Month: March 2024

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Week 10: Money to Burn

Money to Burn by Ricardo Piglia, is a fictional novel blending crime and social commentary. The story follows the events of a real life bank robbery that took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by a group of thieves looking to change their lives. We follow them and witness the aftermath of their crime, how they navigate life in a new city and with newfound riches, as the police catch up to them, as does their past. I expected a stereotypical, thrilling, yet predictable crime drama, and although in part it was, Piglia’s enthralling characterization and the themes of liberation, capitalist critic, and especially the poignant discussion it creates on the role of money in our society and the hold it can have on us, really encaptivated me. Furthermore, exploring the ideas of the duality of morality, with how he blurs the lines between the criminals and the police, in their brutality and selfishness. He shows us the idea that, firstly, morality can be so subjective. We see this with the torturous tactics employed while interrogating prisoners, where the police see this is as justified and normalizes, as they believe they are dealing with criminals who deserve to be treated as such. Moreover, the other side of this is the continuous hardship these criminals have faced their entire lives, such as with Dora, known for being troubled since he was a child. It’s obvious there would be resentment built against the system and the police force that are all seemingly antagonistic, and therefore it would feel it justified to disrespect the system. This duality, where both sides believe they are justified, is an extremely important concept that perpetuates these systems of violence and oppression. Additionally, I believe this also raises an important discussion about the identity and labelling of criminals, and criminality, and how criminality is a cyclical systemic problem. Piglia also explores the extremely important topic of the value of money and essentially one of the greatest pitfalls of capitalism. Most explicitly, we see this towards the end when the group burns the loot from the heist. This act was supremely metaphorical in the sense it was as if they were liberating themselves from the shackles of capitalist society, so dependant and driven by the chains of money. The themes explored in this book are some of my favourite. I’m usually not the biggest fan of crime thrillers, but I enjoyed this book especially for its exploration of the ramifications of socioeconomic differences in life and how reality and morality can be supremely subjective based heavily on context.

Question: What is your perspective on the topic of criminality being a systemic problem? Did this book evoke the same thoughts for you?

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Week 8: If on a winter’s night a traveler

Italo Calvino, author of ‘If on a winter’s night a traveler’, is probably the most unique book I have encountered till date. Although not a terribly hard read, the book entails a unique style of dual narration. The book begins with a rather direct, second-person narration of what the reader is doing and feeling while finding, picking-up, and starting to read this book. In all honesty, at first I was pretty confused by this. I had no knowledge or background about this book other than that it entails multiple different chapters, which are all different to each other, and lack a normal narrative connection. This led me to question whether this was even the actual introduction, or some kind of foreword/preface that was implemented differently in this case. I was wrong, and I realized this rather quick. Upon further reading, the humour, personality and relatability of the writing hit me immediately. I won’t say I resonated with the descriptions and emotions of going into a bookstore, or even reading a physical copy for that matter (I read this on my laptop), but nonetheless, I was intrigued. Calvino’s style of narration, a special blend of humour and a charismatic personality, aids the reader in falling into the lines of the book, like Calvino would want us to. This leads to a key point about the book – it is written for readers by a reader, depicting, in-part, what it means to be a fan of reading, chasing complete stories.  The book essentially follows us the reader, and Ludmilla, another reader, on a quest to find the complete versions of the chapters we start reading, the book they have started reading. Maybe this is a metaphor for how people seek refuge in books, using stories as an escape for their reality, instead seeking ‘completeness’. In saying all this, I feel in essence this book is an exploration of the relationship between author, reader, and the narrative itself. I felt disconnected in the representation of a reader and how they would feel, because I have never been a reader in those situations.  But this was reconciled by the fact that these themes and ideas are not unique to literature, but rather in all art, the conversation about the relationships between the medium, the author, and the audience is always imperative, and I could draw clear parallels to other fields, such as movies, where I have felt and had similar if not the same emotions and thoughts. Additionally, it can be argued this is intentional. Calvino is well aware of the fact that his depiction of the reader is rather specific, and therefore there is a disidentification where there is also explicit identification. Calvino is spoon-feeding us what we need to imprint ourselves into the book and become the character, while also consciously reminding us that we are a separate entity – the reader. The biggest strength of this book for me is how Calvino seamlessly blends reality and fiction. The book both explicitly creates the boundaries needed for these two ideas to exist independently, while also breaking this down and blurring the lines of what reality is. In a world where popular and iconic tropes and narrative ideas have been wrung to death, I found this to be somehow familiar, yet refreshing.

 

Question: Are there any other books, or other pieces of work, which remind you of this, and why?

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