I feel tricked when a book stirs an emotion in me not by build up or attachment to events, but instead by a surprising shift to a vulgar tone or event. Sometimes it feels like the obscenities are out of place with the larger issue that Jennifer Egan is trying to discuss. I understand that vulgarity is a part of life and that stories involving vulgarity have merit, but adding vulgarity isn't a requirement for writing a story. To be completely honest, I'm just tired of only reading depressing books for school.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Shock Value
While I appreciate most of A Visit from the Goon Squad, many aspects of the book make me uncomfortable. Throughout the book, the themes of drugs and sexuality keep coming up. Maybe these themes are getting at how vulgar life and people can be, but there is a fine line between deeper meaning and shock value. At times the book seems to throw obscene events out of nowhere just to startle the reader.
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I agree that many of the vulgar references seem out of place, but the references could hold deeper meaning that might become clear later in the book. For this reason, I am reserving judgement of this aspect of the book for now.
ReplyDeleteI agree that many of the shocks of vulgarity are very random. The author throws them in the story completely out of place and it doesn't add any meaning. She is trying to make the stories more interesting, but the references just seem like random occurrences to get the readers attention.
ReplyDeleteI sort of agree with both sides of the argument, if that's even possible. I too am not a huge fan of the obscene vulgarity strewn throughout the chapters we've read so far. Personally, I can't seem to imagine any deeper meaning at this point, but then again we've only read the first four chapters. So it could mean something more by the end.
ReplyDeleteI noticed the same thing when reading it. It seemed like the vulgar word choice was a little forced and didn't fit right in most areas. I overall thought that was a downside to the story as a whole
ReplyDeleteI agree that there is a lot of vulgarity in this book, at least a lot more than we usually do, i also agree that vulgarity is not always the best way to convey a message.
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