Book

1
THINKS, David Lodge

• Chapter 1

2
Short denotative analysis

• He is in his office in the campus of the
  University of Gloucester
• its Sunday the 23rd of February at 10.13 a.m.
  and he is testing his recorder
• he thinks about his previous relationship with
  Isabel and his conference in San Diego
• He thinks about sex and death

3
Characters

• The narrative voice
• Isabel Hotchkiss
• Carrie and not named children
• Laetitia Glover
• Helen Reed
• Marianne.

4
Setting

• Narrators office in the campus of the University
  of Gloucester on
• Sunday the 23rd of February at 10.13 a.m. and at
  11.03
• Unstable weather

5
Narrative technique

• The speaking voice records his thoughts on his
  recorder
• ?
• Stream of consciousness
• (William James)

6
New language and info

• What ever it was
• Speech recognitor
• I wonder where
• To typist
• To slink off
• Squash

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THINKS, David Lodge

• Chapter 2

8
Short denotative analysis

• Helen lives in a maisonette but she wants to go
  away
• She does the first lesson at the university and
  watches Ghost
• She goes to Richmonds party and meets the guests
  there
• The next day she goes to the church even if she
  doesnt believe in God

9
Characters

• Helen Reed and Ralph Messenger protagonists
• Jasper Richmond Helens friend
• Russell Marsden a teacher
• Paul and LucyHelens children
• Marianne Richmond Jaspers wife
• Simon Bellamy a student
• Rachel McNulty a student
• Martin Ralphs friend
• Oliver Jaspers son
• Guests at the party
• Carrie Ralphs wife

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Setting

• Maisonette
• Richmonds house
• College

11
Narrative technique

• Diary
• Direct style
• Descriptions
• Free direct style

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THINKS, David Lodge

• Chapter 3

13
Short denotative analysis
They are looking at exhibition of
paintings They decide to have lunch
together They speak about They have a
walk They visit the Brain (He explains her its
meanings)
14
Characters
Main character professor of Cognitive science
Ralph Helen Jim, Carl, Kenji Professor
Douglass (Duggers) Stuart Phillips
Main character novelist and professor of Cretive
writing
Ralphs students
Ralphs collegue
Systems administrator
15
Setting
TIME Wednesday of the second week of the semester
SPACE
Universitys Staff House
The Brain
In the University
Dining Room
Campus
16
Narrative technique

• Third person narrator
• Present tense
• Dialogue between Ralph and Helen
• Short descriptions

17
Storyline
They speak each other for the first time
Message
Altercation between the characters
1 chapter Rational and scientific thoughts
2 chapter Irrational and sentimental thoughts
VS
3 chapter Discussion and synthesis
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Peculiar features

• Scientific names
• Scientific but simple explanation
• Ralphs and Helens different cultures and
  points of view
• The third chapter is the synthesis of the first
  and the second

19
New words
MEANING
Undergraduate Postgraduate PhD
a university student who has not received a first
degree.
a student who is taking advanced work after
graduation
Doctor of Philosophy Dottorato di Ricerca
VC
Vice-Chancellor
Contents
Thomas Nagel (What is it like to be a
bat?) Prisoners Dilemma Searles Chinese
Room Frank Jacksons Mary Schrödingers Cat
Experiments
American writer, known for his novels and tales
about conscience and morality
Henry James
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THINKS, David Lodge

• Chapter 4

21

• SHORT DENOTATIVE ANALYSIS
• problem in the Brain
• Ralph listens to the tape
• religious reflection
• what someone can do, if the partner dies
• problem solved it was a mouse

22

• CHARACTERS
• Ralph
• Helen Reed

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• SETTING
• Office
• Staff House

24

• NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE
• stream of consciousness

25
MESSAGE our consciousness is like a private room
(The privacy of consciousness, the secrecy of
thought)
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• SPACE AND TIME
• Wednesday, 26th February, 6.51 p.m.

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• NEW LANGUAGE AND INFO WE GATHERED
• to belch ruttare
• wiring impianto elettrico
• riveting appassionante
• utter completo
• huff arrabbiato
• inherit ereditare

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THINKS, David Lodge

• Chapter 5

29

• SHORT DENOTATIVE ANALYSIS
• CHAPTER V
• Helen Reed remembers events of the previous day
• consciousness as a problem
• architecture of the mind
• shopping in Cheltenham
• chat at Messengers house.

30

• SETTING
• Cheltenham
• Messengers house.

31

• MESSAGE
• to represent consciousness is a problem.

32

• NEW LANGUAGE AND INFO
• WE LEARNED
• aprons grembiule, gironzolare, indugiare
• grief dolore
• to loiter intransitive verb attardarsi
• to poke attizzare

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THINKS, David Lodge

• Chapter 6

34
Denotative Analysis

• Ralph Messenger is in his office testing his new
  elaborate software which recgnizes your voice
  while youre speaking
• hes talking about his private thoughts trying
  to recall an experience distant in time
• first memory the loss of his virginity with a
  married older woman

GOAL find out how our mind recomposes memories
after many years
35
Characters

• Ralph Messenger
• The Richmonds (Marianne)
• Carrie Messenger
• Martha Beard
• Tom Beard
• Helen Reed

36
Setting

• TIME
• Sunday, the 2nd of March, 8.45 a.m.
• Messenger at the age of seventeen

• SPACE
• Messengers office at University of Glouchester
• a ship farm in the Dales

37
Narrative Technique

• Lodge uses once againthe stream of consciousness
  as a first person narration to tell about
  Messengers thoughts
• he uses lots of dots so that the text is free
  from connectors or linkers and he can easily move
  from one topic to the other

38
From the Readers Point of View
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS TO RECALL MEMORIES
old details remind us of something new and move
our mind from one thought to another
can we reconstruct our older memories when our
mind is vulnerable to thoughts more recent?
YES
39
New words
amount of
gibberish
to
snog

loo


g-string

glee


to cuckold
parole senza senso sbaciucchiarsi
cesso

perizoma
allegria
cornificare
40
THINKS, David Lodge

• Chapter 7

41
Short denotative analysis
reading her students work-in-progress
Thinking of her daughter
Reflect about the relationship mother-daughter
Deciding to have a e-mail address
Helen Reed tells some of her activities
buying a swimming costume
Invitation to Ralphs hot tub
Thinking about Jean-Dominique Bauby (a French
writer)
Visiting Gloucester Cathedral
Giving instructions to her tenants
42
Short denotative analysis
The speaking voice
Helen
Ralph
Many students of Creative Writing (just mentioned)
Jean-Dominique Bauby (just mentioned)
A French journalist
Helens daughter
Lucy (just mentioned)
43
Setting
TIME
From Monday 3 March to Saturday 8 March
SPACE
Her maisonette
In the University A shop in Gloucester Gloucest
er Cathedral
The Brain
Campus bookshop
44
Narrative Tachnique

• First person narrator
• Diary
• Past tense
• Accounts followed by reflections

45
Storyline
She is improving her relationship with Ralph. She
is getting acclimatized at work.
Message
LITERATURE
Fiction
J.-D. Bauby
The writer invents lives and thoughts
Eyelid code importance of literature.
46
Particular features

• Importance of reflections
• From banal daily experience to existential
  problems
• Meta-literature
• Different lifestyles Relationship between
  mother and daughter
• Renting ones house
• Independence of young people

47
New words and concepts
LITERARY GENRE MENTIONED BY HELEN
chronological record of events

• Chronicle
• Satirical comedy
• Memory monologue
• Tale
• Novel
• Gritty historical novel
• Bildungsroman
• Interlinked short stories
• Multi-viewpoint portrait
• Fabulation

ironic and sarcastic comedy deriding and
denouncing human vice
monologue about what the speaking voice remembers
narrative relating the details of some real or
imaginary event story
fictitious prose narrative of considerable length
and complexity
rough historical novel
("novel of formation") novelistic genre the
author presents the psychological, moral and
social shaping of the personality of the
protagonist
Interconnected short stories
description or analysis of a person or thing from
several points of view
Novel violating standard novelistic expectations
about subject matter, style, temporal sequence
and fusions of the everyday and fantastic
48
THINKS, David Lodge

• Chapter 8

49
Arrangement of the work

• Denotative analysis
• Characters
• Setting
• Narrative technique
• Message
• Language and info

50
Denotative analysis

• The eighth chapter is arranged into four novels
• What is like to be a freetail bat?
• In the novel the writer tells the story of a
  clony of bats, and their nocturn life. Life in
  the cave is unbridled, made of sex and fun.
• What is like to be a Vampire bat?
• In the novel the writer tells the story of what a
  vampire must
• to do in order to survive.
• What is it like to be a bat?
• In the novel the writer tells the story of a bat
  which had been a man. in his previuos life . So
  the topic is the one of transmigration of the
  soul.
• What is like to be a blind bat?
• The novel tells the story of a totally blind bat
  bats are usually able to distinguish shapes, but
  the bat in the novel is unable to do this any
  more. It does not know the reason, but he
  probably feels to have been punished.

51
Characters

• They do not act in the chapter
• They are only the author of the novels reported
  in the chapter

• Mrtn Ams
• Irvne Wlsh
• Slmn Rshd
• Sml Bcktt

52
Setting

• Uknown setting, even if maybe the teacher is
  reading the works of her students in her house or
  may be in the university campus.

53
Narrative technique

• Some novels use direct speech

• The narrator uses this device to make the novels
  more real and because the memories are not often
  ordered in the human mind.

54

• There is not a particular narrative technique.
• You can consider the chapter as a collection of
  novels.

55
Message

• The narrator uses the novels written by his
  students to argue about the changing of the
  stream of consciousness.

• I Think that the behaviour of those creatures
  (bats and vampire) is a metaphor for mans
  behaviour. In the third novel the writer connects
  the condition of the bats with the one of the
  man.
• So the comparison with bats makes us fall into a
  condition of incivility, because bats show an
  incivil behaviour, which if not bad for animals,
  it is not suitable for men.

56
Language and info

• Reading the seventh chapter we learnt some new
  words
• To hang appendere/attaccare
• To wink battere le palpebre
• To squeak guaire, squittire
• To gobble trangugiare
• To zap eliminare
• Fruitfly piccola mosca
• Crevice fessura, crepa
• Eaves cornicione
• Ceiling soffitto
• Likewise altrettanto
• Faulty difettoso
• Blip puntino, segnale sonoro
• Pedestal basamento
• Basin bacinella
• Stain-less senza macchia
• Lured adescato

57
THINKS, David Lodge

• Chapter 9

58

• Narrative tecnique

• Denotative anylisis

• Message

• Characters

• Setting

• New Language and Info I Learnt

59
Denotative analysis
Helen, Ralph and his family are having a
conversation in the hot tub in the black garden
of Messengers country cottage. They are talking
about the self-consciousness that we are
mortal. Everybody climbed out of the pool and
ascended the woodebn steps that lead the rear of
the house execpt Helen and Ralph in a dark angle
of the staircase he detained her with hand on her
arm and kissed her lips. She didnt resist.
60
Characters

• Ralph Messenger (professor and director of the
  prestigious Holt Belling Centre for Cognitive
  Science)

• Helen Reed (a novelist writer)

• Carrie Messenger (Ralphs wife)

• Mark (Ralph and Carries kid)

• Simon (Ralph and Carries kid)

• Emily (Ralph and Carries kid)

61
Setting
The hot tub in the black garden of the
Messengers country cottage.
62
Narrative tecnique
The events are narrated by a external narrator
and there are some dialogues that explain the
point of view of the characters.
63
Message
The protagonists are discussing if it is
possibile know others thoughts.Helen represent
the points of view of literature while and Ralph
represent science. Helen support that it is
possible only in literature because there can be
a omniscient narrator able to make us know what
the character thinks and how he/she thinks.
64
New Language and Info I Learnt

• What is it like to be a bat Nagel's
  classic "What is it like to be a bat?" must be
  one of the most influential papers on
  consciousness of the last century, and it's still
  very relevant.

• Thermostat Lloyd he thinks that the thermostat
  does very well as a model of consciousness.

• Pan-psychism Panpsichismo è un concetto
  appartenente all'ambito filosofico. Esso
  ritiene che tutti gli esseri, viventi e non
  viventi posseggano delle capacità psichiche.
  Hanno inserito concetti panpsichici nelle loro
  dottrine Talete, Platone, Bernardino Telesio,
  Tommaso Campanella.

65

• You' ll catch your death of cold slang,
  letteralmente Il freddo cattura la tua morte.

• I dont really buy myself slang, abboccare.

• Whiff in questo caso, ventata.

• Keen entusiasta.

• She turs to address Ralph rigirare la domanda.

• Crossword parole crociate.

66

• the ground slopes la pendenza del suolo.

• steeply ripidamente.

• the rear of the house il retro della casa.

• timber balcony balcone di legno.

• mezzanine deck terrazzino in mezzanino.

• surface superficie.

67

• bench panchina.

• hip to hip fianco a fianco.

• to grant concedere.

• Descartes Cartesio.

• state-of-art punto del lavoro.

• to shrug non dare peso.

68
THINKS, David Lodge

• Chapter 10

69

• Narrative tecnique

• Denotative anylisis

• Message

• Characters

• New Language and Info I Learnt

• Setting

70
Denotative analysis
Helen is reading the students work-in-progress
but she is thinking about the kiss given her by
Ralph and after, about the debate having with him
too.The were discussing on the existence, or not
the existence, of the soul and she starts to
think to Martin, her husband, who is died.Helen
is thinking too about how she can be a friend of
Carrie and how she can help her with her
novel.She ask herself where courage come from or
if it is only sense of guilty.
71
Characters

• Ralph Messenger (professor and director of the
  prestigious Holt Belling Centre for Cognitive
  Science)

• Helen Reed (a novelist writer)

• Carrie Messenger(Ralphs wife)

• Martin (Helens husband)

• Lucy (Martins daughter)

• Joanna (Martins sister)

72
Setting
The concrete setting is Helens house but in her
mind he travel with tought and we can see the
story setting in the Messengers country cottage,
in Helens house too when Martin was alive, in
the Curch where was celebrated Martins funeral
and the place where took place the party in
Martins honor (they are all feedback).
73
Narrative technique
The events are narrated in first person by Heln
Reed in her diary day by day.
74
Message
Human are the only animal on th earth that are
concious they will die and tey making stories to
win the fear of death. People have a soul. Is it
indipendent from body? Can it life for eternity?
Where can it life? In the mind of those who knew
that person.But those mind and memories are
themselves allegedly constructs, fictions, tied
to decaying brain cells, doomed to eventual
extinction too.
75
Another Message
Helen in her diary writes Here is Messenger
family simulates the life of English country folk
for one or two days a week () It is interessant
the use of verb simulates. As a matter of fact
the simulates the perfect happy family. Ralph is
a faithfull pater familias who get carreer
and dedicates himself to work but when hes home
he passes his time with family. Carrie is a
perfect wife and mother and she makes other find
everything prepareted for better
76
But we know trough the Helens diary and Ralphs
stream of conciousness that when Ralph isnt with
family he is other from what he shows. Probably
his friends, his collegues and his wife doesnt
recognize him.
77
New Language and Info I Learnt

• it never crossed my mind non mi passò mai per
  la mente.

• debate dibattito.

• to slap schiaffeggiare.

• to twanged far vibrare.

• harp arpa.

• to pluck in questo caso, pizzicata (riferimento
  alle corde dellarpa).

78

• to feel moistly aroused sentirsi umidamente
  eccitato.

• to hush fare silenzio.

• wisteria glicine.

• mellow generoso, dolce, maturo, caldo.

• to dripp gocciolare.

• mauve blossom malva in fiore.

79

• raftered ceilings soffitto con travi.

• bumpy flagged floorattenzione pavimento bagnato.

• rugs tappeti.

• needless inutile.

• half-belief mezza convinzione.

80

• merely solamente.

• the flicker of a eyelid tremore della palpebra.

• slightest il più leggero.

• nevertheless tuttavia.

• earthquakes terremoti.

81

• to shed togliere, disfarsi.

• venue luogo.

• make an habit of it farci labitudine.

• nowhere in nessun posto.

• dammit accidenti.

• to shit themselves fregare se stessi.

82

• to nisff annusare.

• to be distressed essere in ansia.

• queer strano, bizzarro.

• pollution inquinamento.

• self-exposure esporsi.

• overty apertamente.

83

• overheated surriscaldato.

• cheerless triste, tetro.

• to endure sopportare.

• at stake in posta, in gioco.

• to be worn on trascorrere in maniera noisa.

• feasible fattibile, probabile.