I really liked the beginning of Mao II. I thought the whole idea of the wedding in the stadium was interesting. Even though it made for a good read, I can’t say I liked how the wedding was set up. I cannot imagine that any of the people were truly happy. Weddings are supposed to be one of the best days of a person’s life and are meant for family and friends. To be a bride surrounded by many others and not having that intimate feeling would be hard.
I liked how the parent’s perspective was included. The emotions and feelings they had were spot on to what I would imagine someone would really be experiencing in that situation. The fact that they were the “fans” in this scenario made for an interesting comparison between sports. I’ve never really felt that fans in stadiums resembled a cult until now. I can see how they are very similar.
The notion of the crowd gave me an overwhelming feeling as I read the beginning of the book. To me, crowds are claustrophobic and often problematic. There is rarely a time when a crowd is under control. It’s not that I’m afraid of being in a crowd, but I am often uneasy. With that many people in one place, something could go wrong. Maybe I just have a apprehension for people. ;)
The beginning of the novel was a bit eerie, it was difficult to grasp the idea of such a loss of identity and persons. But as the story goes on we see that it is not so much identity that we are losing but a sense of our society and what we makes us happy.
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