Caitlyn’s Comments (group member since May 02, 2011)

Caitlyn’s comments from the Noisy and Touchy group.

How a book is written and styled can determine how the reader interprets the book and how whether or not they enjoy reading it. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close utilizes textual design as a way to influence the reader to look deeper into concepts and give it a certain vibe. How the author decides to create this story foretells the underlying meanings of the novel as well as adding to the quality of the book. Some claim that the typographical style Jonathan Safran Foer uses is meaningless and in turn takes away from the novel. There are many instances in which, without this unique style, the story would not be read in the same fashion.

In the typical novel, the pages contain text going all the way across the page on every line down. This style of typography causes the reader to only gain ideas and meaning from the words themselves, not the structure as well. It can be boring at times to read a plain story all the way through with just this typical form authors tend to use. I believe Jonathan Safran Foer added to the quality and depth of the novel by creating a stand out style that would engage readers into finding out the reasoning for these odd accessories to the book.

In this novel, the main character, Oskar, has a grandpa who can no longer speak and therefore has to write down everything he wants or needs to say. There are series of pages in the book that have just two words such as “I’m sorry” to one liners like “Do you know what time it is?”. It could be thought that these are a waste of a page and are nonsense, however they really do have a far deeper meaning in my eyes. These pages of minimal text embody the concept that his speech and communication has become so limited. Seeing only that one line or few words on an entire page gives the reeder the feeling that what he is saying is not complete like a full page or full thought like most others can convey. If we were simply told that Thomas Schell could not speak, it would not give the same internal pull as reading his expressions for ourselves.

On pages 269 to 271 in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, there is a giant string of numbers. This is very abnormal for a novel to have a series of numbers forming a coded message. This message was created by Oskar’s grandpa on the phone keypad and was sent to Oskar’s grandma. This coded text makes the reader incredibly curious as to the meaning and content of the message. The mystery of these few pages parallel with the fact that the grandpa cannot say all that he is thinking and the mind holds far more than can be said in words. The reader then gets put into a position like Oskar attempting to depict and solve a puzzle without knowledge of what the solution will hold.

One of the most noticeable stylings of this novel is the inclusion of pictures in the text. These pictures range from a small notecard taking up a third of the page to a full detailed picture taking up an entire page. Whether in color or black and white these pictures contain deeper meaning than if the pictures were to not be there. Some of the pictures make absolutely no sense ever, and some make sense after reading further. Images such as the elephant crying on page 95 add far more emotions than simply the text on the page. At this time in the story, Oskar is visiting Abby Black and they are discussing elephants and their recognition of relatives who have died. This intense image resonates in our minds and then when we read the text that clarifies the image, it hits us harder than if we were to simply read the conversation between them. Once again, the typographical style Foer uses increases the quality of the novel.

Every decent book that I have ever read is plain black and white with no color. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close includes some color, but not too much where it would be overbearing or distracting. Oskar’s father circles mistakes in the New York Times with red pen and when he gets a letter from his father who abandoned him, he goes through and circles all the mistakes. Every mistake was a comma splice, which is ironic because Foer tends to use comma spliced frequently in the rest of the novel. Adding these red circles around the commas draws the readers attention into the letter further causing them to look further into the meaning. It is understandable that looking at the red circles can distract the reader from interpreting the letter itself rather than the errors, however, this is false. Oskar’s father’s use of these markings was to desensitize the letter and push away the emotional connection from a letter from his escaping father to an article in the Times. Another time color is used is when Oskar goes to the art supply store in search of “black” and there are pages of the colorful sample pages showing the different things people write and what goes through their minds at that time. These pages do not have as much meaning as other typographical creations however they still better the book rather than harm it.

It is apparent that Jonathan Safran Foer was very wise and creative to decide to use an atypical style of typography for this novel. Throughout the novel, we are shown colors, X-ed out words, pictures, red circles, numbers, and nearly empty pages. With all these additions, the reader is sent on a journey through the pages discovering deeper meaning and creating connections between people and thoughts. This journey puts us in the shoes of Oskar forcing us to further connect with this bizarre child. I fully disagree with those who think Foer’s typographical style harms the meaning of the novel. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close excelled as a novel with the addition of these typographical stylings.

I found the story of Oskar's grandparents to be very upsetting. I felt really bad for the grandma but like we discussed in class, they needed each other. You cannot totally blame either one for being together even though the grandpa leaves anyways. What do you guys think? Does it help the story or reading Oskar's quest at all?

I feel like Oskar uses many things to cope but he also plays up his father's death to people trying to make them take pity upon him. For example, at one of the Blacks apartment, he lied about his age saying he was 7 so the person would feel worse for him. I think that is a bit messed up but it is probably just part of being a 9 year old and being immature.

I do not think that asking questions is a coping mechanism, I think it is simply part of his personality to be curious and question everything. So I disagree with you on that part, but the messages is definitely for coping. If he did not need those to feel better he would have told him mom about them and not kept them to himself.

Ever since his dad died he became very paranoid with things like heights. He wanted to invent a building the moved up and down instead of the elevator so people could get out of the building. He also does not go above a certain level in a building. When he begins his journey of talking to all the Blacks he refuses to go up to meet one of them because he is too scared go up that high. It is like he has PTSD.

that is totally true Brian. I did not even think about the insane math he does in such a short span of thought. Also as you said before his excuses are very sly with his lying abilities. I feel like his mother has no discipline over him. She acts as if he is older, which makes us contemplate the reality of his age. She barely even parents him. On a side note... he has a more analytical brain than any 9 year old I have ever seen, even adults do not analyze things that closely.

I agree that in some ways he does not act his age. I myself get lost in New York City and I am 18, however it would be different if you lived there. He does act his age at times when he is immature and dependent on people. He acts childlike when his father reads him stories. Also, he goes knocking on people's doors to find out more clues, 9 year olds may not have the proper common sense not to do that as an older person would know not to talk to strangers. Many of his thoughts and feelings are not the same as those of a typical 9 year old. He desires to kiss an older women which is very unlikely of someone of a child age. Besides his desires for love and affection, he also has very divergent thinking to analyze clues which would not be as likely in someone of his age. Basically, in most ways he does not act his age, but at times he does.

Do you think that Oskar's age is properly represented in this novel?