Tag Archives: time

Thinking Outside the Box in The Taiga Syndrome

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?

 

The Magic of Macondo in 100 years of Solitude

This novel certainly lives up to its name, and was a great read for reading break, as it actually made me want to keep reading it. I certainly got lost in the text multiple times, which is often a difficult thing for me to do. The in-depth descriptions, intricate and passionate relationships between the characters, and compelling meaning behind all of it created a world that was pleasant to get lost in. Themes surrounding life and death, time, and the uniqueness of Macondo as a magical-realist place interested me the most, so I’ll be focusing on those in this post, but I also found many themes around revolution and other important topics we had gone over in our discussion classes.

One of the largest anxiety-inducing scenes in this book came from the first death in Macondo, as it signified a change in tone in the story. During the first part, Gabriel Marquez seemed to make a point that Macondo was without death, that the youthfulness of the town and separation from government, politics, and death created a magical place. The death of Melquiades was fitting as the first reality check for the town, as it did not take away from the magical realism, with his character being mentioned as transcending mortality. However, it did allude to the progression of time that was not very apparent before this moment, since the lack of death, new characters, and separation from the outside world made it difficult to place Macondo along the progression of time. Even in Jose Arcadio Buendias’ adventures to find the sea and connections to other towns were futile, until his wife found the path to a nearby town. The deaths following Malquiades, such as Jose Arcadio’s, Colonel Aureliano’s, and Jose Segundo’s, help to reveal the commentary on mortality that Gabriel Marquez creates. From celebrations to sorrow, funeral processions to hasty burials, and duration that the death is discussed, Marquez shines a light on the diversity to which death is dealt with. Its supernatural nature is only penetrated with the mass shooting scene, which a lack of reflection and emotion imply a connection to the real world without magical impacts. The final scene, where Macondo and its inhabitants are wiped off of the planet, brings the theme of death full circle, with a sad but cathartic ending to a town that seemed separated from the grounded, bland realism of the world that surrounds it.

While 100 Years of Solitude does not have the same severity of fragmentation of time as Mama Blanca’s Memoirs, I found that the novel used much smaller jumps through time to express the same concept, such as the mention of Colonel Aureliano’s ‘death’ from the firing squad. I also liked to think about the tie between non-linear time and death, as they were not only two of the most interesting topics that I thought about, but help support the supernatural and diverse nature of death that the novel comments on. Going back to Melquiades’ death, his premonition of his own death. “‘I have died of fever on the dunes of Singapore'”(72), fittingly create an air of mystery around his mortality (or immortality). His true death was actually in the town of Macondo, from drowning. I can’t say exactly why, but I found it interesting that Gabriel Marquez chose to write a premonition of death that broke space, where Melquiades in his fever state thinks he died across the entire world. Petra Ternera and Ursula also break the linearity of time, living longer than physically possible. While this can just be boiled down tomagical realism, I think the separation of Macondo from the linearity and realism of space and time from the rest of the world inspires a better and more in-depth thought on the significance of their life, death, and value to the book and Macondo itself.

Finally, the impact of magical realism, which is underlying in every other theme within this book, is perfectly integrated into this book. It ranges from subtle impressions to overarching effects, and adds so much depth and meaning to the story that a non-magic-realist novel could never have. Perhaps I’m saying this due to its perfect placement within this nobel prize winning book, but it just fits too well into the story that Gabriel Marquez writes. It adds to the power of emotions, relationships, events, violence, love, adventure, solitude, family, friends, life, death, and so much more. The significance of magical realism within this book is simply too diverse to write about and think about so quickly, and even though I was thinking about it throughout the entire week that I was reading this book, I still can’t exactly say to what extent this theme impacted the novel

So instead I’ll ask my question:

What was your favorite usage of magical realism within this book? Or, what theme that magical realism impacted benefitted the most from their coupling?