- In Borden’s Fragment titled Moonlight, she lists three companions on page 40, “Pain, Life and Death.” She then spends the next six pages describing what Pain does and how Pain infects her daily life and those around her. “Pain is the stronger. She is the greater. She is insatiable, greedy, vilely amorous, lustful, obscene.” She gives Pain feminine pronouns, calling it she/her/hers. What does making “pain” feminine add or take away from the story? In all of the literature we have read so far, what else is described with feminine pronouns and how does that connect to Borden’s idea of a feminine Pain?
- Borden writes for the people who did not serve in the Great War, then and now. This includes us as a class. If this was the only book we had to study, the only book that came out of The Great War, would your feelings about the war change? Would your understanding of the war change? What understandings have we gained through our other texts that are missing from The Forbidden Zone? What ideas are present here that we have not seen anywhere else?
- Similar to “The Beach,” Borden on multiple occasions has “zoomed out” of the story she is telling. Physically she seems to be so far away that people turn into “flies on the beach (p37),” and “ant people (p13).” These fragments she is sharing with us are all supposed to be moments she has witnessed herself, but clearly she is not a giant or watching from an airplane. Why does she repeatedly stay far away from the narrative she is sharing?
Literature of the Great War
ENGL 348. Spring 2022. Dr. Scanlon.
