Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion

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Things Fall Apart
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Things Fall Apart - June 2014
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I'm going to include a weekly schedule for this book.
Each week I will post discussion questions, obviously feel free to discuss anything else about the book that is important to you.
June 1-7: Book 1: 1-7
June 8-14: Book 1: 8-13
June 15-21: Book 2: 14-19
June 22-30: Book 3: 20-25


THE SECOND COMING
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

This is an English novel written by Nigerian born Achebe. It has received global critical acclaim.
The novel shows the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion in Umuofia— a fictional Nigerian village. It describes his family and personal history, the customs and society of the Igbo, and the influence of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on the lives of the Igbo people.
I was wondering if anyone in this group is either from Nigeria, or familiar with Nigerian culture. A friend of my husband's is from Nigeria and when he visited I asked millions of questions, it sounds like a fascinating country.
(view spoiler)

(view spoiler)

There are some gorgeous artefacts that were created in around 900CE in the area just for interest sake. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeol....
One of the points that Reader makes is that this area has always been made up of lots of small villages trading with each other. Stuff from other parts of Africa were traded from area to area (rather than there being one central trade route to and from West Africa).
One of the items traded from West to North Africa was the kola nut which is quite a delicate item to transport over long distances. It contains caffeine and has become an ingredient in Coca-Cola (and its derivatives).
The culture is very much based on age based roles rather than having one dominant family/tribe ruling a specific area with a strong hand. There were specific roles within any community and they were held based on age and gender in most cases.
He also makes a point that slavery is very much part of African culture and that the Igbo regularly used to raid neighbouring villages to capture slaves. Ikemefuna basically becomes a slave to the community in this instance.
I like the writing style of Chinua Achebe. It seems to suit the location and the spirit of the place.

I stand to correction but I think polygamy is a cultural norm. I know that in many of the tribes in South Africa polygamy is accepted. I think each wife had her own hut, possibly size and opulence dictated by status. I think the status of children also depended on the status of the child's mother.
I agree about trying not to be his father, it's sad. This raises the whole nature- nurture debate.
Carolien, as usual you raise vital points. I think village elders were predominantly male and older. Very different to Western Society, elders are revered in traditional African culture.
I hadn't thought of Ikemefuna as a slave at all, poor kid.

Re: slavery - there are different kinds. U.S. slavery carried (IMO intentionally) connotation of inferiority but that isn't always true. In ancient Greece and Rome, slaves were often captured prisoners of war & there wasn't the same inferiority implied. I think that the Igbo were more like the ancients than the Americans...

Re: slavery - there are different kinds. U.S. slavery carried (IMO intentionally) connotation of i..."
Agreed, in some African tribes, people who had fallen on hard times actually volunteered to be slaves to family members who had better means to support them. Also, the children of slaves often became part of the communities in which their parents were enslaved and were absorbed into the cultures.


We look forward to seeing you

I have a bad habit of scanning threads and not reading them, if I haven't already read the book (tactic to avoid inadvertent spoilers). I somehow completely missed that the book was scheduled in weeks.
I finished this morning. I see the schedule shows everyone finishing Part 1 this weekend. I guess I can say, that I agree with a status update I saw that said that at the end of Part 1, and the beginning of Part 3, the book got really good.
I felt Part 1 was very sleepily wandering through an almost-fable-like-tale. And then, the story ramped up and became more of a story than a fable, to me.


thx! I'm glad someone else experienced the book in a similar manner. I like that :)

Mine is a library copy which must be returned this week and since I must also prepare for exams, I finished the book over the weekend. It's a lovely read, I enjoyed his quite sparse writing style very much.

It is believed that when you die, you will continue living in the spirit world pretty much as you lived on earth. The ancestors look after their living relatives and communicate their will to the living. The opinions of the ancestors are not often questioned since people fear punishment if they contravene their will. The focus on reconciliation stems from the fact that you will continue to live in the community when you die and must therefore get along with each other.
When an accident occurs like the accidental shooting by Okonkwo it 'defiles' the community and various actions must take place to cleanse the community. The fact that he is sent into exile with his whole family is an example of how a group is punished, rather than an individual.
Have to admit that I memorized quite a bit of the work by reminding myself of events in the book. There was quite a lot on customary marriages (so the whole negotiation process for Obierika's daughter was useful) and some interesting bits about the allocation of property within a household with multiple wives.

I did not have much sympathy for Okonkwo, this was the character I found tortured between being his own man and not being like his father. You're right Lisa, it does trigger the nature/nurture debate. Although I don't think Okonkwo would have been a much kinder man with a different upbringing, he strikes me as violent and angry at times not because he has lost control of his emotions but because he wants to be.
I think the other males of the tribes are wary of him. His friend Obierika does try to gently guide him over the whole Ikemefuna situation but Okonkwo does not listen.
I am glad I read this but I wouldn't say it was enjoyable. I will read the other 2 in the African trilogy series.

Carolien - that is fascinating about the reconciliation versus justice, and the focus on the group rather than the individual. I can think back to the novel and see many examples of these differences.
I enjoyed this novel because of getting to experience some aspects of village life, which is of course so different from my own. The most difficult part, and when I felt the most sympathy for Okonkwo, was when Ikemefuna (view spoiler) . But by the end of the book, I did not feel as much sympathy for him for some reason. Perhaps it has to do with what Debbie said, that he seemed angry for the sake of being angry and showing that he is a "man".
The end of the book gave me a sinking sympathy for the entire tribe of people, but not necessarily for Okonkwo himself.
Books mentioned in this topic
Africa: A Biography of the Continent (other topics)Things Fall Apart (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
John Reader (other topics)Chinua Achebe (other topics)
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