I really enjoyed Selah Saterstrom’s The Pink Institution. At first, like many of you mentioned in class, I was confused and bothered by the seemingly random style of writing. But soon I came to realize that the way she wrote her stories--not just her diction and prose, but also the way the words were laid out across the pages--was similar to a work of art. Not to mention, of course, the haunting pictures included before each section (I’m especially thinking of the pictures of the little girl, facing forward and backward). The way Saterstrom described (or did not describe) certain situations and memories was poignant but concise, reflecting the way someone would actually remember or learn about the past.
Surprisingly, I found that this book displayed more emotion than any of the others we have read thus far. Most of the other books offered insight to characters’ feelings and emotions, but The Pink Institution seemed void of any inside thoughts from any of the characters. However, through the characters’ actions in The Pink Institution, I think it is obvious that this set of characters has more realistic emotions. For example, in Never Let Me Go, after Kathy realizes that she and Tommy cannot get their donations delayed, she gives up, and lets life take its course. But in The Pink Institution, when Aza doesn’t like the way her life is going, she tries to commit suicide (multiple times). Although suicide does not seem like the best way to deal with things, it does show that Aza cares how awful her life is, and wants to do something to stop the pain she is experiencing.
The entire time I was reading this book, I couldn’t help but relate it to The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. The House of the Spirits tells the story of the Trueba family, over 3 or 4 generations. The story takes place in a Latin American country going through a revolution. One of the most prominent resemblances between the two books was the fact that they told stories over a few generations, mostly told from the female perspective. Both books also take place in countries which have just gone through major trauma--The Pink Institution takes place in the southern United States after the Civil War, and The House of the Spirits takes place in a Latin American country, which is still in the throes of a revolution. Another parallel I saw between the books was a general awareness of the supernatural. Magic realism is a reoccurring element throughout The House of the Spirits, while it shows up every once in a while in The Pink Institution, especially when Willie sees Death. If any of you have read The House of the Spirits, I’d be interested to hear your comparisons.
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I agree with most of Chelsea's opinion and I especially liked how throughout the novel the emotions weren't readily available and stated in explicit language- it was more based upon what we could conclude from the way they responded to certain situations and to how they handled themselves. For example, in the story about how the girl thought god was the eraser, she put it in her mouth and then eventually set it back in the corner where she found it. The story I found extremely disturbing was with Ruth and the make out game and how the vivid description, not of her emotions, but of the game itself, gave us insight into how she was feeling at the time. I wouldn't necessarily say that it had the most emotion of all the books we've read so far but the way the emotion was portrayed was definitely more efficient and was not purposeful in evoking sympathy which I always think makes a story even better.
ReplyDeleteI also though the story was more of a work of art than any actual novel which is what I particularly liked about it but I felt the fact that it was so confusing in the beginning because of this took away from it's mean and complexity. What I was curious to know was whether or not the author wanted us to actually understand all of the first part of the book because maybe if I were to go back and read it one or two more times I would be able to understand the story but once I finished the novel I realized it didn't really take away from understand the theme of the story or the significance of it.
I've never read The House of Spirits but from your description I can see how the two could be compared.
I agree with the opening post, as to being “confused and bothered” by this new artistic way of writing. Her fragmentation of words, sentences and pages, as mentioned in class, reflect fragmented memories passed through the generations. For obvious reasons, as it is not the narrator’s memories, they have many missing memories. To create this effect of fragmented memories, the author may feel that by structuring the book in this way, it would be reflective of her ideas that a normal story. Also, I believe the haunting pictures go hand in hand with the haunting stories within the book (and Southern culture), and also parallels the haunted life of the women throughout the story.
ReplyDeleteI think that we can all agree that the style in which the author wrote was a bit confusing but once I learned that the narrator was Ruth I thought that maybe the author’s reason for writing in certain styles was to show a progression in time and maturity of the narrator. For instance at the very beginning the style is very spacey and unclear which to me is symbolic of how Ruth may remember stories that were told to her and not actually experienced by her. But as she gets older or when she is actually depicting her own life experiences we see that they are clearer.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Satterstrom was very deliberate in her use of elements on the page throughout the book--the words, the spaces between words, and the decoration and photographs. In the fragmented first section, I thought it was interesting how someone in class on Thursday pointed out that all the words on the page were equally spaced, and compared that to the text smears in the Confederate manual pages that appeared throughout the book. I thought it was interesting that the pretty, feminine decoration on the pages and the elegant scenes presented in the various Confederate tableaus contrasted the images in the text, which were often grotesque. It's yet another way in which the book goes against typical expectations.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the actions of the characters do show emotion, but I thought it was odd that Satterstrom chose not to give character introspection. The focus on action gave the text a snapshot quality of someone reliving specific memories, but it also made the emotional impact greater because there was no distance from the event. The reader ends up almost reliving the event as the narrator describes it.
On the whole, I didn't like "The Pink Institution" as much as some of the other books we've read. Satterstrom's depiction of the themes of loss of innocence and despair are much more graphic than in other books we've read, and that made "The Pink Institution" a hard read.
It seems like there are two types of novels that are written; those for entertainment purposes (readerly texts), and those that are much more complex and sparse in their explanation of thematic events (writerly texts). It seems that Satterstrom was focusing on creating a piece of art with this book; I am sure that she took massive amounts of time to create and put together sections that might seem like nonsense during the initial read. However, I think if an author is putting that much work into the synthesis of the novel it is not uncalled for that the reader has to put in a lot of work to unearth the main themes and figure out why the writer told the story in the way that she did. It is ignorant to dismiss sections as meaningless, because no serious writer would include something unless it had a purpose. And I think that Satterstrom did do a successful job; the fragmentation of the early stories, and the increasing amount of details which arise as the novel goes on does a good job of reflecting knowledge of family history. Overall, her techniques had me confused in the beginning, but once i began to understand what she was trying to do, it really brought the novel together for me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the complexity of the novel and the hidden meaning through the book. But I also found the vaugueness distracting. I think that the meaning of the book could have been displayed more efficiently through a simplier book. However, the positive of this type of book is that it leaves a lot open for interpretation. It was very interesting to hear everyone's view of the novel and try to disect what the author was really trying to say about the south, family, and horror. Overall I did not like reading the book but I did find it to be a good book for discussion.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the pictures in the novel may represent the Southern culture and the haunted lives of the women throughout the novel. Actually, I find it very intriguing how well Saterstrom made the picture look haunting and creepy. Now that I think about it more, it makes more sense that the pictures embody the progression of the female characters and the horrifying events they encountered throughout the novel.
ReplyDeleteI know that we talked about how in class the title of "The Pink Institution" was just a poem that Saterstrom liked, but I think that there actually is more meaning to it than that.
ReplyDeleteFirst, we know that pink is a feminine color and the role/treatment/importance of females in the south is central to this book. Next, the word "institution" needs to be examined. "Institution" could be referring to the institution of marriage, familial relations, etc. So, I think that the title is appropriate because it is an exploration of the many institutions that are examined in this book. Saterstrom does a good job of staying true to the nature of these institutions in the Antebellum South
In all honesty, and to respond to a number of comments, I think it's entirely possible that she could have meant nothing more by the title than it being the title of a favorite poem.
ReplyDeleteThe ability, however, of her work to evoke heated conversation and debate unto the most minute details, and lend evidence to these arguments to make them substantial means that this book has accomplished what it might have set out to to do. "The Pink Institution", to me, serves as a shining example the the ability of the author to inspire meaning in ways in which she herself never imagined, garnered directly from our own personal experiences and opinions. Thus, the title could mean anything, as could the pig, the repetitive mention of the color pink, and all number of other things within the work.
This is a terrific and inspiring set of comments; I'm so happy to see the way your ideas are continuing to grow outside of class. It's OK not to love TPI, or any text!--but you're all connecting with it on its own terms, and trying to understand its strategies, which is admirable. The question of emotion in the text is so fraught; some find the emotion too raw and others find the book really distant, distanced, in a negative way. Interesting...
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