{"id":378,"date":"2009-02-04T00:05:10","date_gmt":"2009-02-04T08:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salvmad.wordpress.com\/?p=20"},"modified":"2009-04-29T18:15:32","modified_gmt":"2009-04-30T02:15:32","slug":"legends-folk-and-popular-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/2009\/02\/04\/legends-folk-and-popular-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Legends, Folk, and Popular Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Folk, when I think of folk for the most part I think of \u201clow culture\u201d, is this wrong? Probably yes, after reading the four short stories for the week, I realized that if these are considered \u201cfolk\u201d, then \u201cfolk\u201d isn\u2019t what I presumed it to be, and it definitely isn\u2019t low culture. Now for me to try and define what that is would be like trying to define \u201cpeople\u201d on my own. So, I\u2019m going to stay away from it.<\/p>\n

\n

However, I would like to talk about the \u201cLegend of the Crystal Mask.\u201d Unlike the other two stories from Asturias, this one I was actually able to read it without zoning out. Some people have mentioned in their blogs that this author reminds them of Magical Realism, well I agree\u2026 Now, I am not a big fan of \u201cmagical realism\u201d because it leaves almost nothing to the imagination, almost everything is outlined for you. However, in the case of the \u201cLegend of the Crystal Mask\u201d the magical realism really did it for me. Check page 92, when Asturias describes how the man works on the mask:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cDays and days of toil\u2026 without stopping. Almost without sleeping. He could do no more. His hands scratched, his face cut, injuries which, before they healed, were replaced by new injuries, lacerated and almost blinded by the splinters and the infinite dust of quartz, clacking for water, water, water to drink, and water for bathing the chunk of pure crystallized light that was gong to take the form of a face.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\n

I felt like as if I was watching this person going at it\u2026 like a person on some sort of drug. Crazy about finishing your work\u2026, and then Asturias throws you a bone by saying that the artist was \u201cdrenched in madman\u2019s sweat\u201d. Yes, yes, yes! The artist was going mad, with his work\u2026 and then the conclusion:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cin the end he had it, carved in white fire, polished with dust from the necklace of eyes and snail shells. Its sheen was blinding and when he put it on \u2013 the Mask of the Rain Nurse \u2013 he had the sensation of emptying his transient being into a drop of immortal water.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Now, why is this relevant? When we started talking about culture, we talked about journeys. I mean literally, with the usual bus trip that eventually turns out to be a very complex set of ideas in a few paragraphs. And then, I thought, oh well, what about epic journeys and their contribution to culture. The great paintings, the epic poems, the grand architectural structures, what about the journeys that the artist and the people went through when creating them? Could that also be part of a collective memory that eventually becomes part of the popular culture?<\/p>\n

\n

I might have gone mad, but for some reason the week of \u2018folk\u2019 lead me to start thinking about the collective memory of society and how that affects popular culture. Anyways, I\u2019m leaving that adjust some food for thought.<\/p>\n

\n

I\u2019m out<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Folk, when I think of folk for the most part I think of \u201clow culture\u201d, is this wrong? Probably yes, after reading the four short stories for the week, I realized that if these are considered \u201cfolk\u201d, then \u201cfolk\u201d isn\u2019t what I presumed it to be, and it definitely isn\u2019t low culture. Now for […]\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2109,333],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arguedas-and-asturias","category-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}