Tag Archives: history

Week 11 – Distant Star

This was an interesting book, definitely one of my favourites that we have read. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised. Something that really stood out to me was how different the overall writing style of the book was, in a way it was a lot less magical then the other books we have read. Also, I found the way the characters were written and the way the story was narrated to be quite interesting. I was definitely captivated by the way the story was progressing.

Throughout the novel I couldn’t help but fixate on two characters, Carlos Wieder and the narrator. I found Carlos to be such an interesting and complex character. He was seen and described as being a brilliant poet who wrote poetry when flying his airplane (which is so cool), and attracted a lot of admirers for his poetry. The way he is described makes him seem like a normal character, however when it’s later discovered that he is a serial killer, there is something new added to the story. Something I kept coming back to with his character was how you can’t really escape your past. It didn’t matter that Alberto changed his name and essentially started a new life for himself, he still couldn’t escape that desire or need to kill people and portray it in some way. I found it ironic how when he was known as Alberto, he was a mysterious poetry student that not many people knew too well, and then when he changed his name to Carlos, he became this famous poet. The attention and power he had as this brilliant person who writes poetry with his airplane in the sky, ended up becoming his downfall. In a way he became more corrupt as he grew more famous, and he allowed his true-self to be shown when he displayed those horrific photos. It seemed that Wieder/Ruiz-Tagle couldn’t escape his love for poetry…and killing.

Moving on from the character of Carlos, there is one piece of imagery that I haven’t been able to move on from, and that was Lorenzo’s attempted suicide. With everything else that was going on throughout, it felt kind of out of place to mention suicide, but also made sense at the same time. Regardless of that, the way it was described “Then he went under again. This time too he kept his eyes open: he turned his head calmly (as if under anaesthetic), looking for something, anything, as long as it was beautiful, to be his last memory.” (pg.81), was one of the most poetic lines written in the novel. This writing style and imagery was such a stark-contrast from overall writing in the book.

Question to think about: Why was poetry a central theme throughout the novel? The actual concept of poetry isn’t really expanded on, like actual poems, but instead its used as a foundation for the storyline. I’m just curious to know why Bolaño chose to use poetry, as a backdrop for a, relatively, dark-themed novel.

Week 2 – Mama Blanca’s Memoirs

5 Replies

Wow. Teresa de la Parra’s “Mama Blanca’s Memoirs” was such an interesting read and made me feel nostalgic in a way. The second paragraph in the Foreword, where she wrote “It was not kinship that bound me to Mama Blanca, but mysterious spiritual affinities that in the commerce of souls weave the brief or enduring web of sympathy, friendship, or love, which are separate stages in that supreme joy of mutual understanding”, I felt sadness, loss and somehow nostalgic. This sentence really captured my interest and drew me in to the text.

Throughout the reading I was really drawn in by how everything and everyone was described in such a specific and particular way, that on the one hand you knew exactly what the narrator was conveying, but at the same time it was left up to your own imagination. The way scenes and situations were described really stood out to me because the perspective was from a child (Blanca Nieves childhood), but things were described in a far more intricate way. The narrator’s use of descriptive language like this, brought in a sense of realness to it and it made you forget that everything that was being told was from a child’s perspective. Something like “…my independent soul, my inviolable soul, which Evelyn could not take by the arm, did indeed resist!” (30), was interesting to think about when imagined being said in a child’s voice.

Besides the descriptive language, the relationship dynamics that were brought in between Blanca and her sisters (especially Violeta), and her mother was something I felt most people could relate to (I definitely could). The argument and fight between Blanca and Violeta really stood out to me (mostly because I could relate it to my brother and myself) and it captured my interest how seeing Violeta crying put Blanca in distress, and made her start crying. It was such a contrast from what I was expecting the scene to end up like. From where the scene started to where it ended was sweet but is also got me thinking about how that fight must have been so significant for the narrator to recount it, when describing her childhood. The argument could have just been a dumb story that was meant to be funny, but if you traced it back to where the fight started you would realize just how significant Mama’s need for Blanca to have curly hair was and how it affected the way he childhood progressed.

The constant need Mama had to ensure that all her daughters had the same curly hair, made me feel sorry for Blanca because she kind of lived in her childhood in a lie. Now, it may seem like I am exaggerating but the fact that Blanca’s hair was mentioned through the text, kind of proved just how significant it was to her that her mother was constantly trying to “change her”. Again, this reiterates the idea of how small things that may not seem as significant when you’re a kid, can actually have a big impact on you. It can change the way you view your childhood and yourself.

Overall, I would say this reading was quite interesting and the visuals that were painted in my mind, will stay with me for a long time. The different detailed descriptions kept me visualising throughout the text and had me thinking about my childhood.

Question to think about: Was there a particular scene that was described, that made you think back to your childhood? And if so, how did you feel when recalling that memory?

Week 1 – Introduction

4 Replies

Hi! My name is Alizey Sultan, and I am a second year student. I am planning (and hoping) to major in Political Science and Philosophy with a minor in Law & Society. My goal is to become a lawyer, who specializes in family law because I like the idea of working with family issues and…corporate law was too hard. A really great course that I recommend, for anyone interested in learning about human development and how family and the environment you grow up around affects you, is FMST 210. Also, I’m also originally from Pakistan but I moved to BC when I was two years old, so I’ve grown up learning about two different cultures side by side while also learning two different languages at the same time.

I didn’t really know what to expect when signing up for this course because I mainly did it with the intention of fulfilling my literature requirement. As I read the course description I was really excited that it was based on a contract because that meant it was up to me to reach my desired grade. Plus it gave me the chance to read books, which I haven’t really been able to do in a long time. After being forced to read The Leviathan for POLI 240, books based around race, sexuality, imagination (etc.) are a welcome breath of fresh air.

One thing that really stood out to me in the introduction video and changed my perspective on the structure of the course, was how with these readings we aren’t doing “history”. When I first read the different book descriptions my mind jumped straight to the idea that some of the books were going to be about how the different political movements and issues that were occuring at that time, affected people’s lives. I was too focused on how the contents of the book described, matched what was going on in history during that time. However, after the first lecture and finishing the video I began to understand the idea of “play” more. I also decided to “ditch” the literary analysis mindset that was embedded into me from high school english and instead adopt the mindset that a book can just be a book and doesn’t have to have every line dissected to find the “meaning”.

I am excited to start reading the books I’ve picked out and just learn about how literature can vary across cultures and that despite the different time periods, the books are interconnected in some sort of way.

Questions to think about: Do you ever picture what the setting or characters look like when you read a book? Is there a particular setting or mood that helps you read better?