I enjoyed the methods through which Garza entwines fantasy with reality in her book, and the steady progression of fantastical elements taking over the story more and more. The references to past fairy tales created a surprising familiarity to the strange, unreal figures and events that are introduced throughout the tale. Garza’s style of writing reflected many of the past themes we have discussed in this class, like the fragmentation of time, certain archetypes, games, and intriguing romances. I found that, as her character progressed further and further into the fictional taiga, the realism, cohesiveness, and general stability of the writing fittingly became less and less robust. Garza definitely did an excellent job linking the deconstruction of time, realism, and sanity too, with the narrator’s journey deeper and deeper into the taiga.
The use of the two elvish-type creatures, and the ‘show’ they put on in the brothel certainly caught me off guard, but it helped me figure out the style through which Garza chose to write this story through. This sex scene, along with the other ones, as well as the type of romances described in the story, push themselves outside of the box of what one would consider a normal perspective or narrative on sex and romance. I think this is not the only element Garza uses to portray this stylistic approach, as her personal twists on what we consider to be standard fairytale archetypes and events, and her usage of romances and time, push the limits of what I considered reasonable. She incorporates sex into her criticism and commentary of capitalism by writing scenes in the brothel, like I mentioned above, but also uses it as a means to begin relationships, rather than just as a part of an already intimate relationship, which would normally be standard in more popularized books. The way she chooses to narrate it was also pretty interesting to me, and reflected how she chose to create the character through which the story was being told through.
The narrative style reminded me of The Kingdom of This World, since the way the character ‘spoke’ of her surroundings and what she saw or felt seemed pretty analytical and a bit emotionless. That isn’t to say the book was narrated without emotion, or that there weren’t scenes with emotional tumult or climax, but the general comprehension of the events that unfolded around her felt a bit like a scientific analysis, but it fits her archetype of an ex-detective. This detective element was more present in her translator though, and I think relates to the discussions we have on how the idea of ‘game’ or ‘play’ can be incorporated into the meaning of the books. The breadcrumb trail made me feel like the whole quest to find the lost wife was set up for her already, and while the events that transpired felt spontaneous, I had a feeling her attempts to find the runaway couple would be futile, much like many of her other attempts to solve cases had gone in her past. This failure to conclude the mission, or perhaps story, felt like some of the other open-ended books we had read already, like 100 years of solitude. This book did feel like a Latin-American book to me, but the setting and level of fantastical elements sometimes made me forget it was.
Also @Professor Beasley-Murray, I am impressed with what you consider a shot to be. That ‘shot’ glass was huge.
My question for you guys is: Which past important theme that we have mentioned in class did you see used most in this book? How?
Felix, Dr. Beasley-Murray never fails to impress us! The truth is that it is difficult to decide what the specific genre of this novel is, because it seems that it is built with those same bread crumbs through which we are following the story. That’s why the brothel scene seems so strange to us. If I told you that somehow it brings us back to Borges, would you be surprised?