Hi everyone, this is the last Blog for this course. Registering for this course, I believe is a big step forward in my career development. At least in the past few days of my previous life, I never imagined that I would be a serious reader, and at least in those days, I did not actively seek out books to read. As far as my cognition was concerned, I considered reading books to be very useless, because I found it very difficult to concentrate when reading books. At the beginning of the semester, when I was going to discuss the books we would be reading that week with my classmates and my instructor, I felt as though I was being forced to read books. However, after reading so many books and going through so many weeks of courses, I seem to have gradually found a way to gain a sense of enjoyment from the course. I’m starting to enjoy reading again, and I think he’s starting to give me some spiritual satisfaction, too. As soon as I finish a book, I start thinking about what I have learned from it. I even began to have a somewhat different understanding of the structure of the book, and I found in class that different points of view led me to see the book from a different perspective. It is because of this class that I sometimes forget to get a high score; rather, I pay more attention to the feelings that each book brings to me. This is something that surprised me a great deal. I also read a number of books that I did not enjoy and some that I was unable to read during the course of this class. It took me even searching for information on the internet before I was able to get a handle on what the books were trying to convey to the readers. In addition to this, I also like to use this blog as a way to express my feelings after reading this book. This way of communicating seems to be easier than face-to-face communication. Many of the things I may be afraid to say in class and feel embarrassed to speak of, but I may not think of expressing myself more directly on the website as much as I should. I think that if I fully assess this class, I will definitely continue to choose a class like this if I have the chance to do so. It will be easier to follow this class compared to other classes, and it will also be more enjoyable.

In reading Amulet by Roberto Bolano, there were many things in the book that were difficult to understand, and I had to honestly Wikipedia some things, such as the attack on the demonstrators of the university in Mexico. However, I think the point of the book is to show the flow of history and the role perspective and memory play in it, so it was not necessary to know all the events in it. I also think it was interesting to write from a female perspective because it maybe helped to distance his own experiences so that it would not be so autobiographical. It also helped to give the idea of being “the mother of Mexican poetry”.

I have thought about what the meaning of the book is and I think it is a kind of journey about the poet’s role and how they make poetry. It also gives insight into the subculture of poets. For example, she says that she met Arturito Belano; “I met him, I was his friend, and he was my favourite young poet, although he wasn’t Mexican, and the expressions ‘young poets’ and ‘new generation’ were generally used to refer to the young Mexicans who were trying to take over from Pacheco or the conspicuous Greek of Guanajuanto…” (p. 60). This gives insight into what goes on in the groups and how they see themselves and each other. It also shows the way they interacted with each other during this time.

Another aspect of the book is to look at Latin American history and the way that it affected people. For example, she writes that Arturo returned from Chile he was different; “Allende had been overthrown, and Arturito had done his duty, so his sister told me; he’d obeyed his conscience” (p. 73). There was a cross between the artists and the political situation they were in. The overthrow of Allende had the big impact on Latin American history, and for many artists who thought it was going to be great progress for people but were then disappointed when there was the overthrow. The book helps to show the feelings that people had about these historical events.

A question that I think would be interesting for discussion is – what do you think a writer takes into consideration when they go over the history of a whole area in the world? How can they decide what to include and what to exclude?

My overall impression when I first read this story was that it was very confusing. The story jumps around and it was also really confusing that the characters were referred to in different ways. I think a lot of the works we have looked at have this kind of style. Luckily, with a short story like this, it is possible to have the time to read it more than once. After the first few pages, I stopped trying to pinpoint every character and part, and instead, I read through it to just get a feeling of the story. Then I re-read it to get more understanding of the details. The impression that stood out for me was the overall sense of anxiety. It is even shown in the way the story is written, such as this passage:

“The whiskey, the vodka, the hors d’oeuvres, the fish, the roast, the salads, the white wine, and the red wine and the cheeses and the dessert and the cognac and the coffee, yes, yes, there’s even coffee, real coffee, not ersatz, and excellent imported cigarettes and baroque music, oh yes, when one’s this tired, baroque is the only way to go” (p. 206),

On the surface, this passage is about the things that are being offered at the dinner party, but the way it is presented shows that people are living in a constant state of anxiety. The sentences run on and jump around a lot. There is also the feeling that something is wrong but they cannot pinpoint it. They often write about some aspects of the dinner party but then the thought seems to wander off and they lose their train of thought. At times, there is a feeling of self-awareness in that they seem to know it is strange to have a dinner party under this kind of system; “Another round of drinks, of course, and even Dina has a vermouth, what a surprise, a convivial atmosphere, isn’t it, what a surprise…” (p. 203). I think this is what the trench coat symbolizes. It is called by different names and there is a strange relationship to it as they try to figure it out.

The question I had after reading this and would like to share is how can writers find ways to give readers the experience of living in these kinds of situations and under these kinds of regimes? Was Manea successful in his approach?

As I was reading W or the Memory of Childhood by Georges Perec, I found myself really interested in the form of the story as well as the content. At first it was very confusing and I had some trouble understanding it. However, in the end the whole story comes together in a way that is helpful. I felt that in the end I was reminded of The Life of Pi, in that the way sometimes people deal with terrible trauma is to create different stories. It is clear later though that the story of W is the story of the camps. For example, he recounts how “The first six months of novicate, however, are spent in handcuffs and leg irons, and at night newcomers are chained to their bed, and often also gagged” (p. 148). The images can be connected to the images that people have of the concentration camps in Europe, such as the shackles and being treated so cruelly. A few lines down he writes that people have to suffer “humiliation, insults, injustices, beatings” (p. 148). This also connects with the image many people have of the camps.

Another thing that was very interesting for me was the way that the stories connect with each other. I think this is kind of the way that memory works. Memories are not something that come out in neat boxes. Instead, they are mixed together with emotions, past stories, and even fantasies that we have. For example, as he remembers his childhood, he writes about the books he read. When he remembers The Three Musketeers, he does not just remember the story in the book, but also the way that he got the book and the memories connected with it (p. 153). The ending of the book shows how these memories are not just by themselves. He writes about the athletes in the same way he writes about the prisoners in the camps. The memories connect with each other and when he recounts them they are basically merged together. Lastly, even though the story was a way to deal with the trauma, for the reader it is actually darker and more disturbing to read about a childhood story that also shows the terrible things that happened.

The question I thought about was, could this book be seen as a kind of meta-book on what storytelling is and what goes behind storytelling?

When I started reading the book, I have to admit it was very difficult for me at first. I had trouble understanding the context of the story. I had to go and read a little bit about the Spanish Civil War and some other aspects of that time period. This helped me get a grounding of the situation I was reading about. From the story, I saw that there were many symbols. The clearest one is the birds, but they are not just single symbols. On the one hand, they are symbols for the children. There is the passage when Natalia is describing chasing the children in the house and trying to get control of them, and then also how the doves are making trouble for her. Then she describes how she watched the doves when they were put in nesting boxes so they would not have to go through the house and instead can climb up the ladders. Watching them struggle to do this is similar to a mother watching her children struggle through life.

At the same time, the birds are also a symbol for other aspects of the story, such as how they have wings and can fly, but there are obstacles that stop them from doing it. For example, they are seen as prisoners because they are kept in the dark and forced to lay eggs, just like people in the city were kept from being able to live freely because of the civil war that was going on at this time.

As I read the book, there were many emotions I felt about the story. I could not help in feeling angry about some of the decisions made. Natalia makes decisions that led to negative consequences such as choosing to be with a man who was abusive, and then deciding that the children were suffering so it would be better to kill them. This part especially makes it look like she is worried about their suffering, which I think shows her character to feel like life is something that she can decide how it should be lived. It was interesting to read about the situation that people are in when there is a war going on. We often read about wars from those who are in it and forget how traumatic it can be to just be in a wartime situation. The question I thought about was – could this story be told without the backdrop of the war, or is it a necessary part of the story?

During the early 20th century, Zobel is a black child raised in poverty in Martinique, who tells the story of his life. Zobel portrays the rich culture and folklore of Martinique, while also highlighting the devastation caused by colonization. At the same time, the book exposes colonialism, slavery, poverty, prejudice, colorism, and financial turmoil simultaneously. In addition to that, he expresses the necessity of education in the context of harsh realities, sad personal experiences, injustices, and a dark past. In my opinion, the author of the novel tried to evoke a feeling of resentment and anguish throughout the book as well as add a sense of color to the story’s meaning.

When I noticed that the book only had three chapters, I was curious because I was curious about what form he took. As a result, I found him describing each of Jose’s different periods of residence, thus highlighting the contrasts in a very interesting way. I think that this contrast makes the importance of education even more apparent, while at the same time recognizing how fortunate I am to be living in this day and age. What struck me, even more, was the bond he had with his mother and grandmother, and at the same time, the bond he had with his grandmother. That was a warm and touching bridge between him and his grandmother and mother. Considering that they were a poor family, they put a lot of effort into getting Jose a good education. As a result, I want to cherish my life even more now. There is an unbearable amount of poverty in this home. It goes without saying that the occupants do so much to make their lives interesting and to entertain each other. Clearly, the worldview shaped by this book is more about knowledge changing people’s lives, but at the same time, it has shaped a kind of poor people who will pay a high price for knowledge as well. It is also because of this sense of contradiction that one seeks to discover and surprise oneself. Even though he finally rose to the middle class of the white people, he was still under oppression. However, regardless of the fact that the book reads as he gives you a life-changing fantasy of knowledge, the plot goes more to tell you that racism and class disparities cannot be changed and are bound to persist.

In fact, my heart is very complicated after reading this book, especially during this time of COVID. Because I did encounter some racism, and while I was waiting for the bus, I also encountered people doing incomprehensible things and saying bad things about Chinese looking people. This made me feel as helpless as Jose, and I didn’t know how to face it. Can education change racism?

Despite the fact that Alberto Moravia’s Agostino’s text and plot are more emotional, I believe that the intent behind the novel is to emphasize the importance of motherhood to the development of the child, child sexuality, and the importance of education. Agostino and his mother go out every day rowing a boat called Patino, and Agostino’s introduction to this book is the first thing the reader encounters. My understanding of it was that it was meant to emphasize how stable Agostino’s life was under the specific regime that he lived under. Agostino is described by the author as experiencing a fit of inner jealousy in relation to the foreigner’s approach to his mother, which resulted in a sort of resistance towards the foreigner at the beginning of the novel. I think he may be more hostile to this outsider due to the fact he loves his mother too much, which to me might sound a bit sick and since the feelings Agostino has for his mother are purely expressed through love, Agostino also hopes to be noticed by my mother as well. He joins the lower gang for a variety of reasons, one of which is the fact that his mother cannot get used to becoming distracted by other people. Children are more likely to become dependent on their parents if they are living in a single-parent household because of insecurities. As a result, children become more afraid of losing and begin to make more extreme choices as a result. Although I was impressed by the story of Agostino and the lower-class children in the book, and I thought his way of doing things was ingenious, there was also an uneasy feeling in reading the book. Teenagers’ education is very important, it is the time when kids are growing into an adult and this is the time period that they are curious about everything. It is also the period when the three views were formed that also forms the view of sex, etc.

There are a few questions that I think I will think about after I finish reading this book. Even if they do not belong to a single-parent family, Agostino’s eye-catching behaviors are the same as giving siblings to a child who is the only child in the family. They will also attract attention. How can we deal with such a situation so that we can get the best result?

The first thing that caught my attention when I started reading the book was that the titles of each chapter were numbers, and it made me feel like I was reading a diary, like a first day, a second day, etc. There was a part at the beginning of the piece that was actually very appealing to me where it said “her eyes opened”, this word actually brought me into this role. Interestingly, as I continued to read, I found out that the author has used a distinct point of view to tell the story that I found quite interesting. If you look back at the place where the author has mentioned “her eyes have opened”, is this a metaphor that tells the readers you are going to see what is happening? Because of this, I was eager to get to the end of the story to find out what would happen next. As a matter of fact, I think that this way of writing makes me think deeply. This was a series of silent remarks the deceased made to everyone who came to her bedside, describing the many things she had been through in her life, and what she loved and hated. In this novel, I am not sure if my experience is correct, but what I perceive is that people seem to be always in the wrong place, either because they are clinging to an emotion or because they are swept up in an emotion that arises out of nowhere.

As a girl, there is no doubt that I will be able to identify greatly with how the author describes Ana Maria’s emotional experience in the book. Maybe it is when she described his first love I would have great sympathy, or the confusion and overwhelm she encountered on an emotional level. There is nothing as irreplaceable as your first love, but life after that is something that is completely optional to me. I think the experience of Ana Maria in this novel may be common in the background at that time, but if it is common in the current social background, I think we can actually face it better when we encounter misfortune.

Questions that had come up to me this week: What will you choose in today’s society? What would you like to put in the first place? The feelings that we have inside always so lonely?

I was initially surprised to find out that this book was incredibly difficult to understand when I started reading it. In the process of reading this book, I kept on getting lost. I believe this may be due to the language used in the book and the main sentiment it is trying to convey. The first time I read this book, I was not really into it since what he said did not really correspond with what I wanted to hear but rather what the author was trying to convey. The manner in which it was addressed was very complicated and hard to comprehend. It is very boring for me to read this kind of book since I prefer to read books with an interesting plot, or books that contain interesting stories within them. Whenever I encounter this part of the book, I feel as if the book doesn’t appeal to me as a whole. While reading this book, I think that the author is hoping readers can reflect on the truth contained in this book as they read it.

I was surprised to find that he also quoted a comment by L’Intransigeant on page 18. Normally, in a novel such as this, I would expect that I would encounter some dialogue, but in his novel, it was someone else’s comment that made me think about this book. In addition to that, the novel is even more unique than I thought it would be. In a surreal manner, Aragon takes the readers through the streets, monuments, shops, and parks of Paris. It seems as if he is leading the reader through the scene through his personal experience. As a reader, I was more able to feel what he described abstractly than with what he actually experienced.

As a student of visual art, I have taken a few art history courses that discussed surrealism in the past. My understanding of surreal fiction was that it would visually enhance the figurative nature of surreal works of art. I think that in addition to the surreal elements, the author expresses his own thoughts, his own view of the world in the short stories.

I think after reading this book, my personal opinion would be that I did not really enjoy the way it was presented. At the same time, he also brought me through a very nice scene, at least I never saw something like that in any other book I have read.