Tag Archives: dreams/utopia

04/3/23

Week 12: Love and Totalitarianism in Lemebel’s My Tender Matador

    A political malaise of smoke and mirrors, secretive plots and political rebellion create the tone of My Tender Matador, the Pedro Lemebel book which concerns a foiled Guerilla plot to take down the Augusto Pinochet regime in 1980s Chile. As this week’s lecture puts it, it is as much a political drama as it is a love story. This is fitting in the sense that, speaking for myself, political oppression and conflict means little when authors do not put a face to those who are most affected by it, as well as do not shine light on the interpersonal relationships we as readers might relate to even under much different circumstances. Under dictatorship, it is often humanity which most brightly shines through the dogmatic oppression, jack boots and party slogans. It is with this landscape Pedro Lemebel creates a classic not merely related to the past, but like with most of our course readings, remains relevant through to the present. 

    The question of gender, as well as one’s identity under authoritarianism, is highlighted throughout the narrative. The story revolves around the central protagonist, the “Queen of the Corner,” or La Loca de Frente. In addition to what has already been said in the lecture of her character name’s etymology, I interpreted Frente as a nod to the “front” she must maintain while keeping up appearances in a time of conformity under totalitarianism. To be outside the norm is a counter-culture statement itself. Yet with the bovine complacency towards love songs—cultural artefacts which might be seen as commercial and banal in any other circumstance—on her sleeve La Loca wears a wish for escapism: through political change, or interpersonal relationships. This is further reflected in her dynamic with the revolutionary Carlos, to which many of this week’s blogs have referred to as either toxic or loveless. While I’m not sure an entire relationship can be distilled in this way from an outside perspective, there are certainly struggles which, owing to the turbulent times, are certain to find their root cause in the totalitarian regime which surrounds them and a wish for change. It is in the metaphor of Carlos and La Loca for real world political conflict the reader is able to assign a face to the anguish others went through in 1980s Chile. 

    My question to the class: Do you agree that the goal of Pedro Lemebel, as well as other authors speaking on socio-political world events we had studied, is to humanise the conflict, or simply tell their own truth? In what ways do the two complement each other, or are incompatible? S

03/27/23

Week 11: The Politicisation of the Artist in Bolano’s Distant Star

    My first emotion while reading Roberto Bolano’s Distant Star was shock—the author does not paint the portrait of the artist as a relatively favourable position in Chilean society, but rather bleak by contrast. Through censorship, disappearances and political violence—both overtly depicted as well as presented in artistic mediums in the case of Carlos Weider—the artistic representation Bolano provides is that of the artist as a truth teller in society who, in their mastery of drawing up popular sentiment and disillusionment, is equally seen as “dangerous” by totalitarian governments. It is in the revolutionary role of the artist in society that creation is outlined as a fruitless, but also a necessary one. 

    I especially enjoyed the historical context given by the lectures. Before starting this course, 1980s Chile was a country I knew little about–much less the Latin American region as a whole!–and I can safely say I have acquired a greater understanding of its geopolitical events than before. “The Wave of Democratisation” which began with the collapse of the Agentinian dictatorship in 1983; Brazil in 1985; Paraguay in 1993; to the stretching home of Roberto Bolano’s novel was very intriguing to learn about: the quasi-domino effect which would change lives not only on-the-ground, but abstract realms in literature as well. The parallel drawn between barbarity and literature strikes me as a truthful one. Despite platitudes which tell us the pen is mightier than the sword, I wonder if artists see themselves as living by the sword, and often dying by it when they are repressed by governments. Is this the uncertain artistic license Bolano seems to point us towards with Carlos Weider in the novel? 

    In terms of my opinion of Weider, I found the avant-garde ambiguity of his art an intriguing theme. There is no telling whether or not the subjects of the photos are meant to be a condemnation endorsement, or simply provoke in an apolitical fashion. To think that simple photos can tell one so much, yet reveal so little about intent, is therefore what makes the medium both opaque and transparent in the eyes of cultural critics. The adage “a picture says a thousand word” reveals the importance of photography as capturing a moment to change minds; in turn, it also reveals the danger it poses to authoritarian regimes who wish to control the popular narrative. Raul Zurita, as mentioned in the lecture, is a prominent real world example of this figure who lives by this standard. With the Marshall McLuhan belief that the medium is the message, he wishes to have eyes turned upwards towards the sky in a figurative wish for escape from their plights, but also a literary one. 

    My question for the class is in what way does Bolano play into, or subvert, our portrait of the artist? In what ways might it change during authoritarian rule and how might censorship assist in eliminating dissent? S

02/13/23

Week 6: Revolution of Ideas in Carpentier’s The Kingdom of This World

    Primarily, Alejo Carpentier’s “The Kingdom of This World” is a book which surrounds itself with themes of conflict. Through portraying the violence that slave revolts might bring, as well as comparing it to the actual trauma that comes through the Haitian slave trade, it mirrors the internal struggle of ideology inherent in its characters regarding the difficulty not only in winning a revolution with force, but also one that convinces others with its ideas. This is done through charting the Haitian revolution from 1799 to 1804 and showing its aftermath—the latter of which is often lost in the romantic ideas of present day “change” without any care for what arises from its conflict. In a sense, the story shows the tension of resistance that comes about through the “two worlds” of the slave trade in the form of the master-slave relationship. It is also in this way Carpentier’s narrative seeks to capture French/Spanish identity as the real marvellous–in essence, a precursor to its signature style of magical realism. 

    It was owing to the author’s idea of capturing the “real marvellous” I most enjoyed the writing style of this book. In a similar day-dream style to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, one sequence wherein the protagonist Ti Noel compares calves heads’ to the decapitated human white heads of masters is particularly striking in the context of the narrative of revolution. This is contrasted with newsprints of the French Revolution and the imagery of the death of King Louie in 1793. Overall, the tension remains ripe in the air through the everyday objects which, on their own, reveal little significance outside of the lofty dreams and hopes and fantasies of the protagonist. It is only through contemporary news on the periphery that drives the narrative forward.

    To quote the lecture, “where Europe meets Africa” stands as the backdrop of this story. Present day strife is often fuelled by age-old conflict, whether blatantly obvious or buried. But it is in the spiritual seance of the Americas where the plot can find some footing outside of a mere timepiece—for as the prologue attempts to inform the reader, many of the rituals within the book’s pages can be found in Venezuela and other countries to this day. Through the focus on creating a mood and feel of the real marvellous, I believe “The Kingdom of This World” stands as a true example of Latin American literature: representing not merely the regional zeitgeist of Haiti, but the conflicts surrounding colonialism and slavery which are common across the genre as a whole. 

    My prompt for the class this week will be one that questions the definition of Latin American literature as a whole. Is magical realism a style which has always been a vital component of describing most Latin culture, as shown through Carpentier and Marquez, or simply a modern phenomenon which transcends region? S