Shipping news? (1 Viewer)

[Gori]

Guys, what should I be focusing on the Shipping News for navigating the global? I get that its to do with the local and global forces but where and how do they get integrated together in the book?

help appreciated

 

[Absolutezero]

Look at how the character Quoyle shifts as he goes from the city (Global) to Newfoundland (Local). A large amount of your analysis should be on this issue.

 

[Gori]

That is what I was planning on looking at but my response is meant to show how the local and global forces co-exist together. I was told not to just write about Newfoundland = local = good, New York = global = bad. I don't get how I am supposed to integrate the response as in, where in the Shipping News do both the local and global forces come together in harmony?

 

[ochaguy]

I don't normally do English stuff but here goes:

Keep in note this is just the tip of the iceberg of all the stuff that u could talk about.

Focus on conflict of contexts and ideals and if there is harmony between them:

Economic:
Generations of Newfoundlands have built their lives on natural fisheries. But global forces have made the resources (oil) a commodity. Change of economic dependencies (sustainable vs short term gains)

Technological:
With fishing traditions, diverse skill sets were needed (built a boat, tie knots etc). The global is much more narrow and focused and while tasks are more complex, they are more shallow.

philosophical:
Materialism in the 1970's- 1980's and economic liberalism (Regean era) meant that happiness equated with money and material goods. This conflicts with the traditional and enlightened ideals of Newfoundland.

Geography/ancestry:
In order for Quoyle to heal himself, he must find out what his roots are and the reasons why he does not find harmony within a modern setting

 

[Gori]

I don't normally do English stuff but here goes:

Keep in note this is just the tip of the iceberg of all the stuff that u could talk about.

Focus on conflict of contexts and ideals and if there is harmony between them:

Economic:
Generations of Newfoundlands have built their lives on natural fisheries. But global forces have made the resources (oil) a commodity. Change of economic dependencies (sustainable vs short term gains)

Technological:
With fishing traditions, diverse skill sets were needed (built a boat, tie knots etc). The global is much more narrow and focused and while tasks are more complex, they are more shallow.

philosophical:
Materialism in the 1970's- 1980's and economic liberalism (Regean era) meant that happiness equated with money and material goods. This conflicts with the traditional and enlightened ideals of Newfoundland.

Geography/ancestry:
In order for Quoyle to heal himself, he must find out what his roots are and the reasons why he does not find harmony within a modern setting

Thanks a lot! Just wondering about the philosophical paradigm. What are the ideals of Newfoundland?

 

[Absolutezero]

That is what I was planning on looking at but my response is meant to show how the local and global forces co-exist together. I was told not to just write about Newfoundland = local = good, New York = global = bad. I don't get how I am supposed to integrate the response as in, where in the Shipping News do both the local and global forces come together in harmony?

Some points:

The locat isn't always a positive. Think about the years of cruelty and incest associated with remaining contained in the local.

The integration of the local and global; think about all the global boats that come into Newfoundland for restoration/refuelling etc. That is an example of the local and global working harmoniously together.

 

[Gori]

Thank you Absolutezero! Also, I have to write about how the local and global forces come together by globalisation. Would that be in relation to the oil industry? If not, what form of globalisation is it?

Thanks

 

[Absolutezero]

You could talk about the oil, IIRC. I haven't read the book since high school (as a part of the old Retreat From The Global module) so I can't remember all the specifics.

I've found some of my old notes, so here's some points:


ROOTS
“old style of Quoyle”
“wild and inbred, half-wits and murders”
“the Quoyle’s in the 1880s… like a big sled”- Skipper Alfred
“I remembers the Quoyles… devoured ‘im alive.”
“Nothing good ever happened with a Quoyle”
“Quoyle saw what he sprung from”

GLOBAL
“Half the population works for the government and the other half is worked on”
Tert Card is pro-Global, devoted to materialism and economic progress
“I’ve seen cod and caplin go from millions of tons taken to two or three bucketsful”.
“The hope of this place… is oil… The petrodollars.” – Tert
“They discovered the largest oil reserve in Canada right off our shores.” – Tert
“we’re all going to be rich… it’s to be golden days” - Tert
“Oil is strong and fish is weak” – Tert
“Oil and Newfoundland go together like ham and eggs” – Tert
“electricity and roads, telephone, radio… health care, mail service, good education for me kids - Jack
“What a fucking miserable crazy place we’re in” – Patridge about US
“The whole country got infected with some rage virus”
“All was progress and possession, all push and shove now”
“I had enough of Killick-Claw… oil rig suppliers” - Tert
“We got no control over any of the fishery now.” – Jack
“How many had come here… Vikings, the Basques, the French, English, Spanish, Portuguese”
“They don’t stay for more than a day or two, but my boy, when they sets foot on the dock they commence to hurl money around”.
“Nobody in their right minds would go back to them hard times”.

LOCAL
“Poetic navigation” – “when the knitting pins… must slowly go”
“I like it… that the rocks have names”
“Have a cup of tea”- Diddy Shovel
“Tea is a good drink, it’ll keep you going” – Agnis Hamm
“You’ll come in and have a cup of tea?” – Ken Prouse
“You come along any time and see her” - Ken
“But you did the right thing [buying a boat]” – Agnis Hamm
“Shook the aunt’s hand, handed her a bottle of brown wine”- Nutbeem – generosity
“He felt as though Dennis and Beety were his secret parents” – Quoyle
“Tert has a big file of wreck pictures” – Jack Buggit - hostile environment
“bit of encouragement” – Alfred brass square – generosity of spirit in community
“This week I’ve the most sexual abuse stories I’ve ever had”
“The sky cast was an ugly yellow like a jar of old piss”
Jack, Billy, Quoyle favour Local: “It’s outsiders will get the gold… vandalism, stealing, and smashing”
“Pollution! … terrible oil spills … ruin boats and harbors.”
“It used to be a happy life here” – Billy
Tert says it was “hard, hard times” in the “good old days”. “It was all swim or all sink”
“I never builds with dry wood” – Local knowledge
“I’ve missed every one of you. Badly” – Agnis is attached to the Quoyles, despite the fact that Guy raped her
“A sense of purity renewed”
“the good old days”- Jack

Microcosm? Tert = Global. Everyone else = Local. Conflicting virtues.
“He’s got two shares of Mobil. Two!” - Pretty

ECCENTRICITY IN LOCAL
“[Jack is a] weird chap. Fellow can read your mind”
Bunny’s “white dog” phobia
Bunny’s “little fairies’ bottoms”
“He’s not right” Herry
Nutbeem’s Borogove smashed by guests at his farewell party- act of community love
“They [The Quoyle Family] was a savage pack… nailed a man to a tree by ‘is ears, cut off ‘is nose”.
“great, great grandfather had to go to cannibalism to stay alive”.


PRE-NEWFIE QUOYLE
“a great damp loaf of a body”
“I don’t think I can handle this job [at the Gammy Bird]”
“failures multiply like an explosion of virulent cells”
“Walked on [like a coil of rope]”
“His earliest sense of self was as a distant figure”
“Lardass, Stupid…”
“He abstracted his life from the times”.


POST-NEWFIE QUOYLE
“he had a sense of writing well”
“go ahead with it. That’s the kind of stuff I want” – Jack Buggit - “Hilter’s barge”
“36 years old and this was the first time anybody said he’d done it right”
“Quoyle acted gruff, hard-boiled”- Gammy Bird Managing Editor
“Quoyle felt a black wing…never been on a roof, never put down a shingle”
“He took a breath and began to climb” – believes in himself.
“That’s the one I didn’t do… wasn’t much of an accident” – Quoyle develops initiative.
“He felt light and hot” – Quoyle
“Quoyle laughed like a dog… why had he feared boats?” – overcomes fear of water
“I was just trying it out” – Quoyle takes risks, develops initiative
“Should have been a farmer” – Quoyle develops the intellect to make judgements on his father. Local allows this growth.
“Quoyle’s face was pressed against her legs” - act of physical affection. Lets go of Petal and moves on.
“You’re a surprise Quoyle… didn’t believe you had that much steam in your boiler” – Billy
“all that fat… kept you floating. A thin man would of died” – Quoyle’s fatness saved his life.
“pain is supposed to ease and dull through repetitive confrontation” – Quoyle and car wrecks
“thought of his stupid self in Mockingburg, taking whatever came at him” – realisation
“Petal wasn’t any good… maybe that is why I loved her”
“He looked at his naked self… effect was more of strength than obesity”
“And it may be that love sometimes occurs without pain or misery”

 

[Gori]

Thank you so much Absolutezero

I think I'll be alright now.. I hope...

You're a life saver!

 

[Absolutezero]

You're welcome. I knew those notes would come in handy sometime.