spanish but not really

I felt somewhat indifferent toward this novella, Distant Star by Roberto Bolano. It had a similar energy to the Borges book we read (which I hated) but in a more accessible fashion. I have previously encountered the Bolano Literary Universe thanks to a book we read last year in a similar class, and truth be told I don't think I really enjoy it - though I think it's slightly cool that he has his own alter ego that he puts in his stories.  The premise of this story, especially on the brutality of art front was interesting to read. As was the character of Carlos/Alberto. Having had conversations with my friends about the resurgence of true crime obsessions and how some people are drawn to serial killers, his character reminded me of those conversations. It's mentioned early on the story that the women in the group were drawn to him, and how he wasn't super friendly with the men. It's not like the women knew about his connections with all the Pinochet era killings and d...

 I, Rigoberta Menchu is probably one of my favourites of the term so far. I believe it's the first (and only?) non-fictional text of the term - although this is partially debated a la Jon's lecture - because it's not a novel, but a testimonial about life as an Indigenous K'iche' Maya woman and her family in Guatemala during the civil war. The subject matter of this book was not completely foreign to me; having read and studied some of the impacts of colonialism and its impacts on Indigenous people, past and present, I think I came in to reading the story with a fairly good sense of what to expect. That said, I'd never read anything specifically about the case in Guatemala, so there was definitely much to be learned there. I can't say that I was completely surprised by what I read in the book, because I was already primed to expect absolutely horrible brutality. Nonetheless, I found the reading experience tough and sometimes found myself skimming over the mos...

Captain Pantoja and the Special Service was written by Mario Vargas Llosa in 1973. I decided to read this novel because I'd heard of the author before, namely about the book "The Time of the Hero." I really wanted to like this book, but truthfully I was in two minds about it. Depending on factors such as whether I was fresh out of class about colonialism or social dynamics, how tired I was, or my mood, my opinion about it shifted. I can completely see why it would be funny for people, and I found it funny too when I was reading it in a more lighthearted state. But I also sometimes couldn't ignore the misogyny of it all, so I sometimes found it harder to enjoy. That said, I think it is a well-written piece of satire that makes good use of euphemism and absurdity to illustrate comedy, so I wasn't dwelling on the unsavoury tones of the book for too long. I suppose Captain Pantaleon Pantoja's role in the book could be summarised by the phrase "one thing led t...

Finishing this book was like a whirlwind (though not as dramatic as the literal whirlwind at the end of the story, of course.) I still find it an impressive feat that Garcia Marquez managed to fit 7 generations in a single novel without it being a Tolstoy-length monstrosity. This half of the story was a bit easier to wrap my head around, having got through the first half. However, a lot of my initial thoughts carried through. In my last blog post, I mentioned nominative determinism being the idea that your name somewhat dictates your character, and I could definitely see that in Aureliano and Amaranta Ursula's son - the one who was born with a pig's tail. They briefly considered giving him a name that hadn't been used before in the family, but decided against it, calling him Aureliano all over again and oh look he's got a tail and the family curse prevails. If they could "simply" untether themselves from the family curse and the seemingly never-ending cycles t...

 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez* is considered one of the best pieces of literature in the whole world, let alone Latin America as a regional category. I mentioned at the beginning of the term in the intro blog that this was the only novel in this class that I had read before, so this was a bit of a reread for me. Truthfully, it felt a little like reading it the first time and I can't say I followed it as easily as I would've liked to. Anyway,,, 3rd time lucky? maybe? This novel indeed exemplifies magical realism, in that things that would under any other circumstance be absurd are completely normal, such as a kid being born with a pig's tail. The confusing aspect is, of course, the fact that each generation of children bears the same names as those who came before them; the Jose Arcadios behave like the previous Jose Arcadios, the previous Aurelianos are like the new ones, etc. I wonder how much nominative determinism is at play here. Nominative de...

 I liked reading this book. And I can completely see why some consider it the precursor to magical realism. Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo  is largely about the balance between hope and misery, and the way that people  have such strong hopes that their wishes will come true, while having to cope with the misery of realising it'll never happen. That's a bit depressing but I think it's an important part of life. The way that people cope with not getting what they want can determine their strength in getting past adversities and this novel is a good reminder of that. Pedro Paramo is a complicated character, being both a protagonist and antagonist at the same time. I definitely can't defend him as being a good person, him straight-up letting everyone die and all, but I kinda get it within the context of his character. Basically the only thing he wants in the world is for Susana to love him and be his, and so when she dies without his only wish being fulfilled, it's sort ...

 Truth be told, this was not the book for me. I disliked this one as much as I enjoyed the previous one. I definitely see the playful aspect of the book, and I can see why other people have enjoyed it - having read some of the blogs that are already up - but I think this style of play just isn't very compatible with my reading. The title of the book definitely makes sense to me though; reading it felt like going round and round a maze, momentarily feeling like I understand what's going on before turning the corner and seeing that I was going in the wrong direction the whole time. Perhaps if I were to read some of the stories a second time I would be able to better digest the themes and the happenings, but for the most part I felt like I was trying to grasp at straws to understand what was being said. All that aside, the two stories that were marginally easier for me to follow were Funes the Memorious and The Shape of the Sword. Perhaps it was to do with my mindset at the time o...