Introduction
Analyzing the novel of a German writer who has been a long- time resident of England is an interesting one! As we all know, W. G Sebald has written a lot of literary masterpiece over the last decade which made him well- known and rewarded by more than a few prominent awards for German literature (Butterfield, 1944). The Rings of Saturn served as a walking tour on the east coast of England which depicts a peculiar and strange narration by the speaker.
Discussion
The Rings of Saturn – I, II
Reading the first chapters of the novel made me amazed by the way it conveyed a general theme for the totality of the book. It is like giving you a glimpse of what is inside, yet so hesitant to prejudge its contents. The narration of the character as it was illustrated in the book is like a tour on the East coast of England during 1992, as what was stated on the first line of the novel as how the author narrated the scene; “In August 1992, when the dog days were drawing to an end, I set off to walk the county of Suffolk, in the hope of dispelling the emptiness that takes hold of me whenever I have completed a long stint of work.”
It is like looking yourself into the mirror and creating flashbacks of the things that happened to you. Basically, the author used his experiences during his stay at the hospital in Norwich and with that in mind; it brought a lot of motivation for him to write profoundly about the moroseness of the author’s experiences. The walk made him described the scenarios seen from different people at different instances. Looking at a painting of a sunset with dark hues can add up to the surly feeling of a reader and will make him realize that everyday’s journey should comprise of having your eyes wide open just like what Sebald depicted on his travel. After his stay at the hospital, another journey began and familiarity of connecting the past world with the present (McCulloh, 2003).
The Rings of Saturn – III, IV, V
The monotonous mode of Sebald prevailed until the next three chapters of his novel. Comparing life into the different phases of natural phenomenon such as the alternating seasons seems no difference at all. Just like what is stated in his work with the line “In the white winter everything is dead, during the green winter everything is dying” in page 105th of the book. The author, as he mounted the words of death portrayed a darker scenario of his views in life.
It sounds absurd but it is comparable to all sarcasms and being an emotional persona of the character. So there came into my mind that the character presented in Sebald’s work was a fictional one or perhaps the other way around. Well obviously, the author got me there! An excellent story teller was seen as he described the phases of life and death in cities, buildings, artifacts, and engravings (McCrum, 1998).
The pattern of the story was so unadorned and the good judgment of distance was so pointed that my head was comprehensible enough to see the end of the path. Profoundly speaking, it was a mere expression of the author’s observation on a different side which is usually not seen by shallow people. Not everything in this world is on the side of elation as he illustrated an obsession with the nostalgia of the scenarios in the context. Did he put some twist on each story? Did he make any sense in the recurrences of the theme of every anecdote? Indeed, the answers were blatantly delivered although vague in general.
The Rings of Saturn – VI, VII, VIII
The third section of the ring of Saturn did have illustrations about the worn fabric. Can we compare this one to worn clothes that people wears in everyday life or every journey they take each day? Well, perhaps… but the poetry of Selbad denotes the needs of the humans to connect and collaborate with the ideals of the past. The narration has gone through with the memories of the past world and the present as the front setting of the story though the reminiscing part of the sentences reigns.
If you are the type of person who considers destruction throughout an imaginative thinking, you will surely miss the justifications of the author as he viewed the people in present along with the memories of the past that lingers in his works.
Much more to that, the experiences he shared were not just coincidences but were relevant ideas that would relate the sparkles from time to time through the worn fabric. We can barely be kind to interpret and criticize the narration accordingly as it had stated factual scenes through the melancholic and frantic world mentioning the part of A Magic Shadow, Loss of a friend which has been undeniably very despondent and at the last stories of the three chapters showed an excellent description of another tone of a loner especially on the part of through the desert and thus did a great job on the Secret weapons of destruction.
The Rings of Saturn – IX, X 239- 269
The narration of the story brought coldness to me as the theme prevailed to be a funeral. It is somewhat frightening as in the conviction of human to read each sentences from his illustration of the Memoirs from beyond the grave, and another one is the story from the Ditchingham churchyard. It is like attending to the last mass of someone who died close to you? Perhaps it was because of the loss of his friend, but was it really a true to life story or just part of his wide and amazing imagination?
Anyway, Sir Thomas Browne, on the introduction part of the book, was recognized on the fabled survival which over a long period of time, a piece of silk for Browne, got a symbol of the immortality of the human soul as guaranteed by the writing (Blackler, 2007). The presence of silk in the story had its reoccurrences throughout the novel until the last part which is Mourning Silk the simply implies another tragic scenario if not narrated with a dark illustration. Considering the side of Browne again, it showed the curious inter- relation of the corrupt and vice versa. It brilliantly separates each thread into a single sense of weaving the ideas through the entire book.
Conclusion
Thus, the Ring of Saturn is an inscrutable, fanatical, interesting and intriguing book. Too many words to describe the masterpiece of Sebald whether to be in a complement manner or as a criticism as he did not directly pointed out the finish line of his journey though it will be discovered if you are a keen reader. In opposition to the violent legacies of a particular setting and the persistent self-admiration of the living, he submits us to the silent community, the perfect dispossession, of death. However, a disclaimer on Selbad’s ideas is that some are very old- fashioned that it appears to us as a vague material of understanding his lucidity.
References
Blackler, D. Reading W.G. Sebald: Adventure and Disobedience: an analysis of the reading practice Sebald’s writing demands. (Camden House 2007).
Butterfield, H. The Englishman and his History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1944) 2.
McCrum, R. “McCrum on W.G. Sebald: The Rings of Saturn.” The Observer 1998: 15.
McCulloh, M. Understanding W.G.Sebald, University of South Carolina Press, 2003.