Author Archives: amryn

About amryn

psychology student studying at UBC

Silvio’s alter ego?

Arlt’s “Mad Toy”  showed the harsh realities of political corruption, urbanization and industrialization that Silvio had to face in Buenos Aires. I found myself relating to this book more than Proust’s “Combray” because of the dark humour scattered within the text. Arlt skillfully showed us how Silvio and his group of friends struggles to accept their existence and how they coped by using dark humour. I felt the scattered scenes and thoughts throughout the book added an unpredictable feature that was surprising and unsettling, but not enough for me to want to stop reading. I enjoyed the unpredictability and was excited to see what was going to happen or be said next.

Silvio did not know how to keep the chaos and the peace in his life from intertwining and I feel this stems from his love of literature and how he struggles to accept that he can’t bring in concepts from books and apply them to the real world. Arlt’s depiction of how dreams can alienate you from reality, if the world around you if rapidly changing, blurred the lined between sanity and madness.

Identity was also a large running theme in the episodes of the novel. As a teenager he formed a thieving group with his friends and he was just starting to realize how much power money and  materialistic items held. Throughout the course of his thieving, the progression of his aggression started to show with the poisoned bullets, however I feel like his aggression was forming even before this as in the very beginning of the novel he builds a cannon an refers to it as his “small monster.” Given these small references in the text I almost felt as if Silvio had an alter ego. A more violent side that he rarely showed, but it made an appearance through the tone he was talking in or like I said above, how he referred to his cannon and how it could kill people. Although I will say I think this alter ego helped him survive throughout the book and almost grounded him in reality.

What was your thoughts on Silvio’s character development and which section of the novel did you most enjoy?

Marcel Proust, “Combray”

I usually do not deep dive into the meaning of certain actions or sayings in a book however, Proust hooked me in when he was reliving a memory of his aunt looking out her window, seeing combray. I guess I haven’t put much thought into the symbolism of a window. I know it works both ways, but when the professor mentioned in the video how “the text was a window separating us, but also allowing us to see.” It made me relive some of my memories and wondered how many times a novel I was reading related to this. I felt as though his aunt did not realize that people could also see into her window; people say we can get lost in a novel, but I also think we can get lost in reality as well. Which is what I think his aunt was doing while looking through her window.

I also related to the fact that parts of Proust’s novel makes us see how children are overlooked and how many memories have different meanings when we look back now as adults. As children, no one views you as a threat so they will continue to talk thinking you would not remember or say anything, but people tend to forget that memories do exist. Even if it 20 years from the scene, information finds a way of revealing itself. I also appreciated the way Proust used sensory information acting as a trigger for memories to flood your brain. It reminds me of when I used to smell or taste a certain thing and I could either vividly remember a scene in the past where I have encountered the smell or taste. Or the sensory information was familiar, but I could not pinpoint exactly when or where in my past I have encountered it. I want to emphasize the fact that Proust made a point to say involuntary trigger memories because this experience can also be harmful for some who have had bad memories and do not want to relive them.

I think that the memory of his mom giving him goodnight kisses was somewhat harmful to him as an adult. I think he attached himself to those memories in an unhealthy way and again going back to what I previously discussed, he got lost in his memories. I feel like this would have had a negative impact on his independence. I also think that it is unhealthy how many times he had memory flashbacks, and as such an unreliable narrator sometimes I had a hard time believing if his memories were real or if he was creating something in his head to fill the space where he may not have had. For example, the way he was attaching to his mothers goodnight kisses, this may seem like a stretch, but was he maybe making that up because she never gave him goodnight kisses, but he wanted it so bad he created that memory?

My question is do you think that last point was far fetched or did anyone feel the same way? How did people feel about how Proust constantly shifted the viewpoint in the novel? Personally it made me confused and frustrated, but also made me slow down and actually try to absorb the words.

 

week 1 rmst 202 intro blog

Hi everyone,

My name is Amryn and currently I am a third year psychology major. I commute to school so it is about a 30 minute drive without traffic, however because of the snow today the short drive turned into 2 hours. It was horrific to say the least. I am super excited about this course, I would 100% call myself a reader and I mostly read fiction. During this winter break I read the throne of glass series (which I HIGHLY recommend) as well as the shatter me series, which was also extremely good. Nothing compares to a good Sarah J Mass book, she is undoubtedly my favourite author. If you enjoy fantasy I would suggest checking out her books. I took this class because I want to broaden my horizons and I have read none of the books on the list so I am excited for the challenge of reading something that is not just romance or fantasy. Being a psych student, most of our marks are either exams or essays, so I find it extremely refreshing to have a different grading structure, especially one that I believe I can succeed with. The first lecture made me look forward to the rest of the term, I appreciated the way the professor kept everyone engaged. As for the content of the lecture, for once in a long time I felt I actually had something I could contribute or at least I could follow along and not be completely lost. I was thinking about what makes a good book and how someone may love a book or like a movie and in my opinion, a good book makes you feel attached to the characters and to the environment of the book. Compared to a movie where you are mainly watching actions and listening to conversation, a book can give you insight as to what exactly a character is thinking in the moment. Their inner monologues as well as their out loud conversations makes me feel as though I am apart of the action rather than being on the outside looking in (as a movie would make me feel). As cliché as this sounds, books really do give me an escape from whatever stressful situation I encounter. I find myself getting lost in books more often than not and I think that is a good thing, I don’t see a downside because once the book ends you find yourself back in reality. The desire to keep escaping into different worlds is what draws me into a never ending cycle of reading.

I am looking into reading more mystery/horror books, so please leave any recommendations you may have. Thanks !