One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez (Week 7)

I've had One Hundred Years of Solitude on my reading list for a really long time, so I was really excited to see it on the list of readings for the term. There are several strong themes that I noted while reading the first part of the novel. The first themes that stuck out to me were time and memory. The way the book jumps around and bends the idea of time while staying in the perceived present narrative was confusing to read, but that was part of the fun. The confusion made me think about how time is subjective and while we may have the shared marks that clocks and calendars bring, it is through our memories that we humanize and perceive time. To have time both appear linear and sporadic through the novel takes true artistry. 

Another thing that seemed to purposely confuse me and play with time was the repetition of the family name. Since most of the characters have the same or similar names, it really emphased the point that Macondo is stuck in some sort of time loop (I'll address this point further later). It also builds on the theme of family as well and how important memory plays into familial tradition. By instilling the same name, it ensures that memories and stories continue to pass on throughout the generations in a place (or time?) where there is no technology (other than the camera later introduced) to assist in this. It also adds to the traditional setting of Macondo. The chapter where the village experiences a plague of insomnia (and amnesia?) and falls into chaos is another reference to how much Macondo's community is built around memory. 

Speaking of tradition, the other themes I took note of while reading were progress and modernity. There is a part at the beginning of the book where Jose takes notice of a town outside of his own and proclaims that "there are all kinds of magical instruments while we keep living like donkeys" (8). This sentence really stood out to me because it made an example of the people and/or communities that got/are getting left out on the path to modernity that is crossing Latin America. The time loop also emphasis this point that Macondo is stuck in a fixed state of past, present, and future that outside influences can't alter and the villagers can't escape. It is only through the incoming presence of war and colonization does the village narrative and reality seem to change. I don't really know the point that Garcia Marquez was trying to get at here, but to me, this points to the problem where modernity in Latin America has been dictated by foreign intervention. When Jose is the only person in the beginning wanting to venture past the sheltered Macondo, it shows the lack of awareness (or indifference? Purposeful avoidance?) that many experience(d) through the age of modernity. While it has been said many times that history has been written by the "privileged" (aka colonizers), it also exemplifies how the future is being written this way as well.  

I wanted to talk a little about how the novel showcases different kinds of love, however, after reading more, perhaps I will talk about this in the next blog post. I'm really excited to keep reading as this is a very gripping and thought provoking novel. 

Question for the class: How does time influence your memory or vice versa? Do you perceive time through memories? Do you think Garcia's usage of time enhances the story?

Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda (Week 4)

Despite Neruda's questionable past, I actually really enjoyed his poems. As someone who is not an avid reader of poetry, I appreciated the transparency and straightforwardness of his writing, while also leaving room for metaphor and interpretation. 

The first theme I noticed throughout Neruda's poetry is nature and landscape. There are constant references to the wind, the beaches, the seasons, trees/branches/plants/leaves, and water. I find this combination between everyday landscapes and love interesting because it makes the kind of romantic, ideal, love that Neruda writes about as normal and mundane as his observations in nature. Poetry can often seem really metaphorical and difficult to grasp the meaning of to me, however, Neruda's straight forward and understandable prose made reading poetry similar to reading a fictitious novel. I'd be curious to know how different the translation is to the original (it's times like these where I wish I spoke better Spanish), because I wonder how exact the translation is. Is Neruda as direct in his original compositions?

Another common theme throughout his poetry was the inclusion of the seasons. He at some point mentions each season in comparison to his love or lust. To me, this adds a really cool sense of imagery and time throughout the book and makes it appear almost chronologically. I feel as if I'm reading his experience as time changes and following along with him through his writings within a span of a year. It also establishes a certain tone or imagery to his poems that I would usually attach with certain seasons. For example in his phrasing of "I will bring you happy flowers from the mountains, bluebells, dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses. I want to do with you what spring does with cherry trees" (12), I picture the crisp spring air and bright new sunlight of spring in relation to his prose, as well as the feeling of leaving the darkness of winter behind to the promise of a bright summer. I know that One Hundred Years of Solitude also plays with time in a creative way, so I'm looking forward to reading that to compare. Ever since the discussion of time in Latin American literature from a couple of weeks ago, I have been noticing how it is a common thread and something that really adds a lot of depth to these stories. I love it when authors play with time because it creates such an engaging sense of movement in their writing. 

I'm looking forward to discussing this book with you all further in class. Particularly because I bought the Kindle version and the translation wasn't exactly as quoted in the lecture. There wasn't an abusive connotation as heavily in my version of the poetry so I'm wondering if that was intentional or an accident. Regardless, I'm looking forward to discussing it with you all. 

Question for the class: Do you attach nature with any particular emotions? Do you think it adds or takes away from the emotion in Neruda's writing?