We talked a little bit on Thursday on the frequent use of elipses in Not So Quiet. . . I think there’s a lot of ways this feature can be interpreted, but to me it reads as brain fog. When you’re starving and freezing, it’s really hard to form coherent thoughts. I think it gives the effect of Nellie’s brain fading in and out of focus? I also wonder if there were frequent elipses in the diary this book was based off of???
2 thoughts on “elipses. . . !”
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I read the ellipses very similarly! Their use really emphasizes Smith’s unstable mental state.
I had interpreted them as pauses in her thinking as the narration is very stream-of-consciousness in many places. Not necessarily brain fog, but just a gather of her thoughts since her mind is racing so often. However, I think your reading makes a lot of sense too.