Book

1. Book THINKS by David Lodge

2. Analysis • Chapter 9 • Chapter 10

3. Analysis Chapter 9 • Narrative tecnique • Denotative anylisis • Message • Characters • Setting • New Language and Info I Learnt

4. Denotative analysis Helen, Ralph and his family are having a conversation in the hot tub in the black garden of Messengers’ country cottage. They are talking about the self-consciousness that we are mortal. Everybody climbed out of the pool and ascended the woodebn steps that lead the rear of the house execpt Helen and Ralph: in a dark angle of the staircase he detained her with hand on her arm and kissed her lips. She didn’t resist.

5. Characters • RalphMessenger (professor and director of the prestigious Holt Belling Centre for Cognitive Science) • Helen Reed (a novelist writer) • Carrie Messenger (Ralph’s wife) • Mark (Ralph and Carrie’s kid) • Simon (Ralph and Carrie’s kid) • Emily (Ralph and Carrie’s kid)

6. Setting The hot tub in the black garden of the Messenger’s country cottage.

7. Narrative tecnique The events are narrated by a external narrator and there are some dialogues that explain the point of view of the characters.

8. Message The protagonists are discussing if it is possibile know other’s thoughts.Helen represent the points of view ofliterature while and Ralph represent science.Helen support that it is possible only in literaturebecause there can be a omniscient narrator able to make us know what the character thinks and how he/she thinks.

9. New Language and Info I Learnt • What is it like to be a bat: Nagel's classic "What is it like to be a bat?" must be one of the most influential papers on consciousness of the last century, and it's still very relevant. • Thermostat Lloyd: he thinks that the thermostat does very well as a model of consciousness. • Pan-psychism: Panpsichismo è un concetto appartenente all'ambito filosofico. Esso ritiene che tutti gli esseri, viventi e non viventi posseggano delle capacità psichiche. Hanno inserito concetti panpsichici nelle loro dottrine Talete, Platone, Bernardino Telesio, Tommaso Campanella.

10. You' ll catch your death of cold: slang, letteralmente “Il freddo cattura la tua morte”. • I don’t really buy myself: slang, abboccare. • Whiff: in questo caso, ventata. • Keen: entusiasta. • Sheturs to address Ralph: rigirare la domanda. • Crossword: parole crociate.

11. the ground slopes: la pendenza del suolo. • steeply: ripidamente. • the rear of the house: il retro della casa. • timber balcony: balcone di legno. • mezzanine deck: terrazzino in mezzanino. • surface: superficie.

12. bench: panchina. • hip to hip: fianco a fianco. • to grant: concedere. • Descartes: Cartesio. • state-of-art: punto del lavoro. • to shrug: non dare peso.

13. Analysis Chapter 10 • Narrative tecnique • Denotative anylisis • Message • Characters • New Language and Info I Learnt • Setting

14. Denotative analysis Helen is reading the students’ work-in-progress but she is thinking about the kiss given her by Ralph and after, about the debate having with him too.The were discussing on the existence, or not the existence, of the soul and she starts to think to Martin, her husband, who is died.Helen is thinking too about how she can be a friend of Carrie and how she can help her with her novel.She ask herself where courage come from or if it is only sense of guilty.

15. Characters • RalphMessenger (professor and director of the prestigious Holt Belling Centre for Cognitive Science) • Helen Reed (a novelist writer) • Carrie Messenger(Ralph’s wife) • Martin (Helen’s husband) • Lucy (Martin’s daughter) • Joanna (Martin’s sister)

16. Setting The concrete setting is Helen’s house but in her mind he travel with tought and we can see the story setting in the Messenger’s country cottage, in Helen’s house too when Martin was alive, in the Curch where was celebrated Martin’s funeral and the place where took place the party in Martin’s honor (they are all feedback).

17. Narrative tecnique The events are narrated in first person by Heln Reed in her diary day by day.

18. Message Human are the only animal on th earth that are concious they will die and tey making stories to win the fear of death. People have a soul. Is it indipendent from body? Can it life for eternity? Where can it life? In the mind of those who knew that person.But those mind and memories are themselves allegedly constructs, fictions, tied to decaying brain cells, doomed to eventual extinction too.

19. Another Message Helen in her diary writes: Here is Messenger family simulates the life of English country folk for one or two days a week (…) It is interessant the use of verb simulates. As a matter of fact the simulates the perfect happy family. Ralph is a faithfull pater familias who get carreer and dedicates himself to work but when he’s home he passes his time with family. Carrie is a perfect wife and mother and she makes other find everything prepareted for better

20. But we know trough the Helen’s diary and Ralph’s stream of conciousness that when Ralph isn’t with family he is other from what he shows. Probably his friends, his collegues and his wife doesn’t recognize him.

21. New Language and Info I Learnt • it never crossed my mind: non mi passò mai per la mente. • debate: dibattito. • to slap: schiaffeggiare. • to twanged: far vibrare. • harp: arpa. • to pluck: in questo caso, pizzicata (riferimento alle corde dell’arpa).

22. to feel moistly aroused: sentirsi umidamente eccitato. • to hush: fare silenzio. • wisteria: glicine. • mellow: generoso, dolce, maturo, caldo. • to dripp: gocciolare. • mauve blossom: malva in fiore.

23. raftered ceilings: soffitto con travi. • bumpy flagged: floorattenzione pavimento bagnato. • rugs: tappeti. • needless: inutile. • half-belief: mezza convinzione.

24. merely: solamente. • the flicker of a eyelid: tremore della palpebra. • slightest: il più leggero. • nevertheless: tuttavia. • earthquakes: terremoti.

25. to assuage: alleviare. • to be trapped into: essere intrappolato in. • to speed up: accellerare. • to bustle about: agitarsi, affacendarsi. • to galvanize: stimolare.

26. to shed:togliere, disfarsi. • venue: luogo. • make an habit of it: farci l’abitudine. • nowhere: in nessun posto. • dammit: accidenti. • to shit themselves: fregare se stessi.

27. to nisff : annusare. • to be distressed : essere in ansia. • queer : strano, bizzarro. • pollution : inquinamento. • self-exposure : esporsi. • overty: apertamente.

28. overheated: surriscaldato. • cheerless: triste, tetro. • to endure: sopportare. • at stake: in posta, in gioco. • to be worn on: trascorrere in maniera noisa. • feasible: fattibile, probabile.