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Contact Zones in The Hungry Tide

Contact Zones in The Hungry Tide

marian.bechtel's picture

In response to Celeste's post about shifting perspectives, I too was really struck by the moment where Piya shows Mej-da the picture of the dolphin and he sees it as a bird. When I got to this section, I was immediately reminded of our discussion of contact zones. First of all, this exchange was a contact zone between Piya and Mej-da, who clearly live in different worlds, speak different languages, and have different goals (Piya to find the dolphins, Mej-da to get paid). It is a moment where these two people from very different worlds have a moment of exchange, where Mej-da sees the photo and is clearly struck by it in some way, and his response sheds new light on it for Piya. I also was reminded of contact zones in another way: the beauty of Mej-da's perspective that the picture of the dolphin was actually a picture of a bird is that this connection draws another contact zone for us - one between the creatures of the water and the creatures of the sky. In a way, dolphins are birds of the sea. They fly through the waters just as birds fly through the air. Furthermore, dolphins are creatures that live at the intersection of water and sky. They move and live in the water, yet breath in life from the sky. In essence, these dolphins embody a contact zone of sorts.

I kept seeing contact zones pop up all through the book so far, between Piya and Kanai, between Piya and Mej-da, between Piya  and Fokir, and on and on. I think this goes hand-in-hand with the themes of foreigness that people have been tossing around, and the collidings of differing worlds throughout the book so far.

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When Anne asked us in class (I think last Thursday) to think of specific scenarios that involved contact zones, I couldn't really think of a specific time. However, when I thought of a a contact zone I couldn't help but think of times of when I was either in fear or in desperation. I find that in many of those scenarios where I was fearful or under severe stress, language itself could not serve as an efficient mode of communication. For example, last semester some of my friends and I were discussing about whether or not there was really a ghost in Pem West.

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