Some Things We Did This Year While Reading Hemingway's "On the Quai at Smyrna" (2014)
Reading Situation--
I reviewed the protocol guidelines on Arnie’s website.
I got out the book and flipped through it to the first page of
On The Quai At Smyrna.
I typed this out and as I typed I thought about how titles are
capitalized which can make for amusing sentences when a character’s name is the
same as the name of the work; for example (and this is Arnie’s example from 211)
King Lear in King Lear. My roommates
were talking in the next room so I tried to block them out as I began reading. I
put in headphones.
Title Quandaries--I
read the title three times and tried to figure out how to pronounce “smyrna.”
Eventually I decided to move on and try to infer what “quai” and “smyrna” mean
from context. When I got to the word “Turkish” I went back to the title to see
if they looked like Turkish words. Flipped back to the first page and
realized I still don't know what a quai or Smyrna, but decided that a quai was
probably like a harbor, and Smyrna was probably a Turkish city.;
I looked up Smyrna and quai.; I write “where is that?” above the title, but I
don’t look it up because I decide I will do that at the end.;
Right before I start reading I look at the title. “On The Quai at Smyrna.” I
look up Smyrna via Google, because I don’t know where it is, and I find that it
is in Turkey.; I read the title and realize I don’t know what a “quai” is: visit
dictionary.com to realize that it is a place where ships unload things.
Contextless, Discontinuous Narrative--First
he was concerned with “they” and then begins talking about “we".;
Who is the “you”? Is he addressing the
reader? A lot of confusion here. He mentions characters as if we know them but
we don’t, like Kemal for example. Very specific to the way in which the narrator
is recounting his own memories. Why is he talking to the reader again? “You
remember the harbor.” It isn’t a question; it’s written as a fact.; Who is
‘they’?; Okay, the repetition of ‘he said’ must be significant, but it’s
distracting to me. Who is ‘he?’ I’m a little too busy wondering this to enjoy
the narrative. “You remember the harbor”- the
narrative is not in the second person point of view, so is the narrator talking
to the audience or is this “he” who says things talking to the narrator?;
This paragraph is confusing. I found that I’m whispering aloud to myself to
help me understand it better.; I keep reading and talk to myself constantly as
my own running commentary on what is happening (things like “Is the ‘they’ a
flock of birds?” and “Why does the searchlight do anything to stop them from
screaming?”).; The opening paragraph introduces a ‘he’ and a ‘they’ but
does not mention either entity specifically. I am wondering if the text is in
3rd person. The use of ‘I’ eliminates that theory.
Seeking Context in Memory, Other Works by Hemingway, Other Authors,
Wikipedia?--Knowing
Hemingway this is about war.; currently looking up whether the Turkish were
involved in the slave trade on the Internet. Wikipedia says that the Ottoman
Empire was involved in the slave trade up until 1908, which gives me a vague
sense of the time period, but nothing concrete.; The first sentence has the
author relating something someone else said, but lets us know this with commas,
not quotation marks. This is a stylistic choice and is something I remember
from reading Hemingway in the past. I know that Hemingway’s style is very
stream of consciousness. He’s an officer, and I assume he’s in some sort of war
because Hemingway loves writing about war.; What does the word “topping” mean? I
assume in this context it just means that the officer felt good about the
speaker telling the gunner off, and I would probably make that assumption and
not look it up regularly, but because I’m doing this protocol I’m more conscious
about my actions as I’m reading. I looked it up on the Merriam-Webster online
dictionary, which didn’t really give me much that was useful so I looked it up
in the Oxford English Dictionary, and the closest thing that I can find that
works in this context is “topping up: completing, bringing to perfection,” which
I took sort of metaphorically to mean that his mood was brought up the highest
it could be. At this point I just looked up where “Smyrna” was, although I
realize I probably should have done that at the beginning.; The description and
style remind me of The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. I glance at
my copy of TTC and consider pulling it out, but I don’t. I’m also not
entirely sure why I even thought of TTC. When it describes people
getting punished, I think of the incredibly old episode of "Saturday Night"
Live with James Taylor as the musical guest and the sketch about the
“Raging Queen.” I think about looking up the episode, but I don’t because I’m
supposed to be reading. All of a sudden, I remember readings something
online two days ago that was actually about the show Teen Wolf but
mentioned earthquakes in Turkey and Greece that caused a lot of problems but
actually helped the nations foster peace. I look this up on my computer, but it
happened in 1999, so I assume that Hemingway didn’t know about it. I am slightly
discouraged, so I finally decide to look up Smyrna. I read the Wikipedia article
about Smyrna.; I wonder what was going on in Turkey in the 1920s
that an (I assume) English character would be there, I’m but am afraid to start
another google search and fall again into the proverbial rabbit hole that is the
internet for me.; "The worst, he said, were the women with dead babies. You
couldn't get the women to give up their dead babies." This paragraph immediately
made me think of my time abroad in Rwanda. . . . As I read that part, I
immediately empathized with the narrator and was taken back to that moment in
Rwanda. Then I was embarrassed that the narrator's scenario was no longer hard
for me to imagine.; I was under the impression that the two were at war and the
narrator would most likely be an ally to one of them (I'm basing this assumption
off of the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding and how the old Greek grandmother
spends most of the movie ranting about the Turks).; I look up some words
["battery"] on the "OED." I know them but need to review.; Looking back
at the title I remember there being a town called Smyrna near where I live so I
look up Smyrna to figure out which Smyrna Hemingway is discussing.
Noticing Authorial Style and Unusual Format--
I stopped reading for a while to think
about the situation with the Turkish officer. The narrator is tired of war and
wants to avoid an argument with the Turkish officer? Hemingway uses short
sentences, and a lot of sarcasm “Oh most rigorously. He felt topping about it.
Great friends we were.” There are very quick changes into talking about each
character or situation.; Maybe because
the intended readers would have known about this situation simply from a media
standpoint and his memories are telling a real story as opposed to a formulated
one…although of course the whole story is calculated on Hemingway’s part.; Line
1- Oh, this is one of those stories where the author doesn’t feel the need to
use quotations for dialogue like the rest of us. At the dialogue- So
Hemingway is using quotation marks for his dialogue. Why is the
conversation with the “inoffensive officer” being told through a scene while the
conversation with the Turkish officer is not?;
The narrator is using colloquial speech
in his prose. I have no real idea whether or not this is based in history or
not. Further research would be needed. I am surprised that Turkey is the
location for this story, I had not read anything by Hemingway taking place in
Turkey before.; I like the line “Great friends we were.” And the sarcastic
undertone therein.; The paragraph about the women reminds me of a blunt,
choppy, and war-oriented Virginia Woolf, but I figure that is too much of a
stretch to make anything of it.
Finding Certain Words Oddly Significant--Mention
of Kemal placed the piece in a historical timeperiod, since I am familiar with
the basics of Turkish history.; So I
begin by wondering who “they” are and why they are screaming. I have a feeling
I'm going to be asking a lot of questions. Something tells me monkeys, but I
don’t think there would be monkeys on the quai in Turkey.; The person who the
narrator says is talking (the speaker) is talking about people who he refers to
as “they,” but doesn’t make apparent who that is immediately. This is good for
drawing in people to the beginning of a story. It gives it a sort of air of
mystery. I wonder whether they
are working with the Turkish or fighting them. Probably working with them
if he’s talking to a Turkish officer. Why are they docked? They’re
by ships but they’re in a harbor.
Wanting to Know the Narrator--I decided that the narrator must be the captain of a ship, or at least a ranking member of the crew, and that they are in a Turkish harbor. The word “topping” reminded me of P. G. Wodehouse and comedy. Dead babies contrasted with P. G. Wodehouse.; What happened at midnight? I wonder if time is significant, maybe not because the narrator can’t think of the significance of midnight. Is it significant that the narrator doesn’t know why they did it at midnight? Is his memory fading? ; I enjoy the sarcasm the main character’s narrative is leaking. I like the character now whereas I was indifferent before.; What sort of job does the speaker have if he’s taking dead babies away from their mothers? It also seems like it should be a very emotional thing, but—although the speaker doesn’t like it—he doesn’t seem to be having a strong emotional response, perhaps because he is retelling it or perhaps this is revealing something about his character; as seasoned soldier perhaps? He’s most likely seen a lot of death at least, regardless of what he is, if this is fairly commonplace.; “He felt topping about it. Great friends we were” is a strange colloquialism that sounds British. Is the narrator British?; The language in the opening paragraph is reminiscent and the narrator seems to be recalling the events. It is mostly told in thoughts with very little dialogue. It also (though there is hardly a setting yet) reminds me of either a war-torn country or one that is experiencing the effects of military conflict.
Wanting to Know if the Narrator Was Trustworthy, Sick, Funny Ironic, etc.--The second paragraph on the second pages strikes me as oddly tender, as if the narrator has feelings for whoever this “you” is. I had been assuming it was two men talking, but maybe not? The ending surprised me. Since drowning mules is not really pleasant, this character seems rather jaded. Except that they have nightmares, or at least dreams. Contradictory.; Odd how he’s saying the Greeks are nice and then commences to talk about them breaking the legs of their animals and drowning them. Nice juxtaposition. I assume the speaker is being ironic by saying it’s a pleasant business, but maybe he just deals with death so much that he’s being practical.; Once it has been established that there are officers of some sort of rank I felt curious as to the position of the narrator and his nationality since he needed an interpreter to speak to the Turkish officer. It was when the narrator casually discusses the women with dead babies that I thought it was strange how quick the narrator was to resolve the situation between the Turkish officer and the gunner’s mate, but seems to find no need to aid or sympathize with dying children.; In the final paragraph, the narrator seems to be on the verge of sadism, although, to me, it is more sarcastic than sadistic.
Affective (emotional) / Imagined Responses--animal imagery; Unsettling images of war…women with their dead babies. Small, leftover images of memory seem to be important rather than getting to know a character or a situation fully. The doctor said the narrator was lying. Are the images too horrible for the doctor to believe, or actually impossible? Can the narrator recall things correctly? Is this the affect of war? Repetition of a doctor not believing him and seeing the woman as dead and rigid. Can’t get the images out of his head? Is he starting to believe that he might not have actually seen it? Constantly trying to recall the situation in order to remind himself that it really was what he saw.; I found I had more of an emotional response to the Greeks snapping their animals’ legs than to the dead being cleared off the pier. I think this is partially affected by the way the author tells both events. He is so matter-of-fact about the dead people that it seems almost expected, but the killing of the animals seems so sudden, despite the speaker’s apparently cheery tone.; Within the first few sentences of the selection I was instantly frightened by what I was reading. I felt that by not describing who was screaming in the middle of the night caused my initial fear; not being able to make sense of or put a face to a scream in the dark is terrifying.; When I read about the Greeks breaking their animals’ legs and leaving them in the water my stomach churned and the description of them pushing themselves through the shallow water was extremely vivid and not something I will forget easily.; I yell “WHY ARE THERE DEAD BABIES?”; I am almost afraid to read further. My knee-jerk reaction is that anything having to do with anything screaming at midnight on a set schedule is probably not going to be a pleasant read.; Why is there such a focus on the women with dead babies? I have a repulsed reaction to it. It is a disgusting thought to imagine women crowded together with their dead babies. I imagined the smell and it made my disgust even worse.; At the dead baby passage I’m not annoyed, or really frustrated, but I guess anxious about who this “he” is who speaks to the narrator. And why isn’t his dialogue in quotes?
Rereading the Narrative / Doubting the Narrative /
Doubting Ourselves--I
got confused by the “he said” and went back to the beginning and noticed that
the first incident started with a “he said” also, so this is someone speaking to
the narrator. The first sentence of the new paragraph on the second page
confused me, and I had to read it five times.; I looked back up earlier in the
paragraph and saw they were in the harbor ,which made me think that he was in
the navy? Maybe?; I had to read the first sentence of the next paragraph ["They
were all out there"] twice because he seemed to just [skip] back to an earlier
topic.; It was at this point that I because frustrated with the unknown setting.
I reread the first page to see if I missed any clues that could crystalize where
the story is taking place.; I wonder about the part where he says “nice things”
in the water and mark again in the book “LIAR.”; I keep getting stuck re-reading
this opening sentence. Questions keep forcing themselves over the prose as
I read it. I keep trying to guess what it is about, what will happen next.; Read
the first paragraph and then read it two more times to make sure that I didn’t
miss anything but rather Hemingway hasn’t revealed who “I” or “he” or the
screamers at midnight are. I’m pretty sure I read it ok, and that he just
hasn’t made it clear yet.; At the passage which begins, “You remember the
harbor” I realize that this second person thing might not just be the mystery
“he” speaking to the narrator, but maybe the narrator addressing him, or the
reader? I flip back to the first page and skim over it really quickly;
I finished the story and then looked up Smyrna on Wikipedia and skim the
article. I found out that Smyrna, located in Turkey, was occupied by the Greeks
after World War I. I then looked up the word "quai." I reread again, annotating
more, constantly fearful that I was doing the assignment wrong. I decided that
maybe it would have been a good idea to read the instructions to the assignment
before I started and I was proven right so I read the instructions. The
instructions took me on a short detour down memory lane circa 3rd grade where
our class was given an assignment about the importance of reading all the
directions before beginning an assignment. I still have not learned my lesson
apparently.
Seeking Patterns--I went back to look at the opening paragraph, which talks about people screaming on the pier, and after reading the whole thing, I feel like the author may be commenting on how this speaker treats people the way many people treat animals.; I was left with a sick feeling in my stomach by the inhumanity that was described by the narrator and how he was able to make me as a reader feel a part of it through the point of view and the creation of an “us versus them” mindset.; I wonder if the dead woman is a symbol.; There seems to be trouble understanding each other throughout the story. I think this may be his point.; “You remember the harbor” (12). This sentence is addressed to an audience, but who is the narrator writing to? Is this a letter? Why was this written?; I like how Hemingway writes in incomplete sentences the narrator’s rather sarcastic inner dialogue; “great friends we were.” In the sentence “Surprising how few of them died,” I wonder if he means how few of the mothers or how few of the babies died. I’m sure there’s a point to the ambiguity, but I don’t know what it is. The frustration increases.; I thought about the contrast between the dead babies and the new-born babies, and what it means to be born into literal darkness. I wondered which was worse: death at a young age, or being born into a world of darkness.; However, a “Searchlight” indicates a dark place, and also the fact that these the screaming creatures or “them” “screamed every night at midnight” indicates that there is a history of habitual opposition toward our main character. So what the reader senses, as opposed to solid setting in the first six lines is hostility and darkness. (Subliminal messages for Africa or any country in the midst of colonization). However, this is a side thought I have to separate from my interpretation. It may prove useful later but not now. Towards the end Hemingway switches POV, he goes from strictly first person reflection to second-person engagement with the reader almost an accusation.; The original war theme suggestion is reinforced with the mention of the old Turk and the ship bombarding the town. The ‘I’ in the story seems to be a bit sarcastic - maybe a method of dealing with what he has to go through. I expect that he is an experienced veteran, most likely above the previously mentioned rank of ‘senior officer.’
Trying to Achieve Closure, to Interpret Hemingway's Underlying or Ultimate Point in Writing "Quai"--War is so horrible that even a doctor doesn’t believe some of the things that can happen to the human body. The last paragraphs make me feel like I need to know my history a bit better. Was the narrator in another war, or is he recalling a different time in history? The last two sentences, “It was all a pleasant business. My word yes a most pleasant business.” Still in disbelief about the things that have happened. Cannot confront them without sarcasm. Is the reader supposed to be confused? Is the narrator supposed to be confused?; I like the ending where it’s clear that the narrator is disdainful of the horrific practices happening at his pier. I wish that the narrator’s sarcasm had come across continually rather than at concentrated times, however, to increase the reader’s solidarity with the narrator. Or are we ultimately supposed to not like the narrator? At the end of the piece, not very much is clear. I would guess that the passage takes place sometime in the 1800s and therefore the narrator is a white male pier officer with a sarcastic view of cruelty but with no desire to actually help the suffering. He is being oppressed by some sort of system, perhaps the slave trade. The audience is assumed to have knowledge of this place. We still don’t know who “he” is. Smyrna is in Turkey, though this is only referenced in the title.; The author may be commenting on people’s mentalities when they are either in war or part of a genocide and dealing with death all the time, saying that it is possible for humans to get to a point where the death of other humans has practically no affect upon them emotionally.; Being lumped in with people who appear to be rather inhumane left me feeling rather guilty; this made me question why Hemingway chose this method of narration and point of view.; Finally, after finishing the story, I go online and look it up to find out what it’s actually about. After reading a few basic interpretations, I go back to the text itself to reconsider my interpretation using the historical background I’ve received. I wonder if I could write a paper about this story’s relationship to "The Things They Carried."; All throughout the story their is confusion and a struggle to understand and be understood.; “That was the only time in my life I got so I dreamed about things” (12). This sentence makes me think that this was written as a psychologically driven portrait of this soldier’s experiences in Smyrna. I think that he is mentally affected by his experiences there as much as the women who hold their dead babies for days after they have passed away. Greeks are mentioned as well. This confused me even further as to what the situation actually was in this story and it made me feel historically uninformed ( if it is actually based on history ).The end gave me an instinctive reaction of horror with regards to the mules who had their legs broken and were thrown into the waters. This ending seemed like it was there just for shock value and to contrast with the narrator’s ending statements.; The part about the Greeks breaking the legs of the livestock makes me feel sad. I feel like they are related to the dead babies somehow, metaphorically or symbolically or something, but I can’t figure it out. And ending on the “a most pleasant business” line is chilling. I can’t tell if the narrator is being sarcastic or cynical, but it makes me feel a little sad nonetheless.; So I reread the story again and come to the conclusion that Hemingway's final sentence ("It was all a pleasant business) sums up a lot of his feelings on the matter of warfare and death, and the irony of it all.; Is Hemingway making a comment about the bonds and responsibilities of people in power and how to be “great” is to able to say go somewhere and stay there for the rest of the day. Is there a possible prevailing moral message about the morals of war? I don’t think moving on to the Greeks was a coincidence. The Greeks are considered the first western Empire. They conquered and sacked cities, the same as the Turks did in "On the Quai at Smyrna." Hemingway brings the message back to the beginning.
"Meta-Reading"--reading our readings--Nobody did it this year. Some just looked at who posted or how many.
Do you want to see what last year's class did when reading this story?