Answer to either or both:
- This short story is based on the Mandarin Paradox, posed in 1802 by the French writer and philosopher François-René Chateaubriand, and later retaken by Eça de Queirós in his novel "The Mandarin". Look at the qoute by Chateaubriand, as he phrased the paradox, and relate it briefly to at least two diasporic texts read in the class (including, of course, the one by Vaz):
I ask my own heart, I put to myself this question: "If thou couldst by a mere wish kill a fellow-creature in China, and inherit his fortune in Europe, with the supernatural conviction that the fact would never be known, wouldst thou consent to form such a wish?" (Chateaubriand, 1802)
- Synesthesia has become a stylistic mark for Katherine Vaz. Where do you find it in the story and what are its effects?
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