Closed Spaces

As I have said before I will be basing my analysis of the spaces on the path I followed in my first reading. So here

are all the spaces that appear in the text, in the order I found them. And then I will provide a relation of the spaces I didn’t visit in my first time but which appear and are necessary to complete the analysis of the space in “24 hours…”

First of all when I had to decide whether come into the house or not I chose to leave and I found myself at the street visiting the bookshop, the candle shop, the flower shop and the cafe. They are not relevant spaces for the story; the protagonist is just passing through. The descriptions that are given are the following:

The visit to the bookshop is really fast; I only have a quick look at some sections like art and cooking. There is not a description of the shop itself but of my feelings and sensations as protagonist while I am in there, “…you feel the words pressing to get out and into your head…” Finally, I decide to leave and go to the candle shop, it is described as an oppressive place because of the smell of the incense. It is full of candles, bottles of oil, books… all too expensive. So I go on with my exploration of the street and go to the flower shop, which is overwhelming too due to the bright colours, but where I could spend a fortune. Finally I get into the cafe, a noisy and crowded local with a window through which I can observe the people outside. When I am about to leave someone grabs my arm and finishes my adventure around the street and brings me back to the significant story.

The next space that comes out is the inside of the home, “The lounge room is dark and the curtains are pulled across the windows in the lounge room. No one is there but the music is loud and the smell of dope strong.” “On the walls are posters advertising bands and plays. On the floor the ugly dirty carpet of landlords who never set their foot closer than their bank account” After reading this description I felt that this house is a dirty, noisy and seedy place where parties are often given and I started to imagine what kind of people are the former friends of Jess.

Then I go to Polly’s room, dim, only with candles light and with the smell of incense, Polly has a mantelpiece with candles, cards, a pyramid… all the necessary to read the cards in an esoteric session.

Polly brings me to the pub, A band is playing in there. It is “crowded and noisy”, like all the places which are visited by the main character out of the house. It is presented as another overwhelming place due to the noise, the people and to the fact that it has plenty of smoke which “hits the back of your throat and sticks to your hair and clothes in a sweaty layer.”

After the pub, the protagonist (me) goes to a party in another house and then returns to the house, there is not any description of where the party takes place and the house has been already described. The end of the work is not concrete and the same happens with the place where it occurs because the author does not give any clue, in fact the final page does not contain any word.

The rest of closed spaces that the reader can explore along the hypertext but I did not visit in my first reading are the following:

· The kitchen: “The kitchen has the smell of old stirfrys and cigarettes”. It is not an important place at the story; this sentence is the only reference to it that I could find through all the text. But this description allows us to visualize the whole conjunct of the home.

· The bathroom: The relevance of this scenario is the same that the kitchen has, it helps the reader to imagine how would be to stay at this house.

· Kate’s bedroom: seems the lightest and tidiest room inside the house and probably in the whole story. The sun gives light to a desk situated near the window. I relate this room, clean and organized, with the personality of its owner, which is the character that seems more willing to help and to talk about what happened with Jess.

Introduction Internal spaces External spaces Conclusion

Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Rut Villar Sánchez
rutvisan@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press