This week’s journey through Mario Vargas Llosa’s Captain Pantoja and the Special Service was a somewhat entertaining read. The tale conveyed a sense of exoticism, as the lascivious themes were played out against a backdrop of formality, which was entirely new to me. As emphasized in the lecture, the book cleverly mocks seriousness through seriousness. I was particularly impressed by the use of military dispatches as a narrative tool, which highlighted the extreme formality of the work. One of the dispatches sent by Captain Pantoja to his superior even went so far as to report his amorous encounters under his experimentation with porpoise oil, a natural aphrodisiac, in meticulous details: “He consequently found himself with the need to solicit from his wife and obtain from her, during the week in question, intimate relations on an average of twice daily…, since the undersigned was in the habit of having relations of an intimate matrimonial nature at a rate of once every ten days before coming to Iquitos and once every three days after arriving…” (66). One of Vargas Llosa’s techniques that particularly tickled my funny bone was his penchant for exaggeration, particularly in the details of mundane matters. This is made apparent in Pocha’s letter to her sister, wherein she vividly described the hookers’ behaviour: “They walk a straight line and look them in the eyes so fresh it stirs up some of the men to grab them by their boobs.” (54)
Captain Pantoja and the Special Service is undoubtedly a masterful work of satire that employs humour and irony to expose the absurdities of power, bureaucracy, and society. One aspect that particularly captivated me was the perpetual appearance of the Brothers of the Ark, a cult-like religious group founded and led by Brother Francisco, throughout the novel. I believe that the Brothers of the Ark represented a grassroots, alternative form of spirituality that serves as a counterforce to the powerful and established Catholic Church in 20th-century Peruvian society. Though the religion’s rituals and practices were peculiar and amusing (as in the tone in which Pocha used to describe the ritual in her letter, not the crucifixions of course), as illustrated by Pocha’s reaction to the crucifixion of animals, “This religion has a mania for crucifying animals and I don’t like that because every morning I find cockroaches, butterflies, spiders nailed to her little crosses and even a mouse the other day” (54), it still serves its purpose in highlighting the differences between organized religion and more unconventional forms of spiritual expression.
I believe that the Brothers of Ark also serves as a warning about the perilous nature of fanaticism. The followers of Brother Francisco were depicted as blindly devoted to him, “The people listened to him hypnotized, the women were crying and got down on their knees.” (53) As the story progresses, this unbridled loyalty transforms into dangerous fanaticism, with attempts at human crucifixion escalating towards the end of the book. This narrative arc also hints at the protagonist, Captain Pantoja’s, own fanaticism in his pursuit of perfecting the Special Service, which ultimately unleashes an uncontrollable sexual appetite in Iquitos.
Question: Personally, I have found that exaggeration serves as an effective literary tool that contributes to the humorous atmosphere of the novel, occasionally eliciting laughter. Do you share my perspective on the impact of exaggeration in the book? Why and why not?