Tag Archives: memory

Week 12 – My thoughts on José Eduardo Agualusa’s “The Society of Reluctant Dreamers”

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The text The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by José Eduardo Agualusa is set after Angolia’s independence, which also reflects government structures and changes in that structure. The novel’s narrator, Benchimol, recently got a divorce and thus goes to a resort or hotel to be able to rest and recuperate. He’s also a journalist whole tends to have odd dreams about people that he has either met or never met before. That’s what I found interesting about the novel, the dreams that this character has. Such as when the narrator states; “You know, I dreamed about you,” even though he had never met the character that he is speaking to (Agualusa, The Society of Reluctant Dreamers). I’ve felt moments of deja-vu when it comes to dreams on occasion, that I have felt like this situation has occurred before, though, usually the case is that I might’ve had a similar dream regarding that moment. I somewhat related to the novel when it came to the similarities between dreams and reality. Though what I had also found odd was that the person that the narrator was speaking to, Hossi Apolónio Kaley, follows along with what the narrator has stated. Validating the claim of the narrator that they have met in a dream, and are now meeting in reality. He states that “It’s been a while since people dreamed about me,” and then proceeds to add on that he has appeared in people’s dreams before (Agualusa, The Society of Reluctant Dreamers). That moment in the novel made me doubt the notion of dreams in the novel. It could very well be possible that the dreams that the narrator is discussing are related to moments of Deja Vu as opposed to seeing people that the narrator has never met before. Therefore, I do not know whether this moment reflects dreams or a moment of Deja Vu where the narrator has the same or similar feelings, people, and location in the present day. 

I have mentioned in other blog posts how authors and by their extension narrators, are able to create a dream world. There is a moment in the novel where someone comments that there should be a “Republic of Dreamers,” as though dreamers are their own group of people (Agualusa, The Society of Reluctant Dreamers). The part of the quote that states that dreamers should be a “Republic,” goes to show the vast quantity of people who consider themselves and are “Dreamers,” (Agualusa, The Society of Reluctant Dreamers). The fact that I was able to find a connection between old blog posts and this one is interesting to me. 

A question that I would ask my classmates is; what other connections do you see between this book and other texts that we’ve read in class?

 

Week 11 – My thoughts on Javier Cercas’ “Soldiers of Salamis”

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Javier Cercas’ Soldiers of Salamis is a novel set after the Spanish Civil War, where the narrator is attempting to understand the story of one soldier. The story focuses on a political prisoner, I believe, at the time and how they escape from a firing squad. I had found interesting in the novel the topic of loss. There are two significant losses present in the novel, in my opinion. One of them is the loss of literature, as the narrator states. The narrator had stated that a person “had won the war but lost literature” (Cercas, Soldiers of Salamis). There’s also a question of how someone in literature is presented. Such as, the narrator had wanted to write “A true tale, I thought, but didn’t say. That’s what I’m going to write,” though there is a question of whether the tale is correct (Cercas, Soldiers of Salamis). The narrator follows by stating that through storytelling, Figueras’ “father wouldn’t be entirely dead,” which is a role of tales and storytelling (Cercas, Soldiers of Salamis). The novel is about the history and a historical figure and event, where the second form of loss is presented in the novel. 

The second form of loss in the novel is the loss of information. As stated in the novel, a document is mentioned:”  ‘the diary Sánchez Mazas had with him when he was in hiding in the forest,’” (Cercas, Soldiers of Salamis). Historical documents and historical figures’ stories tend to change and evolve as time passes on. As that occurs, as stated in the lecture, memory and misinformation become an aspect of history. The novel also noted that the diary was “like a family heirloom, my father was very attached to it,” (Cercas, Soldiers of Salamis). The dairy being “like a family heirloom,” shows that historical items can be passed on within a family from generation to generation. I do not own anything like that. Though, I believe that as generations go by, the story behind these items of history change and evolves. What is possible is that there could be a change in the story and thus a loss of information. Therefore, the person’s memory gets lost in a way, or an aspect of a story gets lost. This topic is interesting to me regarding the novel as the novel pertains to a journalist or a writer discussing historical events. These historical events gain accuracy based on shared knowledge of the time and historical artifacts. Therefore, both information and historical artifacts are essential when discussing a historical event, regardless of who’s side the story is about. 

A question that I would ask my peers is: do you have a historical artifact or item? Do you know the story behind this artifact?