Author Archives: Ava

Mad Toy; the tensions of living in a world of survival

This week’s reading of Roberto Arlt’s Mad Toy was very interesting because Arlt’s style of writing is something that I am not usually familiar with, but still enjoyed nonetheless. I can see how Arlt’s writing can be seen as a betrayal of typical literature. There are often times when it feels like the reader is not given a satisfying answer, like for example how Silvio seems to be striving in his new job at the military aviation school and then randomly gets let go from his position for no justifiable reason as well as the mysterious Leonor. Also how the writing itself would jump from paragraph descriptions to just straight lines of dialogue created hiccups of pacing in the story. However, I think it was rather refreshing to almost feel awkward at times when reading this story because it felt like jumping back and forth between the “real world” and your internal dialogue.

One of the major themes I think I picked up during this story was the idea of a life of beauty versus a life of survival. Specifically when Silvio and his friends form their little thievery gang, this theme is established. Silvio loves books, literature, and poetry, however, they are the very things that he needs to steal and sell in order to survive. Here he still saw thievery as something beautiful, but perhaps it was only beautiful because it constituted their survival. After all, they would have money. Is a life of survival one of beauty as well? I think Silvio later in the book would disagree with this. “It doesn’t matter that I don’t have a suit or money or anything, and almost embarrassed I confessed: What I want is to be admired by others, praised by others” (95). In other words, I imagine Silvio wants to be the very poets and inventors whose beauty would make the world tremble.

I think what leads to Silvio’s betrayal of Rengo is when he meets up with Lucio again. Here he has seen the two sides that choice has destined his friends with. On one hand, you have Enrique who has been imprisoned for continuing a life of thievery, and on the other hand, you have Lucio who is now the police and enforcing the very laws they would break as children. I think seeing Enrique’s fate is one of the reasons why he chooses to rat out Rengo as he makes a moral decision to explore the beauty of his own capacities and of life and not succumb to a future of guilt.

The question I would ask regarding Mad Toy would be as follows: How do Arlt’s narrative choices, such as the shifts in pacing and the portrayal of Silvio’s internal struggles, enhance or maybe even limit the reader’s understanding of how a life of survival was like in Argentina during the early twentieth century?

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Combray; nostalgia as something comforting yet painful

Starting off this course with Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way was both a challenging yet very interesting start. Reading Combray for me, almost felt like reading a memoir. I felt like I could visibly see Marcel’s experiences with the interactions he would have with his family as well as the moments where he was left alone with his own thoughts. I will say that I definitely struggled reading some parts of this story due to Proust’s use of long sentences. However, I think that his constant use of commas as a way of extending his thoughts kind of pay tribute to the theme of memories and nostalgia. It is almost as if his sentences represent the constant flow of memories as they are evoked from anything as large and expansive as a cathedral, to something as small yet just as meaningful as a madeline. In a sense our memories our constantly flooding our minds like a run on sentence as we experience description after description of nostalgia.

One common theme I thought was very interesting is the idea of habit. Specifically in chapter 1, there is this constant mention of the lifestyle of Proust as being one that stuck to habit. One of those habits being that when company was over, he would accept the fact that he wouldn’t be receiving a good nights kiss from his mother. A memory that was of great pain for Proust since he would cherish those short moments he spent with his mother. However, it was upon breaking this habit of accepting he wouldn’t be seeing his mother, that evoked his memory. Perhaps that is all memories are, a break in habit, whether the result is painful or comforting.

For Proust I think the main sources of his memories come from food, architecture, and love. Food in the form of the soft madeline’s he would dip into his tea or the brioche buns that Francoise would bring them. Architecture in the cathedrals, or the churches, or the bedrooms that Proust would find comfort in describing with great detail. Finally love, his love for his mom, books, and theater. I think these are all forms of memory most people can relate to. However I will say that architecture has probably the least effect on memory for me, this could be because stained glass cathedrals are just not as common here as in France. Therefore I think it’s interesting to see how location of where you grew up also has such an adamant affect on what evokes memory.

“I did what we all do, once we are grown up, when confronted with sufferings and injustices. I did not want to see them.” (12)

I find myself heavily relating to this quote and I personally think that it can be applied to so many scenarios and situations we face today. Therefore my question would be: Do you think Proust’s Combray is still applicable today? In what ways? How is it similar, how is it different? Or more specifically, what parts of Combray did you find yourself relating to the most and why?

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Introduction!

Hey everyone! My name is Ava and I am a second-year Bachelor of Arts student interested in majoring in Political Science. I was born in Vancouver and so I grew up loving hiking, camping, and any other outdoor activities. I was always super close with my family, my mom used to read me books when I was younger so that’s where my love for reading came from. Today I like reading any genre from classics to fantasy and contemporary novels. My favourite book is The Secret History by Donna Tartt which I recommend if you’re into pretentious characters who make questionable decisions for the sake of artistry :). Funnily enough, one of the main ideas in The Secret History is the dangers of romanticizing bizarre situations which made me think of the discussion we had in class today regarding whether fiction needs to feel real in order to be good. I think, in this case, there were a lot of unrealistic satirical situations however because it was told from the perspective of one of the characters themselves, it was genuinely very enjoyable!

I definitely expect to be challenged when reading these novels because they are not the type of literature I would typically reach for, but I am familiar with some of the authors so I am excited to learn more about their writings. One thing I hated about the readings we had to do in high school was that we were always so focused on finding the deeper meanings of stories, that we failed to enjoy the readings for themselves at face value, therefore, that is something that I look forward to appreciating more in this course.

For this semester, I really want to engage more with novels outside of the world of American literature just because I think that storytelling is such a powerful form of communication shared differently around the world. As mentioned in the lecture video, I am also really interested to see how these texts compare to each other based on who is writing them and in what country they are based in. I am usually more drawn to female authors I don’t really know why, I think it’s because I am able to pick up on their sarcastic quips more often. I am very new to blogging so this very much feels like a notes app brain dump but I am excited to discuss the readings and share my own opinions on them and read everyone else’s!

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