Neither, for that matter, do the young Jewish men on the train who shave their beards tiffany jewelry for sale and declare themselves Marxists — even though they have never read Marx. While the SS cannot find the Jews, the self-proclaimed Marxists cannot seem to find a place in the train’s political arena. Similarly, the Resistance, committed to blowing up Nazi transports, has no idea what to make of this unscheduled train.
When the train is forced to make a stop, the Resistance observes both “Jews” and “Nazis” celebrating a mass together, and radios to base. Apparently, they are told, they are dealing with Nazis “of the Jewish persuasion.” Later, back on the train, Mordechai, the train’s “Nazi” commander, asks [Schlomo] why he plays the part of the village madman Prom Dresses 2012. Schlomo shrugs and replies that it was by default: “The part of the Rabbi was already taken.”
Train de Vie, too, denies historical closure. Instead, in the true spirit of what [Umberto Eco] defines as “openness,” it poses questions in the present tense, it offers ambiguity, and it challenges the “reader.” As Eco puts it, “certain forms of communication demand meaning, order, obviousness…. Others, instead, seek to convey to their readers sheer information Elsa Peretti Open Heart Necklace, an unchecked abundance of possible meanings” (93).
Eco, of course, recognizes that, to a certain extent, a work is always “open” because one always interprets Venetian Link necklace. However, some works “lead to a sort of uncertainty” (4). And it is this uncertainty which allows the work “a virtually unlimited range of possible readings, each of which causes the work to acquire new vitality…” (21).
Perhaps Eco’s formulation here is too passive: the open work makes demands upon the reader-spectator; it interrupts the closure that we so often take for granted. “Only,” as [Walter Benjamin] says, “interruption here has not the character of a stimulant but an organizing function Tiffany Cushion Toggle necklace. It arrests the action in its course, and thereby compels the listener to adopt an attitude vis-a-vis the process” (Reflections 235). In other words, it demands that the spectator think about what she is experiencing. Train de Vie offers just such an interruption, and the effect is shocking.
