Blog Journal for Station Eleven

"Are you fine, Hua my old friend, or will you be fine?" (Mandel 19)

I found this quote interesting because many relationships with Jeevan have faded recently. He needs help finding who he wants to be and the people he wants to surround himself with. The novel states that Hua has always been there for Jeevan, going back to their post-grad days when they were bartenders. Jeevan states that Hua is one of his closest friends, though they haven't seen each other in years. Still, this quote shows that Jeevan genuinely cares about Hua and that losing him would be detrimental. It shows that Jeevan isn't just crazy in his life path, and there are people around him whom he enjoys. Along with this, it feels like Hua is slated to die shortly. Later in the chapter during a phone call, Hua is coughing, and with the severity of the Georgia Flu, it doesn't sound good for him. In the end, this quote stuck out because it shows that Jeevan cares about certain people in his life, just not any of the people we have been introduced to yet. 

"You get a phonecall in a foreign country, and just like that the man with whom you once thought you'd grow old has departed from the earth." (Mandel 30)

This quote resonated with me because of the strength it carries. So far, we are still living through the aftermath of the death of Arthur, a man we only knew as an actor. Still, the novel keeps branching out from his death into more characters, all of whom he's impacted in his life. First, it goes to his friends, then his lawyer, then one of his ex-wives, and I'm sure the list will keep going. It's interesting to see how the author started with a seemingly meaningless character and turned his death into a big deal. I also feel bad for this woman, as she actually seems sad about Arthur's passing. It makes Arthur seem like less of a bad guy, though with as many ex-wives as they make him out to have, I don't think he's the nicest person to have grazed the planet. Going forward, I'd like to see how the author keeps tying in Arthur to the plot. I don't think they would have gone into this much detail about him if it wasn't important. 

Although much more tame than the Georgian Flu, the Covid pandemic greatly impacted my life. I think the main way it impacted me was through school. Being taught through a computer screen for two years certainly wasn't fun, and definitely hindered my communication and education skills. It was hard not being able to see the people whenever I wanted, and there was even a point where I missed school lunches. If Covid had been like the pandemic in the novel, I think I would miss daily conversations with people. Although I'm not the biggest talker,  it's still nice to socialize from time to time, and this disease limits that because even close contact with someone with the disease could be fatal. Along with that, I'd miss the ease of life we have. My life is like a rhythm, each day proceeds the same as the last unless I go out of my way to make it overly special. I like my life to be in order, and a disease spreading like that would make me focus on day-to-day survival. 

I think the main thing we begin to learn about Arthur is the number of people that he has impacted, along with how he doesn't have the best of reputations. The people around him find him strange, such as Clark Thompson, who was a friend of Arthur. He tries to forget certain events of the past, such as the dinner he brings up when talking about how he knows the woman he is calling, one of Arthur's ex-wives. Through this interaction, we find out that Arthur might have lived a shallow life, seeking out fame as an actor and only being around people who fit his standards. The line given foreshadows the death of communication devices. For whatever reason, cell phones won't work or probably any technology won't work, making global communication more difficult than it ever has been. I don't think that only cell phones would go down, but rather all technology that existed to that point.