Notes: Touching the Void – close reading of an extract.
You looked at the passage where Joe describes what is happening
to him as he is being lowered by Simon – page 100, top of the
page until the end of Joe’s narration and Simon takes over. The
following notes are based on your feedback and what we
discussed in class. This passage is 15 lines of the book and you
were asked to focus on the choice of words, sentence structure,
point of view as well as the emotions and aspects of friendship we
see in this passage. Your brief was to not only find examples of
these bullet points but comment on effect. We have 753 words of
comment on this passage and I am sure there is more to say. It
has not been structured like an essay as comments were simply
typed up and added to after the lesson by looking at your
comments.
 Choice of words- The first line shows the bold strong words
that show aggression and the capital letters emphasises his
anger, frustration and pain. His anger can be said to be
directed at several things – his painful knee, his climbing
partner Simon lowering him and causing pain to his knee and
his anger at himself that his injury has caused them this
distress and difficulty.
 When you’re angry, you often erupt in saying things that you
may not normally say. Joe describes himself as uttering “a
tirade of obscenities”, this shows he did more swearing than
just the second line of this particular passage. It puts his
swearing in context – he shows that he was relying on this to
show his anger, even though he describes them as “idiot
words” and “meaningless”.
 They had managed to reach the highest point of the
mountain and the frustration has kicked in because it is on
the descent that his knee was broken. This passage really
shows the range of emotions he is going through… this is
reflected in the language used. It is a matter of life and death.
 Simpson shows us a range of emotions through his sentence
structure and use of language. He articulates some of his
feelings, like “bitterness” and “grievance”; but we can also
infer some of his feelings from his writing. In the sentence “I
cried for myself and swore at myself” it is clear he feels pity
for himself as well as anger; so his emotions are directed at
himself, pity for what he is suffering and also anger that he is
endangering his friend, Simon. This shows us the nature of
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the bond between climbers they rely on each other but can
also feel great guilt if they feel they have done something to
endanger another climber. This shows us the great
responsibility climbers have for their climbing partners.
Furthermore, to cry can be seen as a more feminine reaction
while swearing is seen as a more masculine reaction to a
problem – this shows the range of his emotions and the
confusion he feels; in this face of such danger it is difficult
not to have your emotions swing from one extreme to
another.
Joe feels that it was his fault that he broke his knee. Joe
feels guilt, as he sees himself as the reason for both of them
being in their current situation. He uses italics for the words
“I” and “my” to emphasise that it is his fault for falling and he
fears, his fault that they will probably die. This passage
therefore shows Joe’s point of view which works well in the
book as the next paragraph is the start of Simon’s version of
what was happening to him at the same moment. We can
also infer that Joe feels regret at having endangered his
friend.
Friendship is important in this passage, normally if
someone’s leg has been broken, they would be left for dead...
But due to the bond they share Simon helps Joe down, and
this shows the tight bond they share.
The rhetorical question that Joe poses in the last paragraph
of this passage “Had he freed the knot?” adds to the
suspense – this is not just a rhetorical question, if Simon has
not managed this it will have dire consequence for them so it
adds to the tension. Joe can’t see what has happened so he
questions his fate.
The passage ends on a cliff hanger – as a reader you are
waiting, like Joe, to see if Simon will be pulled off the
mountain. Simpson achieves this by the repetition of the
phrase “Any minute, any minute...” and the ellipsis at the end,
adding to the suspense for the reader, especially as the
narration now shifts to Simon’s point of view in the following
paragraph.
Joe’s description “Anger surged through me” is effective as
this personification of anger and the word ‘surged’ makes it
sound like an electric current travelling through him which
links very well with the idea that it ‘warmed’ him, literally it
helped him cope with the cold but it also ‘shook’ him,
showing his helplessness and worry.
 The sentence structure in this passage adds to the emotions
and helps us understand Joe’s predicament. Short
sentences like “The rope slipped.”, “I slipped again.”,
“Stopped.”, all add to the tension and the verbs ‘slipped’ and
‘stopped’ are important choices as it focuses on what is
happening to him.