Sunday, March 2, 2008

VAS as a whole

After finishing VAS, I realized that the main storyline of Circle & Square and "Square getting his vasectomy" was what remained with me. The facts throughout the novel about languages, beauty, genetics, etc. were very interesting but I wish there was a more explicit relation to the main storyline. I'm really glad for the discussions in class because without them I would have overlooked a lot of little details in the graphics and beyond the main story. I feel like I learned a lot and was moved but in an very unconventional way. It was disturbing. I didn't like the randomness in the novel.

What would be great would be a "solutions manual" for VAS where unapparent relations to the main storyline would be made clear. It would defeat the exercise of finding meaning for ourselves from the novel but it would be a relief for those who seem totally lost.

7 comments:

Ian B said...

If we do them right, our explications should form a sort of "solutions manual" for the book. Eh?

Ian B said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brian M said...

I think a lot of people are having a hard time connecting the storyline to the facts. I'm not quite sure what relevance it has. A solutions manual would be nice... but sometimes I think that Tomasula didn't even know what the connection was...and just threw random pieces in to confuse us.

Crista Beck - Dating Coach and Matchmaker said...

Think of Vas as an abstract peice of art. You need to figure out what it means to you. Abtract art never "tells all".

Ana said...

A solutions manual would be great! I've made a list of all the different topics in the random facts and the main story line theme... I thought maybe if they were all written together it would make more sense. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this but I don't like trying to find meaning in things like this. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

emma said...

i completely agree about the solutions manual. i enjoyed the side notes and images but i felt like it was too many random story lines going on at once. i would have also liked to know more about circle and square and their whole situation at this time. also, they rarely mentioned oval and i think it would have been interesting to have more of an understanding about square's feelings towards his daughter and compare how he feels about his and circle's choice to keep their first child but not their second. i hope that makes sense.

kdl63 said...

solution manuals for all books would be great. i guess they have spark notes for book. I wonder if they have spark notes for this one. They would probably be just as confusing.