Tæring

Tæring is the fictional small town that the students live in. It is described as a backwater where nothing much of interest happens. Many of the buildings there are drab, and the people all seem similar to each other, parroting the same opinions about people like Pierre Anthon and his parents who dare to break free of the mold that is expected of people there. It is significant that the novel is set in such a small town because it demonstrates how living in a place like that isolated from other people can engender these feelings of meaninglessness, which can quickly turn violent.

The sawmill

The abandoned sawmill in Tæring is where the students go about building the heap of meaning. They spend a lot of their time there even though they know they are not supposed to because people almost never come to the...