Nothing, by Janne Teller
About Nothing
"Nothing matters. I have known that for a long time. So nothing is worth doing. I just realized that."
Nothing is probably the most unusual book I've read in a while. It's translated from the original Danish, it's a Printz honor book, and it's definitely the most disturbing text I've ever read (see: "The Verdict").
Nothing begins when 7th-grader Pierre-Anthon abruptly realizes that nothing in the world matters. He walks out of his school and takes up residence in a tree, refusing to come down because "life isn't worth the bother." His classmates are upset by his declarations, and try desperately to prove, in some concrete way, that their lives have meaning. Pierre-Anthon's schoolmates begin to create a "pile of meaning," with each child eventually choosing sacrifices of "meaning" on the part of other children. Predictably, the demands for sacrifice spin out of control-- the novel is billed as "the new Lord of the Flies"-- but how far the children go is truly unpredictable.
Nothing is probably the most unusual book I've read in a while. It's translated from the original Danish, it's a Printz honor book, and it's definitely the most disturbing text I've ever read (see: "The Verdict").
Nothing begins when 7th-grader Pierre-Anthon abruptly realizes that nothing in the world matters. He walks out of his school and takes up residence in a tree, refusing to come down because "life isn't worth the bother." His classmates are upset by his declarations, and try desperately to prove, in some concrete way, that their lives have meaning. Pierre-Anthon's schoolmates begin to create a "pile of meaning," with each child eventually choosing sacrifices of "meaning" on the part of other children. Predictably, the demands for sacrifice spin out of control-- the novel is billed as "the new Lord of the Flies"-- but how far the children go is truly unpredictable.
How could I teach Nothing?
Some themes encompassed in Nothing include...
- Sacrifice
- Perception, Presentation, and "Wearing the Mask"
- Meaning with/without human influence
- Power of Relationships
- Peer Pressure
- Death as a Triumph/Loss
What resources could I use to teach Nothing?
- Nothing has been both banned and lauded. Janne Teller responds to the banning of her book here.
- Due to Nothing's popularity, it has been translated into many different languages with various international covers. Do any of these covers do the book justice? If yes, how? What sort of cover would you design to fit the novel?
- Are the art critics at the end of the story correct? What is art? Are the students artists? For an interesting debate, students could work on creating a definition of "art" before deciding. Students could also view and participate in the online collaborative PBS series "The Art Assignment" in order to broaden their definition of "art."
This text could be paired with
- Lord of the Flies
- The Stranger
- King Lear
- Paradise Lost
- The Catcher in the Rye
- Waiting for Godot
- Notes from the Underground
The Verdict
I'm pretty conflicted on this one. As I mentioned earlier, this is without a doubt the most profoundly disturbing book I've ever read. I was assigned A Clockwork Orange my sophomore year in high school, and to me that seems completely tame compared with Nothing. The School Library Journal says that Nothing is great for grades 7 and up (?!?!), which I find shocking. Though the characters are middle schoolers, I would only ever maybe read this book with a class of seniors. I get that the book is allegorical and that all characters represent, in a way, their philosophies-- but this is still the most haunting book I've ever read. Though it's marketed as "Lord of the Flies"-esque, it's infinitely darker and more twisted. The kids on Goldberg's island grew savage, but the children in Teller's novel grow monstrous-- and all this in under 200 pages. It's incredibly artfully written, the translation is solid-- but it's probably the only book that I would still struggle with giving to kids.