A fragment of a short story: Rambling around Central Station. An extract.

by Dutch writer ##Geert Mak

The story tells of a night and a day in Amsterdam. The first-person narrator is wandering on a rainy day with his homeless companion along the streets of the seedier part of Amsterdam.

The extract: They arrive at the open air Albert Cuyp market just as the market stall holders are closing up for the day.

Read the text through first before answering the questions.

Even without money though, it’s possible to keep yourself reasonably afloat in this city. While we were talking, five o’clock came around. The merchants were taking down their stalls with a lot of noise and clatter, and before our eyes, we observed the emergence of an alternative shopping style. Bruised oranges, overripe mangoes, peppers, cucumbers with small tears: it all got stuffed as quickly as lightning into plastic bags by casual passers-by. In the end there were at least fifty people rummaging through the garbage dumps behind the stalls. This happened quickly and efficiently: obviously everyone had done it before, and everyone knew that you had to do it quickly, or the merchants would start to yell and curse.

A few well-dressed mothers with children were busy behind a stall that sold oranges; an elderly man found a brownish bunch of bananas on the street; and a bit farther on down, a skinny, half-naked boy wearing shorts was eating a piece of raw fish over a garbage bin. On one street corner a small-scale, covert exchange market had started up. “I’ve got two cauliflowers to spare. Have you got any fruit?”

Every day the garbage pickers visit the market in waves, so I’m told. It starts as early as four-thirty with a few young women and the odd elderly person, those who are not so readily turned away. Then, at five o'clock, the usual group of completely or partially homeless fan out over the market. Finally there is another group that doesn’t make its appearance until five-thirty. They are so filthy and unkempt that they would be sent packing immediately if the merchants were still at work. That's why they end up trudging behind the garbage trucks at the very end of the market day, hobbling along in their rags, sometimes on bare feet.

Questions

This extract describes the ‘alternative shopping style', which takes place at the market after closing time. What is this ‘alternative shopping style’ and which groups of people take part in it?

>Check your answer

The story almost presents a picture of Amsterdam as a slum city or as if it is set in Victorian times. How come? Which words and phrases particularly create that impression?

>Check your answer

Can you compare the information on the Albert Cuyp market in this extract with the information given us in the tourist guide on the same market? How do the images of the market differ?

>Check your answer

Even though this fragment paints an image we associate with slum dwelling in cities in developing countries, do you think Amsterdam is unusual as a European city where these things happen?

>Check your answer

Conclusion

When we were discussing this text our concern was not so much with whether the information about Amsterdam was true or not. Only when you talk about definite verifiable facts can you talk about whether or not something is true. We can assume that the author really did observe what he described. Yet, the way he represented the market was by filtering out any other things he might have observed at the market at the same time. Maybe he even was watching from one of the ‘pleasant cafés’ near the market full of well-dressed and contented people who had just finished a day at work in their well-paid job. The point is that through the way the author represented the Albert Cuyp market, he created a way of thinking about that market which we, due to our previous experience with texts and films about poverty and slums, immediately recognised and latched on to. And when he started to use language, which had these associations, we as readers became swept along in that particular way of thinking about poverty and homelessness, or as you could also say: we were thinking in the discourse of poverty and homelessness.

There are other ways of thinking about the events that the author witnessed. In fact, in the first sentence he is hinting at a different interpretation of these events by saying: ‘even without money though, it’s possible to keep yourself reasonably afloat in this city’. This could have been the start of a description emphasising the resourcefulness of homeless people. In the latter case the author would have created a way of talking that would have reminded us of images of strengths and inventiveness. In some way, this is also what we can pick up in the description of a ‘covert exchange market’, which was starting up. But in this particular fragment the discourse (that particular way of thinking and talking about a subject) of resourcefulness is not dominant. Instead, once the film-like scene has been set for a slum, it is only too easy to get swept along with that view without allowing other interpretations to disturb this ‘discourse of poverty'. And it is these discourses, which give us an insight into which different cultural and social values are inherent in a text, whether this text is a written text, a visual image, a song or even a event.



Amsterdam Represented Home Introduction A tourist website A song A short story Feedback form Copyright Close Studypack	A fragment of a short story: Rambling around Central Station. An extract. by Dutch writer ##Geert Mak The story tells of a night and a day in Amsterdam. The first-person narrator is wandering on a rainy day with his homeless companion along the streets of the seedier part of Amsterdam. The extract: They arrive at the open air Albert Cuyp market just as the market stall holders are closing up for the day. Read the text through first before answering the questions. Even without money though, it’s possible to keep yourself reasonably afloat in this city. While we were talking, five o’clock came around. The merchants were taking down their stalls with a lot of noise and clatter, and before our eyes, we observed the emergence of an alternative shopping style. Bruised oranges, overripe mangoes, peppers, cucumbers with small tears: it all got stuffed as quickly as lightning into plastic bags by casual passers-by. In the end there were at least fifty people rummaging through the garbage dumps behind the stalls. This happened quickly and efficiently: obviously everyone had done it before, and everyone knew that you had to do it quickly, or the merchants would start to yell and curse. A few well-dressed mothers with children were busy behind a stall that sold oranges; an elderly man found a brownish bunch of bananas on the street; and a bit farther on down, a skinny, half-naked boy wearing shorts was eating a piece of raw fish over a garbage bin. On one street corner a small-scale, covert exchange market had started up. “I’ve got two cauliflowers to spare. Have you got any fruit?” Every day the garbage pickers visit the market in waves, so I’m told. It starts as early as four-thirty with a few young women and the odd elderly person, those who are not so readily turned away. Then, at five o'clock, the usual group of completely or partially homeless fan out over the market. Finally there is another group that doesn’t make its appearance until five-thirty. They are so filthy and unkempt that they would be sent packing immediately if the merchants were still at work. That's why they end up trudging behind the garbage trucks at the very end of the market day, hobbling along in their rags, sometimes on bare feet. Questions This extract describes the ‘alternative shopping style', which takes place at the market after closing time. What is this ‘alternative shopping style’ and which groups of people take part in it? >Check your answer The story almost presents a picture of Amsterdam as a slum city or as if it is set in Victorian times. How come? Which words and phrases particularly create that impression? >Check your answer Can you compare the information on the Albert Cuyp market in this extract with the information given us in the tourist guide on the same market? How do the images of the market differ? >Check your answer Even though this fragment paints an image we associate with slum dwelling in cities in developing countries, do you think Amsterdam is unusual as a European city where these things happen? >Check your answer Conclusion When we were discussing this text our concern was not so much with whether the information about Amsterdam was true or not. Only when you talk about definite verifiable facts can you talk about whether or not something is true. We can assume that the author really did observe what he described. Yet, the way he represented the market was by filtering out any other things he might have observed at the market at the same time. Maybe he even was watching from one of the ‘pleasant cafés’ near the market full of well-dressed and contented people who had just finished a day at work in their well-paid job. The point is that through the way the author represented the Albert Cuyp market, he created a way of thinking about that market which we, due to our previous experience with texts and films about poverty and slums, immediately recognised and latched on to. And when he started to use language, which had these associations, we as readers became swept along in that particular way of thinking about poverty and homelessness, or as you could also say: we were thinking in the discourse of poverty and homelessness. There are other ways of thinking about the events that the author witnessed. In fact, in the first sentence he is hinting at a different interpretation of these events by saying: ‘even without money though, it’s possible to keep yourself reasonably afloat in this city’. This could have been the start of a description emphasising the resourcefulness of homeless people. In the latter case the author would have created a way of talking that would have reminded us of images of strengths and inventiveness. In some way, this is also what we can pick up in the description of a ‘covert exchange market’, which was starting up. But in this particular fragment the discourse (that particular way of thinking and talking about a subject) of resourcefulness is not dominant. Instead, once the film-like scene has been set for a slum, it is only too easy to get swept along with that view without allowing other interpretations to disturb this ‘discourse of poverty'. And it is these discourses, which give us an insight into which different cultural and social values are inherent in a text, whether this text is a written text, a visual image, a song or even a event.