Fay Weldon

Born in England and raised in New Zealand, Fay Weldon graduated from St. Andrew’s University in Scotland. She wrote advertising copy for various companies and was a propaganda writer for the British Foreign Office before turning to fiction. She has written novels, short stories, plays, and radio scripts. In 1971 her script for an episode of “Upstairs, Downstairs” won an award from the Society of Film and Television Arts. She has written more than a score of novels, including The Fat Woman’s Joke, Down Among the Women, Praxis, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, Life Force, and The Bulgari Connection, and an equal number of plays and scripts. Her collections of short stories include Moon Over Minneapolis, Wicked Women, A Hard Time to Be a Father, Nothing to Wear and Nowhere to Hide, and IND AFF or Out of Love in Sarajevo (1988). Weldon often uses ironic humor to portray carefully drawn female characters coming to terms with the facts of their lives.

IND AFFor Out of Love in Sarajevo

Fay Weldon

Sarajevo! Greetings from ...

Setting: the context in which the action of the story occurs

Major Elements: time, location, and the social environment that frames the characters and supports the overall purpose of the story

Atmosphere: settings can evoke a mood or atmosphere that will prepare the reader for what is to come

Vacation Spot Thoughts

“What I have to do is be faithful to what I see around me, whether I like it or not.”! ! - FAY WELDON

The assassin whose act was the spark that set off World War I, Gavrilo Princip was an ethnic Serb born in Bosnia-Herzegovina in July of 1894. As a teenager he was sent to Belgrade to continue his education. He gave up his education, however, when he became involved in ultra-nationalist Serbian politics and joined a Serbian terrorist group, The Black Hand, whose mission was to separate Bosnia-Herzegovina from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and unite it with an independent Serbia by whatever means necessary. In 1914 it was announced that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was to visit Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. Princip and two other Black Hand members were dispatched by the organization to assassinate Ferdinand. Each was equipped with a pistol, two bombs and a small vial of cyanide, which they were instructed to swallow immediately after having assassinated Ferdinand. The three were all suffering from tuberculosis and knew they didn't have long to live, so they were fully prepared to take their own lives. They arrived in Serbia and contacted other Black Hand members who were already there, and the entire group prepared for the assassination. On June 28, 1914, Ferdinand and his wife, Archduchess Sophie, arrived outside of Sarajevo by train and took an automobile convoy into town. As the convoy passed through the city, seven Black Hand assassins mixed in with the city crowds. The plan was that when the car carrying Ferdinand, a large convertible with the top rolled down so the crowds could see him, reached their position they would hurl their bombs into it and kill all the occupants of the car. However, the first assassin lost his nerve and failed to throw his bomb. The second assassin threw his, but it landed in front of the Archduke's vehicle; the driver saw it and sped up, and the bomb exploded as the car in back of the archduke passed over it, wounding several occupants and a number of bystanders. By this time the archduke's car was racing off and the other assassins terminated the plan because the car was too far away. Ferdinand arrived at City Hall and attended an official reception, then decided to go to the hospital and visit the spectators who were wounded in the bomb attack. His wife went with him. Unfortunately, on the way to the hospital his driver made a wrong turn and wound up on a street on which Princip just happened to be standing. He saw the car stop when the driver realized he was on the wrong street and began to back up. Seeing his opportunity, Princip raced over to the car and fired five shots into it, hitting both Ferdinand and Sophie. They were rushed to the nearby governor's residence, but both shortly died from their wounds. After shooting the couple, Princip turned the gun on himself, intending to commit suicide, but a bystander who saw what he had done grabbed his arm, and two nearby policemen ran to the struggling pair, overpowered and arrested Princip. He was tried for treason and murder and found guilty. Since Princip was not yet 20 years of age, under Austro-Hungarian law he could not receive the death penalty. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but he died in prison of tuberculosis on April 28, 1918.

First Stop, The Scene of the Crime! Gavrilo Princip

FINAL DESTINATION,

IND AFFor Out of Love in Sarajevo

Please choose two questions to respond to:

1) How does the setting affect the way Ind Aff turns out? Consider and explain how the story would change if it wasn't interwoven with the historical material about Archduke Ferdinand's assassination.

2) Ind Aff is introduced as a "sad story”. Is it? Explain why or why not.

3) The narrator says she is now grateful to the city of Sarajevo. Why is this? What did being in that particular city do for her? Would the same thing have happened if the two characters went somewhere else?

4) Discuss the two waiters. Why did Weldon include them? What do they symbolize?

5) Weldon chooses to introduce the characters slowly, revealing bits of information about them as the story goes on. Why do you think she chose this approach? How does it serve the story?