Tag Archives: literature

Goodbye RMST!

3 Replies

Hello everyone! This semester went by a lot faster than the winter semester, and it brought back my long-lost hobby of reading every evening. I enjoyed the structure and flexibility of this course, it allowed me to choose how many books I wanted to read this semester and provided me with readings that I would’ve never chosen. I was definitely intimidated by the number of lengthy novels I chose to read by the end of the semester, but it was rewarding to know that I could achieve it with proper time management and a genuine interest in some of the novels. Although some readings were brutal and long, others were intriguing and stuck around in my mind. The online lectures and the in-person discussions were also engaging and clarified a lot of the content which helped with my understanding of complicated readings and plotlines. I also appreciated how the professor included the music and drinks from the novel of that week in the in-person discussions. There were many repetitive themes in this course, such as coming-of-age, identity, memory, love, and death. I loved the blog post aspect of this course, it was interesting to read about other people’s perspectives of the same novel and their interpretation of the plot, characters, and themes. 

 

If I had to choose my favourite book from this course, it would be José Eduardo Agualusa’s “The Book of Chameleons,” because the writing was clear and straightforward, which was pretty rare with the books in this course. The characters in the novel were also interesting and had a life of their own, and I really liked its message on identity. There were a lot of complicated timelines which were puzzling to figure out so I enjoyed the simplicity of storytelling in “The Book of Chameleons.” I don’t really have a least favourite novel, but the last novel I read, “Faces in the Crowd,” was definitely not my favourite, it was complicated and confusing and got me playing guessing games with the characters and narrations. 

 

Reading back on my first blog post, I had set a goal to “read and accurately interpret literature texts and expose myself to books that I never would’ve picked myself in stores,” which I definitely think I achieved. The books chosen were based in different cities and countries and at different points in time, which was very pleasing to read in chronological order. Overall, I really enjoyed taking Romance Studies, and I would love to take it again. So hopefully, I’ll see some of you again and I wish you all the best summers! 

 

Question: What was your favourite book and the theme that corresponds to it? Why? 

José Eduardo Agualusa, “The Book of Chameleons”

4 Replies

Jose Eduardo Agualusa’s novel, “The Book of Chameleons,” is an imaginative novel that explores the themes of identity and memory through the lens of a gecko living in the house of Felix Ventura. The gecko undergoes life with feelings and thoughts adjacent to those of humans, capable of processing human behaviours and interactions. This made sense as it was later revealed that the gecko was a man “in an earlier life (pg. 29)” whose “soul has been trapped in this body [of a gecko] (pg. 40).” There are many interesting characters in this story and the narration was engaging and straightforward, without the philosophical and abstract writing from previous readings. 

 

Felix Ventura was the owner of the house and he established a close friendship with the gecko whom he named Eulalio (not sure if this was his true name in his past life). He was very creative and imaginative, saying that “Literature is the only chance for a true liar to attain any sort of social acceptance (pg. 68).” This quote intrigued me and got me reflecting on the values that I was taught. Society often declares that “honesty is the best policy,” so is there ever a time when lying is justified? Is it only when words are typed out on pages of fictional novels that it’s acceptable to spin tales from our minds? Another quote from Felix that stood out to me was “I think what I do is really an advanced kind of literature… I create plots, I invent characters, but rather than keeping them trapped in a book I give them life, launching them out into reality (pg. 68).” This confirmed my hypothesis that Felix was in the business of selling false identities and creating artificial memories to his customer; the most prominent one being Jose Buchmann, who became so immersed in his new identity that it appeared that “this man has been Jose Buchmann all his life (pg. 59).” Jose’s dedication and faith he put into his new identity was alarming and frightening, he listened intently to Felix’s fabricated story of his past life while asking detailed questions to reinvent himself. 

 

Another interesting aspect of this story was the gecko’s capability to enter into the human character’s dreams. At first, I thought that he could only enter Felix’s dream as they lived under the same roof and shared a connection because they were “best friends (pg. 179),” but he was in Jose’s dream as well. What’s even more fascinating is that the gecko took on a human form in these dreams: “In the dream he had human form, a serious sort of man, with a face that seemed familiar to me (pg. 69).” Was this human form the man he was in his former lifetime? 

 

Discussion Question(s):

One of the main themes of this novel is identity, do you think that identity is fixed or ever-changing? Why do you think someone may ask Felix to change their identity? Under what circumstances would you consider changing your identity?