<\/p>\n
Adam\u2019s article points to some of the characteristics of what she calls \u201cAmerican literary globalism\u201d that is temporally post-postmodern through her examination of Yamashita\u2019s Tropic of Orange<\/em>.\u00a0 <\/span>She states that the novel is a reaction against the aesthetic sensibilities of high postmodernism and I think she argues it well through her comparative reading of Tropic of Orange<\/em> and Pynchon\u2019s Lot 49<\/em>.\u00a0 <\/span>I agree with the point she makes about the narrative construction of Tropic of Orange <\/em>that although it is complicated, it is formally less chaotic and disoriented than most canonized postmodern texts.\u00a0 <\/span>Yamashita preserves the postmodern features of meta-narrative and fragmentation almost as if to intentionally take control over the narratives as an author by imposing organization on the textual chaos of postmodern writing.\u00a0 <\/span>Of course, one of the most obvious organizing strategies is the hypercontext at the beginning of the book as she lays out to the readers the time, location and topic of each sections.\u00a0 <\/span>Another way of structuring is through her framing of the events within the seven days of the week, with each chapter introducing the events of a single day.\u00a0 <\/span>Therefore, the novel\u2019s chronology is consistent (as far as I can remember) and that I believe is a significant characteristic that parts Tropic of Orange<\/em> from postmodern works that are notorious for their erratic shifts in time through the collision of multiple pasts, presents, and futures.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>I think it\u2019s especially ironic, however, that time in the actual plot of the novel is treated differently, as the characters note the curious freezing of time in the story.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Another organizing feature that Yamashita uses to enforce order in her text is the equal division of focus she places on the subjects of her story as each chapter focuses on one of the seven main characters.\u00a0 <\/span>Even though the subjects change with each section, these shifts are not abrupt due to the various dialects and idiolects Yamashita ascribes to each of her characters.\u00a0 <\/span>Adam briefly notes the different voices and dialects as she notes \u201cEmi\u2019s fast-talking hipster vernacular to the streetwise cadences of Buzzworm and the immigrant Bobby Ngu to the earnest reflections of the Mexican housekeeper Rafaela and the political poetry of Archangel.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>She uses language as a another means of organization as the reader is able to recognize the multiple subjects of these sections just by observing the language style used in each. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The narrative is also written in different perspectives and I think it\u2019s interesting that Gabriel is the only one of these seven characters whom is given a voice, as all his sections are written in first person perspective.\u00a0 <\/span>I tried to think of an explanation as to why Yamashita chooses only him as a first person narrator and to see if it\u2019s related to the theme of the story and the only thing I came up with is that Gabriel is the only one who has a direct relationship with all the other main characters.\u00a0 <\/span>But Adam suggest an interesting point in her comment on Emi\u2019s death that could possibly explain this privilege he gets \u201cshe is no longer useful, \u2026 the future belongs instead to characters like Gabriel or the community organizer Buzzworm, who are both more respectful of the past and willing to harbor utopian visions of the future.\u201d Another interesting assertion is that the people, history and culture of Mexico are the \u201clifeblood of Yamashita\u2019s Southern California,\u201d which could be one way of explaining why the only Mexican male in the book takes charge of his own story.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Adam\u2019s article points to some of the characteristics of what she calls \u201cAmerican literary globalism\u201d that is temporally post-postmodern through her examination of Yamashita\u2019s Tropic of Orange.\u00a0 She states that the novel is a reaction against the aesthetic sensibilities of high postmodernism and I think she argues it well through her comparative reading of Tropic … Continue reading Organized Fragmentation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-13-tropic-of-orange"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":657,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions\/657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}