Hi all,
This week I talk about Insanity, Incest, the Repetition of History and Houses (wut??) in One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Question: What do you think the book is trying to say about technology? Is there a stance, for or against, that is being promoted? How do you explain the insanity of Jose Arcadio Buendia with your answer?
Have a great break,
Curtis HR
“Enough is never enough” for José Arcadio Buendía… yes, I absolutely agree! In my lectures, I try to think about this surplus or excess that pervades the book… too many Aurelianos and José Arcadios, too much incest, perhaps too much technology, and so on and so forth.
But I’m not sure that García Márquez is against such proliferation, or at least not straightforwardly so. I think he thinks that’s life. Change and multiplication and transformation and proliferation simply are what life brings. There’s no use trying to hang on to the past. No need, either, given a certain circularity (as you observe) within history… if you wait long enough, whatever you’ve lost will come back again. (Until the very end of the book, that is…)
So yes, the railroad will bring disaster. But it will also bring very many good things. I don’t think this is simply a story against development or “progress.” But it does tell us to be careful what we wish for.
Hey Curtis, great discussion above. You’ve got an impressive grasp on the interpersonal contexts between characters and throughout the text – much of which seems to be going over my head.
I’m currently in the middle of reading the first part of the story still, but read your question, which was something I hadn’t thought about yet, so wanted to write down some initial thoughts and see how they change throughout my reading.
I found the opening to the text almost comedic in the way that Jose falls into a trap of obsession and fascination with the ‘new and innovative’ gypsy technology. I felt like I was watching my friends shop online. haha. As specially when Melquiades literally warns him of the limitations of all these new things.
Perhaps Marquez has a bit of opposition to technology? Might he have a stance that it will drive people into delusion? Perhaps force us to dream up utopian societies that lead to an eventual obliteration, like I’ve heard is the fate of Macondo? Maybe that’s a stretch, but now I’m excited to keep it in mind through the rest of my reading.