Tag Archives: Perspective

Mad Toy- Che, he steals lightbulbs?

This week we were tasked with reading Mad Toy, by Roberto Arlt, which I actually enjoyed reading quite a bit. In the beginning before I committed to reading this book, I tried looking around for some information about the book and found that there were a whopping 0 reviews of this book on Goodreads, with only Spanish reviews for the Spanish version of the book. This intrigued me as I have never encounter this before and needless to say I think I made the right decision.

I think the writing style of this book is a lot more digestible and entertaining, at least in comparison to Combray (yes I am bringing it up again). I find myself following the words and pages more intently and with more curiosity. It could be merely because this novel is more plot driven, and my brain is more oriented to follow stories. However, I suspect it might have something to do with the elements of the  “picaresque” style that was mentioned in lecture. Also I do think that the writing style is quite intriguing on its own- its mentions of other texts and characters really adds a different feeling to the novel and provides a lot more context.

I think being told in first person with the mix of Silvio’s thoughts and actions pulls you more into the story as if you are experiencing the story as the main character, Silvio. the depiction of a “picaro’s journey ” I would assume also adds to the fascination I have with the story overall. I think in modern day, across various mediums, the picaresque kind of storytelling is sort of experiencing some form of renaissance. Collins dictionary defines a Picaresque story as “one which is dishonest but likeable person travels around and has lots of exciting experiences”.  Which funnily enough, before even hearing about about this idea of the “picaresque” story style, I thought to myself that this book strangely reminds me of the Wolf of Wall Street. I guess arguably the trajectory of the books might not be the same, however the focus and framing of the story really reminds me of that kind of storytelling. Our culture’s fasciation with this sort of anti-hero really cultivated my interests in these types of characters and I find Silvio to actually occupy a more specific niche which was very fresh as well. Also forgot to mention that I am a big fan of “episodic” readings so that probably also adds to my enjoyment of this novel.

Also as a complete side note- they named their thieving trio “Club of the Gentlemen of Midnight”??? That is an amazing name. That certainly is a name only someone that age could come up with.

The question to you all this week is:

Within the book Silvio often references different authors/figures some of which he looks up to. Is there any fictional or non-fictional character that had or continues to have that sort of impact on you?

Combray – Windows into childhood, modernism, and…confusing writing?

Im sure you can tell from the title that much like the other people in this course, I did not enjoy the writing style of this book. But before I jump into ranting about it, I’ll talk about some more interesting aspects of the book first.

The flow and focus of this books features a sort of choppy consciousness – like you’re reaching back into the depths of your memory and just recalling whatever you can that relates to one another, which often times don’t necessarily connect that well. I think that really contributes to the confusion of this book because there seems to be holes in between the sentences, contexts, and stories. So as a reader on my end, I’m trying to scour the pages to try to piece things together and read on the sentences to see if things will come together, yet it doesn’t. But that seems to be intentional in some ways maybe?. Also, it features windows as a symbol- reading this book did feel like I was glancing into the window of someones house and it reminds me of the reality that this is someone else’s story being retold for their own purposes, so the world and the bounds of it are dictated by them only, not necessarily meant for others to easily understand. Which also connects to my next point.

A lot of the times, I feel that reading is sort of like an interaction between writer and reader, somewhat like a dance (it takes two to tango etc. etc. etc.) like maybe a children’s book will be more direct and guiding along so on the authors part they design their writing to be more rooted in the audiences perspective. Somewhat like you’re being taught to dance and held by the hand to see the world through the authors eyes and stories. For this book, it felt like instead of the usual duet, it’s instead the author’s solo performance and I’m just there to watch. I think that process is unusual and does challenge our activeness and perspectives on what it means to be a reader.

And that then leads me to my next point and I guess my dissatisfaction with the book. When reading a book I think I seek to empathize. I want to see the perspective of a character that isn’t me, know what’s going on about them or what they think about things. I also held this expectation for this book, but for some reason this book just didn’t really connect with me. It could be that I just don’t care about the ramblings of a little rich boy but I think it’s more than that- I can’t discern the relevancy (in the sense of the purpose of what he means to convey) from his sentences and that could just be a fault of mine.

To end with a question, why do you think people write, or what is the purpose of writing a novel/book? What do you think Proust’s view was?