The assumption when opening a book is that it takes place in a realistic setting. Thus, the moment you see something out of the ordinary, something that indicates a departure from normality, all of your assumptions get thrown out the window. In Chang-Rae Lee's On Such a Full Sea, I didn't have that sudden realization that the novel was science-fiction. Sure, when B-Mor was mentioned, I thought to myself that the setting was not in our own world. However, foreign names don't necessarily imply an unrealistic setting. The mention of unfamiliar vocabulary like Charter villages also tipped me off, but again, nomenclature is not very telling. It wasn't until the description of Fan and her job involving diving in tanks and nurturing the "valuable fish" that I was certain that this world was unlike our own.
I'm still not quite sure what I think of the novel. While highly descriptive, I feel that the pacing of the plot is too slow for me to truly enjoy. On the other hand, I do enjoy the cryptic nature of the introduction. There's something oddly enticing about descriptions that leave the reader with more questions than answers. I suppose only time will tell whether or not I enjoy this book.
Toodles.
Johnathan, I totally agree with you that the novel starts off very subtly sci-fi. I feel like the thing so far that has made it seem the most sci-fi, for me, is the weird eerie-ness of the "we" narrative voice. I feel like the narrator(s) are all connected, as if they have a collective consciousness and they all share thoughts, which seems like the most sci-fi-esque aspect of this story so far. (I also agree that the start has been slow, but I'm hopeful that the storyline is headed somewhere cool soon!!)
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I found the crypticness (cryptivity?) of the setting and the events one of the most compelling parts of the story. I just wanted to know more about the world and the characters. I guess I could see myself losing interest if it kept going this slowly for too long, but at the moment I'm ready.
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