly, to end, my question for the class would be: how did you find the worldbuilding of the island W?