Like with many other things I have read in this course, I found this novel a little hard for me to follow at times. There were so many characters and aliases that I constantly lost track of who was who. That said, certain parts really stood out to me, especially the sections that focused on Dorda. I thought Piglia’s description of his character was extremely fascinating.
Dorda seems to kind of exist somewhere between intelligence and madness. According to the prison psychiatrist, him and the Kid function almost as one person: “There may be two of them, but they function as a single entity. The Gaucho acts as the body… the Kid as the brains” (52). This relationship makes the partnership that the two have feel inseparable. Dorda relies on the Kid to make decisions, while he carries out the action without any hesitation. It sort of created the impression that Dorda is dangerous not just because of his violence, but because of the instinctive nature of his actions. He moves through the world guided by impulses, drugs, and the strange voices that he hears.
The voices Dorda hears was another thing that stood out. He describes hearing women speaking inside of his head, giving him commands or insulting him. At one point he explains the feeling as “an electric buzz you can hear going cric, cric inside your brains” that prevents him from sleeping (58). The way this is described makes his inner life feel filled with chaos and noise, as if his thoughts are constantly stirring. Because of this, he seems to rarely speak and appears detached from the world. Instead, he often drifts in his moments of silence, violence, and hallucination.
Dorda and Kid are criminals that are portrayed as the products of their environments. Both of them describe prison as a place that changes people completely. The Kid says that in jail “you soon learn to lie and to swallow the venom inside you” and that the experience fills you with hatred (74). Instead of having these two characters presented as a simple case of being villains, the novel shows you how certain circumstances, violence, and institutions shape them into who they become.
I enjoyed how Piglia spent time exploring the strange inner worlds of the criminals in the novel. I felt disturbed and at times, oddly sympathetic… even while recognizing their faults. The novel spends so much time looking at the minds and lives of people who would just normally be labeled as criminals. However, Piglia allows us to see the fragmented nature of their inner lives. Even though Dorda is dangerous, understanding the way that he thinks and lives kind of brought in the element of fascination, but at the same time discomfort.
Question:
Did learning about Dorda’s inner thoughts make you feel more sympathetic towards him, or make him seem more unsettling?
“Instead of having these two characters presented as a simple case of being villains, the novel shows you how certain circumstances, violence, and institutions shape them into who they become.” Furthermore, if I may add, Piglia also addresses in the novel another institution that, as I’ve read in other blogs, you have also recognized as closely linked to criminality: the police. In fact, their permeability is striking. In this interaction of criminal institutions, which includes the banking system, who generates what kind of subjectivities, and what are their stories?
I relate with your struggle to keep up with the story. In the beginning it was quite challenging for me to remember who was who and why it was even important to know these characters. However, like with Dorda, I think the inclusion of their thoughts and backstories did help me to feel attached and empathetic towards them. Especially hearing Dorda’s opinion of Kid; the two of them display a kind of trust that is now unobtainable with other people. Seeing through Dorda’s perspective (and some of kids backstory) made me think this book was trying to critique the entire system of how they handle criminals and. It felt like they were victims of the system.
Hi! I also find the characters description captivating. after reading many book for this class, this is by far my favourite on character description!! to answer your question, I personally feel that I can somewhat sympathize with Dorda as we get to see his early struggles and his mental illness is very much a part of his daily functioning but I don’t condone his brutal murdering rage. I think it is important for us reader to feel a certain way towards the character for it to work and for us to keep reading!