Tag Archives: week13

04/11/23

Week 13: All done!

Hi everyone!

I really can’t believe we have come to the end of this class already. This semester has gone by so fast…almost too quick at times I think. Come to think of it, full honesty, I’m glad this semester is coming to a close. But, that’s not to say there weren’t good memories, too!–Thankfully, this class was one of them:) I won’t lie, the past few weeks have been pretty chaotic and unforgiving these past 3 weeks, with lots coming up out of my control, but this class is a nice constant.

This semester I really challenged myself with this class. I haven’t taken a literature-based class since 2016-2017 when I took AP Lit in high school, and I am a terribly slow reader (trust me, my friends comment on this all the time when we split up our readings for our history classes lol). I also have little to no background in Latin American literature but knew that that was okay. I was initially nervous going into this class, especially because I joined a bit late too–I think second week? But, upon entering class for the first time, I realized that this would be a class that I enjoy for multiple reasons: a smaller class size, small discussion groups, and being able to tell right away that I will have a prof and TA who truly values learning and growth over harsh assessments or status-quo assignments–this goes into one of the very small handful of classes that I have felt this way. I quickly felt comfortable and any nerves I had dissipated with time. I REALLY enjoyed this class. I’ve been at UBC for a while now, taken a couple gap years, gone out and worked in the non-profit sector for a bit, travelled, came back, and I can honestly say I’ve never taken a class like this at UBC–it was so refreshing:)

I want to bring it back to my point on small-group discussions: I really loved this part of the course. Typically, I am very extroverted and love connecting with others, but at times, I get really nervous about participating in class due to being anxious that my thoughts will never carry over well. But, I am so thankful to Jon and Daniel for encouraging us to just say our thoughts and share them with the class/our small group because it really did contribute to my learning and pushed me to engage with the course content in a more meaningful way. I also think that reading a book each week pushed me to look for patterns or things that I might not have originally jumped to in our first week reading Mama Blanca. Toward the end of the semester, whenever I approached a book, it’s almost like I had a system–watch/read the lecture, get some background, do some external research, then delve into the book. From that point, I’d then look for words repeated throughout the book. I was no longer just trying to get to the next page, but I was thinking more deeply about the overall themes and connections throughout the book, or I would try to think about what messages the author is trying to convey, or I would try to consider the setting/history of the time of when that book was written. Having these things in mind each week really equipped me to allow myself to conduct more meaningful work and really take in what Jon was trying to teach each week–this made it all the more worthwhile. For example, in Jon’s concluding lecture, he mentions the central theme of time and temporality of many of the books we read. We see history shaped and warped in different ways, and as Jon mentions, even catches up with people in different ways, too (e.g. Cartucho). This is a central theme that I began to look for in every book, every week.

Overall, I was able to take away a great amount for this course, and full honesty, although my initial intentions were taking it as my literature requirement only, I would love to take another literature course before I graduate! Thanks so much to Jon and Daniel for everything, and thanks to my classmates for the many great and insightful conversations! It’s been a blast, for real:)

My question for you: Did you have a favourite central theme that repeated itself through many of the books we read this semester? How did that central theme often play out or represent itself throughout the novels?

See y’all around:)

 

04/10/23

Week 13: Samanta Schweblin’s “Fever Dream”

Wow, I can’t believe it’s the last week of classes–I will definitely miss this class! It has been a great sense of routine and normalcy for me each week, so thanks to everyone for being so insightful all throughout this term for each book we explored:)

This week I had the pleasure of reading “Fever Dream” by Samanta Schweblin. It is a book that made me think of three words in particular: eerie, thought-provoking, and suspenseful. Schweblin’s writing style has a way in which she is able to show the effects of environmental harm, familial love and protection, and psychological unease all in one book–three topics, that in my opinion, are usually not seen all together at once. The book centralizes on the characters of Amanda and Daniel, two polarizing figures that perfectly depict the three words I listed above. Amanda becomes suddenly very ill from suspected poisonous insecticides that were sprayed throughout the area in which she was staying in. David, a boy who continually questions her, helps provoke her memories and recollections to come back to her as the toxins from the insecticide presumably affected her memory and prompted her illness. She is oftentimes discombobulated and her memories are disjointed, but David acts as a constant to help her memories come back. Although it is not exactly implied, it could be suggested that human contact or action/intervention on the environment can have profound impacts on both humans and the earth–typically negative. I keep coming back to this theme of environmental degradation that runs simultaneously with psychological aspects or memory loss–it’s very interesting–I really haven’t seen it done before. I found it refreshing and an interesting way to portray the impacts we as humans have on our surroundings. There is a sense of urgency throughout the novel in which we aim to find the truth, for example, what REALLY happened to Amanda–was it actually the insecticide? David’s questioning throughout makes not only Amanda more curious or uncertain, but perhaps has the same effect on the reader as well. It made me want to keep reading more and more until I reached the end of the book. When faced with memory loss, it is certain that one likely grapples with what is real and what is not, as we see Amanda struggle with that throughout. Overall, I found this novel to be an interesting read. It was unique, and I am thankful for the chance to have read it in this class.

My question for you: I mention that it seems a central theme to this novel is that of environmental harm or the impact that humans have on it–what are some concrete examples of how this plays out in the book? Do you think Schweblin is trying to convey a certain message about the environment through her writing?