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Final blog post

Here comes the final blog! I would say most of the books we read in this course are quite interesting, and reading them is a great deal. I learnt a lot about places I never been to, and wish if I am able to visit some of the places in the books, such as the Diamond Square from The Times of the Doves, Napels from My Brilliant Friend, and Combray from Combray. These books are great things to talk about with people outside of the class. Just made them think I am knowledgeable and have a very good taste!!!

Before I took this class, I had the habit of reading but did not have the habit of writing. Throughout the course, I actually found writing blogs to be quite interesting and fulfilling, I don’t think my writings are entertaining enough for others to read tho.

Also, thank the teaching team for helping me out during the semester, especially for the time I deleted my blog site:)

I would like to give out some award to the books I read!

The most surprising book:  The Book of Chameleons. I don’t understand why. Even though I have not read a lot of books, I always find the books I am reading to be cliche. But it does not apply to this one. I picked this book to read because of the word “Chameleons”, but there is no chameleons in this book.

The best plot twister: My Brilliant Friend. You know what, after the lecture on Wednesday, I read all the spoiler on Wikipedia for the things happened later on. WOW! Never trust Nino. And it is literally breaking the third wall when I read about Lila working at IBM in the IT team. omg this is too close to the reality:(

The best click-bait title: If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler.  Before I read this book, I did not expect it to have so many books embedded.

I am afraid if “he” will come back: The Time of the Doves. When I was reading, I was afraid that Quimet will come back and say “Hey! I am still alive!” at the end. Fortunately, it does not happen.

Let’s go back to the initial question that was asked in the first lecture: What is the boundary between a novel that is only a novel and a novel that can be called as a literature? The pattern I notice is that all the “literature” we read in this class has very obvious “people vs society” kind of conflict, and there are clues of some historical incidents in the books.

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family

Where is the revenge?

Among the three girls, Ramla’s story was the most interesting one to me. The relationship between she and her father made me think of the relationship between Lila and Lila’s father in In My Brilliant Friend. 

The blog will discuss the role of family in Impatient, exploring how does it appear as caring and as the embodiment of patriarchy at the same time.

In The Impatient,  the father’s authority feels more absolute, and they keep suppressing their daughters with the structural forces. On the first page of the book, the author Djaïli Amadou Amal starts the book with the words from the father:

Patience, the most valuable component of marriage and of life,…, my father says. His voice is serious (p.1).

Then, page 4-6, she listed out the word of advice other male relatives, specifically the uncles, said to the young girls. I don’t want to paste the whole thing here because the list is sooooo long. But there is one claim from the father that I think is worth mentioning:

“Starting now, you each belong to your husband and owe him total submission, as decreed by Allah. Without his permission, you do not have the right to leave the house or even to visit my bedside. Only by following this rule will you be successful wives!” (p. 7).

From his sayings, we can see that the woman is no longer belong to her father but her husband, and the father is trying to educate his daughter to be a “successful” wife. Different from the Lila’s father, Alhadji Boubakari rarely behaves caring to his children because he has five wives and thirty children, which caused him to not have enough time to show the paternal love to his children. Ramla’s describes that “The sole proof I have of his paternal love is that I exist” (p.12). Therefore, Ramla’s father does not allow her to marry the one she is in love with, but the “most important business partner” they have (p.20).

Similar to her father, the uncles behave very much the same. As the father, being the who does not show any connections with daughters, makes some decisions like this, I totally understand that. However, it feels wrong when Ramla’s mother to not care about Ramla’s thoughts on her own marriage. Even though we cannot assume that Ramla and Aminou would be happy if they get married, marry a person who already had a wife and you don’t know as a person is bad.

But the elder relatives, Ramla’s aunt says to her that “Don’t marry the one you love. If you want to be happy, marry the one who loves you!” to convince Ramla to marry lhadji Issa (p. 29).

Therefore, when Ramla shouts out the long “O father” and “O mother” poem, I feel like my blog should be about this.

The question is: how do you like this book? The Hindou section is sooo depressing in my opinion.

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great writing

Growing up and dissolving

I have listened to a podcast about people commenting on Elena Ferrante’s writing before I read this book. People said they were impressed by how honest Ferrante’s writing is. Therefore, when I was reading this book, I attempted to find clues and check if the book is really honest. The Childhood section was quite satisfying, as I read about the friendship and envy between the girls.

But the Adolescence section is fabulous!!! I really like the term “dissolving margins” invented by Lila. Writers usually claim that they are people who are able to describe the feelings that everyone has in detail because they can express those precisely.

Ferrante wrote the following for describing how Lila feels the dissolving margins for the first time:

She seemed to see him for the first time as he really was: a squat animal form, thickset, the loudest, the fiercest, the greediest, the meanest (90).

When I was reading, I felt like I have experienced the same thing before, and I can’t even tell when. It happened with the closest people around me. All of a sudden, I could not tell who that person is and they became something super negative.

Lila is gifted. Not just because she is “smart”. Even though she is always described to be the one who is calm and rational, I think she is also pretty sensitive because of she is aware of the subtle feelings that most people may not be able to accurately describe or recognize as different.

This is also proved by how Lila is able to tell that the “development between Carmela and Alfonso” is constrained by the incidents between their fathers.

I observed that Lenu’s interactions with the world are impacted a lot by Lila and people around her. She makes decisions (romantic relationships) because of Lila; she tries to behave and talk like Lila; she tries to assimilate with her peers but also tries to have some superiority. But Lila never listens to anyone around her. She always has her own opinion and makes her own decisions. For example, when people are blaming Melina, Lila does not do that, and it turns out it’s Donato Saratore’s fault to have a family and also show his affection to Melina at the same time (126). Also, as Lila’s father does not allow her to be educated, she reads the most number of books in the town and self-taught Latin. Phew! Lila is great!

The question I have for this book is: Have you experienced the “dissolving margins” in your life?

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family

The Past and the Splendorium

Well, The Book of Chameleons is not actually about chameleons. I expected this because none of the books we have read in this class have been about the literal meaning of their titles. As I read new books for this class, I try my best to identify the underlying themes.

For instance, when I was reading the second chapter, “The House,” Agualusa writes that the country needs sappers for mine-sweeping operations; I immediately thought, “war!” I was correct, as we, the readers, then see the post-traumatic reactions of the people in Angola.

Felix has a very interesting job: inventing “good” pasts for his clients. He notices that people with secure social status often lack a good family history, so he turns this into a business by making up the entire family trees and legacies for those people. Initially, this business sounded like nonsense to me. However, Agualusa’s writing explains the necessity of it:

“Well—sir—… you’re white.” “And what of it? You’re whiter than I am…” “White? Me?!” The albino choked. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his forehead. “No, no! I’m black. Pure black. I’m a native. Can’t you tell that I’m black?…” (p.18)

Here, a Black man suffering from albinism is mistaken for being white. His condition conceals his identity, and he feels a desperate need to assert his true self. The word “native” makes me think of belonging. The people who visit Felix may also be looking for that same sense of belonging. Agualusa writes that these people want “a name that resonates with nobility and culture.”

Later, in the chapter “Splendorium,” Agualusa describes Angela Lúcia’s ability to recognize locations by the light. She takes out a few slides and calls them her “splendorium.” This choice of words and the previous discussion about the past reminds me of the book Sternstunden der Menschheit (Decisive Moments in History). That book is about the collective legacy of humanity, focusing on those important moments as “stellar moments.” The book is really famous and people love to know about how great their ancestors were.

Similarly, the characters in The Book of Chameleons love to discuss their family stories, even if they are made up. Felix asks Angela, “Talking about family histories, you know you’ve never told me yours?” Like, he is the one who always made those up!! He is now asking Angela to tell him hers!!!

Discussion Question: Do you think family legacy matters today?

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Money to Burn

Money to burn

Drugs, sexual obsession, crimes. These elements filled in the entire book in the fiction Money to Burn written by Piglia.

Since the start of the book, Piglia is constantly stressing the importance of MONEY, the medium used in the society for exchange. On page 14, the character the Girl is introduced. She is the lover of Mereles for money since she was 15, and she still went to secondary school. Piglia described that when she first brought money to her home, her mother told her that she “has to make the most of being young while she can”. Also, on the first page of Chapter 2, Piglia introduces another small character who is a bank-clerk. He just turned 40 and was short in his financial position because of his sick daughter. He has thought about stealing the money himself (page 19).  For these small characters, even though they are not committing crime, the scarcity of money also brings troubles to their lives (what i am saying??). When Piglia is portraying  the bank-clerk, he states that he just turned 40 and not have many hours to live. THIS IS THE MIDLIFE CRISIS. The scarcity of money is the factor for people in the society to feel anxious and not comfortable about.

The book takes the climax, the scene the gang burning money as its title. The gang was burning the 1000 peso bills, each of those will take the bank clerk a month to earn it. When people saw that, they are super mad about the gang. Because if the reason for them to murder is to get the money, people totally get it. But if they are burning the bills, it means that “they had no morals nor motives” to kill people. One people shouted that the gang should have donate the money. When I read this part, I was laughing. It is hilarious. From my point of view, the gang definitely has no morals nor ethics. So, people should definitely not expecting them to “improve” the conditions of the society, just don’t make it worse.  From the reaction of the crowd, it explains the usage of money: the value of it can improve the condition of the society; it can also be used to solve the midlife crisis of individual person. When people sees the money is “wasted”, going back from a bill to a piece of paper, their value got challenged.

The question I have for this week is that: do you agree that with an infinite amount of money, there is no crisis for an individual?

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the lover

Foreshadowing Queen

WOW! I love the storytelling method of this book. It really allows me to know everything that is going to happen before I actually read the actual part of the plot. Great use of foreshadowing!! It may also due to the repetition, where she divided the entire story into fragments and glued them together while switching the order!

For instance, for the death of her younger brother. On page 7, the narrator talked about the death of her younger brother in between of discussing the clothes. The topic just appears from nowhere, and embedded that into the reader’s mind without telling us the reason of the death. Also, after she talked about his death, her younger brother does not disappear from the story like the other books. He was still a part of the story, like he was not dead. And suddenly on page 17, she said he was dead again! So did her mother. The point of view is always changing, from the first person point of view to the third person point of view. I like this kind of change as long as it is not THIS FREQUENT!!! Sometimes it just made me confused.

Also, she repeatedly talked about her clothes and the clothes of women around her. I swear that everyone who have read this book remember  the”gold lame shoes” and the “men’s hat” she was wearing.  It showcases her desire to the fancy clothes that her family is not able to afford. And it brings up the topic of living in the poverty while “having” privilege as a white girl.

We were white children, we were ashamed, we sold our furniture, but we weren’t hungry, we had a houseboy and we ate… we indulged in the luxury of declining to eat. (p.6-p.7)

She stressed that the houseboy cooked her family “garbage” that they had to eat, showing her superiority in front of the houseboy. But her identity as a white girl is not valued by the Chinese guy’s father, where on the page 35, she wrote:

He won’t let his son marry the little white whore from Sadec.

It is worth mentioning that page 35 is before she starting to date the Chinese guy. Same technique again! Here is how she foreshadowing the ending to the readers that a fiancee has been chosen for the guy ten years ago by his dad.

The foreshadowing ends at where he phoned the narrator and told her he’d love her till death (117). Okay… this is out of expect. I thought that was just an affair…

The question at the end of the blog is that do you think the Chinese guy really love her?

 

 

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Uncategorized

Mission Incomplete!!!

I have to confess that I picked this book because the title is sooo poetic. It is an unfinished sentence, so I guess that there may be a cliff hanger at the end of the book. Clearly, there is something similar but not exactly a cliff hanger.

I found the book to be sooo CHAOTIC when I started to read it. The first chapter is fine, I know the point of view is a bit weird, but there was a mission! I really want to know why is the suitcase important and what is inside the suitcase, but I never got to know. Anyway, the first chapter is still more fulfilling than the ones after because I know at the end that Chief Gorin was the person the narrator was looking for. The stories, or fragments that appeared later are different.

The constant change of exposition made me confused. I read about an argument in class about Cimmerian language, then suddenly been directed to read about a war. The characters surrounded the narrator change as well. Then at the end of chapter 5, Italo introduced another story Looks down in the gathering shadow. At this point, I really feel like Italo has many ideas been drafted but they are not good enough to be written as an entire book, so he combined those ideas together to be this book.

As I just thought in this way, Italo wrote in the beginning of the chapter 6 that readers are wondering the complete volume must exist, and they are seeking for those. Ya, exactly, this is what I was doing! Then, I took a step back, reflecting on the previous stories. Even though the first story gives a satisfactory ending, it does not mean anything to me. When I was small, what I usually do is looking for what I perceived from the book name. And if the book does not go in the way I expected, I just put it away.

It is interesting that the book constantly talks about reading a physical book when I was reading it on my tablet. It is not just about reading a physical book, it is the old ones, where we need to use the paper knife to cut the pages. I have never read a book like that, so correct me if I am wrong. I feel like the movement create a feeling of uncovering while reading a book. This book gives me a lot of feelings about uncovering. The first a few pages are about a station, it turns to a cooking scene afterwards, then it starts to describe a conversation at uni, and the prison at the seashore, etc.

The question I asked for this week is: is there any connections you guys found between these fragments?

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Uncategorized

Evenness?

“I told him I was used to hard work.” This sentence on page 156 made me feel bad for Natalia. Throughout the book, Natalia is described as hardworking. Before her marriage, she worked at a pastry shop, but her salary was controlled by her father. The narrator describes how her father yelled at her when she asked for her own money and “finally” “said yes and he’d pay half the rent” with her money. The subject here makes it sound as though her father was paying the rent for her, but it was actually the money she had earned herself.

Quimet, on the other hand, is also manipulating her financial situation. Right before they got married, Quimet proposed the idea to “go fifty-fifty on the apartment” [38]. Even though this sounds equal, Natalia was not able to pay the money because of her father’s control at the beginning. Both Quimet and Natalia’s father represent patriarchal figures who exploit Natalia financially.

Quimet always wants to pursue this type of equality, which is ridiculous, to be honest. For some unknown reason, there is a worm inside Quimet’s stomach. When he finally vomited the entire worm, he claimed that Natalia and he were “even,” because she’d “had the kids and he’d had a worm fifteen yards long” [78]. How can he call this even? In another part of the book, Quimet shows disrespect regarding Natalia’s labor. He complains to other people about how she broke the bedpost [62].

Should I call this manipulation? I am hesitating because I don’t think Natalia’s father and Quimet manipulate her on purpose. They are doing what benefits themselves the most. The claim for evenness is also inconsiderate and selfish.

In the later part of the book, Quimet proposes raising some doves so that they can earn extra money. However, the entire task is assigned to Natalia. She has to bear the smell of the doves, paint the walls, and so on. Throughout the entire process, Quimet barely participates, just as he barely participates in raising their children. It is true that at the beginning, neither of them is good at raising a child. Natalia tries to feed her son orange juice, and Quimet leaves him in the cradle without comforting him at all when he is crying. But while Natalia is trying to make her son feel better (even though the method is completely wrong), Quimet is not attempting anything at all.

So the question I have for this week is: Is evenness important in marriage?

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complaining

Deep rivers – a hard book to read

This book is tough. The title makes me feel like there will be fascinating adventures, but there are not. The diction is hard to understand as an outsider, hehehe.

Another reason this book is difficult to read is that I found the narrator to be less vividly portrayed compared to the books we read before. As someone who always tries to focus on the protagonist and the plot, this book made it a bit hard for me to follow. In the lecture, it is argued that he “is never at home” and is always an outsider, which may be the reason the book feels this way.

I found that the narrator behaves indifferently toward the things around him, which allows me to think more about the incidents that happen in the book and the other characters. At the beginning of the book, when he and his father are at the Old Man’s house, most of the conversations are depicted between his father and Pongo. The narrator is always the one who shares his feelings but never participates in the conversations (7).

When it comes to the later part of the book, where he is enrolled as a boarder at a Church-run boys’ school, the author spends a great amount of words describing the boys playing with the zumbayllu. He is definitely not welcomed by the boys, though I cannot see the exact reason. When he successfully throws the zumbayllu, the boys shout, “This game’s not for just any old stranger!” However, I still find him behaving indifferently. In the descriptions of his feelings and actions, he never seems to feel bad about this.

The part where I feel he starts to assert something is in Chapter 11, when the narrator confesses that he “could not understand how many of the beautiful young ladies” could weep for the soldiers. The soldiers are the ones he “was suspicious of.” He thinks of the “humble gendarmes” and the fat majors, then questions the clothes and boots they are wearing, finally bringing it back to the weeping young ladies. I think he is thinking conspiratorially, believing that the soldiers may have done something to the women. The narrator also reveals his feelings toward the soldiers to Palacitos by saying, “They’re just like me! Not them!” and asking, “What are soldiers good for?” (194).

The question I have is: what does Ernesto’s hatred toward the soldiers represent? And how does this relate the the deep rivers?

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Agostino

Exploration of adulthood – Agostino

This book is a lot shorter than the ones we read before. I really enjoy reading it, and I like the ending a lot. The theme I want to discuss in this blog is social class division and exposure to sexuality.

The protagonist, Agostino, is from a middle-class family. His father has passed away, leaving his mother and him a good amount of property.

At the beginning of the novel, I do not think Agostino knows the privilege he has, but this changes shortly. One of the boys asks him, “Are you rich?” Agostino responds yes, but when they ask how much money he has exactly, he answers, “I don’t know” (33).

They keep asking him if he has a big house. This time, he not only responds yes, but also stresses that there are twenty rooms in the house. Moravia describes his gesture as one where he “can’t resist boasting.” I think at that moment, he becomes aware of his privilege, which makes him stand out from the boys who look down on him and see him as an outsider.

They then ask him whether there are waiters in his house and turn to the waiter’s son in the gang, teasing him for that. From the questions the gang of boys asks out of the blue, as well as the later ones, it is very clear that they are aware of the social class they belong to. This is not true for Agostino, who is basically unsure at the beginning, since going to the beach is a special period of time, a summer vacation, that is different from his day-to-day life. For the boys, however, the beach is where they live their routine lives.

As an outsider, Agostino tries to become one of them by pretending to be a boatman’s son. He uses the information he has just gotten from Saro, that he never goes to school.

I have also realized that even though the gang of boys is almost the same age as Agostino, they are more exposed to sexuality and adulthood. For example, when Agostino struggles with the idea of how a price can be set on those women (92). Tortima, the boy who deceives Agostino and uses his money at the brothel without any hesitation, clearly has more experience.

The question I have for this week is: Do you think social class impacts the timing of children’s exposure to sexuality?

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