Ice - Anna Kavan (spoilers)
1mon 12d ago by literature.cafe/u/Arthur in printsf@literature.cafe from pushkinpress.com
Okay I just read this book and I cannot stop thinking about it and just wanted to mind dump a bunch of random thoughts. This is probably more in a c/weirdlit community but I don't have one of those and I have this one so here we are.
This book is a trip, like wtf I had to read it twice to even get an idea of what was going on. I don't think I've ever really touched any literature that made me feel so uncomfortable and weird after. Just a real breakdown of normal writing and tropes and I loved it.
I still kinda just have no idea what happened or what didn't happen. I am of the opinion right now that it was a drug induced psychotic break with some real in and out of reality. That's fine and cool but what I really loved about this book is just the world. The "ice" is stressful and impending but we don't even really know what people are talking about, we just get it. I feel like there's a human like fear of the danger present by the human emotions presented to us. Even if none of this was real, it felt so real. The journey felt so real.
Anyone else read this book and want to have a conversation on what the hell this is about?
I read it a few years ago, and it definitely stuck with me.
I don't think a conversation about what it's about is even really possible though, because I don't think it's "about" anything in the traditional sense. There are little bits and pieces of plot, but not enough context to really make sense of it.
I think it's more the literary equivalent of abstract art - it's not meant to represent anything specific, but instead to evoke moods and feelings and impressions. The setting and the bits of plot come together (quite well, in a sense) to communicate bleakness and despair and dread, and I think that's the actual point.
Honestly, so true. What a great analysis and I did not think about it like abstract art but I totally agree now. It's just such a great overarching metaphor (not really a metaphor but I'm at a loss for the right word) to make the reader feel dread (specifically for me) which is just such an uncomfortable emotion to me to sit with and I think that's why it has sunk into my brain.
To the degree that it has a point, I have no doubt that it's dread specifically, just as you say. That's the thing that's most notable about it - not the sharpness and clarity of fear, but the dull, vague constantly gnawing sense of dread.
I don't know if it's intentional or not ( I sort of suspect that it is), but broadly the book reminded me of one of those dreams in which I'm trying to run from someone or something, and try though I might, my legs don't work right and I end up running in slow motion. I can feel myself straining, but my legs just won't move fast enough, and meanwhile whatever it is keeps getting closer. I think that feeling is a lot of what Kavan was trying to get across.
And on a related note, if you haven't already, I strongly recommend reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I actually learned about Ice by looking for recommendations for books like The Road.
They both are written in such a way that there's unmistakable emotional content conveyed more by their style than by what they actually say, but while Ice is about oddly claustrophobic dread, The Road is about dry, arid desolation and emptiness.